Called from Africa to America to Plant and Grow a Church
by Brickson Sam Senior Pastor, Together in Christ International Ministries (A CBFNC church start)
T
hrough the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery Program, my wife Annie, our three children and I moved to the United States in late 2009 from Sierra Leone in West Africa. We were sponsored by Tom and LeDayne Polaski and located in Charlotte. It is was my dream to use my skills to start a church. I also wanted to continue to promote social justice and compassion in today’s world by either teaching at a high school or college level, or by providing skills to young leaders. Prior to our immigration to the United States, I was the senior pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Sierra Leone, president of All Africa Baptist Youth Fellowship, and vice president of the Baptist World Alliance Youth Department. My wife was a middle school teacher and president of Baptist Pastors Wives in Freetown, Sierra Leone. A combination of gifting, desire and affirmation all informed my call to plant a church in the United States. When my family was leaving Sierra Leone, two proclamations were made in the farewell service:
1. that my family plants a church in the U.S. 2. that we come to the U.S. to serve as missionaries. Two months after I arrived, I was encouraged by Larry Hovis, executive coordinator for CBF of North Carolina, to seek the possibility of starting a church amongst Sierra Leoneans living in the Charlotte area. Having planted and built a church in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the desire was also in me to do the same in the United States. God has gifted me with an evangelistic heart, a dose of evangelistic success, the ability to preach, recruit, disciple, cast vision, lead others, form teams, and entrepreneurial skills. After ardent prayers with my wife and consultations with various individuals, pastors, leaders and members of the Sierra Leone community in Charlotte, the decision was made to start Together In Christ International Ministries. In September 2011 we started with home cells. Within one year, October 2012, we officially started Together in Christ International Ministries through the support of CBFNC and CBF global. Over the years, our church has received faithful support from CBFNC and CBF. I was honored to have been officially commissioned as church planter at the CBF General Assembly in 2012 in Fort Worth, See “Called from Africa to America” on page 14. Fall 2020
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