Back Home!

After 34 hours of travel, we arrived back in Chicago safe and healthy. We have now been home for more than a week and have finally recovered from jet lag.

One thing we didn’t expect to experience when we got home was reverse culture shock. Here are a few of the things that we noticed:

1. Grocery shopping – The variety of food products available in grocery stores in the US is amazing. You can choose from six types of apples, a dozen brands of toilet paper, an entire aisle of cereal, and much, much more!

2. Water – It is great to turn on the faucet and not worry about the quality of the water. We didn’t have problems with access to water while we were in Ghana, but we saw a lot of people drawing water from community wells and from rivers. The availability of clean water is a challenge throughout Africa and much of the developing world. There is a great Christian organization focused on training, equipping and consulting nationals to develop sustainable, participatory water systems. If you’re interested, we’d encourage you to check out Living Water International at http://www.water.cc.

3. Restaurants – In Chicago we can find restaurants with food from almost any country in the world. The US is such a diverse country and we are blessed with the ability to enjoy food from other cultures. This is truly amazing! (However, the first thing we wanted to eat when we got home was a cheeseburger.)

4. Church – We were excited to return to our church, the First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, but the one-hour service seems so short! We really got used to and enjoyed the 3-4 hour services in Ghana, especially the fun worship bands.

Most of all, we miss the good friends we made during our trip to Ghana. Their kindness, hospitality and faith have inspired us to become better people. We are excited to stay in touch and continue to help them however we can. We have challenged ourselves to never forget the invaluable lessons this experience taught us and we dedicate ourselves to a life of mission in the U.S. and around the world.

Since returning we have been catching up with friends and family. It has been wonderful seeing our friends in Chicago and telling them about our experience in Ghana. They have been eager to hear about our adventures and see our photos. Here are links to our online photo albums:

Accra: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031921&id=1161645550&l=af0bc8a3b3
Cape Coast: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032684&id=1161645550&l=a0d59526b5

We are now in the process of moving closer to downtown. We had to find a new place when we returned, and we prayed that God would give us a sign for the place where we are meant to live. We saw almost 20 places in three days, and then went to a duplex in Wicker Park. The place was perfect! As we were leaving, we noticed a sign on the front fence that said “Evans Properties”. We immediately started laughing and said “looks like God literally gave us a sign”. We are moving on Sept. 3 before we go back to work on Sept. 8.

We will post blogs occasionally as we continue our work with GHAFES and begin speaking with graduate-level student groups. Please post your comments – we love hearing from you!

Leaving Ghana

It is hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of our mission trip in Ghana! The three weeks here have gone quickly.

We had our last meeting with GHAFES today, and walked them through steps for strategic planning. At the end of the meeting they said that they are feeling more confident about being able to work through the process, and this made us really happy. We have agreed to play an advisory role through the remainder of the year to help them complete their strategic plan. We’ll maintain communication with them via email and Skype as needed. Tomorrow we are meeting with Femi Adeleye, the Associate General Secretary of IFES, to present the results of our work. We prepared recommendations on how IFES can roll out similar training modules in communications, fundraising, and strategic planning to other national movements around the world. We’ll also share our recommendations on building an internal IFES website for national movements to share best practices, and a couple other projects.

Our experience in Ghana has been amazing! A few people have asked us whether we have been impacted more or made more of an impact by this trip. While we pray that we have made a lasting impact through our work with GHAFES, this experience has enabled us to learn about a new culture, meet new friends, strengthen our marriage, reflect and deepen our faith, and use our skills to help a non-profit Christian organization. There is no doubt that this trip has changed us forever!

We will always remember the outstanding hospitality that everyone here has shown us. We really hope that they will visit us so we can repay the favor one day.

While praying the other day, God put “7-7-7” in Loralynne’s mind. She looked in the Bible for the 7th book, chapter and verse, and found the following:

“I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.” (1 Corinthians 7:7)

We feel that this verse has helped solidify the purpose of our trip. While God called us to serve

in Africa, we realize that it is not for everyone. However, God gives everyone their own gifts and each person has to decipher these gifts and how to use them. As we return to Chicago, we will continue praying that God will guide and show us how to continue our mission work.

We are eager to return to Chicago and tell our friends, family, church members, and Kellogg colleagues about this experience. We will continue updating the blog as we give these presentations and make decisions about future mission projects.

Thank you all for your support and words of encouragement throughout this process. Please pray that the GHAFES team is successful with their strategic planning, that we have safe travels back home, and that God guides us with ongoing mission work.

Culture Shock

Like all international travel, there is bound to be some culture shock. To prepare for our trip we read several books and spoke with other people that had traveled to Ghana, but we have still encountered several cultural shocks that we think you will find to be humorous.

• Traffic – the traffic in Accra is unlike anything we have ever seen before. The average commute to work is 2 hours! Naturally, people try to beat the traffic, so people off-road on the shoulders of the road. It is really funny to see buses of people bouncing down the side of the road.
  
  
• Street vendors – Since people are stuck in traffic for so long, vendors sell various goods to people in their cars. You can buy apples, pillows, toothbrushes, toilet paper, and even puppies. You can get a lot of your weekly shopping done while in traffic!
  
  




• Store names – The Christian faith is very strong in Ghana and they use different Biblical sayings to name their stores and also on the back of their cars. Some of the names are hilarious, such as “Try Jesus Passport Photos” (there was a sign with a picture of Jesus in a passport) and “Lord, Remember Me When I am Dead Beauty Salon”.
  
  
• Eating with our hands - The main local dish is Fufu, a corn and casava paste, in a soup with meat (chicken, goat, fish). Traditionally, you eat it with your right hand, which takes practice - especially when the soup is really hot! We are still amateurs at this, but we are learning.
  
  


• Street signs – Only the main streets have names, but none of the streets have signs and roadmaps don’t exist. So when people give directions they use different markers, but if you are not from Accra then it is really hard to understand what they are talking about. One of our hosts received directions that were “Go to Tema, then go over 4 humps, take a right, a left and a left.” Invariably, we have to ask people on the street for directions, and it can take a while time to find someone’s house. Also, it is possible for roads to change overnight if someone decides to build a house in the middle of the road – yes, it happens!
  
  
• Things not working – We have learned that just because something exists doesn’t mean it works. You have to ask if it works. For instance, if a hotel says that it has AC, you should ask if the AC works. They may very well have an AC, but not necessarily a working one.
  
  
• Wrong number – People in Ghana are very friendly! There have been a few cases in which our host has received a wrong number phone call, but rather than hanging up the person on the line will ask our host how he is doing and engage in conversation.
  
  
• Animals everywhere - It is really common for people to let their goats, chickens and cows to graze in public space. We asked one of our hosts how people keep track of their animals and know which ones belong to them. He told us that some time people will mark the animals, but mostly people just know their animals.
  

While some cultural differences can be frustrating, they are mostly just funny. We have learned to roll with things and follow the lead of our host. When in Rome…

Making an Impact!

Thanks for your thoughtful comments! We are encouraged by your thoughts, questions and prayers. This has been an incredible experience for us and it means a lot to be able to share it with you.

To answer Pat’s question, we have been inspired by the joyful personalities, incredible hospitality, and dedication of the GHAFES team. They work incredibly hard and we are amazed at the impact they can make with very modest resources. It is clear that they are fueled by a genuine, all-encompassing love of God and desire to make the world a better place.

Our sessions with GHAFES staff on Friday proved very successful. We built on Thursday’s sessions on strategic positioning with discussions on communications, fundraising, and alumni tracking principles and tactics. For communications, Sam outlined several basic principles, including:

• Rule of Three - you should give three information “gifts” before asking for anything
  
• 360-Degree Touch - the practice of examining how your target “consumes” information and then identifying the most effective communication methods to use with your target
  
• Message Overload - the need to streamline our message content and volume, and to consider “what’s in it for them”.

We split the staff into three groups to identify how these principles apply to students, younger alumni and older alumni. They really enjoyed mapping the communications methods, and it was a good learning experience for us because we learned that university students in Ghana don’t use email like students in the US. Rather, they rely on text messages and poster boards around campus.

Then Loralynne led an interactive session on fundraising to identify how GHAFES can move from “fundraising” – asking for money – to “friend-raising” – developing relationships, cultivating interest and inspiring trust as a more organic process to grow support. She led the group through some different approaches to fundraising, and they staff then broke into three groups to brainstorm fundraising strategies specific to the three stakeholder groups. Throughout the session we tried to emphasis that it is important to remember that people contribute in different manners – money, time, prayers, in kind goods, and to ask people for the type of giving that is going to work for them. It is also crucial to recognize people for their contributions, especially the people that have been supporting GHAFES for decades.


The last hour on Friday was an open discussion on how GHAFES is collecting and updating alumni contact information. We first mapped the current process flow and identified key problem areas. Then, we split into three groups, and asked each group to identify three major challenges and two potential solutions for each challenge. As we reconvened it was exciting to see agreement on the major challenges as well as resolution on solutions to those challenges. We proved them with the idea to develop an Alumni-in-Training program to meet with the final year students at each campus, directly gather their contact information, give them information on benefits of being GHAFES alumni, and articulate the importance of alumni to GHAFES. They seemed interested in this idea!

We concluded our sessions with GHAFES by passing out a one-page strategic communications plan template, and helping them fill-in the information based on the outputs from all our sessions. It was powerful to see the lights go on in their eyes as they understood how it all comes together!

On Saturday we attended an all-day strategic planning offsite with senior GHAFES leaders and the Chairman of the GHAFES Board of Trustees. The chairman, a very successful entrepreneur, is an energetic visionary and was thrilled with the output of our sessions this week. We and the GHAFES leaders firmly believe that God has called us here and aligned us all to accomplish something together. Perhaps the most powerful moment was when the Chairman asked how they would communicate the value GHAFES delivers. The General Secretary volunteered that GHAFES is about developing the next generation of Christian leaders with integrity, who will change Ghana and the world. Our hearts burst to hear him say this because it was a direct result of our sessions! Wow! That got everyone excited and kicked off a discussion about further strategic planning that lasted late into the night.

So our work is far from done! We agreed to advise GHAFES leaders as they develop the organization’s first comprehensive strategic plan. And we are developing recommendations to present to the Associate General Secretary of IFES next week to roll out a similar process in the other 153 IFES national movements around the world. We are not sure how far God wants us to take this, but are prayerful to discern His will for us.

This has been such an amazing experience! It is incredibly rewarding to use skills and techniques we learned in the classroom and the workplace to help a non-profit organization we believe in, and we have developed an even deeper appreciation for GHAFES’ mission. Developing Christian leaders with integrity who will be change agents in Ghana and Africa to overcome corruption and encourage progress is a powerful proposition. GHAFES alumni are some of the most successful leaders in Ghana, including businesspeople, government officials and pastors.

We strongly believe that if we can help GHAFES and other IFES national movements instill Christian values and leadership skills in students, we can be part of something much bigger than ourselves - we can truly help change the world. The Chairman said something that really hit us and we encourage you to think about this: God blesses us with wealth and opportunities not to improve our standard of living, but to improve our standard of giving. And it is through our faith in God that we are able to succeed.

How are you using the many blessings that God has given you – money, education, talents, connections, etc – and your faith to make a difference and give to others?

Us with the GHAFES team