Boards for Bureh Beach – A Report from Sierra Leone
We are grateful to share this report from Billa, who serves as a pest controller with Mercy Ships and is a longtime Christian Surfer involved in the early beginnings of Christian Surfers South Africa.
During his recent time in Sierra Leone, Billa delivered surfboards to Bureh Beach an opportunity he first shared with us in September 2024 and which is now a reality. The boards were funded through the Ball Project, with a partnership deal made possible through RYD, transported with support from Mercy Ships, and additional shipping costs covered through a fundraiser with Christian Surfers UK.
Alongside Bible study materials and water filters, the boards help kick-start Christian Surfers on Bureh Beach. We at Groundswell Aid are so grateful to everyone involved and thankful that we can come alongside our brothers and sisters in Bureh to support Steven as he begins this ministry.
Report from Billa – Bureh Beach, Sierra Leone
As we live out our lives here on earth, the Lord God goes ahead of us, guiding us as we walk in faith.
It has been a walk of faith too for the Bureh surf community going about their lives day to day, trusting the Lord for what He had in store for them. A new way. A new season. Opening doors for them to walk through.
Because when God opens doors, no one can shut them again.
He has plans for our lives to prosper us, to give us hope and a future. A faithful God, manifesting His promises through His righteousness.
For the Bureh surf community, it has been about being very patient in His promises. Having seen what the Lord has in store for them having a close-knit brotherhood, but no vision and true purpose slowly starting to believe and witness His plans through Christian Surfers. Every time we visited them over the past year and a half, encouraging them, lifting them up through the Living Word, through powerful prayer that sparked into flame in their spirits, into their hearts their core of existence radically changed into purpose and vision.
As we arrived at Bureh Beach with two Mercy Ships Land Cruisers loaded with 14 wave-riding tools, still wrapped up, we were swamped with bright smiles and warm aloha greetings by the locals super-muscled bodies glistening in the morning sun, bright tropical baggies, and colourful locally handmade necklaces.
This was a day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it.
As the brand-new boards got unloaded by the locals, I sensed a huge measure of thankfulness, and even a few teary eyes, as they carried the boards onto the beach. Amazed onlookers from young to old stood staring in wonder.
The board ceremony was kick-started by local Pastor Phillip, who simply stepped forward without me even welcoming everyone and delivered a straight, powerful 40-minute sermon. Opportunity well taken like snaking a fellow surfer and dropping into a hot curl. No invitation needed.
His relationship, heart, and love for the local surfers is strong lifting them up to the Lord in their new season of purpose and vision.
I got to share a quick word afterwards, and we all prayed together, giving glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for what was taking place this new thing the Lord God Almighty has done in the Bureh community.
You see, God sees everything. He has the big picture. We only receive snippets of His plan as He manifests it into our realities.
Joy, laughter, and words of praise to the Father filled the open-air beach shack as the guys and girls started unwrapping the boards. Such a powerful yet deeply humbling experience to witness.
Beachgoers, tourists, local coconut vendors, and community elders simply stared in awe at what played out before their eyes. Cameras flashing frantically, kids’ voices at full volume, ladies doing a local Bureh village dance right there, right then, live.
The leader of CS Bureh, Steven, came up to me and said, “Brother, God comes with you guys. It’s been flat for two weeks—and look.” As he pointed, the waves had just arrived.
And if you think that was a cooker of a wave, the next one appeared even bigger. He was totally gobsmacked. So was I.
God sees our every need. He knows what we need even before we ask it of Him. And so He proves His unfailing love once again to a small, isolated jungle surf community on the coast of Africa. His goodness and mercies will follow them all the days of their lives, and they will be His witnesses bearing testimony of God’s rock-solid faithfulness and goodness.
It was really hard to part ways with the locals that afternoon, as they all waved us off with double-handed alohas and bright white smiles the stoke written all over their faces.
The CS Bureh Beach locals need you in their lives—to lift them up in prayer, to reach out with a WhatsApp, a quick call to keep encouraging them, to remind them that they are part of something way bigger than just a CS unit. They belong to Christ’s family, connected to His universal plan to prosper them and give them hope and a future—through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
Hallelujah to the King of Kings.
With love and stoke,
Billa
