Hopefully you aren't surprised to hear that work in Guinea is continuing without us. We recently received an email from our Guinean colleagues with an update: Several thousand dollars worth of renovations have been done to the Center we're helping to develop. Hannah's French tutor travelled to a seminar on evangelizing Muslims.

Our leadership group raised over $170 (on an average salary of $35/month, remember) for Pastor Samuel's church (His Story Here) as well as delivered soap, sugar and other gifts for his family. Very humbling and inspiring to see God's people supporting each other.








Our big garage sale fundraiser has fallen through. We had very high hopes for this event but there was NO interest in the community partially because several local radio stations have recently hosted similar events and they have much better access to advertising.





Brandon has been running the shipping department at Global. He has enjoyed using his organizational talents but with the onset of busy season, is stretched thin.







He's also been working on 3 months worth of maintenance: garage door repair, oil changes, tire replacements, broken car doors, cleaning out ventilation, and adding an outlet to the basement. What do we need a new outlet for?

For what Hannah's been up to. Hannah has started her ZipAfrica business. She's been collecting fabric (some we brought back from Guinea) from old dresses, Goodwill suit coats, fabric stores, etc. The bags are selling out about as quickly as we can get them made, so we're not quite ready to show you how to get one, but within a couple weeks we hope to have a solid inventory. At that point, we'll be depending heavily on YOU to promote our product.





Lastly, we've really enjoyed being back around our friends. Almost every weekend we spend time with our friends at birthday parties, bon
fires, road trips, bike rides, movie parties,

(home made) pizza parties (we still haven't had our fill of pizza since our return) and even a concert. If there's one thing that Guinea reaffirmed to us is the importance of relationships- look how important they were to Jesus!







If you're interested in a more comprehensive photo-story of our trip, it's here.



PS. It took 45 seconds to upload the photos in this blog as opposed to the 2+ hrs in our last Guinea post!

Thank You!

We've been home in Indiana just shy of a month now! It's been the best to be here-- catching up with all of our friends and family and our dog. And just readjusting to life as an American!

Now my real work has begun! That dirty word-- fundraising.

Please, please, please keep me in your prayers as I dedicate my time to partner development. Pray that God would provide people in our lives to make possible this calling He's blessed us with. We would love to get back to Guinea this Fall and finish the remainder of our one year commitment (we have about 9 months left), but we still have roughly $20,000 left to go. Sometimes it seems like a mountain we'll never be able to scale and other times we realize it's not that much in respect to what we've already been blessed with for this project (and what our God is capable of!).

If you are interested in donating to our cause you can do so here.

But we also need your fervent prayers: for provision, for protection, for strength and endurance to do this "not so fun" part of the journey.

Thank you all for the blessing and rock you all have been to us. We're excited to watch God provide for us in ways we aren't expecting and can't anticipate!

We made it! Our final African night was spent in Bamako (fittingly) without electricity for a large part of the night. We endured the 93 degree room with a kerosene lantern and Hannah suffered 54 mosquito bites.

We were able to leave the airport in Dakar for a delicious Thai dinner with Brandon's parents before the overnight flight to Washington DC where they really rolled out the red carpet for us!

We had a day of 60 degree weather in Denver that enabled us to get to Goodwill in time to buy clothes with sleeves which helped us endure the two snowstorms Denver had saved for us.

We gleaned all we could from our two weeks of training. Including some outdated prayer cards.

 It was really cool to see the call God has placed on the lives of others. There were people from Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, California, Arizona and North Carolina. There were surgeons, counselors, EMTs, midwives, community developers, insurance agents, and businessmen. These people had kids (some adopted) from 6 weeks to 22 years old. They were strong and broken. They were married and single. There was even a young guy with cerebral palsy. They will be going to Senegal, Cambodia, Tanzania, Guinea, Mozambique, Malawi, and Ecuador. God calls EVERYONE to SOMETHING. 

If you've been impressed with our sacrifice, you may need to re-align with God's vision: We have 9 months left on our commitment. Missionaries have been in Kankan since the 1920's. There were two other units at our training going for two years and everyone else is going forever. My grandparents went to Africa on a boat in the 1950's. Before that, missionaries shipped their belongings to Africa in a coffin rarely expecting to live 6 months. And they went anyways. The Apostle Paul walked/rode/sailed all over the Roman Empire. Remember what he gave? (2 Corinthians 11:23-28) We've given so little.

Needless to say we were inspired. Not everyone is called to go to another country but everyone is called to listen to God's voice. What's he calling YOU to? Think about it.

We're happy to be back in our house with Fenley. But we're not alone. Brandon's brother Lucas and his wife Bekah are sharing the house (and bills) with us as they prepare to go to Senegal for a year to do sports ministry. To find more about their journey Click Here. Also, Brandon's youngest brother, Tanner will be moving in June 2nd and working with his two older brothers (if his recent rugby-induced broken collarbone heals in time).

Brandon is already back at work in the shipping department at Global Building Products and carpools with Lucas. We are really grateful that his boss, Andrew Carpenter, an MK from Brazil, can support God's call on our life by saving Brandon a job.

Hannah is unpacking, getting the house in order, working through paperwork, arranging fundraisers and setting up meetings with local small businesses. Busy, busy, busy. 

Tele aka bo, anbe cofe

The post title (as near as we can spell it) means "hot sun, we will be together later".

Tomorrow we fly to Littleton, CO for two weeks of training. This post will include some  pictures, stories and facts that haven't really fit anywhere else in our story.

Since we left Indiana in January:

We've endured a bank strike and a bread strike...

made four currency exchanges in the back of an Indian hardware store...

survived 3 days of bedridden sickness...

suffered esophogitis and a dislocated finger...

went several days without running water in our house...

went from 0 to 2 flushing toilets in the house...

helped with middle school and high school English Classes...

spent weeks without internet...

attended a wedding...

heard 1200+ calls to prayer...

read 8242 pages of books...

went a month without watching a movie or TV...

have taken 4 showers with hot water...

played in one soccer game officiated by sardine cans instead of a whistle...

have done dishes twice without needing to heat water on the stove...

paid $4 for 2 months of cell phone service...

painted 1000+ sq. ft. with no paint tray...

Had 40 hours of private French tutoring...

bought and cooked only 4 pounds of meat...

skipped the Super Bowl, March Madness, snow shoveling, early sunsets and sirens...

haven't felt a temperature below 80 degrees since the first week of February...

 saw 98 metal detector-wielding moto drivers in a 40 mile stretch today... (photo: gold panning)

and (just this past week) taught our neighbor kids (all 20ish) to call us "Dahmmy and Anna" instead of toubabouni (the diminutive rude term for white people).

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. We hope you feel as much a part of God's work as we feel you are. We feel very blessed that you have helped us follow God's call even though it has been much more expensive (and costly) than it has been in the past! "A bientot" to our blog-readers in America and "Anbe" to everyone in Guinea!

Thunder-the sound of hope. At first you try to ignore it- what's the sense in getting your hopes up? But when the wind hits, anticipation. For a few minutes practicality takes over: get home, close the windows, take the laundry off the line... Five months of dust blows through window cracks and under shamefully crooked doors anyway. The wind is out of place-it belongs in the Midwest in October. "Cold". First the big drops and for thirty seconds you can hear each one individually until they quickly blend together and turn you into a 5 year old again. Dancing in the first rain with shampoo in your hair so you don't have to shower later. 

The dust is washed out of the air and the mango trees that we thought were green now actually ARE green. It's like God took off our nasty-colored sunglasses. Every roof and moto and wall and tree and sheep and dusty baby and even all the trash in the street is clean now. 

The wind blows away the heat and the earth seems to let loose a deep sigh of satisfaction. For months every shadow or splash of dirty dishwater was hope of this moment. 

It feels like God just hugged everything as far as I can see. Is there anything so deeply close to God as the first African rain of the year? 

To catch you up on our retreat week, I'll try to be light on the words and heavy on the pictures:

We rode 5 deep in the Hilux pickup from Kankan to Bamako. Brandon did all the moto-dodging and border stops since we have both (finally) received our Guinea driver's licenses. (The officials were confused by our Indiana licenses so now our Guinea ones both state that we were born in India.) Bamako is currently undergoing rolling blackouts so we were pretty disappointed to not have the ceiling fans whirring as we walked in the door. Fortunately these only lasted about 8 hours a day (never at night) since the guest house is in a pretty upscale/business neighborhood.

 We met Bella, the resident monkey at the guesthouse in Bamako.

For 2 nights we ate nems in brightly lit rooms, played Phase 10 under a fan, used toilets that flush normally, shopped in the market, took showers (our one working shower broke a few days before we left and the hoses are only available in Bamako), and did dishes without needing a stove to heat water.

Then we drove a couple hours south to a retreat center. We had our own finished hut with a toilet, shower, sink, table and chairs, ceiling fan, and...AC! Despite being located on a hydroelectric dam, the power here was only good enough to run electricity reliably by generator for 7 hours at night and 2 hours in the afternoon. This was a side-effect of Mali's political problems and the devastating effect it had on the European tourist season

We had our meals all prepared for us, hung out by the green pool, played games, read, napped, had meetings and discussions, explored and just relaxed. 

After a couple more nights in Bamako, we sent Tim, Joy and Peter (the retreat speaker) to the airport and Brandon navigated his way across the border as chauffeur with no help. 

Now it's meetings and finishing French class and emptying the fridge for another week. We'll be in touch, though.

-Brandon

A quick photo blog to let you know some of the things that have been going on during our past week... We had two short term visitors from California, Joy and Tim (you'll see more pictures of them below). They came to work with the children for our WorldVenture retreat for Mali and Guinea (more pictures and information on that soon!), but were also able to spend a week with us in Kankan, learning about everyone's ministries there. They were a huge blessing and a "joy" to be around (pun intended!). In fact, we have Tim to thank for these beautiful photos!

These are some of the multitude of kids that live and play in our neighborhood in Kankan.

These girls, who were playing across the street from our house, were very excited to have their picture taken. They spent the better part of 15 minutes striking poses and waving for the camera.

On two separate occasions last week we were able to assist Brenda Allen in her after school class she teaches. Normally the class focuses on health and better living, but this week she gave the kids a chance to practice the English they learn in school on some native English speakers... us!

The first group of students are middle schoolers and the second group (directly above) are in high school.

We also had the opportunity last week to visit The Samaritan's Children's Center, an organization that helps to feed and tutor at-risk students (children who may live with family members, instead of their own parents).

This is the building the Samaritan Children's Center works out of. There is a big area in which they feed the children after school and then multiple rooms where the kids, by age, receive teaching and help with their homework.

This is Brandon with the three Kendall kids before we headed out for our retreat

And this is (obviously) me with Becky Kendall and our newfound friend, Joy.

It was fun to be encouraged by the presence of our short term visitors and to hopefully ignite a love of Africa in a few more people!

-Hannah

Hannah's presentation on American money-handling went really well. People seemed impressed with the lengths people go to in order to keep such good records. We really pushed the idea that these policies are to protect the business from theft and the employee from accusation. We also tried to encourage record keeping for market analysis and demographics as well as using employee incentives. The presentation did spark a discussion on interest which Muslims (especially) and many Christians believe is a sin. (Do your own research- Deut. 23:20, Ez. 18:8, Matt. 25:27). Never had THAT discussion in America.

Our printer business has hit a major obstacle. It appears that the "universal" Continuous Ink Supply System we have is not universal. It leaks all over the paper. We are also suspicious that the intense heat makes the ink too fluid. So we're shelving that project until we can do some better research on printers in the US and buy a new one for which parts are available here. Discouraging but we're following God through this too.

I visited the University where I met with Daniel, another businessman from our church who has a "photocopy business". There are about 30 photocopiers set up in the main court of the University where students can photocopy the professor's notes, syllabus, readings, etc. Basically anything we receive as handouts in the US. Most of these ancient photocopiers sit under a simple shelter where they use University electricity from 8-1 and 5-10 and (the better ones) generators for the other hours (resulting in higher prices). Everyone offers the same service for the same price.

Business here is relational, just like everything else. (Having just read "The Shack" I'm reminded that the relational culture here seems pretty close to the heart of Jesus). Your friends come to you for photocopies and then they bring their friends. So making friends is the only way to run a business. Daniel told me today that he lets guys charge their cell phones for free (important in a city with no power). This helps him make friends because they hang around him while the phones charge (evangelism opportunity?).

Similarly, Alphonse, another man from our church, showed me his "phone credit business". (All phones are "pay as you go" and you only pay for outgoing calls. So like most aspects of African life, phone credit lives on the edge of survival with small refills when it can be afforded.) Alphonse buys phone charge cards in bulk directly from the 4 major phone services at a 5% discount and resells the minutes-the most common refill denominations are about 75 cents or $1.45. With a 5% profit margin, Alphonse can't really do promos or sales so he has had to build a loyal client base who moto up to his umbrella. Many of his transactions take place via text. Alphonse will get a text or a paper with a phone number (often from a 5 year old messenger) and 75 cents and he will transfer the money to that account number. 

Both these guys are making a good go of their businesses and we are trying to learn from their success as well as try to offer suggestions on how to grow their enterprises. 

We are again having to borrow the Kendall's internet since the minutes we paid for are not working-that explains the brief thinning or our blogs and emails. Our water pump also broke this week. Which meant drawing water from the well by hand for laundry (which we did by hand with a washboard since the lady that usually helps was MIA), toilet flushing and baths. As if heating water to wash dishes didn't take long enough!

-Brandon