Our recent visit to the historic Zondo Community in Grand Bassa County, behind the Liberia Agricultural Company (LAC), specifically in District four last weekend was a scene of enthusiasm, when dozens of citizens of that community expressed their gratitude to one of their sons for his thoughtfulness by educationally giving back to the village where he obtained his earlier education.
Speaking to this writer in their numbers residents of this historic Zondo Community, described, Pastor St. Solomon Joah, Superintendent of the Sotiamon Christian School System operating in Monrovia and it’s environ, and his lovely wife, Tiangay S. Joah for their benevolence, making sure that their children are given the opportunity for a better and improved education from elementary, junior and senior high schools, and up to college.
Being overwhelmed of the level of support from one of their citizens empowered also by his lovely wife by giving back to their community, some of the elders, chiefs, youth leaders and leaders of the local marketing association in their separate statements, expressed thanks and appreciation to the Joahs for their meaningful contributions towards the educational growth of their children.
“We are grateful to Pastor Joah and his wife for giving back to our community educationally; his support to our children’s education is more than gold and diamond, we appreciate him a lot”, one of the chiefs in an exclusive interview with this writer beeping with smile due to happiness said.
Like this senior citizen, many of those who spoke to our staff expressed similar thoughts, and poured praises on St. Solomon Joah and his wife, and also vowed to provide their services for the construction of these modern educational facilities, stressing, “We will do all in our powers to provide our labour and other professional services for the successful completion of these upcoming projects.
Speaking to journalists in Monrovia recently during a well-attended news conference, St. Solomon Joah disclosed that giving back to Zondo has always been his dream of giving back to Zondo, by returning to this community to humanly share the blessings that God has poured upon their lives.
He noted that giving back to Zondo was a result after a fruitless educational journey in Buchanan at the age of sixteen, where he obtained his educational foundation upon which the superstructure of my education stands. Adding, “In 1968, my poor father brought my brother Jefferson A. Zeon and me to attend the Mid-Liberia Baptist Elementary School here in Zondo”.
He said he earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree from the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) University with high honor, (Magnus Cum Laude), and the Master Degree from the University of Liberia where he further earned Degree with honor, adding, “With regards to the teaching of the word of God, the foes of truth consider me a force to reckon with, while the friends of the Gospel of Grace considered me a blessing for Bible-believing churches of Jesus Christ; some renowned Christian Educators look to me as asset of their profession”.
Speaking biblically Pastor Joah said it was at the Mid-Liberia Baptist Mission in Zondo, he encountered the Lord Jesus Christ, Who soundly saved him from his sins, where he also learned that it is not enough to just believe and remain nominal; one must feed daily on the Bible, the very Word of God.
“Those principles of the pages of the Bible have become my guide, a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path. For the past more than fifty years, I have read through this sweet book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. I can say with absolute certainty that a nation, a people, or a tribe void of the knowledge of the truths of the Bible is doomed. Education saturated with God-breathed principles for life of the body, soul, and spirit that I received here is what my wife and I have decided to GIVE BACK ZONDO”, Pastor Joah noted.
“We have decided to give Back to Zondo little bit more than what we received here in those days. Realizing the sad trend that many of our brethren who left Zondo could not survive due to the harshness of the socio-economic terrain, Mrs. Joah and I have decided to include the Jr. & Sr. High school and College components to our plan. The elementary school component has been working in Zondo the past last five years”.
He said the high school component should be ready to open in September next year in order to capture those completing Jr. High in September, while the college component will be prepared within two years to be ready to receive the first high school graduates. While the high school component is firmly operating, we shall pick up the Jr. High School component.
The estimated cost of this project for the elementary school building will be phase one of the bigger project with an initial capital of US$65,000.00, while local materials and volunteer services have been ordered.
“If the Lord will touch your hearts to give, the project will serve many people soon and will continue to develop human resource capacity of the area in order to have individuals contribute to the development agenda of our country, especially Grand Bassa County. This is our vision for GIVING BACK TO ZONDO”.
With this, according to Pastor Joah, an official ground-breaking is expected to take place on March 13, 2021 in the Zondo Community in Grand Bassa County with several personalities, including Senator Nyonblee Kangar-Lawrence, and other lawmakers including officials from the Ministry of Education of the County are expected to be in full attendance to grace this colourful occasion.
Meanwhile, Pastor Joah and his wife are urgently appealing to the management of the Liberia Agricultural Company (LAC) to provide its helping hands to the official launch of the project, particularly the grading of roads that are leading to the community, on the project site.
As it is always said, ‘Behind every successful man there’s a woman’ this is the love story of Mr. and Mrs. Joah who herself is a professional teacher; a product of the University of Liberia.
Both went to the Ricks Institute, one of Liberia’s leading academic institutions in 1976, where they both met as student; Joah was in the 10th Grade while his wife was his senior in the 11th Grade. She graduated in 1977, while Mr. Joah also graduated in 1978.
