Prayer and Praise Newsletters

Hello, my name is Emmanuel Jackson Gunter . I am 23 years of age and live and work in the city of Monrovia , Liberia . My country is located on the coast of West Africa and is about the size of the State of Tennessee in the United States .   Since the early 1990’s, my world has been torn apart repeatedly by the fighting of the Liberia Civil War. The Liberian Civil War by all accounts was one of the most bloodiest in Africa and claimed over 200,000 of my fellow Liberians and displaced over a million others in refugee camps in the neighboring countries.  Early in the civil war, my family became causalities.  My entire family saving for myself was killed.  It was only by the Grace of God and His protection that I survived to tell this story.  

One of the more pleasurable and memorable events of my childhood was meeting Bro. Charles Gunter in the spring of 1994 on the docks of Monrovia .  Bro Chuck as I and so many others would call him was a radio operator a Christian Missionary ship.  The ship was at port and unloading humanitarian cargo sent by Feed the Hungry to help the desperate people of my country.  For me, the ship brought the man that would later become my father.   I will always believe that Bro. Chuck was sent by our Lord to me in the mist of my despair to guide and help me through the years of misery and that were to follow.  The Bible says in Deuteronomy 10:18 , “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” It was on that spring day in 1994, that the Lord fulfilled a dream that I had several months before.  It was that dream and my belief that the Lord would fulfill that dream that had brought me to the docks on that faithful day.  You see, in that dream I saw a man leaving a ship, an American ship, and helping and caring me.  I can still remember the beautiful American flag fluttering free in the breeze on the stern of the ship.  I can still remember standing with my caregiver in the oppressive heat and waiting as we had waited before to see if this was the ship and was the man of my dream on-board. 

 Bro. Chuck spent three weeks with me and I knew that I loved him as a father and that he loved me as a son.  He was the man in my dream.  Throughout the years the bond established between us forged in the mist of a civil war has grown.  Bro Chuck adopted me and made me his son in 1994.  My name was officially changed in April 1994 from Emmanuel Jackson to Emmanuel Jackson Gunter .  Lord willing, I am looking forward to seeing my father in the United States in a few months.  I write this to Praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.