Bassa Christian Missionary Mother Hawa Krangan of Buchanan is no more!
By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|Editor-Publisher
For most people, especially African Liberians, whenever the word “Missionary” is cited in relation to the Gospel they only think of White, or American Missionary people that first set foot to the African soil centuries ago to carry out Gospel mission works.
But it’s not only White or Black Americans, or Europeans who have been involved in Gospel Mission works at home and abroad. Most Christians from Africa and elsewhere in the world including the Republic of Liberia do missionary work too.
Mother Hawa Krangan, a native of Grand Bassa (Liberia) who lived 100 + years, became a Christian missionary also, even going on to head the Worldwide Mission Church prayer band in Buchanan as well as playing other leading roles in that church.
Maa Hawa, as most people respectfully called her (meaning Mother Hawa, in the Bassa Language of Liberia), passed away Friday, July 26th, the day of Liberia’s Independence, following a brief illness.
Hawa, says Mrs. Memee N.G. Kokulo, granddaughter, entered God’s glory at exactly 1:00 a.m. local Liberian time on July 26th at the family’s Rehab residence, just a few miles east of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s home in Paynesville, Liberia.
Her age wasn’t exactly known at the time of her death but a few close relatives, one of whom is Mother Chinda Garway (Maa Hawa’s deputy Prayer Warriors at Worldwide), believes Hawa was well over 105.
She was a devout servant of God, and first joined the local Apostolic Church of Christ in her home District #3 in Grand Bassa during which she served as head of the church’s choir early on in her life.
By 1998, during a lull in the rebel war, Hawa is said to have escaped her home to Buchanan where she remained and attended a church conference, eventually becoming a full-fledged member of Worldwide mission Church (WMC) and never returned to her hometown again.
She led the WMC missionary team in Buchanan that consisted of 33 members for more than a decade before her death, according to Mother Chinda Garway, her deputy prayer warrior who played the role of her armor bearer prior to Hawa’s passing.
Hawa was the older aunt of Rev. Henry Goah, a former ELWA Radio Language newscaster who later became a WMC pastor. Minister Goah, for several decades, used the WMC Radio station in Buchanan to preach the Good News of Christ to his Native Bassa audience residing in this coastal region and beyond.
A very close relative of eminent Liberian Baptist Minister and founder of WMC-Liberia, Rev. Dr. Abass G. Karnga, now winding into his late 90s, Hawa also babysat Dr. Karnga and possibly carried him on her back as a little girl, while their parents performed daily household tasks.
According to Mother Chinda who worked with the deceased closely for years, Maa Hawa, after privately consulting with her a few years ago prayed over her thoroughly, then laid hands on her-a way of transferring her God-given Blessing to Chinda.
Chinda told Global Ekklesia last week at her residence the encounter took place months after her meeting with the late prayer warrior. It’s a liturgy London-based Congolese Gospel preacher, Apostle Alidor Mvula calls “the transfer of legacy” in his latest book.
Chinda explained it all began when Hawa started to feel ill and expressed fear that she could pass away, carrying along the Blessing of God if she didn’t perform the rite which was to be released to a woman next in line with her calling and that individual was Maa Chinda.
Meanwhile, funeral arrangements are underway, and burial is expected to take place near the end of August, a time most of the deceased’s relatives, among them Rev. Henry Goah and Martha Fasuekoi (currently living in the US) would be expected to arrive in Liberia for burial.