Prayers for deliverance! Liberians prayed for God’s enduring grace to stay upon the nation

By James Kokulo Fasuekoi in Minneapolis, Minnesota

In the Book of Jonah, the Lord God sent a stern warning to the people of Nineveh. The message is direct and clear! God will destroy the city of Nineveh within 40 days, and the messenger is Prophet Jonah (Jonah 3:1-4) NIV. 

And the reason? Because the wickedness of Nineveh had come up crying before God Almighty.

For Nineveh, according to the Bible, “The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth” and prayed so that God, in His abundant grace and mercy, could hear their cries, forgive their trespasses, and save the land (Jonah 3:5).

Because of the urgency of God’s message, the king of Nineveh wasted no time but acted to avert God’s pending wrath. Jonah 3:6-8: “When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: 

“By the decree of the king and his nobles: 

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and, with compassion, turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

As the story goes, it’s everyone’s guess as to how this pending danger against God’s people was averted in real time, per Jonah 3:10: “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”

In Liberia, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr., perhaps in his own wisdom, decided not to wait for such a frightened message from God. Rather, he saw and felt the need and urgency to call upon his nation and people to join him, engage God, through prayer while it’s yet not late, in hope that God would heal the nation of its wounds and hatred.

He thus declared Wednesday, July 30, 2025, as a national holiday of prayer, and urged Prelates, Priests, Elders, Deacons, Evangelists, Imams and all residents, regardless of religious creed, to gather with one accord in their places of worship, in each city, town, village, hamlet and home, within the territorial confines of the Republic, in simple and non-costly apparel to pray and meditate from 8 o’ clock in the morning. 

“From the founding of Liberia to this pivotal moment in the country’s democratic journey, the hand of God has remained ever present,” according to a Foreign Ministry release.

In his Tuesday press statement, delivered earlier on through his July 26th Independence Day speech, on Saturday, Amb. Boakai, a devoted Christian, sounded reconciliatory, urging his brethren to work towards national healing by forgiving one another and also uniting as one people.

“As we look to the future, let us embrace forgiveness of ourselves and one another, for it is only through reconciliation that we can fully heal and move forward as one people,” noted the statement from the Foreign Ministry in Monrovia.

He further asked everyone, including visitors and foreigners on Liberian soil to converge at worship centers such as churches and mosques across the country, and “seek God’s Face,” while pleading that He, God, “renew the national covenant for peace, unity, and reconcile Liberia.” 

It’s still not clear the depth of the wickedness that existed in Nineveh, however, the wickedness that has swept across the Liberian nation, especially during the post-war era, remains innumerable  and unimaginable-from systematic corruption, lack of fair justice system, drug deals, illicit sex, intentional killings of innocent teens, to trading of human parts, have all become a norm in Liberia. 

President Boakai, the first president in the postwar era determined to bring about lasting national healing and reconcile the people has appointed a national commission to establish a war and economic crimes court in order to investigate and punish ex-government officials who may be guilty of having carried out economic sabotage and gross human rights violations during and after the two civil wars (1989-2003).  

The irony here is that most of the nation’s former officials from the last two regimes who are themselves guilty of economic and war crimes in Liberia have quickly transformed themselves into various political warring groups, thereby clamouring as ‘human rights” and “pressure” groups and are somehow slowly gaining popularity.    

President Boakai’s call for national prayer was extensively embraced by Liberians living abroad and at home, with thousands converging at worship centers in their localities on Wednesday, to pray for God’s guidance and mercy upon their land. Amb. Boakai himself was seen worshipping Wednesday, via a social media video stream at his own church, the Efforts Baptist Church, located in Paynesville, Liberia.

President Boakai was later led to the pulpit and he honestly prayed for the state and its people.  

A young Gospel Minister, Ruth G. Gaye , from Excellence Ministry, in Duazon, Liberia, said earlier Wednesday that their church had yielded to the president’s pronouncement and went into prayer for the entire day. Evangelist Ruth Gaye is also Global Ekklesia’s news photographer stationed in Liberia.

A prayer band in the U.S. which consists of 45 Liberian women was also reported to have gone into prayer for Liberia after they heard of the president’s declaration. The group’s official name is “Galatians,” named after the Book of Galatians. 

Galatians members, largely widows and older women, are of Bassa Ethnicity and conduct regular nightly phone-call-in prayers in the Bassa Language. The group’s president known as Mother Ma-Joe informed Ekklesia how delighted they felt when the president’s call came while their prayer band was preparing for its Wednesday’s mid-week fast and prayer.