Getting started

I am excited about this summer. For the past several years I have been working pretty-much non-stop on my Ph.D. and teaching at ACU. Since I finally completed my Ph.D., I wanted to do something completely different than teach or take classes. For several years I have been meaning to participate in a mission effort but have been unable to. When it became apparent I would be completing my degree, I began looking for a way to use my gifts in a mission effort. When nothing else arose, I decided to organize a trip myself. So, ...

I am leading a trip to Ghana, Africa. The team consists of myself, my daughter, an adjunct faculty member and a student. We will be helping two organizations: Village of Hope and Heritage Christian College. In addition, we will be scouting other organizations and opportunities to help in the future. We plan to leave June 26th and return July 23rd.

Village of Hope is a school, an orphanage and a clinic; it was recently seen on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Our primary purpose for visiting there is to provide computer “tech support” and train local instructors. Recently Village of Hope was donated a computer lab and provided with Internet service, however they have no experience in this area and still need some assistance. We will be installing wireless network connections to other buildings, upgrading computer hardware, and performing a local area network audit. These activities will support the mission there by improving connectivity with the rest of the world, making the best use of the available resources, and providing learning opportunities for the children there. We will also be training the local computer technician so they will be able to maintain the computers and teach others.

Heritage Christian College trains preachers and Sunday school teachers. As with Village of Hope, the college computer lab and Internet access are recent additions. We plan to teach both current students and the local teachers computer literacy and Internet skills. We also plan to perform a network audit, perform some hardware upgrades, and provide whatever assistance or maintenance is needed.

In addition to the specific activities planned for each site, we want to arrange remote monitoring, management and maintenance of the computing facilities. A one-time installation and configure of appropriate software should allow some maintenance and diagnostic tasks to be perform remotely. We envision using ACU Computer Science and Information Technology students to provide this remote assistance.

In addition to providing immediate support, we will investigate other needs and the possibility of future trips. We plan to record the events, places and people we meet in this blog to let others know of the needs we encounter. We will create a list of technology needs, opportunities for others to help, as well as any non-technology needs we encounter.

We are very excited to be able to apply the gifts the Lord has given us alongside Him in these places. But, we cannot do this alone. We need your support in a number of ways. First and most importantly, we ask you to pray for our efforts. Please pray that we will be Christ to those around us and shine for Him. Also, that we will be able to deal with whatever problems, twists, or turns arise. And last, we ask you to pray for our safety; we do not expect to be in harm’s way but anytime you travel half-way around the world things can happen.

The second way you can help us is by your encouragement. You can follow our preparation and our journey via this blog. Please let us know we have your support by posting comments and participating with us in that way.

And finally, we need your financial support. Out best estimate for the cost of the trip is $1800 per person. This includes airfare, airport transfers and a nominal house fee while at Village of Hope. Heritage Christian College has offered to provide room and board while we are there. Each site needs miscellaneous computer upgrades that we would like to take with us and install. The total cost of this software and equipment is expected to be a few hundred dollars. If you can support our effort with hardware, software or donations we would applaud your contribution. Highland Church has a special account for contributions to this effort. For more information please contact Highland or us.