It will be difficult to sum up my weekend in Siby, Mali into something short enough that you may be willing to read but here goes:

Our 10 person Leadership Class left Kankan at 6AM bound for Bamako where we met with the Intervarsity Club. 

Though Mali is little more than 120 miles away, several of the guys had never been there. They were very impressed with the big city, lights, cars, gas stations, electricity, etc. Honestly, after only 5 weeks in Kankan, though I've been to Bamako before, I was caught off guard by ceiling fans and cars and monuments. 

I was also able to spend an hour or so with my parents who were passing through on their way back to Senegal from Cote d'Ivoire. 

We arrived in Siby (near a natural arch and "waterfall" some of you may know) Friday evening and met Pastor Samuel. 

We spent some time in prayer (which is often an exciting time of everyone praying out loud together at the same time), ate dinner and the 10 of us spent the night on the floor of a 90 degree 10'x10' room which turned out to be full of mosquitoes. I also learned that our group has a 30% Extremely Loud Snore Rate. 

After a very unrestful night during which I took my doxy without water (resulting in drug-induced esophogitis: a punch-in-the-chest sensation everytime you swallow) the pastor took us to meet some dignitaries of the village. He also took us on a hike during which I irresponsibly fell about 50 feet down a steep hill. Miraculously, my life was spared and my scrapes, bruises and dislocated finger are on the mend.

Pastor Samuel has been doing ministry in Siby since 1995 on a (recently given) salary of $50/month and is still trying to have a church building constructed. They meet under a mango tree in his garden while they fundraise. (Their last 18 month campaign produced about $80). Five of Samuel's 6 children are still in school and their school fees eat about $35 a month, but he considers education worth the investment.

Samuel has had his life threatened, been tied up to be beaten with sticks, poisoned by his family, turned away from his mother's funeral and received numerous delegations of people discouraging and cursing him all because of his faith. Despite all this, the village has entrusted him with some key financial projects because they know that he is an honest man of character. He has evangelized all 18 of the Imams (Muslim pastors) in the village and given them all copies of the Bible in Arabic. Periodically some of them call him with questions about the Bible and how it relates to the Qu'aran. Every dignitary we met told us that they respected this man and he gave Jesus a good name in this community. 

By living a life of integrity, Samuel has earned the respect of those who disagree with him (and yet the persecution continues) and he estimates there are about 100 Christians in the village. Besides his family, only 3 come to church services for fear of what will happen to them. 

Our delegation is trying to develop ways to support this man's remarkable ministry. I was struck with the courage of the Christians who come to church under the mango tree. 

Embarrassed at how easy church is for me. Inspired by the effect this man's character has had. Challenged to be willing to suffer for Jesus. And humbled by the faith this family has to do God's work with so little.

-Brandon

While Brandon was gone all weekend on a trip to Mali with the men from our leadership class... (Of course, I'll let him share what his weekend was like with you all later!) I spent my first time in Guinea by myself!

I caught up on some reading, did some baking and just relaxed. I also was able to spend some time with some Becky Kendall and her children (her husband was also gone on the trip), eating, baking, talking and playing games. 

On Sunday I had the chance to go to do a different church than the one I normally go to. This was a much smaller church, maybe thirty. The pastor gave a wonderful sermon (in French of course!) about what it means to be a parent as a Christian--what your responsibilities are, how you are to treat your children and provide for them. It was a very rousing sermon for a culture that seems to not take much heed of their children when they are young. I was also able to witness a baby dedication during that service. During the dedication they revealed the name of the baby (what a fun way to announce to you friends!)--and that they had named the new child after the pastor there--Moses. It was very touching to see a congregation obviously very impacted by their leader!

We then went back to the pastor's home to visit with him and his family. Although I only understood a portion of what they were conversing about (I'm just thankful my French lessons have allowed me to understand that much!) it was obvious he and his wife had deep love for their children and a multitude of joy about their ministry. It was a pleasure to be with people who were consumed with Christ and made Him a part of every aspect of their lives! A lesson for all of us!

-Hannah

Big, Audacious Prayers

Recently a missionary here in Kankan challenged me to have, what she calls "big, audacious prayers"; that is, prayers that seem too big to be possible, seemingly too big to even bother praying for. 

One of her outrageously big prayers was that when the imams (muslim leaders) went to speak curses toward Christians that God would cause only blessings to come out of their mouths. She also shared that she has been praying for God to turn the mosque in their neighborhood into a church--in a country that is 85% muslim. If those are not "big, audacious prayers", I don't know what is!

Well it got me to thinking that I need to have faith that can "move mountains"; that I need my own big audacious prayers! If you would join with us in praying for these things, we know we can eagerly await for God to act:

1. That twenty computers would be donated for the GBU center (inter-varsity center) to use in ministering to the university students through computer literacy programs. There is an endless market of students desiring to learn to use computers, and a serious shortage of computers to learn on. It could be a very big tool in developing relationships and ministering to Muslim students.

2. That the photo printing company we started, Image Africa, would produce enough profit to provide for the investor's families as well as generate five new businesses, so that the business as missions goal can continue to be carried out on multiple levels.

3. That the Maninka people (the main people group of Kankan, and ironically, the people group with the fewest number of Christians--they seem quite resistant to the message of Christ. Most of the Christians in Kankan are not native to the city, but are from other areas of Guinea) would spring forth a group of strong believers to reach out to their Maninka friends and families. Many Christians in Kankan say that "a Maninka cannot become a Christian" because after 90 years of focus on them, you can still count on one hand the Maninka believers in Kankan.

Thank you for your continued commitment to pray for us personally (which we find can always use in this part of the world!) and your desire to love on the Kankan people through prayer. Please join with us in praying for these three things. We know that God listens when his children ask! 

-Hannah

Valentine's Day in Africa

We'll keep this one short but wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day and give you some pics to look at. 

Valentine's day has passed: turns out Hallmark hasn't reached Guinea yet. But Rihanna, Psy and Akon have- a big outdoor party was running until 3:30 AM. The party ended just in time for everyone to get home before the 4AM call to prayer.

We celebrated Valentine's Day with the Kendalls at Brenda's house. 

Brenda cooked us up a meal, and the three Kendall kids (Philip, Marie, and Talie) served us a tasty meal. 

They decorated the whole dining area and everything. Pretty minor compared to most Valentine's Day celebrations but we enjoyed it.

                                                   

 We exchanged homemade cards and chocolate that I biked into town to splurge on.

During the dry season, the solar panels have to be washed regularly which means hauling water and a squeegie up onto the tin roof.

The Kendalls recently purchased some land to develop a small school on. While Hannah is in French class, I have been helping clear the land and haul bricks across town (Kankan has a large brick making industry-it used to be much larger before they stopped maintaining the railroad and now the factory lies empty and bricks are fired on the riverbanks. Maybe we'll have pictures in the future.)

I also spent all of yesterday sick in bed. I seem to be doing better today and I haven't thrown up in about 12 hours. Plus I ate some of Hannah's banana bread which is more than can be said of yesterday.

We had to grind our own meat, as they don't sell ground beef. For this we a hand meat grinder and added bread to the meat to supplement. It was messy work! The meat here is so lean that they sell fat separately to supplement it. We even had to add oil to the pan to fry our taco meat--in the US we DRAIN our 97% lean beef after it's cooked.

-Brandon

Great news: Image Africa (the photo print business) is up and running! We found a way to make the photo paper work with the printer and we're off and running (Thanks for your prayers about that). In fact, we had our first client this morning: One of the University professors who is also an investor in the business needed a type of certificate of completion.

Let me try to explain what sounds like a strange business idea: 

People want color photos to hang in their homes commemorating graduations, weddings, parties, pilgrimages to Mecca. Some men like to have an 8x10 of each of their wives in their living rooms. No one has a printer but EVERYONE has cell phones and the city has many aspiring photographers-our target clientele.  

Furthermore, the 10,000 University students need a new ID photo taken each year (cha-ching). People need passport and visa photos, government ID, driver's license photos-so just ID photos is great. Professors (we have several invested in the business) need diplomas, certificates, calendars and offices need color documents as well.

Our ace in the hole is that we can print photo quality 8x10s (I think we're the only ones in town) and thanks to a Continuous Ink Supply System we can do it for next to nothing. Guinea's main military base is also in Kankan. When school is not in session we hope to give away a few free 8x10 shots (pun intended) of soldiers faces in front of a Guinean flag and hope the trend catches on. Every American soldier (or their grandma or mom) has that picture in front of the Stars and Stripes right ? 

Hannah is working on designing some business cards and a logo to help advertise the new business. We have purchased a second hand camera from Brenda (A colleague of ours, Brandon's childhood nurse and HS Health teacher). Based on the business model we wrote, all our debt will be paid off, we'll have our own laptop (we're borrowing one) and camera (done) once we've sold 600 units! 10% of our profits go towards the InterVarsity Center (where we're located) to possibly go towards laptops for their computer proficiency classes. More on THAT business later

I doubt it's news in the US but 11 very highly ranked Guinean military officials were killed in a plane crash yesterday over Liberia. There is some speculation and tension relating to who the primary officer angered and the tribal ethnicity of some of those he fired and appointed. Lots of conspiracy theories floating around. As Guinea's most ethnically diverse city AND the big military town, Kankan could use some precautionary prayer.

Also, today we bought the local "Grocery Store" out of their imported Chinese toilet paper-all 10 rolls.

-Brandon

Here's a chance to learn a little about Guinea-things we've learned already:

*One day while Brandon was in the market, he was asked where he was from. After answering "America" the response was, "Oh. Gold or diamonds?" That's what white people are here for. There's a gold belt not far from Kankan and MANY people are hoping a rich vein or big nugget is their ticket out of poverty. Sometimes there are as many as 30 motos in line at gas stations waiting to head into the bush. A driver with the metal detector and two diggers (all on one moto, usually). Someone in our neighborhood has found 65 pounds worth.

*Today we received a promo-text on our cell phone promoting today's mosque service with a guest imam. You could reply and get the message straight to your phone. Can you imagine Verizon doing something like that? Islam is DEEP here.

*You may remember the (semi-recent) TIME magazine cover with the breast-feeding picture and the stir that caused. Public breast-feeding is widely accepted here. Not awkward for them at all (and it's getting less so for us) to shake hands while breast-feeding or finalize a business transaction at the same time. Meal times too. 

*With the vice-like grip of Islam on this part of the world, spiritual warfare is much more pervasive than in America. Demons have been seen in our house (not recently). Our colleagues have had children carry on conversations with demons. We've both noticed more vivid and strange dreams since being here (Last night I killed 2 people and was sentenced to 10 months in jail). Why don't you add that to your prayer list?

*Right hand-the only hand to do anything with here. Paying, accepting a product, waving, obviously shaking hands, pointing to a loaf of bread...the left hand is "the dirty hand" (sorry lefties). In an area that historically (and currently) has no running water, you can imagine why they designate a "dirty hand".

*We haven't yet been to a bank. We change cash with an Indian guy in his hardware store. We included a picture of what this is like. The largest bill denomination is 10,000 Guinea Francs (about $1.40) so $100 really fills the pockets. 

*Also wanted to include a picture of our trip to visit a nearby village. It was a fun experience getting to meet the village chief and be followed around by swarms of children. Yes, Hannah is wearing a headscarf. 

-Brandon

Our apologies for bombarding you with our last post so many times! More proof of the unfaithful and questionable internet we have to deal with here!

Our presentation on our photo business proposal went well. All of the men seemed very interested and seemed to believe this was a great idea. We were looking for them to collectively invest $215 and they actually invested $315! We are very thankful that they obviously believe in our idea enough to really commit. 

After our presentation everyone gathered around the printer and prayed God's blessings on our endeavor and that the Lord would be in our business project. It was such an honor to see Christians asking God to participate in EVERY aspect of their lives--to realize that if God is not in it, it will not work or be an effective ministry tool. 

There has been one obstacle we have run into, unfortunately. The photo paper that is available in Guinea/Mali does not work with the Cannon photo printer we have--only Cannon brand photo paper will work apparently. We are currently searching for alternative papers and options and have a few on the horizon.

Please pray that God provides a solution to this obstacle. 

We are very excited about the project and when the issue with the appropriate paper gets sorted out we hope to actually launch the business. In the next few weeks we could have a thriving photo business to run! 

-Hannah

According to what I read this week about the history of supermarkets, Kankan has almost caught up with the late 1800's. Hopefully this will help you understand not only what we go through to feed ourselves (ease of food preparation is at an all-time high here) but what the 20-odd career missionaries here have been doing for years.

Chili: it was about the easiest thing I could think of. I'm pretty sure our cookbook at home has it in the 20 minutes or less section. Here, not so much...

To get the meat for your chili you'll need to walk the half hour to the market in town (or catch a ride with another missionary, or say a prayer and ride on the back of a taxi moto- it's exactly what it sounds like). Beef will be hacked up while you wait, but you need to be there before 10 am when the meat begins to...ripen. Your meat will go in a plastic bag and you'll still have to trim and dress it at home. Borrow a hand-crank meat grinder and you've got ground beef.

While you were in town, you remembered to buy fresh tomatoes to bleach, rinse, cut and mash because canned tomatoes are not really available. Tomato paste, however, is everywhere-make sure the can is not dented or it will probably break your can-opener. You also would have bought fresh onions. We're assuming you grabbed some chili powder on your way through Bamako because we haven't seen it here yet.

Beans (Doug, you can skip this): You would have bought dried beans last week (or at least the day before) so you could soak them overnight. There are usually black beans, after that you're free to experiment. Again, canned beans are a thing of the future here. Since your beans were soaked, now you just need to pressure cook them and you can start combining ingredients. 

Preparation is normal from this point assuming you're good with matches, can light the stove and haven't run out of propane otherwise you may have to scrounge-

Subway is no longer your backup plan.

As far as serving the food, you won't have cheese unless you had a cooler when leaving Bamako and brought it with you. You'll still need to shred it yourself. At $10 a pound (a little less than a day's salary-for one of us, not Guineans), you may want to pass on that anyways. If you wanted sour cream, you'll have to substitute homemade yogurt which you would need to start about 9 hours in advance. It's pretty good, we made our first batch today. Corn chips are also not available.

After you've finished eating, you'll light the stove and heat water for dishwashing, and put the leftover chili in a tupperware to cool to room temperature before putting it in the solar fridge. If this was lunch, you'll need to start dinner pretty soon, don't sit down.

Bon appetit.

-Brandon

Finally, an update on our whole point of coming to Guinea! So excited!!

We finally got a chance to meet the men we will be helping to launch a business. They are mostly Christian university professors who are interested in a way to minister to the city of Kankan as well as supplement their teaching salary (Which is not very much. They only get paid once every three months!) We were able to revise and update a rough business proposal that was written last year. The proposal entails how to start a photo printing business.

There are a handful of small photo printing businesses already in Kankan, but none of them to photos larger than 4 x 6 or offer the option to print full page color Word documents. For anything larger than a 4 x 6, people would have to drive at least 5 hours away to another country to have them printed! We believe we can generate quite a bit of interest in our business and still be able to offer competitive pricing.

We are excited to be able to present our business proposal to the group of young men on Monday. During this presentation we will have the task of explaining what "shares" are and how you can use them to buy into a business, how percentage payouts work, how to budget for unexpected expenditures, why repaying loans is important, why the business should tithe and how to invest in equipment that would increase business for the future.

The goal is for this business to eventually generate enough revenue to create a "business incubator," which is more or less a fund that is available for new investors to use to start new businesses. There are already some ideas in the works for the next business--a driver's education school, an online real-estate company.

All of these businesses have the potential to not only increase income for these men, thus improving their families lives, but to hire employees, creating jobs, and share the news of Christ with the employees and the customers they will come in contact with.

This business could have deep reaching results!

Please pray for us as we prepare to present the proposal and seek investors to join us in this business venture. Pray for those listening to our proposal, that'd they would understand and be able to make an informed decision. And for the future of this business--that it would be profitable and Christ-centered.

-Hannah