The canoe rocked gently on the Makona River as Joseph Kebbie sat in the stern, his hands trembling as he gripped the wooden sides. At forty-eight years old, this was the first time he had returned to these waters since he was sixteen – thirty-two years since he had fled across this same river as a terrified refugee.
The irony wasn’t lost on him. Here he was, preparing to launch a radio station that would reach across three nations, bringing the gospel to the very people who had once driven him from his home. Yet he struggled to paddle his canoe across the river that had once saved his life.
It was 1991 when twelve-year-old Joseph first heard the sound of gunfire echoing through the forests of Liberia. The civil war had begun, and his world would never be the same. By the time he turned sixteen, rebel factions were tearing his country apart.
That same year, Joseph found himself at the Makona River with dozens of other refugees, desperate to cross into Guinea. But the Guinean authorities, fearing an influx of child soldiers, turned away every young person who approached their borders. For days, Joseph waited at the riverbank, not knowing if he would live or die.
Then came a fellow refugee’s desperate gamble. Wanting to save his truck from being looted by the advancing rebels, he devised a plan to float it across the river using a network of leaky canoes. Joseph was one of the boys chosen to bail water from the boats. When the makeshift bridge collapsed, and the first canoes sank, gunfire erupted behind them. They were forced to run into Guinea or return to certain death.
And so, Joseph Kebbie crossed the Makona River, leaving behind everything he had ever known.
To be continued…
Read part two of this story by clicking here: The River of Healing – Part Two.
By Jeff Benedict, October 2025
