St. Christopher’s Church Welcomes Liberian Couple

CHATHAM – The Chatham community and St.Christopher’s Episcopal Church welcome the return of Prince and Relhetta Wreh of Liberia from March 9 to 22. During their visit, the couple will be guest speakers at a Chatham Rotary Club Meeting at the 400 East on Wednesday, March 13 at 6:15 p.m., and Prince will preach at the 8 and 10 a.m. services at St. Christopher's on Sunday, March 17. The public is invited to the church services as well to a presentation at The 204 in Harwich on Saturday, March 16 at 11 a.m.

Members of St. Christopher’s Church have enjoyed friendship with the Wrehs since 2009, when Prince came to the United States to study for his master’s degree in theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. After that visit, both St. Christopher’s and the Chatham Rotary supported the construction and successful running of the Goll Farm School, a pre-K through grade eight school in Bong county, about 140 miles from Liberia's capital Monrovia in West Africa.

Peter and Linda Hughes of Harwich, St. Christopher’s members and managers of the Chatham Food Pantry, are organizing the Wrehs’ visit.

“Liberia went through a civil war in the 1980s and 1990s, and when that happened a whole generation lost the ability to go to school,” Peter Hughes said. “When the Wrehs started the Goll Farm School, the intent was to take as many kids as possible, regardless of age, and give them the opportunity to have an education.”

Back in 2011, groundbreaking for construction of the Goll Farm School was attended by St. Christopher’s parishioners Steve and Jackie Keenan and Barbara Gibson, who traveled to Liberia to visit Prince, Relhetta and their children Orthea, Jackie, Steven and Quami. By 2015, eight classrooms were completed, the roof was in place, and 150 children were attending Goll Farm School. Relhetta had done an outstanding job as construction manager and was now school superintendent.

The cost to attend the Goll Farm School is $100 per semester or $200 per year to educate a student, an amount which is beyond the means of parents and families to pay. Without continued support, the children would be required to work to support their families. St. Christopher’s, through its scholarship appeal, sponsors 50 students, 20 percent of the school population.

In 2018 all 12 Goll Farm School eighth graders passed the rigorous West African standardized test allowing them to continue on to high school. Goll Farm School was one of very few schools in Liberia which achieved 100 percent success in the testing. Three graduates, students at Goll Farm School from the very beginning, have gone on to continue their education at Cuttington University and Bong County Technical College. David Kerhula, Thomas Sarkollie and John Torkpah have all returned to Goll Farm School to teach the next generation of students.

The Wrehs manage the school, now 250 students strong, which provides a feeding program as an incentive to attend. Carol and Charles Rader, formerly of Chatham, continue to fund the feeding program, which provides students and faculty with hot meals during the week.

“We have a wonderful couple who, every semester, donate $3,000 to provide hot meal service at least three days a week at the school,” Hughes said. “That is a huge attraction to get kids to come to school. If you come to school hungry you aren’t a good learner, and for some students, that’s the only meal they have.”

Goll Farm School now includes a computer lab and a meeting hall which serves as a school assembly space, community center and chapel. The newest addition to the school program is a day care center for the Goll Farm community.

“When the Wrehs arrive, St. Christopher’s Together With Africans committee will work through a list of projects with them which they would like to do for the school in the near future,” Hughes said. “Maybe a solar water pump to get running water to the school instead of pumping things by hand. Maybe expanding the computer lab. This could be an opportunity for people to dive in and help.”

For more information about the Goll Farm School and opportunities to attend events with Prince and Relhetta Wreh, visit www.stchristopherschatham.org/special-events/ or www.stchristopherschatham.org/together-with-africans/.