{"id":4012,"date":"2025-08-22T22:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=4012"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:25:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:25:39","slug":"from-war-to-worship-liberian-pastor-dr-francis-tabla-builds-in-minnesota-and-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2025\/08\/22\/from-war-to-worship-liberian-pastor-dr-francis-tabla-builds-in-minnesota-and-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"From War to Worship: Liberian pastor Dr. Francis Tabla builds in Minnesota and Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ebenezer Community Church<\/a>, 9200 West Broadway Avenue in Brooklyn Park has grown from a Bible study of eight people in 2000 into a 700-member congregation with a $10 million campus that serves as a cornerstone for Minnesota\u2019s Liberian community<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For senior pastor Dr. Francis Tabla<\/a>, the mission has always been about healing and empowerment. \u201cLike you heard, I\u2019m from Liberia and it had always been my desire to do graduate studies\u2026because I wanted to be able to empower my people back in Liberia,\u201d he said. \u201cI went through the first phase of the civil war<\/a> and then I came to the United States to study and upon completing my studies the civil war erupted again into two different phases, and I could not go back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What began as a small Bible study has become a thriving congregation. \u201cWe just started a Bible study with about eight people,\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt was just the desire to bring us Africans together to worship God, to heal from our wounds we experienced during the course of the civil war. We had no idea that this would evolve into a plethora of ministries not just in the Twin Cities, but across the country and even in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trauma of Liberia\u2019s brutal conflict continues to shape the lives of many in the diaspora. \u201cOur civil war was one of the most devastating civil wars in the history of mankind,\u201d he said. \u201cOur country was just about three million people. And we lost 10% of the population in that war. So, you\u2019re talking about 300,000 people were killed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described how those memories remain raw. \u201cWhen I came to the United States, when I heard a gunshot, I begin to relive the experience of the Civil War because I went through that. On one occasion, I was driving my professor\u2026we were driving in a part of Virginia where they had these jet bombers flying. When the jet bomber flew over the highway, I swerved from the highway and was going into the ditch. And he says, \u2018Francis, what\u2019s going on with you? Do you want to kill me?\u2019 But that was the trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Events in Minnesota have added new layers of pain. \u201cWhen George Floyd got murdered the trauma in our community increased because we felt now our children were at risk and any time they could be killed,\u201d the pastor said. \u201cSo, it was a difficult time to stand before our congregation to even preach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration fears compound the challenge. \u201cSome of our members are afraid to come to church,\u201d he explained. \u201cSome are making arrangement with some friends that if for any reason I\u2019m taken out of the country forcefully you will take care of my children that were born here who are citizens. I mean can you imagine that? This is not anything that we are used to. We come from Africa and we have dignity. Then you come here and then you have to deal with the issue of immigration. It is traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Ebenezer has remained focused on opportunity. \u201cLast month we had our graduation celebration at our church where we had 37 graduates,\u201d he noted proudly. \u201cEighteen from high school, 11 from college, seven from graduate schools. We also do professional development\u2026people in our church help people to become professionally developed, writing resumes, putting their curriculum vitae together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the church is in a capital campaign to eliminate its remaining $4 million debt. \u201cOur total project cost us a little over $10 million US. We have paid $6 million of that, and we are in a capital campaign to raise funds to get the debt off because we have great ministry opportunities to us here in America and in other parts of Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His vision also extends back to Liberia, where he recently joined the launch of a privately funded smart city in Bentol<\/a>. \u201cThis has never happened before in the history of Liberia to build a smart city,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo, this will be the first. It\u2019s going to be 350 homes on 100 acres of land and it\u2019s going to have all of the amenities you can think about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He emphasized that the project is African led. \u201cInterestingly, all of the investors are Africans,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so, the slogan, the mantra is Africa for Africa. Africa must be able to help develop Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back at the journey from eight people to a multimillion-dollar campus and now international projects, the pastor reflected: \u201cFrom the very early part of my walk with the Lord, I\u2019ve always learned to believe God for things to happen. With God, all things are possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ebenezer Community Church, 9200 West Broadway Avenue in Brooklyn Park has grown from a Bible study of eight people in 2000 into a 700-member congregation with a $10 million campus that serves as a cornerstone for Minnesota\u2019s Liberian community. For senior pastor Dr. Francis Tabla, the mission has always been about healing and empowerment. \u201cLike you heard, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2605,2604,29],"class_list":["post-4012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-dr-francis-tabla","tag-ebenezer-community-church","tag-minnesota","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Insight-News-Website-Images-19.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4014,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4012\/revisions\/4014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}