It's Tuesday, beautiful sunny cool morning. Ernestina prepared for us fried eggs and bread. We had just a little Pure Heaven, a combination coconut and pineapple juice, that we have really come to enjoy. One of the benefits of being here is the terrific natural juices.

Friday's workshop allowed us to share with 26 people. Some of them have already received loans, some are hopeful for new loans, and the others were those receiving BUVs. We began around 9:30 and went until nearly 6pm with a break for lunch. It was kind of intereting to note that Enoch went to bring back chicken and rice at 11am and came back with the food at 2:30pm. They told him they needed at least 2 hours notice. It was good, though.

The material covered was identical to what we did at the first seminar. Pastor Zak, a converted Muslim who works with the dental business at Bethany Village, sat next to me. He took copious notes and was really grateful. Lots of questions were asked. Everyone indicated it was quite helpful. One of the key areas of discussion is making sure they all know that the business is totally separate from their family needs. During one part of the workshop, everyone went through a detailed income and expense sheet. We discussed what was business, what personal, and what was appropriate.

Saturday morning we got 6 of the BUVs commissioned, prayed over and road worthy. We escorted them past the police barrier in Tamale and waved them good-bye. One of the drivers clipped the left tail light on the pickup and broke the lens. Other than that, they made their way to their three locations without mishap. Two did have brake line leaks that had to be repaired.

We were concerned not only about the distance they were traveling, which was between 70 and 100 miles, but also the breaking in of the engines, and safety. One of them reported that upon arrival he earned 10 cedis for transporting the luggage of one of the pastors to his final destination. He would have paid that amount to use another vehicle. Why not utilized the BUV!!

Saturday evening we drove to Bolgatanga. I purchased 25 small Bolga baskets for Cookies Baskets and More, a retail and internet business that is marketing some of our goods. We got a good nights sleep at the Presbyterian Guest House and headed out at 6:30 am to be at the Benwoko Clinic for breakfast and discuss clinic issues before church. Enoch preached a message on the parable of the talents. 12 people came forward and accepted Jesus Christ for the first time. They were all women who had been attending but had never made a confession of faith.
What a glorious time!!!

After a light lunch with the clinic staff, we drove an hour to visit Jemima Salaam, the widow of one of the evangelists who died of malaria in March at the age of 51. We drove another 3 hours to spend some time with King Hammond. We then drove another 3 hours to get the Techiman in order to get accomplished what we had planned for Monday. Driving after dark in Ghana is not recommended. There are lots of potholes, vehicles with no lights, but we prayed and headed out.
Yesterday was another day of considerable driving. We had a late breakfast of yams, plantain, and cocoa yam leaves with Pastor Paul Akuteye and his wife Ruth. We prayed with Thomas Belinga, a young Ghanaian evangelists with three children that is suffering from Lou Gehrigs Disease. He has lost most of the use of all his muscles. He and his family are living with Pastor Paul and Ruth. They attested to a renewed strength over the last few weeks. They have discontinued medicines, because they were seeing no imporvement and greater weakening. They now are simply massaging him with olive oil and praying. Thomas would not allow himself to be taken back to his family. He knew they would want to take him to the village fetish.

We got back in the truck, traveled into the deep forest area of the Ashanti Region where we met with a family who has a 13.6 acre palm plantation that is processing palm oil and palm kernel oil. They are interested in Mission Resource helping them expand their business. They have been doing this for 4 years and have been quite successful. We had coconut milk, banku, chicken and plantains. We finished off with fresh oranges.

We drove and drove and drove, arriving at Tema at 9:30pm last night exhausted yet fulfilled.

We will be heading out in a couple minutes to talk with the "piggery" committee. Kimberly Daniels, a faculty member at Ghana Christian University, and a member of the Mission Resource Ghana Advisory Board will be joining us for dinner this evening. Ernestina told me we will be having spaghetti and meat sauce.

Your prayers and love are being felt.

David Ketchum

Preparing For Second Workshop

It's 8:30pm in Tamale, the capital of the northern district of Ghana. We just arrived after 11 hours of driving. Actually, the roads have improved immensely and we saved two hours over what it used to take. We ate chicken and rice on a roof top restaurant with muti-colored lights.

Yesterday 37 people attended the business workshop at Bethel Church in Tema. Sampson Dorkunor, Enoch Nyador, Emmanuel Akorli, Frank Miller and myself helped conduct the session that lasted from 9am until 4pm. Several visited until 5:30pm. All of us felt it was successful. The people who attended are current Mission Resource business partners as well as potential business partners.

Principles of business, bookkeeping, and the loan document were discussed. A panel discussion also took place where questions were asked and answered. During one period, the large group was broken into 3 smaller groups to work through a scenario of income, expenditures and how each should be classified.

Tomorrow we will be working with a smaller group. Those receiving Basic Utility Vehicles will be in attendance. Tomorrow and Saturday will be used in not only business basics like yesterday, but discussions specific to the maintenance and operation of the BUVs. Please pray for great success and understanding.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday evening, Kris Klokkenga was able to have dinner with us. It is so cool to see how God has used Kris in the last year here in Ghana. He has many ideas about farming and ways to do business here.

We will be traveling to the Benwoko Clinic where we will be worshiping on Sunday. I am writing now in case we are unable to write over the next couple days. Please pray for Frank and me as the temperatures will be over 100.

The presidential election that was conducted on Sunday was peaceful. But as of yesterday, neither candidate received the required 50.1% to be elected. Consequently, there will be a re-vote on December 28th. There were 7 candidates that ran, and only the top two will be involved on the 28th. Out of the approximately 8.5 million votes cast, there was only a 128,000 votes between the top two. So there will be much campaigning to obtain the votes of the other 5 candidates.

David Ketchum

Ghana Election Day

Today is the Ghanaian General election. This week we have seen much campaigning on the streets. Our Christian friends here are hopeful for their fellow Christian candidate to win. Voting here is by paper ballot and may take up to 3 days for official results. Pray for a peaceful process.

I arrived in Ghana on Tuesday evening and have been busy visiting projects and having meetings and interviews until today, which was a nice day of rest.

So far I have visited the pineapple farm project and helped bring a load of fruit to market and sell to a buyer in Tema. There are still a lot of pineapples to harvest, but many are very small because of too little rain.

This week I also had a very good meeting with Jones Abbey with the Nestle wholesale project. Business has been very good, but he still has challenges within the business, as in finding good employees! We discussed some ideas as to how to improve or change the way he is doing things. We prayed together for God's Grace to continue on he and his family, and his business. I feel that the already strong bond MRI has with Jones continues to strenghten.

Leaving Jones in Nsawam we were able to go to Amasaman and meet a with Edward Boafo. He has applied to Mission Resource for a loan to expand his chicken business. I was able to tour his existing facilities and operation and gather further information and pictures for further consideration.I was impressed with what I saw and heard so far.

I have also spent time with Sampson Dorkunor on two occasions now, to examine further his Micro Finance project. We were able to meet here at the house for several hours to review the business plan. Several suggestions were brought forth and new number crunching will be done soon to finalize the 2 year plan. Just yesterday we met again at his office, where I was introduced to the two employees: George -who is the administrator and assoc. pastor of the church, and Dora - who is the accountant for the church, mission, and micro finance. Both of these people are fine additions to the project. Sampson and I seem to be on the same page on almost everything. He has such a good grasp of the western ways and also of the cultural issues facing the Ghanaian people. His dream is to take the micro finanace project and turn it into a full Savings & Loan. Savings here in Ghana just does not happen at this point - but I believe Sampson can teach the people the importance of saving and make it a reality. I look forward to continuing to work with Sampson and his team!

Sampson will also be one of the key speakers at the training sesions coming up, for the new project recipients. We also had the opportunity to discuss what will be covered at these sessions. Sampson will be covering the repayment of loans and the financial reports that will be required. I think coming from Sampson, we can instill the ideology that is required for the recipients to fulfill the obligations they are pledging.

Tomorrow I will be interviewing Pastor John Otumfro and his wife Mabel. They live in an area of Tema called Ashaiman, which is a very poor section of the city. (as compared to the already poor conditions all around Tema). Their plan is to open a retail "supermarket" in the area. I have reviewed his plan already and will examine it closer with him tomorrow. This project has already been graciously underwritten.

We have experienced power outages, and no internet off and on. Also water pressures have been an issue at times. This goes with the territory :-) TIA ! (this is Africa - for those who have watched the film Blood Diamond!) Leaving Indiana on a snowy afternoon and arriving to the heat and humidity here is quite a shocker to the system! I slept with AC for 2 nights until the power was gone - now I am not using AC at all. Still pretty warm today though :-) It will be even wamer as we travel to the north region next week - so this is good conditioning.

Well as we have power and internet, we will try to update when we can. David will be starting his travel in a few hours. We pray for safe travel for David and look forward to his arrival monday evening (local time of about 7:30 - approx 2:30 Indiana time)

Frank <><

Phil. 4:13

Getting Ready for Ghana

Dave is leaving for Ghana on Sunday. We are busy in the office getting a few things wrapped up before he goes. Please pray for safe travels for Dave and Frank Miller (who is already there).

Dave and Frank will be delivering the loans and training to the recipients. Please pray for the loan recipients to fully grasp how God can multiply this seed for His purposes!

Until next time...
Kelly