MONROVIA, Montserrado – Situated in a small valley, very close to a swampy land, is the Little White Chapel Church. The church is located in the Coca-Cola Factory East community, in Montserrado County.

Built mostly using bamboo wood, the Little White Chapel hosts approximately fifty worshippers on Sundays. Inside the church’s edifice, white and purple pieces of clothes, cut in a triangular shape, hang over the worshipers as decoration.

This is where dozens of Liberians ended up on National Fast and Prayer Day, a holiday set aside for Liberians to pray about the many challenges confronting the country and its people.

Worshippers at the Little White Chapel Church. Photo: Stephen Kollie

Members of the Little White Chapel Church began a three-day fast on April 7, three days before the holiday.

On April 10, a special fast and prayer day service was called to order by the pastor of the church, Benjamin G. Askie.

About five girls, each dressed in a white shirt and a black skirt took to the floor to jumpstart the praise and worship session. At this point, worshipers were asked to stand up to join the singing and dancing.

Because almost everyone in the church were fasting, not many worshipers could be seen dancing. They seemed too tired.

Pastor Benjamin Askie speaks to the congregation. Photo: Stephen Kollie

At the end of the praise and worship, Askie then instructed his worshipers to pray. He outlined several prayer points and asked his congregation to keep praying.

“Somebody open your mouth and pray!” Askie shouted.

Everyone started praying, in various languages. As the prayers went on, some worshippers fell to the ground.

“Have mercy on me! Let your will be done. Use me in the name of Jesus,” a lady shouted as she fell on the floor.

Askie later explained her behavior by saying that she was “overwhelmed” by the Holy Spirit and had received a special revelation from God.

A worshiper lies on the floor after being “overwhelmed” by the Holy Spirit

After the prayers, Askie asked the worshipers to give testimonies about the good that happened while they fasted and prayed.

A lady dressed in an orange and yellow lappa outfit walked to the podium. She said she was excited about how God allowed her to live after suffering from an unspecified illness a few days earlier.

“I would have been dead by now but thank God for his grace,” she said, as the congregation sounded a hand of applause.

Another lady said in her testimony that she was glad her grandfather has been discharged from a hospital in Grand Bassa County after being bedridden for several days.

Liberians have a lot to pray for and a lot to be thankful for this April. Liberia had the highest number of deaths from the worst Ebola outbreak in history. The last Ebola patient died on March 27 and Liberians want to bury this period behind them.

In addition to the Ebola outbreak, Liberians are especially concerned about the month of April as it brings a lot of memories from the nation’s recent tumultuous past. Today marks the 35^th anniversary of Samuel Doe’s April 12 coup d’état against then President William Tolbert.

Ten days later, on April 22, 1980, Doe’s People Redemption Council executed 13 members of the Liberian cabinet on Barclay Beach. April 6, 1996 also marks the last great offensive of the First Liberian Civil War.

In his sermon, Askie chose to focus on the theme of sickness. He said that evil is far from God. Thus, God is not the cause of any disease.

“Every sickness leads to death. Don’t take it for granted,” he said. “Eighty-five percent of people that are dying in the nation are dying from sickness.”

“You go to every clinic and explain your sickness to the doctor. They give you all the medication but yet there is no cure.” Askie said. “I [have] come to let you know that sickness is not from God. Go back and battle that sickness.”

At the end of Askie’s sermon, he asked the congregation to stand up and pray for Liberia, especially for leaders of the nation to be directed by God.

A child prays for Liberia. Photo: Stephen Kollie

As the prayers continued, Askie asked for a small white rubber bowl, to be filled with dust and placed right in front of the worshipers. He prayed for the dust and asked the congregation to queue up and receive it. Every member came out, one by one, and received the dust in their hands.

“You have the earth in your hand. Pray for Liberia that God will take over the nation. That God will rule the nation,” he prayed.

After the prayers, Askie asked the congregation to scatter some of the anointed dust around the church and then take the rest back to their homes.

On April 9, President  Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, by proclamation declared Friday, April 10,  as Fast and Prayer Day to be observed throughout the Republic of Liberia as a national holiday.

The proclamation was in accordance with an Act of the National Legislature passed in 1883, which declared the second Friday in April each year as a National Holiday for supplication, fasting and meditation to the Almighty God so that the efforts of the Liberian people may be crowned with great achievements to the common cause of the nation, the state among others.

Sirleaf directed all public offices, business houses, and marketplaces to remain closed so that all residents can recognize God’s love and guidance.

“At this time in the affairs of the nation, when there have been unusual and extraordinary outbreaks and man-provoked national crises that have caused much harm, devastation, destruction, particularly the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, from which the Country is gradually recovering, it is proper to give due recognition to God by whose grace the nation has been spared,” Sirleaf said.