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Name: John-Mark & Loreli
Country: Canada
Metro: Barrie


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Member Since: 4/19/2006
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Friday, November 27, 2009

A Family Business

 

On Wednesday, Becky and I visited the place  where beads are born, TK Beads.  We took the opportunity to meet with TK’s owners, husband and wife, Kwesi & Florence, to strengthen our ongoing fair-trade commitment. 

 

We'd hoped to take you on a virtual tour of the place, but the internet service is really not equipped for that kind of wear and tear, and I'm not equipped for this kind of frustration.

 

Let me leave you with two pictures full of impact. 

 

Kwesi & Henry

Kwesi's son, Henry, wants in on the family business.  Kwesi is a kind, patient father and lets Henry do all the pretending he wants. 

 

Becky & Kwesi display heart pendants

Becky & Kwesi sharing bead love at Koforidua. 

 


 

I'm anticipating that the internet will feel better soon and I'll be able to post more pictures. If not, you'll just have to put up with my ramblings and wait for the missionary slideshow when I get back!


Thursday, November 26, 2009

Doesn't feel like a missions trip

I was foiled by the internet yesterday, in that I relied on it to be available.  Just a friendly reminder of where I am!

Before we continue on, I thought I'd take the opportunity to mention a couple things, especially to those of you who are new to this blog.  You should know that I started writing this a few years ago primarily as a personal online journal to give a glimpse of our lives as new missionaries... and to decompress. It served its function well at the time and it has since been left alone--not without reason, as we are no longer living in Ghana.  Besides a quick update for supporters to check in on the last team, not much has been communicated via this blog since we returned home to live.  So if you are trying to read the reverse chronological entries and getting really, really confused, blame the internet.

Now I'm back in Ghana for a short, two-week trip and reopening the blog as a way to communicate to Ghana church supporters. However, I am also here in Ghana on business and would like to use this to communicate to business supporters, otherwise known as customers.  So we're half on business, half on a mission, and at this rate, the confusion may not clear up for a bit. 

My intention is not to make new customers for my business, brilliant plan though it may be - and if that's a side product to this, well, really, who's going to argue with that?

In any case, the impetus behind both this mission – partnership with our sister church -  and this business – importing fair-trade beads – is the same (not even because they’re both in Ghana).  I am of the view that mission and business thrive when we are connecting to and learning from each other.

So the blog entries for this trip will be broken into two parts. This first half of our trip is all about the beads... until two members from our church, Rob Corey and Dennis Ball, arrive from our church Saturday morning and our mission endeavours begin. 

 

As Becky said to me tonight, after spending a day at our bead suppliers and the next at the bead market, "This doesn't feel like a mission trip."

 

Yet.


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Except for Cuba and Ghana
by Loreli

We made it!  I’m writing this from the Baptist Mission House in Accra, Ghana.  We're in our shorts and our swollen feet have happily exchanged runners for flip flops.  My computer is actually wet from the condensation… so are we. 

 

Here are just a few entries I wrote while in transit, to give you a taste of the first leg of our trip – crossing the ocean – no less exhausting or exhilarating each time I do it.

 


So we’re at the airport in Toronto about to check in.  Becky is excited about this trip because, as she has told me a few times already, she hasn’t really been anywhere… except for Cuba.  There’s even the pause each time she says “except for Cuba.”  I’m not sure why.  Perhaps she doesn’t feel Cuba is a real destination.  I wonder if she has a set amount of miles or time zones one has to cross before it counts? I should ask her. The irony, in my opinion, is that her trip to Cuba was a real as it gets.  She did a mission project where she entered the culture, ate strange food, and built relationships with Cubans. 

 

We check our bags and Becky has to throw out all her jumbo-sized creams, soaps, washes.  It is apparent she’s Costco’s most valuable customer, but none of these will be allowed on in her carry on where liquids must come in contains of 100 mL or less.  “What do I know?” she says, “I’ve never really travelled… except to Cuba.”

 

On the plane sitting next to us is a young Canadian-Nigerian man.  He was born and raised in Nigeria, but has lived in Canada for the past 10 years and is just returning for the first time today.  He’s a very polite gentleman and helps us hoist our carry-ons (Becky’s much lighter now) into the overhead compartments.  We exchange Ghana/Nigeria stories, as they are very similar, sibling countries if you will, not unlike Canada and USA.

 

I, the supposedly more seasoned traveller (I’ve been to Cuba), had told Becky to hardly bother packing books or magazines.  Just zone out to the mini TVs at each seat.  But WHAT?  Now that we’re on the plane, where are the mini TVs?  This throws me right off.  Oh, there it is!  See that mini TV, way up there, three rows ahead for all of us to share?  And me, I forgot to pack the glasses I never wear!

 

I am somewhat relieved because Becky influenced me to purchase a magazine at the airport.  I selected this particular one, The Walrus, because of the cover, “Why Canadians Say We’re Sorry.”  I apologize to my Canadian-Nigerian friend because now I have to get my magazine from my carry-on in the overhead compartment.  While I’m getting the magazine, Becky tells him she’s very excited because she’s never been anywhere… except to Cuba.  Poor Cuba!

 

Take off is uneventful.  Canadian-Nigeria friend is offered whole row to himself by flight attendant, and he refuses!  I don’t know how to politely tell him to reconsider because I think the only reason he could have said no is that he might be appreciating the company.  Not to flatter ourselves, but why would anyone refuse that?  It distresses me because he’s in the aisle, and Becky’s got the window and I’m already feeling claustrophobic and uncomfortable without any elbow room.  I try to settle in, and read from my magazine how Canada is Cuba’s second largest trading partner!  Hey, Becky, you've been there!

 


 

7-hour layover in Amsterdam. Schipol is torturous.  Totally forgot about that in flight.  But upon arrival, that feeling of extreme fatigue came flooding back, as if carried over from the last trip.  Every flat surface looks heavenly to the weary traveller, but barriers like hand rails and partitions keep you from lying prostrate and catching up on your sleep.  We prop ourselves up with our luggage and wriggle around to find the least uncomfortable way to rest.  Sleep hits us like a brick.  

 

We wake just as suddenly.  Time to board?  Did you say something?  Huh?  Only 15 minutes has passed and only my foot won’t wake up.

 


 

Finally boarding plane.  We're corralled in line with Ghanaians returning or visiting home.  A familiar aroma of moth balls and vanilla musk fills my nostrils.  These strangers are making me very happy and they don’t even know it.

                       

So happy to see mini TVs for each seat.  Such luxury to watch movies for 6 hours I would otherwise never watch.

 

We make a new seat friend, a young woman from Vancouver fresh out of nursing school doing a mission in the “rural, rural part of Ghana.”  She will be staying in Accra for one night and then travelling to the village for three weeks.  She tells us, they will only get to eat twice a day for the next three weeks.  Really, I say? You should visit the nice Lebanese grocery store in Osu and stock up with snacks for your stay.  Nah, she wants to live as much like the nationals as she can and, besides, she’d probably give away all of the food she buys.  Noble, I think, but I wonder if the Ghanaians she’s visiting will realize how much thought she’s put into this self-denial, and whether they would want her to.

 

She falls asleep, we watch our movies, time flies by.

 

We arrive at Kotoka airport exhausted, giddy, and a little frightened.  This is the first time Becky’s done this, except for Cuba you’ll remember, and this is my first time without John-Mark.  The air is rich and warm, just like my friends who are here to greet us.  Charles, Fred, George, Seth, Isaac, Kassim and Isabella and their sweet baby, Maame.  There’s total chaos as they try to get all 10 of us and our luggage packed into two cars. 

 

I can’t stop smiling.

 


 

Tomorrow’s agenda: visit tourist district, Osu, to get credits for cell phone and US dollars exchanged into Cedis.  Then off to TK Beads!  Stay tuned!


Saturday, March 14, 2009

About those land negotiations

A friend told me that when she read our updates of the trip, she was surprised to see that I had casually slipped in the news about a land deal.  Where was the fanfare?  Where was the celebration?

That's exactly what I was wondering.

After our first year in Ghana, J-M and I began laughing at our expectations to purchase land before the end of our term.  We spent the rest of our time getting educated the hard way about the Land Administration System in Ghana, legal procedures, and, well, how God had a different plan.

I wasn't part of the meeting when the team shook hands with the land owner on the land deal. Tonya and I had been meeting with the women in the microfinance program.  Actually, I think that meeting was over and we might have even just been playing with the kids in the courtyard, when the guys from the team took us aside to tell us that we had come to an agreement, now we had to figure out details.

It was a bit of a shock to me because I guess I had figured that the whole land purchase part of this would be THE PINNACLE of our mission.  I wanted time to pause, reflect, wonder, freak out and send out a whole bunch of We Just Had A Baby! notices. 

Tonya Hamilton read a passage of scripture to the team during one of our morning devotions.  It was Genesis 41, the story of Joseph, about how he spent two years in prison and then was released QUICKLY.   In the same way, we spent years grappling with the steps to give this project footing, the land purchase, only to have it completed QUICKLY. 

So there is this resounding insight I've come to terms with through this whole situation.  That if I was ever disappointed about the pace of the land project (whether slow or fast) it's because I had put my desires or my priorities before God's. I might have even wanted a piece of the fanfare.  Like I mentioned, I didn't get to be a part of the land negotiations.  The option was removed from me, and I'm actually considering celebrating the fact.


The details of the land deal:

  • BFMC has purchased, or rather signed a 100 yr. lease, on behalf of the Ghana Mission, the property that Pastor Charles' school, New Dawn Preparatory, is currently occupying.
  • Through our partnership with the Ghana Mission, we hope to build a multi-purpose structure that will accommodate both New Dawn Preparatory and the church and ministry activities (i.e. microfinance, vocational school, youth meetings, etc.) of the Ghana Mission.

Now that we're all in the loop, we hope you'll help us see it through to completion!

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Highlight 1 of 256,879

We're home safe and sound.  I used the 24+ hours in transit to consider what might be the highlight of my trip.

It could have been when Cliff was making the kids laugh by taking pictures of himself instead of them.

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Might have been seeing Dave get excited over the potential a piece of property holds.

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What about watching Rob eat everything - and seconds - put in front of him.

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Then there was when we heard Kassim's vision for ministry...

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...or saw Isaac's ministry at work.

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It was pretty cool when Tonya met her prayer partner and Henry met Lynn's...

Tonya 3 IMG_0299

... and when people signed up to become prayer partners themselves.

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There was this awesome moment when John-Mark's joke WORKED.

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I loved it when I got to show the kids the pictures that BFMC kids drew for them...

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... almost as much as when they drew pictures for the BFMC kids.

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What about seeing little ones who'd grown a wee bit taller, but still remembered us...

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... or meeting new ones we'll never forget.

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Sharing a hug...

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...or a handshake...

Dave 1

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...or a dance...

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It isn't a surprise I couldn't pick my favourite part.



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