Comment by Moses Foyah on October 9, 2009 at 5:25am

Tribute to the late Pastor Fallah Bimba

By: Daniel Solee

Horace Mann, once said that, “You should be ashamed to die unless you have achieved something for humanity.”

The late Pastor Fallah Bimba, has passed to the great beyond at an estimated age of 82. He became an ordained Pastor with the Foya Pentecostal Church in 1948. Pastor Fallah Bimba adopted several children some of whom are pastors today.

Pastor Bimba was a man of gentle understanding. He had the ability to convey the human conditions through his preaching. He cared so deeply about what it would mean to those who heard him. He did it all for them, the audience, the group of souls who somehow understood him better than he understood himself. They forgave him for everything he was afraid of in himself. And he knew it. That is what gave Pastor Fallah Bimba the power to become a household name among the Kissi people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Pastor Bimba was never abusive. Sometimes he would be in bad mood about this or that but even then, the congregations understood him because he reflected them back to themselves in a deep personal interchange that touched them both artificially, spiritually and emotionally. Pastor Bimba in all the years I knew him belonged to the congregations and the congregations belonged to him.
And now that we have lost Pastor Bimba, we have lost part of our capacity for self-reflection.

I hate to think about the days when we knew Pastor Bimba as babies in Foya Mission School. He was our father and caretaker. I admired his tenacity to control and manipulate audiences. His care and concern for the children in Foya Mission School will forever be remembered. We have certainly lost a father, grandfather and a friend.

My admiration for Pastor Bimba was absolutely unquestionable. His respect for talent was never-ending. Music apart from preaching was the real thing to him. I use to watch his eyes glint with judgement as I heard him sing and beat the drum. Pastor Bimba could almost tell you a story from the echoes of the drums. What an amazing man?

Pastor Bimba lived by faith and died in faith. Instead of immediate satisfaction to every whim, he sought satisfaction in love, honesty and hard work. Instead of the acquisition of wealth, he hoped for integrity, mutual trust and contentment in family life. He made us to believe that the theology of power was based in love and service.

Thank you Pastor Bimba for the life you lived. May your soul rest in perfect peace and light perpetual shine on you.

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