The Living Stone Outreach Chronology
By Michael Gates, Founder of LSO
I, Michael Gates, am Founder and Current Director of Field Operations for Living Stone Outreach, birthed in Fall 2007. A Liberian Family attended our church. Pastor Jeff Addy, a refugee from Liberia, West Africa, needed a place to stay. He came to live with us for a period of one year. Pastor Addy shared with us the plight of the Liberian people
Liberia was founded by Emancipated African Americans is 1847. It was an economically stable nation, when civil war broke out in 1988 and ran through 2003, resulting in the death of at least 150,000 people, including many heads of households.
In March of 2008, Living Stone Outreach was officially certified as a 501-C3 non-profit organization. The beginning was small with some rice distributions to families in need, and a goal of 15 children to receive education scholarships which grew quickly to 30. The scholarships were to various private church schools around Paynesville, Liberia, as there were no public schools. Over the years, the individual scholarships have grown to over 90 per year. Also, LSO currently supports one church school of 200 students in Monrovia.
In 2012, a minister named Jackson Gbah, a graduate of Child Evangelism Fellowship, located in Zwedru, Liberia, adjacent to the Ivory Coast border, organized a ministry called "Fishers of Children for Jesus" an official non-profit foster care ministry.
In 2014-2015, LSO purchased land and built a foster care home for 16 children, run by Jackson Gbah and his wife Lucy Gbah, a professional nurse.
In 2016, Jackson was stricken and died, leaving Lucy as the primary matron for the home, which she still runs today.
2017 through today, LSO sponsored the construction of an elementary school on the foster care home grounds. Originally it as for Kindergarten through 8th grade, and now K-10th, with the completion of a 10th grade classroom in Fall of 2021. That school served 320 students, with 275 of them advancing up a grade.
Fall 2019 to Present, LSO sponsored the purchase of four lots in Zwedru and the construction of Lambs of Zion Orphanage Ministry, a Liberian non-profit lead by Mr. Prince Freeman, the organizer and director. On Sunday Oct 4th, 2020, the orphanage was officially dedicated as the home for 16 orphaned children, complete with well, septic and bathrooms, new furnishings and a staff to cook, clean and oversee the children.
I have travelled to Liberia in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2017. The nation is gradually coming back from the devastation of the war years, in spite of set backs from the Ebola crisis, and the recent Covid-19 crisis, both having a greatly negative consequence to the national economy.
Liberia remains one of the poorest countries of the world, with 80% unemployment and inflation of over 250% since my first visit. Many of the families are led by grandparents and relatives or guardians because of the loss and displacement of husbands and fathers during the war years.
Liberians are a strong, healthy people with a positive attitude and loving acceptance of those from "outside", that assist them. The children are precious and vibrant, in spite of poverty. I love the Liberian people.
Mike and Phyllis Gates, Founders Living Stone Outreach
Living Stone Outreach Board of Directors
Carmen Hardy, Executve Director
Mike Gates, Director of Field Operations
Marla Sweeney, Treasurer
Carmen Hardy Harris, Secretary
Steve Dodson, Board Chaplain
Phyllis Gates, Publications
Jeremiah Harris, Board Member
Shaun Fidler, Board Member
2010 Travel Team
2017 Travel Team
Director of Field Operations, Michael Gates with a neighborhood boy
Two nursing graduates whose education was provided by Living Stone Outreach
Rice Distribution
Shaun Fidler, LSO Board Member
Education Sponsorship
Shown below are a few of the 200 children who attend the WJ Bertin Christian Institute in Monrovia, Liberia, under the administration of Pastor Daniel Johnson. Pastor Johnson also administers the scholarship funds of LSO which sends 90 plus students to K-12 private schools yearly. Since its inception in Spring 2008, many hundreds of children have benefitted from these scholarships.
Lambs of Zion Orphanage Ministry
Children from the "Lambs of Zion Orphanage Ministry, prepared for the new school term supported by LSO. In 2020, a new clean home environment was constructed with LSO help, to provide for sixteen children, as well as education sponsorship at local accredited schools. The overseer, Mr. Prince Freeman, organizer and director, is supported by Living Stone Outreach, and has committed his life to the care of this love-filled home with children, where he and his wife and three children also live. The needs are great, but so is the love, and the faithfulness of God. Your support for this project is fruitful.
Prince Freeman, organizer and director of Lambs of Zion Orphanage Ministry, is see here with the 2019 graduation class of Fishers of Children of Jesus Foster Care Ministry.
Fishers of Children for Jesus
In 2011-12 “Fishers of Children for Jesus” Foster Care Ministry was established in Zwedru utilizing a rented home.
This is one of the early photos of Jackson Gbah, on the far right, with the Fishers of Children for Jesus Foster Care Ministry sitting in front of the original residence. Jackson Gbah, a former foster child himself, was raised by missionaries in Liberia. He spoke English, French and six tribal dialects. LSO met Jackson on their first trip to Liberia in July of 2009, where he was employed as a handy man for the Mid Liberia Baptist Mission in Monrovia. He was undergoing a yearlong training by Child Evangelism Fellowship.
Abandoned Child Foundation
Below are two students, Jeffrey and Darius, who both received education sponsorship through Living Stone Outreach, graduating from high school and then going on to graduate from AME Zion University in Monrovia with Bachelor degrees, also with LSO sponsorship. They have since gone on to successful careers and have now joined forces, taking on extra jobs, to serve displaced youth in their own Country of Liberia, and providing them with education and support. This is one of the many wonderful stories of success among the students that your donations have helped. LSO will come along side in their endeavor to support and encourage.
Jeffrey is a real estate and land management consultant and Darius owns and operates a household maintenance business. Their partnership and passion is investing in the lives of children like LSO did for them, and providing education and care for children in their own communities through the foundation they started, Abandoned Child Foundation." Education is a powerful investment that affects generations to come.
