About
Eternal Love Winning Africa (ELWA) is a ministry of SIM, an international mission organization with more than 4,000 workers serving in more than 70 countries.
ELWA ministries includes ELWA Radio, ELWA Hospital, ELWA Technical Services, ELWA Academy, ELWA Camp, Trinity Dental Clinic, and Security.
The purpose of ELWA Ministries is to propagate the Gospel, disciple believers, minister to human needs, and partner with churches to build the Kingdom of God.
ELWA’s Mission is to:
1) demonstrate the love of God by providing “quality and affordable” education, healthcare and community services to our target communities;
2) minister the Word of God to the reached and unreached people throughout Liberia, and beyond;
3) disciple believers towards Christian maturity in collaboration with churches for effective ministry;
4) train staff members in technical excellence, Christian maturity and effective ministry in fulfillment of the mandate to reach our target communities with the Gospel Message of Christ; and
5) promote Biblical prayer.
History
ELWA traces its roots back to 1952 when SIM (then known as the Sudan Interior Mission) joined with the West Africa Broadcasting Association to start the first Christian radio station in Africa. Radio ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa), located outside of Liberia’s capital city, Monrovia, aired their first broadcast in January 1954. SIM expanded its ministry in Liberia when it opened ELWA Hospital in 1965.
For over 35 years, the ELWA ministries grew into an extensive SIM field that included church planting, rural community health, and Bible training. ELWA radio was one of the largest mission Christian radio services in the world, extending to North and East Africa.
When civil war broke out in Liberia in 1990, SIM missionaries were forced to abandon the ELWA campus as it became a battleground between the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and government troops. Without any resolution in the civil conflict, missionaries returned to rebuild the ministries in 1991 under a cloud of uncertainty.
The “April 6th crisis” in 1996 led to another evacuation, with more looting and vandalism of the facilities. The initiative of able Liberian staff who returned to the campus to resume the ministries and protect the property encouraged SIM to maintain operations at ELWA from 1997 through the end of the civil war in 2003. ELWA was the location of two of the largest Ebola Treatment Units during the epidemic that swept through Liberia in 2014-2016.