As a young religious brother, I studied carpentry, joinery, building and construction in Ghana. I came to Liberia in 2017 to oversee the Divine Word Missionaries’ project in Grand Gedeh County. While building our new rectory in Zwedru City, I encountered problems purchasing doors and cabinets. I decided to open a small table carpentry shop on-site so I could make some of the items myself.
I started the shop with the help of a young layperson. We were able to fix almost all the carpentry and joinery issues in the rectory. The shop became so successful that many people who saw our craftsmanship asked us to do jobs for them. With this increased interest in our work, I sought funds from friends to help me implement a business plan and buy some small carpentry equipment for the new shop.
The idea of having this carpentry shop was not only to make items for the rectory or to take in jobs to raise funds for the mission but more importantly to train the area’s young men in carpentry skills they could use for employment. I saw this as a way to reduce the poverty rate among the youth in Zwedru.
I have about eight young men apprenticing under me. But apprenticing has its challenges. Many of the apprentices do not live in Zwedru City. When they are here to study carpentry in the shop, they often cannot find a place to stay in the city. This hampers their training.
Also, road conditions in Liberia can be terrible. During the rainy season, roads become impassable with deep mud. This hinders the students from getting to the shop and affects our travel to job sites. However, despite these many challenges, we have come a long way.
The newest projects on our schedule involve infrastructure within the Diocese of Cape Palmas and project work such as building a health center for the diocese in Zwedru. We are also constructing a front porch extension for a Divine Word parish, Christ the King, in Zwedru City and building a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Family in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia.
The busy schedule is exciting, but as business grows, so do the challenges. We need more equipment in the shop. Without it, our production time slows and we can’t finish projects as quickly as we should. Also, materials are often in short supply, sometimes delaying work by one to two weeks. As the output from our current schedule raises income, we hope to purchase new equipment in the fall and continue to invest in our carpentry shop and the training of Liberia’s youth.
Despite all the activity with the carpentry shop, nothing has distracted me from active pastoral work. I make time to visit the outstations and serve the people there. I find joy in caring for others.
I hope that my pastoral activities and work in the carpentry shop bring a positive image of Divine Word missionaries to the people of Liberia. I pray that the shop will grow and become useful for all of Grand Gedeh County and that it promotes vocations for future Divine Word missionaries.
Brother Wisdom Agbovi, SVD, is a Ghanaian carpenter turned Divine Word missionary. He joined the Liberia mission in 2017 as his first assignment.