Mission Resource International

2 Days with Terry and Amy Ruff in Northern Ghana

2009-09-12T18:50:00.003-04:00

Bob Youell and I just returned from two days with Terry and Amy Ruff. We were able to visit King Hammond at Bethany Village where we were able to pray with Pastor Zak who is on his way to Mali to begin a new dentistry practice as a means to share the Good News. King has now begun fitting eye glasses as well. Pastor Steven in the village of Sanga was able to hear about the necessary training in order for him to perhaps purchase a BUV in the future.

Yesterday Bob and I were able to help teach 22 women in a micro-loan program where many of the women cannot read, write, or use a calculator. The simply make marks to keep track of their sales, and expenses. We were able to encourage them and give them great hope in their businesses while giving them the Truth of the Gospel.

Terry and Amy are working with Pastor Isaac, the first Gonja in his village to accept Jesus as his savior. Today Pastor Isaac is using the "story-telling" method to spread the Good News to many villages. One whole village and another extended family have come to Christ through this phenomenal approach to work with people from oral cultures. It is multiplying exponentially!

Many new Kingdom enterprise opportunities are being explored. Please consider purchasing golfballs to help fund them. Please check it out at www.missionresource.org. Online donations can be made.

Plans Changed

2009-09-08T08:06:00.004-04:00

It is Tuesday morning, and Bob and I are still at the guest house. Sunday night was a pretty rough one for Bob. Evidently something got his system out of whack. For the life of me, I cannot come up with anything. Because we did not drive to the north, I was able to meet with Augustine Adu Gyasi and his wife Gifty in their new household goods store in Somanya. It is simply amazing to see the container that we helped him purchase moved to the current location. It has been repainted a beautiful green, holds their inventory, and serves as the retail store. They have a long way to go, but the improvements are quite visible.

Through Michael Johnson, the pastor at Landmark Baptist Church invited me to talk with Sampson and Moses. Michael wants the pastors to have a shot at a sustainable business. So, Emmanuel and I were able to meet them at Sampson's farm where they have planted several mango trees. They are also considering an herbal medicine business they have already started as well.

Ernestina and Dr. Lydia are taking good care of us. So please do not worry, but you can certainly pray. We are really disappointed we didn't get to take our anticipated trip.

September 2009 Blog 1

2009-09-06T18:22:00.004-04:00

Bob Youell and I arrived in Ghana Wednesday morning without any issues. Getting here in the morning is great. We can still accomplish something. As is the custom, Enoch was there with a big smile. Traffic was light, and we arrived at the Mission Resource Guest House and were welcomed with fried egg sandwiches that lovely Ernestina prepared to welcome us. We had to rework our itinerary due to a training session at Ghana Christian University and because of a severe illness with the 14 year old daughter of John Newman. Bob and I left with Emmanuel and visited the Kakum Canopy Walk and saw the Elmina Slave Castle on Thursday. We saw the great work being done by Jones Abbey at Just By Grace Nestle Wholesale business in Nswam on Friday.

We had a full day of appointments Saturday as we saw Jomay Enterprises that was just funded a few months ago, visited Living Bread Mission (micro-loan) partner, and explored a cement block making enterprise to consider.

Today we worshipped at Good Shepherd Christian Church in Batsona, an area between Tema and Accra. This evening I had a meeting with the landlord of the guest house.

Tomorrow we leave for a 6 day trip to the north where we will visit existing projects and explore a couple others: palm oil processing, cell phone charging business, and others.

Tomorrow alone will be about a 16 hour day of travel with one primary visit. It might be a rough one on Bob and me.

Please pray that we will be able to communicate as we travel either with the smart phone or laptop. They were not working properly the first three days of the trip.

Blessings in Christ,
David

Voltafresh

2009-04-08T11:04:00.003-04:00

God Knows Why Chemical Store

2009-03-27T12:31:00.008-04:00

We are excited to share more details with you about the God Knows Why Chemical Store, managed by Georgiana and Francis Afrifa, a cross-cultural evangelist. These are godly people with a heart to serve God and His people and expand the Kingdom.

What is God Knows Why Chemical Store?
God Knows Why Chemical Store is a pharmacy started three years ago by Francis and Georgiana. However, due to a motorcycle accident, they had to sell most of their inventory to pay medical expenses.

Recently, Francis and Georgiana were able to re-open the pharmacy on a limited basis. The major objective of God Knows Why Chemical Store is to win souls and better the lives of Christians. Most of the people in their area are Muslims and are rejected by their family if they convert from the Islamic faith. God Knows Why Chemical Store wants to be in a position where they can use their resources to support the needy who come to Christ and those who have been rejected from their families to keep them in the faith.

How did Mission Resource help?
Mission Resource provided a loan to expand their business. With the loan, they are able to:
• Buy inventory in bulk, allowing them to get a better price on their inventory and also attract more customers by having more items to sell.
• Invoice the government for pharmaceuticals sold. The people in their area are expected to register with the National Health Insurance. By doing so, they are not required to pay for their pharmaceuticals; rather God Knows Why Chemical Store invoices the government. They are one of only two pharmacies in the entire region with this designation.
• Purchase a pick-up truck to transport their inventory. Without a vehicle, they had to rely on public transportation which is costly, time consuming, and unreliable. They now travel a shorter trip of about 8 hours to their supplier and have the assurance that the inventory will be properly cared for during transport.

In the following video you’ll see Georgiana’s beautiful smile as she shares the advantages of buying in bulk and hear Emmanuel, our Mission Resource representative in Ghana, explain the National Health Insurance system.

We’re excited about the potential that we see for this business and the missions opportunities that come from it. We celebrate your partnership in this ministry that makes it all possible!

For His Glory,
David Ketchum

A recap of the past couple of weeks in Ghana

2009-02-20T12:31:00.004-05:00

It has been two weeks since I posted anything to the blog or written more than emails from my Blackberry to specific people answering questions and attempting to help Sue and Kelly keep things going on the home front. Please excuse me. The moment Terry and Amy Ruff and myself crossed the Burkina Faso Ghana line, the Blackberry picked up a signal and has had one the majority of the time since. On the other hand, to type too extensive a message on that little keyboard is a bit of a challenge for me. At least that is my excuse for not writing.

The last two weeks have in many ways been as, if not more, fascinating than the 10 days in Burkina. Enoch was waiting for Emmanuel and me as we got off the ferry or pontoon in Dambai. We traveled the 6 or 7 hours back to Tema where Ernestina was waiting for me. She had cleaned the house and had dinner prepared.

The plan last Saturday was for me to go with Enoch and many of the Christian Fellowship to Francis Nyarko’s mother’s funeral. It would have been my first Ghanaian funeral. It is often a multiple day affair that concludes with a celebration. I was planning to be there only on Saturday, but that would have involved leaving at 8am and returning around 5 or 6pm. The travel time would have been approximately an hour or so each way depending upon traffic is what we always say here.

Shortly after 6am Enoch arrived at the house and informed me that their oldest son Makafui had called in the night complaining of being sick. To put it succinctly, Dr. Lydia needed me to drive her to see Maka in Takoradi. I had just mentioned to Enoch how disappointed I was that I was not going to see either of the boys who I kind of consider my sons along with Andrew. I try to play ping pong with them while I am in Ghana or just hang out.

So, I got in their car at 7am and Lydia and I headed out. We picked up a few pharmaceuticals in Tema, but we basically drove straight to Takoradi, getting there around 2pm. We spent some time talking to his sponsor and letting her examine him. We then ate lunch together, and we drove back to Tema stopping in Cape Coast for about 20 minutes to visit with their younger son Jacob who, too, is at boarding school. I was able to see both boys. Makafui, by the way, was doing better, and it was determined that he probably had a bronchial infection and perhaps malaria.

I, on the other hand experienced a terrible rain storm on the drive home and as bad a traffic as I have ever had. We spent over three hours getting from the western edge of Accra back to Tema, not arriving until nearly 11pm. I was exhausted. In that amount of time, I could have driven almost to Orlando, FL. It was certainly a bittersweet trip.

Sunday morning we headed out about 8am for church in Koforidua, where Mission Resource helped purchase church property on a corner lot in the commercial center of the city which is the capital of the Eastern Region. After the service we met with the leadership to discuss the property and the potential for turning the property into a combination conference center/retail building that could be utilized by the congregation and create an income stream for the congregation as well. It will require significant investment in the future, but it is the kind of thinking that we need to continue to promote here in Ghana.

Monday we went to the Volta Region to see Voltafresh, one of our new projects. Edward, affectionately called “Teddy” had cleared his land, planted some tomatoes, purchased his irrigation pipes and sprinkler heads. He had his seed beds looking good under the palm leaves. It was evident that he and his co-laborers had been working extremely hard since receiving his loan.

Monday evening I met with Kris Klokkenga at Ghana Specialty Fats Limited. Kris, if you will recall came to Ghana in 2007 with his father Jim and explored what we were doing. It is a long story, but he came to Ghana as the General Manager of this multi-million dollar company in January of 2008. After spending some time with Kris at his office, Enoch and I went to his house where I ended up having dinner with him, his parents who are here for a few weeks visiting him and some people interested in commercial farming here in Ghana. The Klokkenga family has a large farm in central Illinois which is what brought them to Ghana initially as I was asking them all about ideas for developing farming here and helping with the pineapple and pig farms.

Emmanuel and I headed out early Tuesday morning to visit the pineapple farm and visit Christopher Agboyibor and his wife who are another one of our new project partners. Christopher and his wife had originally planned to use their loan to grow their small household goods store. But, a couple months ago they started making palm kernel oil. They have now decided to use all their funds for that. After seeing their proposal and seeing their zeal for doing this, I, too, am really excited about their potential. Hopefully the pictures will share the story better.

The pineapple farm still has about 4000 pineapples to harvest in the next month or two. I brought home a couple, but they are not ripe enough to eat. There are also pineapples that will come out of some of the old plants that we plan to harvest before our lease ends on this property in December of 2009. Right now we are in limbo and attempting to decide the pineapple farm’s future. We expect to do a little more than break-even on the investment, but with the suckers we have available, we think we are now getting a market for what we have. We desperately need a manager for it. Pastor Ansah is no longer involved, and Emmanuel has been the overseer for the last several months. If we do not find that manager, we will probably cease the operation of the pineapples.

Wednesday allowed us to visit Augustine Adu-Gyasi and his wife Gifty who now have their household goods store stocked with new inventory and are just beginning business. We went over his inventory numbers and talked about strategy for their business. The margins in the retail business are slim, so we know the growth will be incremental, but they have a good location and are praying that God will bless their efforts and give them a source of income to help them with their young congregation and the increasing costs of maintaining their family.

I crossed the mountain from through Aburi for the first time to get from Somanya to Nsawam where Jones and Adelaide Abbey operate the Just By Grace Nestle wholesale business. I believe Jones has a minimum of 3 times our original investment. He is doing approximately 20,000 cedis a week in sales. He really needs our prayers. They desperately need to find someone they can trust to help them with their bookkeeping and another person or two to help them in the shops. Their business is the reason I decided to stay another few days. I am to spend next Tuesday with him and attempting to be able to put together a better story to share with you when I return about their business.

Tuesday night Enoch and Ricky Altmiller came over to the house for my introduction to Ricky who is doing a 6 month internship with Ghana Christian Mission. He had just returned from 5 weeks in northeastern Ghana where he had been hosted by Hayford Ahiabu who was in the US with Enoch in the fall and who spoke at our breakfast in October. The web is continuing to grow and produce for the Kingdom.

Wednesday night was a delight for me. Ernestina prepared food for 9 people as we entertained the Klokkenga family. Katie, Jim and Joyce’s oldest daughter arrived with a cousin to spend 10 days in Ghana. So they along with the Nyadors and Ricky Altmiller from First Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana were at the house. Lots of lively discussion took place around the table.

Yesterday was not quite as tiring. Enoch and I left at 6am to see some land that can possibly be developed as residential housing. It is not too far from a main road that currently has no water and electricity on it. Unfortunately, the price they shot at us was exorbitant. But, this is something we will continue to explore with the hope that we can attract some investment. Real Estate in this country is rising quite rapidly. In fact, in the last 5 years, the property here in Gbetsile where we and the Nyadors live has probably increased a minimum of three or four times.

Emmanuel, Sampson Dorkunor, Enoch and myself met for a couple hours as the directors of Mission Resource Ghana to discuss 2009 and make decisions concerning direction we would like to see the organization go. Later in the afternoon, I got a great surprise. Enoch was able to arrange for us to have a meeting with a Minister of the new government. As it turned out, we were actually able to meet the Deputy Chief of Staff for President Mills. Can you imagine that happening in the US? He was quite gracious and gave us his complete attention for 15 or 20 minutes. He informed us that his new office would be in the Presidential Palace. So, we have a potential open door into the new government!!!!

I am now on the third page and have not hardly discussed with you the first week in Ghana. This is sometimes why I do not write. Once I get started I cannot stop and continue sharing with you what it is I am doing and the passions that continue to come through me for all the God is doing here.

Thanks for reading,
David

More Pictures of the Konkonfuni Mining Site

2009-02-03T09:37:00.004-05:00

Tuesday morning February 3, 2009

2009-02-03T08:36:00.005-05:00

It is another sunny day in Ouagadougou. It is now afternoon, and again we experienced an exceptional meal with an unusual salad of green beans, green peppers, potatoes, onions, carrots, tomatoes with a light dressing. The main course was a spiral pasta and lamb.

Okay, Friday evening we went to the foundry and saw them take gold amalgamate which is the gold held together with mercury in a gel form. We watched them use sulfuric acid, borax, heat, and then chip off the impurities to end up with a 21 karat piece of gold.

We met Sarafin's father who is a pastor, and of course Sarafin himself is a pastor who was with YWAM for 15 years and associated with Etienne. The entire leadership team is Christian, which is so exciting.

Saturday morning began with an early breakfast--a 5 hour trip that was to take 3. The journey which was on a very good road, by the way to the far southeastern part of the country very close to the Benin and Togo border. The engine over heated, but we added water to the radiator and cleaned out the air filter. That cleared up the problem. We had some dried mango along the way that looked like a dog's ear, but very tasty.

When we arrived at the "artisan" mining site, we were greeted by the son of the owner of the mine. Remy Zabo, Ethnic's representative and Burkinan partner, who is considered the "father of mining in Burkina" explained the entire process and pointed out areas where they needed to take greater care with safety. But, "this is Africa."

We were able to see the sluices, the weighing area, the actual mine shafts that looked much like a mine may have looked like during the golf rush of 1849 in California. We witnessed women and children panning as well. On the site there was also a primitive leaching process where they use cyanide and another acid to get the gold out of a very fine powder. For those of you who are chemists, you will much better understand how it works.

Because the area has no machines to speak of, there is tremendous potential to take the residual dirt that is simply everywhere to put through a leaching process to get much, much more gold out. After two hours walking around and taking video, we headed back. The return trip only took 41/2 hours.

Sunday here was much different than the lively Sunday services I experience in Ghana. We did "house church" which consisted of communion, prayer, and a couple praise songs. To me, it was really evident that God met with us. We then had a meal at a hotel for lunch under a thatch roof and near a swimming pool. You never know what you might find behind a wall as you travel in Africa. You simply have to know where to look.

Sunday evening we were privileged to be invited to one of the top officials of the Burkinan government. Through a close family relationship with Sarafin, Ethnic has an advocate in the government at a very high level. He and his family were very gracious and accommodating.

Yesterday we met a man by the name of Yves who is fabricating the large tumbler/crusher for them, a piston type of crusher, and the diesel powered pump to get the water out of the mine shafts. At the Konkonfuni site, where we were on Saturday, the water table is high which makes the mining very difficult and impossible during the rainy season.

We went out this morning to the artisan village and looked at the various items made by the people here. For those of you who have been to the "Artisan Village" in Ghana, this was totally the opposite. We were not hounded one time to purchase. The hour or so we spent there was strictly to look in that we had no French speaking person with us. They had beautiful cloth, leather goods, paintings, and great bronze statuettes and figurines.

Tomorrow we will be going out to one of the other mining sites where there is a much larger leaching operation. Being here is truly a different and fascinating venture into Francophone Africa, a Africa so very different from the one in Ghana.

Thanks for reading and dreaming.

David

Arrived Safely in Burkina Faso

2009-01-30T08:38:00.002-05:00

Even though we left Indianapolis a couple hours later than we expected due to 12.4 inches of snow and an accident on I70 that delayed him a couple hours, we arrived safely on time. Jared Odle, my traveling companion who is doing BAM in Burkina Faso, and his French partner Etienne and his Burkinan partner Sarafin, have been excellent hosts. We have an apartment next to their flat that is clean and nice. We have now had three meals, all excellent. Last night we had a salad of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions with homemade mayonaise with couscous and a meat sauce. This morning was french bread, hot drinks, mango nectar, fresh pineapple and apples, yogurt and jam. For lunch we had spaghetti and meat sauce with a chef salad, fresh bread and bananas.

I know you guys don't necessarily want to know about what we are eating, but this has been exceptional. I slept well last night. We have had time to catch up on emails even though the new Blackberry has no signal here. They have an internet connection that allows all of us to be on our computers.

Pops thinks it is funny how we were all on our separate computers during the holiday. This is even funnier with Terry, Amy, Jared, and myself all tping away at the same time with better speed than I have ever had in Ghana. By the way, Burkina Faso is listed in the top ten poorest countries in the world, 6th is what I heard yesterday.

Later this afternoon, we will be going to the "gold foundry" and see them take about 10 or 11 grams of rough cold and turn out a nugget. I am excited. Tomorrow we are to head out to the mining operation that is in the southeastern portion of the country which is about a three hour drive each direction. Please pray that we get some excellent video and pictures.

Ethnic Investments, their business is a "Kingdom" business through and through. Everything they do has the 4 elements incorporated of "economy, environment, social, and spiritua." They are thinking big and see all kinds of ways to utilize Ethnic Investments to help transform everyone associated with them for Jesus Christ. They will utilize 15 percent of their profits in Christ-centered community development projects.

It appears Mission Resource may get to become a significant partner in their endeavors as they begin to grow and develop. That is the prayer.

Well, enough for now. Hopefully I will be able to make another post later today or tomorrow that includes pictures.

2008-12-16T04:17:00.010-05:00

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

2008-12-11T15:25:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-07T13:06:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-05T08:51:00.002-05:00

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

Ghana - Spring 2008 - David Ketchum's Journal

2008-04-25T11:28:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, April 8 - David Douglass, Frank Miller and I arrived at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana to the “Akwabaa” welcome sign and the smiling faces of Kris Klokkenga (Mission Resource board member and manager of the new shea nut processing plant in Tema, Ghana), Enoch Nyador (Director of Ghana Christian Mission), Emmanuel Akorli (financial accountant for GCM and field rep for Mission Resource), and Bob Thomas (missionary working with GCM).

Each time I get the privilege of returning to Ghana, it feels more and more like home. Arriving at 8am rather than 8pm made a huge difference as Frank Miller and I were able to accompany Enoch to his home village of Akplale to visit his mother, Teresa, interview pastor Ernest and his wife Patience about ways to help them with a small enterprise, and to see Ernest’s recently planted moringa trees.

Wednesday, April 9 - Began early as we left for the Divine Pineapple farm in Enyeme about a two plus hour drive through Accra and its horrendous traffic and then out into the semi-remote village where there are now 80,000 sugar loaf pineapples in different stages of maturity. It is hard to believe that the farm is approximately 5 times its original size. In fact, there is discussion about greatly enlarging it. We briefly stopped by UBKACC farm, the “piggery” on the way home to deliver some much needed donated veterinary medicines we brought with us thanks to vets Steve Newton from Columbus and Larry Rueff from Greensburg, IN.

Thursday, April 10 - We did not begin early as we felt we needed to catch up on our rest a little. We went to visit Wisdom Korsina and to see the plot of land they had put a down payment on. The two plots were paid for from income from the onion/pepper/watermelon farm, monies the church raised on its own as well as a new loan that we gave them that day to finish the payment for the property. It is pretty exciting to see how the new church plant is growing in only a year and a half. They have had over 50 new conversions and now have two plots of land to eventually build their building on. Not too far from Kasseh where the church is located is the mouth of the Volta River.Frank, Dave and I took a motorized canoe ride and saw many fishing villages, the beauty of many islands. It appeared that we would be caught in a storm as the clouds rolled in, but we only experienced a sprinkle.

Friday, April 11 - In the morning we left early for a trip up the eastern side of the country (including a ferry ride on the river) to interview a number of pastors to help them with small loans that will make a huge difference in their lives. They need extra money for their children’s school fees and expenses. The cost of living in Ghana has greatly increased in the last couple of years. Bread and most staples are probably triple what they were in 2004 when we first came as a family.

April 11-13 - Between Friday and Sunday evening we traveled nearly 500 miles, interviewed 7 pastors and their wives and worshipped at the chapel in Nkwanta that a group of DePauw students helped build in 2003. Sue and I, both DePauw alumni, had seen it previously, but we did not get the opportunity to worship there.

Monday, April 14 - The primary purpose for this visit is the Ghana Shea Nut Project, of which we are working with Kris Klokkenga, of Ghana Specialty Fats Ltd. Kris, who came to visit our projects last spring with his father, Jim, is now the General Manger of the large processing facility. We wanted to spend time with him and get his ideas on how best to go about collecting the nuts that can possibly help people in need that we know in the northern Muslim villages and the plant as well. We may be able to link many villages. The other exciting part of this opportunity is the introduction of the BUV (Basic Utility Vehicle) that may enable more nuts to be collected from the most remote areas.

April 15-17 - We had additional meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. One of the key visits was with Ghana Evangelical Mission Association and their micro-finance arm. The president/founder of GEMA is on the Mission Resource Advisory Board and has agreed to help in the training and management of additional Mission Resource loans. Frank, Dave, and I attended one of their training session, which greatly impressed us. They are currently meeting in a building with only a partial roof and no windows.

Friday, April 18 - This morning we caught a 6:15am flight to northern Ghana. We made it to Tamale in one hour and fifteen minutes. Last year I made the trip by bus twice, and each time it took me more than eighteen hours. That made the trip really nice. We met with Kris, their procurement officer, and with our other ministry partner in the north, King Hammond. We learned more about the shea nut business, how it is collected, the transport, and processing that is done at the village level. It appeared as we talked throughout the weekend and as we visited a few villages that there is great potential to be involved.

Sunday, April 20 - Dave Douglass and Emmanuel Akorli, the field representative for Mission Resource, flew back on Sunday after church. Dave preached at Sanga, a village that King had worked with for many years before he went to minister in the northern region. Frank and I proceeded to drive to Salaga, a town where Frances Addae, one of our beloved friends works as an evangelist. Frank and I visited Chamba, another village about an hour or so away Sunday night where we visited with Kingsley and his wife Mercy, whom we helped with a loan a couple years ago. They were so happy to see us.

Monday, April 21 - Frank and I helped evaluate the “cold store” opportunity as well as interview two drivers who may be involved with two of the BUVs in the Salaga area. Both men are in the Salaga church. One has experience driving a farm tractor, and the other one was one of the first converts when Frances went to Salaga. We had to get to the Volta Lake by 10am for a 1pm launch to get in the queue. Currently there is only one trip per day, and there was great concern that if we did not get there early, we might not get on at all. Fortunately we made it with no problem, but there were certainly more vehicles on it than the last time I made the trip! The pickup truck we were driving was packed in so tightly, I could hardly get out of it. After arriving, we met with Pastor Samuel Mensah and many of his church leaders from the Yeji Christian Church. On the “pontoon” we met a young Swiss couple and gave them a ride. They ended up hanging out with us for a couple hours, hearing about the BUV, getting fed a great meal along with a “mineral”, the Ghanaian word for soft drink. The church leaders took them in as their guests and arranged for them to get a room for the night. Frank, Augustine (one of my closest Ghanaian friends), and I headed to Kumasi where we arrived around 10pm that night.

Tuesday, April 22 - The morning began with egg sandwiches and tea at the Mount Olives Guesthouse where I had stayed before. Unfortunately the power was off until the wee hours of the morning, and the night was not nearly as pleasant as I had anticipated. The previous two or three nights had been without power and quite hot as well. Anyway, we were able to see the Garden City Christian Church. Mission Resource helped with the building of the foundation that now has columns that the Chapel Rock Christian Church of Indianapolis helped erect in January. It is so marvelous how God works! I know it is the power of prayer, as the leadership of this congregation gets up to pray before dawn nearly every day of the week. Pastor’s wife, Ruth, was in her shop when we arrived, and we were able to pray with her and greet her. Pastor Paul was in the south of the country preparing for the burial of his senior brother. Death seems to be so close to life here in Africa. The life expectancy is not nearly what it is in the US.

Wednesday, April 23 - was a day filled with a meeting at the US Embassy with the senior commerce officer Diane Jones who was quite helpful. We then had a great “business” lunch with Prince Akpesey, another one of our Mission Resource Advisory members, who just learned in the last couple of weeks that he was one of four scholarship recipients to go the UK to get his MBA. Even though he was reluctant to share it, there were 600 applications. He will be given a leave of absence from the Atlantic Merchant Bank. Some day if you like, I will share with you this young man’s journey from the “village” to becoming a rising star in the investment banking business!

Thursday, April 24 - Today afforded us two great meetings. We met with a director of the Ghana Investment and Promotion Centre to learn more about business in Ghana. We then had a remarkable two hour meeting with Vanessa Adams, the enterprise Development Director for West Africa Trade Hub. She was extremely knowledgeable about shea nuts, as well as many other enterprise opportunities here - pineapples, baskets, etc. We pray that she will be a tremendous resource in the future.

Tomorrow will be a full day as we will spend the day exploring the opportunity to expand the pineapple farm and looking at potential land leases and acquisitions. Tomorrow evening we are planning to spend it with Jones Abbey at the Just By Grace Enterprise. That is the wholesale Nestle business. He is selling Lever Brothers products along with a host of other smaller household goods producers, as well.

We are looking forward to doing several more interviews throughout the weekend, worshiping with Ernestina on Sunday at Good Shepherd, and then having a concluding meeting with many of the potential leaders/pastors/evangelists from the north to learn even more about the potential in the Ghana Shea Nut Project.

I am sure each of you who heard that I would try to write regularly on this trip is disappointed. Please excuse me, but we have not had internet connections for most of the time. In addition, when we should have had it, it has been erratic or the power has been off. I have found out, though, that with one of the Ghana phone services, a Blackberry can provide pretty good coverage throughout the country. Perhaps I should consider that for the next trip.

All Because of Jesus,

David

David Ketchum is President/Founder of Mission Resource International.

Greetings - Dave Douglass, April 25, 2008

2008-04-25T11:05:00.000-04:00

Greetings! In about 5 hours, we'll be heading back up to the northern regions of Ghana for several days. I doubt that there will be any inter net (it's been pretty spotty here as it is) access, so I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you. (we've also lost power several times and combined with internet problems, its been very hard to up load pictures and videos).

As a first time visitor to Ghana, I’m hesitant to draw any conclusions from my observations and experiences so far. While I have been here for more than a week now, I find that I’m still processing all that I have seen and done so far.

Although I’m not a particular baseball fan, I can’t help but be drawn to some baseball analogies while digesting everything that confronts me when visiting Ghana for the first time.

It seems like so many ‘hittable balls’ are tossed at you everywhere you turn. Each ball demands your attention and seems hittable enough, no matter the size of your bat. Each ball also serves as a distraction, the old ‘win the inning but lose the game’ type of thing.

As the balls come sailing by, one must be guarded against the very real temptation to consider one’s own selfish motives to hit every ball ~ ie: if I hit a home run, won’t I really be ‘significant’ in their eyes and I the eyes of those back home. And in a sense, there’s a real temptation to play ‘God’ with resources that, while scare everywhere, must seem a kings ransom in the eyes of most Ghanaians. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus faced the same temptations in the desert.

Not being a baseball player, I’m not aware of the strategy involved in base hits, sacrifice outs, bunts and walks. But I know batting involves the bigger picture – not just the moment and not just the current batter – but rather the team as a whole and playing good defense and offense. To put it all together takes a good manager and a team willing to head his direction, even when it differs from your thoughts and desires. Like in baseball, here in Ghana, the distractions are plenty. The needs are so great and immediate. Should you take the easy base hit, losing sight of the home run? Does the time and energy and resources required for a home run ignore the immediate needs? At what price is the base hit ignored? Is a walk bad if it’s two more batters till the clean up man is up to bat?

I guess you get the idea – so many immediate needs, so many opportunities to help those in need. Even the many that have been already been helped by MRI need follow-up, guidance, encouragement, direction and prayer. Some need additional resources. Who to pitch to and who to pinch-hit?

Thankfully, we can look to Jesus as our ‘manager’ to guide us and to the biblical principals we find contained in the scriptures. These are key as we confront our own biases, cultural norms and expectations as they clash in this society.

While so many scriptures might apply to the many situations I’ve seen so far here in Ghana, I find Luke 6:33-37 constantly boiling to the top.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

And with that I leave off for now. I have no profound insight or observations that I’m sure haven’t been shared or made by the many who have one before me. There is a desperate need here and the conditions of all kinds imaginable that Ghanaians are living under are staggering. Theirs is a society in which the majority of the population lives in (by Western Standards) unbearable and intolerable situations. Yet when we contrast the US with Ghana, we find the US has significantly higher rates of divorce, teen suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and mental illness. And education.

And amidst all of their turmoil, desperation and need, God is sufficient for the Christians here. I can’t help but wonder how many of us could make that same statement and have our actions, attitudes and thoughts justify it.

In all humility,Dave Douglass

Dave Douglass is from Muncie, IN and his interest on the trip is to survey the possibility of a logistics operation to aid in transporting the shea nuts in the north to the processing plant in the south.

Hello from Tema Ghana - Frank Miller

2008-04-16T11:20:00.001-04:00

Well I finally have somewhat reliable internet service today, so I thought I would shoot off a quick e-mail. Have been here a week now and in some ways it seems much longer, but Dave and I are feeling anxious as to how fast it is going, and the amount of ground to cover yet. Today is an "off" day as we are not traveling. I was not feeling too good this morning, but am better now. A little gastro-intestinal distress! Something I ate somewhere - it wasn't too bad though.

We met with Kris Klokenka, plant manager of the ADM shea nut processing plant here in Tema, and learned a lot about the process of gathering the nuts in the north, and what would need done to get the nuts to the plant here. The main use of the nuts is extracting the oils that will be shipped to Germany for production of Chocolate (and I as most thought all we needed is cocoa!)We will travel to Tamale, in the north of Ghana, on Friday for about 5 days which is the region where these nuts grow. We are hoping to organize the peoples in this any so as to harvest these nuts efficiently, and provide much needed income to these people groups. This can make a huge difference in these people's lives. Pray for us as the temperatures in this region can go as high as 120 in the heat of the day! We have been in some hot situations already, but nothing near this hot. At the house here in Tema I have gone to sleeping without the air, so as not to get "too use to it" :-), and be able to tolerate the higher temps to come.

We have visited some of the other on-going projects here, and I find there is still much to do!! Some projects are doing very well and some are still struggling. I wish I could say conditions have improved a lot since my last trip, but unfortunately not! ‘Still a lot to do for the Ghanaian people. The good thing is the church plants are doing well and the people's faith remains strong!!! Many people are being baptized, and the Kingdom of God is growing in Africa! One young pastor we visited with has had 60 baptisms in a little over a year. Most of these are people coming from an idol-worshipping background! Most of the Pastors are FIRST GENERATION CHRISTIANS!! It is amazing to hear some of their stories!

I hope this e-mail finds all of you well,

I will try to write again sometime - but no guarantees :-)
Frank <><

Frank Miller is from Columbus, IN. Frank’s role is to help David evaluate the needs and the progress of this, his 2nd trip to Ghana.