When Jen and Steve Butwill arrived on the mission in 2013 there was only one location where anyone could get a cell signal… under a cluster of mango trees by the mission school. We spent countless evenings there calling and texting our friends and family back home. For every patient emergency we had to go under the mango tree to communicate with the receiving hospital. Eventually, we went under the mango tree to post on Facebook and download our emails. We went under the mango tree to get BBC news updates. As smart phones became more accessible to our staff and neighbors, you’d find dozens of people sitting under the mango tree as their internet hub. Under the Mango Tree became the place where we stayed connected.
It all started with an idea for a medical clinic…
and turned into a life following Jesus.
Liberia
Our Story Begins
Before jumping into a life of overseas missions work we were perfectly content NOT doing missions. We both had stable jobs that we really enjoyed. We were living a double-income-no-kids life. We were completely comfortable.
Jen was a pediatric nurse practitioner working in a neonatal and pediatric ICU in central Jersey. Steve was an engineer/account executive working for large global company with a focus on the NYC construction market. Steve filled his down-time with multiple hobbies: running marathons, triathlons, road-cycling, mountain biking. Jen enjoyed shopping, movies, hanging with friends, and event planning. Life was not boring, but something was still missing. We went to work, came home, ate, slept and repeat. Was that really all there was?
At the same time, we were diving deeper into Bible study. We attended Zarephath Christian Church and had a wonderful church family that pushed us to seek more of Him every day. In addition to our extra-curriculars, we were very involved in our church. One of the ways we were able to put our hobbies to work and do some good was through Freedom Ride, a week-long cycling event that our church missions team put on every year. The event raised funds for missions projects around the world. Steve cycled, Jen sagged. It was a blast!
In December 2011 we met with the Freedom Ride team to discuss project ideas we could support with the upcoming 2012 ride. There was a Pillar Ministries mission in Liberia asking for a clinic to serve an area of remote communities. We could raise the funds to build the building, but what happens after the building is built? Who runs the clinic? Who funds it?
That’s when it happened… the pull to do something different. We prayed together and knew exactly what God was calling us to do in that moment… let go and give Him everything. Since then, God has taken care of all the details. He has thrown the doors wide-open with support, connections, dreams and answered prayers. Each day we are affirmed that this is the plan for us. We joke around that neither of us know the exact date that we were saved through faith… but we do know the day we both together surrendered it all to God… December 12, 2011. If Liberia needed a clinic, why couldn’t we be the ones to help Pillar Ministries make it happen?
In January 2013 we landed in Liberia where we launched and ran the Po River Medical Clinic in an extremely remote district for 11 and a half years. We were 8 miles from the nearest road and 8 hours from the nearest grocery store. But we were living the abundant life.
Pillar Ministries’ Po River Medical Clinic continues to provide quality medical care to one of the worlds most disadvantaged and remote communities. With a catchment population of approximately 5,800, the clinic is vital in serving those living in the Yarnee District of Rivercess County, Liberia. The staff of local, Liberian healthcare workers strive to provide hope and healing to every patient that steps into our waiting room, from birth to death.
In 2024, Steve and Jen officially transitioned the clinic over to capable and professional local leadership.
Cameroon
The Story Continues
In 2024 we took a vision trip to Dubreka, Guinea and met a team of healthcare professionals and their families who were serving at a pediatric clinic. The Sacre Coeur Pediatric Center was opened in 2023 to provide high-quality care to the children of Guinea. At the end of this vision trip, we agreed to move to Guinea full-time and serve at Sacre Coeur. Steve would work to help the administration team and Jen, with her critical care background, would work as a Nurse Practitioner in the emergency department. First, however, we needed to learn French!
We spent the 2024/2025 school year in Albertville, France, near the French Alps. It was a wonderful experience, and we met several other missionary families who were moving to other countries in Africa and around the world to do ministry. Many of those friendships have stood the test of time and distance. Though learning a new language was daunting at times, France was a needed year of respite for us and a perfect transition time between Liberia and Guinea.
We began our life in Guinea in August 2025. Maylynn started school with the other missionary kids whose families were serving at Sacre Coeur. It was a small school (she was the 5th student) and was the perfect environment for her to start catching up with her peers academically. This was the year Maylynn learned to read! YMVA was a blessing for Maylynn during our time in Guinea, and we will be forever grateful to her teachers and mentors there.
We spent a year in Guinea, serving alongside other missionaries to care for some of the sickest children in Guinea. Because the center was pediatric focused, many of the patients seen needed highly specialized care, from genetic conditions to neurological disorders and congenital heart disease, in addition to the other infections and illnesses that plague those living in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was a time of learning and getting back into the swing of critical care for Jen, while Steve spent his days mentoring and developing relationships with the Guineans he worked with in Operations and Logistics.
In October 2026, God started to close the door for us to continue in ministry in Guinea. Due to circumstances outside of our control, we needed to pivot. One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned in this walk is to be flexible. God doesn’t typically give us a Gantt chart of his plans for our lives in advance and abrupt changes can throw us off course if we’re not prayerfully focused on Him and allow Him the room to move us when He wants to.
Within a week of one door closing, God opened another door for us in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Through contacts we had made while attending French language school in Albertville, Steve was offered a position in the operations department of SIL Cameroon. SIL is a linguistics organization (and a partner of Wycliffe) focused on the research of unwritten languages and Bible translation, and Yaoundé is their central African hub. Cameroon is home to over 28 million people and over 250 languages, with the majority language being French. Steve will be developing and implementing business strategies for SIL, while Jen will be helping to care for the 50 missionary families who live and serve in the field there.
Our plans to move to Guinea diverted us to language training in Albertville. Had we not made that move, Cameroon would never have been on our radar. During our year in France, we met several other families who were moving to Yaoundé. Our pastoral care couple from CTEN are also missionaries serving in Cameroon! To top it all off, the nurse who is currently helping to coordinate healthcare for the SIL missionaries, and who Jen will be working alongside, is a friend of a friend. While we were stateside this past summer, we saw a picture of her family on our friends’ fridge! It’s such a small world.
We will be moving to Cameroon in the beginning of January 2027.
