In the U.S., big Aniv. revival set for Ebenezer Community Church this week

By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|Editor-Publisher

For much of the civil war in Liberia during the 90s and early 2000s, the U.S. granted asylum to tens of thousands of Liberians who fled persecution and wanton murder by marauding rebel forces back home to help them resettle in America. 

Nevertheless, there was another vital ingredient lacking for these immigrants whose spirits had been crushed as a result of countless traumatic events each experienced during those brutal wars and that’s Spiritual food.

But as it happened, God also prepared men, women as well as sanctuaries-beginning from refugee camps in Africa and all the way across the Atlantic-to cater to their Spiritual needs as cited in Ephesians 4:11. Ebenezer Community Church became one; it now welcomes everyone from across the world.

Beginning this week August 27 through September 3, 2023, Ebenezer Community Church, located at 9200 West Broadway Ave., will be celebrating 23 years of its existence in the United States.

At last Sunday’s worship, ECC’s founder and lead pastor Rev. Dr. Francis O.S. Tabla announced before a jammed-packed congregation, a series of events already organized by the church to mark this years’ anniversary. 

They include a fundraising concert (Sunday, Aug. 27 at 6p.m.), a nightly revival (Wed. Aug. 30-Fri. Sept. 1st at 6p.m.), a Thanksgiving & ordination service plus an anniversary reception slated for Sunday, Sept. 3rd at 2p.m., all at the church’s edifice.

A guest preacher from the Republic of Liberia, senior pastor at King Jesus Ministries, Rev. John N. Horace is expected to arrive in Minnesota in coming days for the anniversary revival.

Ebenezer Community Church so far is the largest African immigrant church in North America. It was founded by Rev. Dr. Tabla and his wife, Pastor Chris Tabla, both originally from Liberia and products of the Booker Washington Institute (BWI) in Kakata, Margibi, Liberia.

Visitors mostly of African origin arriving in the Twin Cities for events such as wedding, funeral or family reunion have been drawn to the ECC for a number of reasons, chiefly, its hospitality, cultural flavor and old Christain songs such as “Who has the final say,” sung by its  choir Sunday.

For instance, last Sunday, a pastor from Sierra Leone together with Rev. Mawa (accompanied by two other persons) from Richmond, Va., were among key visiting guests Rev.Tabla introduced to his congregation before beginning his sermon.     

With its second phrase dedicated amid the COVID-19 epidemic in September 2021, ECC has no doubt become the envy of many within the community here. 

In 2020, for example, an African immigrant pastoring a church here spoke well of such a gigantic undertaking by a fellow African immigrant pastor and prayed too that God grant him his dreamed church home.

Again, this afternoon, another African pastor made a reference to Ebenezer Community Church as a good example of God’s miraculous work in the lives of His people, during the dedication of a new church in Minneapolis, secured by a Liberian couple.

Neither Pastor Tabla nor his wife Pastor Chris has ever claimed credits for erecting ECC which is worth over US 6 million.

“People refer to Ebenezer as Dr. Tabla’s church; No, it’s not my church (but rather God’s”), he exclaimed before his congregation amid laughter. 

Prior to securing a home church, ECC, like most other immigrant churches in the U.S., hosted its regular worship services in the auditorium of a high school building in Brooklyn Park, MN, for more than a decade. 

At its groundbreaking in 2015, the ECC choir joyously celebrated through dancing and singing till they couldn’t sing or dance anymore; there’s even much more dancing and singing to come this week during its 23rd anniversary.

Banner photograph: Senior Pastor Chris Tabla (L), and Rev. Dr. Francis O.S. Tabla (R), listen keenly as Mr. Charles Barbu, Chairman of BWI Class of ’87 Executive Council, speaks during a class reunion Nov. 2022.