A Message From John Young

Editor’s Note: We are thrilled to announce exciting new leadership changes for Franciscan Works and Liberia Mission, effective January 2024. John Young, the current director of Liberia Mission, will be returning home to the states after living in Liberia for over eight years. He will become the Executive Director of Franciscan Works. Mr. Joseph Kulah, Jr., current Assistant Director of Liberia Mission, will become Director of Liberia Mission and Mr. Flomo R. Kerkula, current Chief Financial Officer and former residential beneficiary, will become Assistant Director.

John Young

I have spent eight-and-a-half years living in Liberia. I served as a missionary at the Cenacolo Community for three years. After a short stint in the United States, one filled with an intense craving to return to Liberia, I began my five and a half year adventure at Liberia Mission as Communications and Operations Officer. I became Director of Liberia Mission in February 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 Pandemic. Grateful for my experience at Cenacolo during the Ebola epidemic of 2014, I did my best to be a leader. In a way only God can make possible, Liberia Mission crafts leaders not only out of its beneficiaries, but also of its staff and missionary servants.

Liberia Mission has taught me the importance of “God - Education - Work” and has equipped me with the tools to become a future leader for my own country and the world at large. It has done the same for Mr. Joseph Kulah and Mr. Flomo R. Kerkula. Mr. Kulah began as a classroom teacher in 2014, and Mr. Kerkula came on the Mission as a residential beneficiary in 2008. Liberia Mission has made good, honest, and transparent leaders of them both, and I have full confidence in their abilities to lead Liberia Mission throughout its next chapter.

Mr. Kerkula (left) and Mr. Kulah

As for myself, I will join Franciscan Works as its new Executive Director. Ready to come home, I am also ready for this new challenge that lies ahead of me. After eight-and-a-half years of high highs and low lows, I unashamedly profess my love for Liberia and its people. In fact, I’m engaged to one.

Franciscan Works and Liberia Mission may be two legally separate organizations, but spiritually they are one combined sign of God’s love for the poorest of the poor in Liberia. I want to thank the Franciscan Works Board of Directors and all of the sponsors, donors, and benefactors who have given us the resources to carry out our mission. I also want to thank the people of Liberia: our beneficiaries, employees, and friends.

There are so many others to thank as well–my fiancée, Keren!-but I will conclude with my gratitude to the Triune God; the Father who loves and cares for me; the Son who is my Savior and died that I might have eternal life; and the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father and Son who lives and moves through me, making it possible that I might able to do anything that can be called “good.”

- John Young

Pictures from John’s going away party on Liberia Mission.

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