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| Emmanuel J. Gunter |
Emmanuel J Gunter is my adopted son as well as being a Liberian Citizen. He has applied for and been denied a travel visa to visit the United States twice in the last two years. There are several reasons for the denial but the one overwhelming reason is that Emmanuel is my adopted son. We have retained an immigration attorney to represent the two of us and petition ICE for an immigrant visa for Emmanuel. The immigration attorney has advised that while our case is being processed and reviewed that Emmanuel will not be issued a travel visa for a visit to the United States. The average processing time for the petition is approximately six years.
Emmanuel’s family members were massacred before his eyes by the rebels in the early 1990s. By the Grace of God, he survived the massacre. He was wounded in the leg and foot by rebel gunfire shortly after his family was massacred while hiding in an abandoned school on the outskirts of Monrovia. At least twice since 1994, he has been forced to flee Monrovia, Liberia with only the clothes on his back. Repeatedly, his meager possessions have been stolen by bandits. His living quarters have been sacked, looted and burned. He has been attacked and beaten by rebels, street bandits and U.N Peacekeepers. He narrowly escaped death at the hands of the rebel forces on several occasions, traveling on foot through the rain forest hiding by day and traveling by night. Emmanuel has traveled to Ghana, Guinea, Mali, and Sierra Leone during the long Liberian Civil War. During the April 1996 battle in Monrovia, Emmanuel was trapped in his living quarters for seven days without food or water as mortar rounds pounded the city of Monrovia. When mortar rounds destroyed his living quarters, he fled to the Grey Stone Compound (US Embassy Residential Compound) in Monrovia, where he and thousands of others slept on the ground in pouring raining for almost two weeks. He reported that the thousands in the Grey Stone compound drank water from the compound’s swimming pool. Food was scarce. People were sick with dysentery.
With mortars and rockets still falling on the city of Monrovia and no relief in sight, Emmanuel headed for the Port of Monrovia. He traveled down streets filled with hundreds of dead and decaying bodies. Dogs were feasting on the dead. With bullets and tracers going over his head he swam under the bridge that linked Monrovia with the port. He swan just feet from the fierce battle for control of the bridge between the rebel and government forces. The rebels caught him as he arrived at the port side of the bridge. He was threaten and beaten by the rebel forces. Bloody from the beating and exhausted from the lack of food and fresh water, he finally was finally able to arrive at the Port of Monrovia where he boarded that now infamous ship known as the Bulk Challenger. The ship departed Monrovia on what should have been a very short voyage to Freetown Sierra Leone, however the government of Sierra Leone would not allow the ship to dock. The voyage lasted weeks as the countries as the countries surrounding Liberia refused to allow the ship to dock. Emmanuel suffered terrible hardships (lack of food and water) on that ship but at the age of 15, he worked to minister to sick and dying on that ship. Emmanuel was near death an almost blind from dehydration when the ship finally allowed to dock in Sierra Leone. He was interned in a refugee camp.
The horrify suffering that Emmanuel endured during Liberian Civil War has only served to reinforce and confirm his faith and love in our Lord Jesus Christ. Emmanuel credits his survival not to himself or others but to our Lord. If you were to visit Monrovia today, you will find Emmanuel working with the orphans and child soldiers which are Liberia’s legacy of a long and brutal civil war. He shows them love and care that only comes from a strong and dedicated life of serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He tells them that they are not alone in this world but have a Heavenly Father that loves them and cares for His children. He tells them about Jesus Christ. During the Liberian Civil War and afterwards, he has reportedly lead approximately 3500 individuals to Salvation through Jesus Christ.
Three years ago Emmanuel wrote this in an e-mail to me when describing the dark years of the Liberian Civil War.
“One of the more pleasurable and memorable events of my childhood was meeting Bro. Charles Gunter in the spring of 1994 on the docks of Monrovia. Bro. Chuck was the radio officer on the Christian Missionary Ship, M/V Spirit. The ship was in port and unloading humanitarian cargo sent by Feed the Hungry (US Ministry) to help the desperate people of my country. For me, the ship brought the man that would later become my adopted father. I will always believe that Bro. Chuck was sent by our Lord to me in the mist of my despair to guide and help me through the years of misery and that were to follow. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 10:18, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” It was on that spring day in 1994, that the Lord fulfilled what he had promised me in a dream that I had several months before. It was that dream and my belief that the Lord would fulfill that dream that had brought me to the docks on that faithful day. You see, in that dream I saw a man leaving a ship, an American ship, to help and care for me. I can still remember seeing Bro. Chuck as he unfurled the beautiful American flag, letting the flag flutter freely in the breeze on the stern of the ship. I can still remember standing in the oppressive heat and waiting as I had waited before to see if this was the ship and was the man of my dream on-board.
I can still remember the moment when Bro. Chuck walked to me and greeted me with a big smile. I knew in that moment that our Lord was a Lord that fulfilled His promises.
Bro. Chuck spent three weeks with me and I knew that I loved him as a father and that he loved me as a son. He was the man in my dream. Throughout the years the bond forged between us in the mist of the Liberian Civil War has grown. Bro. Chuck adopted me and made me his son in 1994. My proudest moment was when my name was officially changed in June 1994 from Emmanuel Jackson to Emmanuel Jackson Gunter. I again had an earthly father."
Emmanuel Jackson was (12) twelve years of age on that spring morning in 1994 when the Lord introduced the two of us on the docks in Monrovia Liberia. As our deck crew was tying up the ship, the UN Peacekeepers and port security were holding back the masses of desperate and hungry people. The sounds of a civil war rumbled in the distance. I stood with the captain on the flying bridge as we watched hundreds of people fighting over some rice that had been spilled on the dock. As I continued to watch the chaos, I spotted two young boys standing next to a warehouse. Reflecting on that day and time, I am guessing it was the peace the boys seemed to have in the mist of such chaos that caught my attention. When the crowd began to disperse, two of my crewmates lowered a rope ladder from the deck of the ship to the dock. I climbed down the ladder and went to speak to the boys. The boy that spoke first was Emmanuel. He stood there in a tattered Boy Scout shirt with big tears running down his cheeks proclaiming in a loud voice, “You have finally come, Praise God.” I spent approximately three weeks in Monrovia. Most of that time was with Emmanuel and other young orphans. Other crewmembers joined me as we carried on street evangelism and mini-crusades throughout Monrovia. Emmanuel was constantly at my side. Even at the age of 12, the Spirit of the Lord was on Emmanuel. I can still remember sitting and watching him as he shared his faith with other boys on the docks.
I made a decision that to adopt Emmanuel and make him my son. I knew that the adoption might be difficult. Never the less, I contacted Rev. Moses Foyah (Liberian Pastor) who agreed to act as my Attorney-in-Fact before the Liberian Justice System. Rev. Foyah assisted in making arrangements through a Christian organization located in Monrovia for Emmanuel’s schooling, room and board, etc. Little did any of us know in the spring of 1994 how difficult the adoption and the intervening years would become for me and Emmanuel.
Not long after departing from Liberia, I received a radio message telling me that the rebels had again attacked Monrovia, Liberia and the entire country was plunged into total chaos. The countries governing and commercial infrastructure was virtually destroyed. Months went by with no contact with Emmanuel. I even thought at times he might have been killed but finally, I received a fax from a member of the United Nations Peacekeepers telling me that Emmanuel was alive and safe. Emmanuel had made friends with this individual who was assigned to the UN Peacekeepers. He would eventually lead that individual to Christ. I believe that the Lord placed this individual in our paths making the impossible possible during those difficult and trying times.
Emmanuel repeatedly told me that the adoption had been finalized sometime in June of 1994 but he had no documents supporting the adoption. His attempts to obtain the documents were frustrated by the destruction of the infrastructure and the loss and destruction of documents during 14 years of civil war. In the spring 2006, I asked Emmanuel to again contact the Liberian Justice Ministry concerning the adoption. With the stability of the newly elected government of Liberia, Emmanuel and an attorney were able to research and obtain a certified copy of the Decree of Adoption from the National Archives of Liberia. The Decree of Adoption had been filed on our behalf and approved in the June of 1994 by the Probate Court of Montserra Do County, Republic of Liberia just as Emmanuel had told me. With the Decree of Adoption in hand, Emmanuel’s Liberian Birth Certificate was officially changed from Emmanuel Jackson to Emmanuel Jackson Gunter and the Foreign Ministry of Liberia has issued him a new Liberian Passport reflecting his adopted name.
Emmanuel is a multitalented individual. Despite his lack of formal education (high school and college), he speaks both English and French. Emmanuel graduated from the Monrovia Bible Training Center; Monrovia, Liberia in 1995 and received his Credentials of Ordination as a Pastor in 2000. He has taught himself to use a computer. He is the current director of Youth in Action for Christ Ministries and Founder and Senior Pastor of the Tower of Prayer Fellowship, both located in Monrovia, Liberia. The Tower of Prayer Fellowship was started less than a year ago and has a congregation numbering approximately 100. Emmanuel has traveled extensively in West Africa, having ministered and attended meetings in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, Mali and the Ivory Coast. During the recent national elections in Sierra Leone, Emmanuel was invited to Freetown to conduct meetings with pastors; stressing the importance of reconciliation between the various factions and tribes in Sierra Leone. His experiences during the Liberian Civil War gave him a unique perspective on the need and importance of reconciliation. He was privileged to be able to share his perspectives on radio while in Sierra Leone providing thousands a ray of hope through Jesus Christ.
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