From Football to Freetown

Bridge-building, physically and spiritually: Jake was involved with the Sierra Leone British Government in three areas: one was in building bridges, secondly was in building and managing public schools, and thirdly was in big game hunting - specifically elephants.

Building three larger bridges in the Kamaron area and was requested by the government. One was the Gbondolo near Monko Bendugu, the second was the bridge by Kamaron, over the Bafin and the largest one was on the road to Kurubonla, over the Bagbe. The government paid the wages for the workers and supplied all the steel I beams, cement, water pumps (for the large bridge) and transport for the large I beams and cement.

The mission granted permission for Jake to build these bridges. After he had built the two smaller bridges, the English Governor, honorable Mr. Dorman of Sierra Leone, asked Jake to take on a larger project - the building of the Bagbe Bridge between Kamaron and Kurubonla. This bridge would be 157 feet in length.

After the governor asked Jake to supervise the construction of the Bagbe bridge, and the field executive committee had okayed it, he began to organize a team of helpers. Since we had been in that area for a number of years and had visited most of the villages in the two chiefdoms - Kurubonla and Monko, Jake had no trouble getting workers for the job. A good number of the young men from our own village of Kamaron were the first to sign up. Peter Bala Mara, a young man whom Ruth and Fran Shisler had taught to read and write in his own language, became the recording clerk and time keeper.

He signed up 93 men. He thought that it would be enough. He divided the men into three groups and assigned three headmen, one for each group. Then he organized the work for each group. One group was to collect sand from the riverbanks; another was to gather rocks from the hills near the site. The third group was divided into helping Jake make forms, build retaining dams in the river and crushing stones into gravel for the concrete.

Since the bridge was way up in the interior of the country, to get the steel forms to make retaining walls was not possible, so mud walls were built and the nationals knew how to build these. Poles were driven down in the river in two large oblong type circles, then they were walled with palm branches tied with jungle vines. The walls were completed and the earth "train" began to fill between the two palm branch walls. For this project all of the 93 men were used to carry the earth. Some dug the earth, others shoveled the earth into head pans and still others helped to lift the filled pans on to the heads of those who carried them to the walls. Slowly the earth took over and the water was stopped. Some of the men who emptied the pans full of earth into the walls also stomped the mud until the dry earth began to take over. The two walls were about 3 feet thick and had to be tied together to hold the earth which was packed between them. The ties came from the upper part of the inside wall to the lower part of the outside wall. This prevented the water from seeping in from the outside wall to the inside. Final ties were made on the very top and a final layer of earth was packed to cover the whole wall. After the earth dams were completed, the water inside the oblong circle had to be pumped out. The government had supplied Jake with two pumps, one operated by two men and the other with a gas motor.

When all the piers and abutments were finished to within the last two feet, the I beams were put in place. We had no crane to set them on the piers and abutments, so we devised a way to telescope them on each other using the Land rover as the pusher. The first beam was projected half way across the abutment, braced from the embankment by large poles at the protruding end, half way between the abutment and the first pier. That beam was then laid flat and the second beam, standing up right, was placed inside the flat beam and pushed until it reached the first pier. That one was then laid down and the first one rolled over into it and pushed over to match the one already resting on the first pier. In that way, they put all eight beams in place. To push the I beams across they used the Land rover with a special log between the front bumper and the I beam. One end of the log was cut to fit the bumper. At one time the man holding the log to the bumper missed and the log went through the radiator. The Government sent a new radiator and they completed the work.

When the bridge was finished, the dedication was arranged for. On that day, the chief sent his main son with a delegation of tribal officials along with his musicians. It happened that the president of the Missionary Church Association, Rev. Tillman Habegger, was in Sierra Leone and was visiting us on that day and he was able to take part in the ceremony. The chief sent a cow to be butchered as a gift to all the workmen and through his son gave Ruth a big gold earring as a thank you to Jake for his part in the work. This ring had to be given in secret. We have since sold the ring for $100. In all four months of work on this project only one fellow hurt his toe in the process of pushing the I beams across and the Land rover’s radiator was punctured. Once every two weeks, the government would send up the money for the pay roll. It was all left to me to take care of.

Each morning before work began, Jake had a time of devotions with all the men after the roll call. From that group of men who worked on that bridge, several became Christians. The chief's son is a believer and the Missionary church has at least two pastors out of that group of men.

The other two bridges Jake built were smaller and were built before the Bagbe, this large one. When the work was completed on all three of these bridges, the minister of transportation, The Honorable Kawusu Konte wrote a letter of appreciation to the mission and to Jake. The money that was saved because of Jake building this large bridge was given to the Mission for a Primary School in Kamaron. This school was one of the nicest schools in the district. It was built by Ron Sonius while we were on furlough. We made many long-lasting friends among the chiefs and their people in that area. It really opened up the Kurubonla chiefdom to the Gospel.