Finding Nineveh in Sierra Leone
“I knew nothing about Sierra Leone except that they had been at war. I had no family there, no friends, no business partner…but I did not want to be like Jonah.”
In 2001, Sierra Leone was a reeling nation. A civil war lasting over a decade had claimed more than 50,000 lives and left 2.5 million people displaced. The west African country once known for its rolling countryside and majestic coastlines faced a precarious future.
That same year in his home country, Sola Jegede was growing his business, growing his family and growing in his faith. As a very young man, Sola had hoped to join the priesthood, but when his younger sister left home to become a Reverend Sister, he was worried it would be too hard on his family, hence he jettisoned the idea. Still, God continued to work on Sola, after leaving college, one of his friends (now his wife) invited him to a church program where he surrendered his life to Christ. As he built his business as a banker, Sola often gave financially to missions causes and visited mission fields, but admits that this level of involvement was not fulfilling in the ways he had hoped. Sola began to feel a distinct call from God, one morning he woke up with a clear and persistent question in his heart “the Gospel is the vehicle of salvation, will you drive it?”
Sola heard this message over and over, and as he prayed and sought guidance, God placed Sierra Leone, a country he only knew through troubling news stories, on his heart. On the nudging of the Holy Spirit, he took a trip to Sierra Leone, fully funded by himself, and he was overwhelmed by the need he encountered.
“At the time, because of the war, there was very little hope for what was next. The concentration on the Gospel was ‘what can we get to meet physical needs?’ A lot of NGOs had come in to help. At that time they were more hungry for physical help than spiritual help. But they were people who had forgotten how to hope.”
In the six months that followed, Sola lost interest in the business endeavors that had once been his main focus. Though an investment banker and chartered accountant, leading a fast growing investment and leasing company in his home country, in obedience to this new call on his life, Sola, his wife, and their three children, ages 4, 2 and 6-months, moved to Sierra Leone to work fully with young people. His work had just begun.
Sola felt a particular burden to mentor and disciple youth and young adults, a generation whose short lives had been almost entirely characterized by conflict and violence. His work began in a local Catholic school, where they began to teach, coach, and mentor students. As the program grew he engaged more schools and churches, and in 2007 a senior friend (Rev. Moses Kainwo) working with World Vision encouraged him to try the Haggai Leader Experience, an encounter that would transform Sola and his ministry.
“In reality I have yet to recover from the experience of 2007 at the HLE. The servant leadership [was evident] from everyone from the time they picked us up from the airport. I was loaded with ideas and skills and knowledge of how to advance the kingdom in Sierra Leone. There was geographical spread, career spread, there was [even] a King part of my Haggai group! Different careers, statuses, places, with one commitment — to end Gospel poverty.”
More than two decades after leaving his home to serve in Sierra Leone, Pastor Sola has made the nation his home and helped thousands of young people engage in teaching, fellowship, and servant leadership. He leads a multi-denominational ministry that works with young leaders in 15 of the 16 districts in Sierra Leone, hosting more than 50 conferences annually. The work has grown significantly, reaching out to youths and young adults, teachers and lecturers, church leaders, pastors and pastors’ wives, singles and married couples, and campus outreaches with a singular purpose of raising genuine disciples for Christ in all walks of life. He credits Haggai with helping give him the skills and competencies to reach a new generation with the Gospel.
“When you are competent and credible, it makes preaching the Gospel easy. If we lack either, you won’t be the salt and light that you ought to be.”
Written by Janay Boyer
Finding Nineveh in Sierra Leone
“I knew nothing about Sierra Leone except that they had been at war. I had no family there, no friends, no business partner…but I did not want to be like Jonah.”
In 2001, Sierra Leone was a reeling nation. A civil war lasting over a decade had claimed more than 50,000 lives and left 2.5 million people displaced. The west African country once known for its rolling countryside and majestic coastlines faced a precarious future.
That same year in his home country, Sola Jegede was growing his business, growing his family and growing in his faith. As a very young man, Sola had hoped to join the priesthood, but when his younger sister left home to become a Reverend Sister, he was worried it would be too hard on his family, hence he jettisoned the idea. Still, God continued to work on Sola, after leaving college, one of his friends (now his wife) invited him to a church program where he surrendered his life to Christ. As he built his business as a banker, Sola often gave financially to missions causes and visited mission fields, but admits that this level of involvement was not fulfilling in the ways he had hoped. Sola began to feel a distinct call from God, one morning he woke up with a clear and persistent question in his heart “the Gospel is the vehicle of salvation, will you drive it?”
Sola heard this message over and over, and as he prayed and sought guidance, God placed Sierra Leone, a country he only knew through troubling news stories, on his heart. On the nudging of the Holy Spirit, he took a trip to Sierra Leone, fully funded by himself, and he was overwhelmed by the need he encountered.
“At the time, because of the war, there was very little hope for what was next. The concentration on the Gospel was ‘what can we get to meet physical needs?’ A lot of NGOs had come in to help. At that time they were more hungry for physical help than spiritual help. But they were people who had forgotten how to hope.”
In the six months that followed, Sola lost interest in the business endeavors that had once been his main focus. Though an investment banker and chartered accountant, leading a fast growing investment and leasing company in his home country, in obedience to this new call on his life, Sola, his wife, and their three children, ages 4, 2 and 6-months, moved to Sierra Leone to work fully with young people. His work had just begun.
Sola felt a particular burden to mentor and disciple youth and young adults, a generation whose short lives had been almost entirely characterized by conflict and violence. His work began in a local Catholic school, where they began to teach, coach, and mentor students. As the program grew he engaged more schools and churches, and in 2007 a senior friend (Rev. Moses Kainwo) working with World Vision encouraged him to try the Haggai Leader Experience, an encounter that would transform Sola and his ministry.
“In reality I have yet to recover from the experience of 2007 at the HLE. The servant leadership [was evident] from everyone from the time they picked us up from the airport. I was loaded with ideas and skills and knowledge of how to advance the kingdom in Sierra Leone. There was geographical spread, career spread, there was [even] a King part of my Haggai group! Different careers, statuses, places, with one commitment — to end Gospel poverty.”
More than two decades after leaving his home to serve in Sierra Leone, Pastor Sola has made the nation his home and helped thousands of young people engage in teaching, fellowship, and servant leadership. He leads a multi-denominational ministry that works with young leaders in 15 of the 16 districts in Sierra Leone, hosting more than 50 conferences annually. The work has grown significantly, reaching out to youths and young adults, teachers and lecturers, church leaders, pastors and pastors’ wives, singles and married couples, and campus outreaches with a singular purpose of raising genuine disciples for Christ in all walks of life. He credits Haggai with helping give him the skills and competencies to reach a new generation with the Gospel.
“When you are competent and credible, it makes preaching the Gospel easy. If we lack either, you won’t be the salt and light that you ought to be.”
Written by Janay Boyer
Finding Nineveh in Sierra Leone
“I knew nothing about Sierra Leone except that they had been at war. I had no family there, no friends, no business partner…but I did not want to be like Jonah.”
In 2001, Sierra Leone was a reeling nation. A civil war lasting over a decade had claimed more than 50,000 lives and left 2.5 million people displaced. The west African country once known for its rolling countryside and majestic coastlines faced a precarious future.
That same year in his home country, Sola Jegede was growing his business, growing his family and growing in his faith. As a very young man, Sola had hoped to join the priesthood, but when his younger sister left home to become a Reverend Sister, he was worried it would be too hard on his family, hence he jettisoned the idea. Still, God continued to work on Sola, after leaving college, one of his friends (now his wife) invited him to a church program where he surrendered his life to Christ. As he built his business as a banker, Sola often gave financially to missions causes and visited mission fields, but admits that this level of involvement was not fulfilling in the ways he had hoped. Sola began to feel a distinct call from God, one morning he woke up with a clear and persistent question in his heart “the Gospel is the vehicle of salvation, will you drive it?”
Sola heard this message over and over, and as he prayed and sought guidance, God placed Sierra Leone, a country he only knew through troubling news stories, on his heart. On the nudging of the Holy Spirit, he took a trip to Sierra Leone, fully funded by himself, and he was overwhelmed by the need he encountered.
“At the time, because of the war, there was very little hope for what was next. The concentration on the Gospel was ‘what can we get to meet physical needs?’ A lot of NGOs had come in to help. At that time they were more hungry for physical help than spiritual help. But they were people who had forgotten how to hope.”
In the six months that followed, Sola lost interest in the business endeavors that had once been his main focus. Though an investment banker and chartered accountant, leading a fast growing investment and leasing company in his home country, in obedience to this new call on his life, Sola, his wife, and their three children, ages 4, 2 and 6-months, moved to Sierra Leone to work fully with young people. His work had just begun.
Sola felt a particular burden to mentor and disciple youth and young adults, a generation whose short lives had been almost entirely characterized by conflict and violence. His work began in a local Catholic school, where they began to teach, coach, and mentor students. As the program grew he engaged more schools and churches, and in 2007 a senior friend (Rev. Moses Kainwo) working with World Vision encouraged him to try the Haggai Leader Experience, an encounter that would transform Sola and his ministry.
“In reality I have yet to recover from the experience of 2007 at the HLE. The servant leadership [was evident] from everyone from the time they picked us up from the airport. I was loaded with ideas and skills and knowledge of how to advance the kingdom in Sierra Leone. There was geographical spread, career spread, there was [even] a King part of my Haggai group! Different careers, statuses, places, with one commitment — to end Gospel poverty.”
More than two decades after leaving his home to serve in Sierra Leone, Pastor Sola has made the nation his home and helped thousands of young people engage in teaching, fellowship, and servant leadership. He leads a multi-denominational ministry that works with young leaders in 15 of the 16 districts in Sierra Leone, hosting more than 50 conferences annually. The work has grown significantly, reaching out to youths and young adults, teachers and lecturers, church leaders, pastors and pastors’ wives, singles and married couples, and campus outreaches with a singular purpose of raising genuine disciples for Christ in all walks of life. He credits Haggai with helping give him the skills and competencies to reach a new generation with the Gospel.
“When you are competent and credible, it makes preaching the Gospel easy. If we lack either, you won’t be the salt and light that you ought to be.”
Written by Janay Boyer
Comments
Comments
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Thank you for sharing this. This testimony touches close to home for me. I was a banker, and yet what once was a dream became a distant memory. When God transforms us, our dreams are included in that. I gave up everything to become homeless and love on people. My God dream is to own shelters and/or churches to see lives transformed. I have some areas of lack that I need to work on. Someone referred me here to this website. They seen the Mongolian man come to Redding, CA and told me about Haggai Institute. I will be praying asking God if this is what is net for my family and I. What an inspirational story. I would see Seirra Lione on a documentary for blood diamonds ad at that moment in my heart, as a young lady, I thought…I want to go there. I want to go to the places that have the most need and see them transformed by the love of Christ Jesus. Thank you for this testimony. WOW! To see how God uses Sola is phenomenal. Use me too Jesus like this. To You be the glory, Lord! Thank You Jesus!
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What a beautiful story of how works in us, works on us and works through us for His glory.
I had a vision for Sierra Leone in my early days of getting into missions while in the University. I prayed for the country so much, but I couldn’t go there because God had another assignment for me still in missions by virtue of marriage. I am glad to read about what God is using Pastor Sola Jegede and his family to do in Sierra Leone. May the Lord grant him more fruitful impact. AmenI also attended the HLE in Maui 2018 and the experience transformed my life and ministry. I am very particular about raising more mission minded believers from amongst the Next Gen in order to see more labourers get into the harvest fields.
May God’s Kingdom increase as we all continue to labour to end gospel poverty. Amen
Thank you for sharing this. This testimony touches close to home for me. I was a banker, and yet what once was a dream became a distant memory. When God transforms us, our dreams are included in that. I gave up everything to become homeless and love on people. My God dream is to own shelters and/or churches to see lives transformed. I have some areas of lack that I need to work on. Someone referred me here to this website. They seen the Mongolian man come to Redding, CA and told me about Haggai Institute. I will be praying asking God if this is what is net for my family and I. What an inspirational story. I would see Seirra Lione on a documentary for blood diamonds ad at that moment in my heart, as a young lady, I thought…I want to go there. I want to go to the places that have the most need and see them transformed by the love of Christ Jesus. Thank you for this testimony. WOW! To see how God uses Sola is phenomenal. Use me too Jesus like this. To You be the glory, Lord! Thank You Jesus!
What a beautiful story of how works in us, works on us and works through us for His glory.
I had a vision for Sierra Leone in my early days of getting into missions while in the University. I prayed for the country so much, but I couldn’t go there because God had another assignment for me still in missions by virtue of marriage. I am glad to read about what God is using Pastor Sola Jegede and his family to do in Sierra Leone. May the Lord grant him more fruitful impact. Amen
I also attended the HLE in Maui 2018 and the experience transformed my life and ministry. I am very particular about raising more mission minded believers from amongst the Next Gen in order to see more labourers get into the harvest fields.
May God’s Kingdom increase as we all continue to labour to end gospel poverty. Amen