Hi everyone,
Ryan is having trouble with the internet so he is sending me his blogs to post here for him. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers
Thank You
Connie (Ryan's Mom)

October 23rd
>
> I had an adventure today, at about 9:30 this morning I set out with
> Albert, the head of all the youth in the district, to go to see the
> agricultural project and the work they are doing. The goal of the
> agricultural project is to grow crops and sell them, and then plant
> more, using each years profits both to expend the farm and to give
> scholarships to students for school, these students in turn work on
> the farms to provide the labor. We took bikes, not the one provided by
> my church, though the ones from Fredericksburg were given to the
> agriculture program to help them get around and after my adventure
> today I know that it will be a huge blessing for them to have those
> bikes. We had to go up and down hills and take some trails through the
> trees and brush to get to the first farm, which is in zone one, there
> are multiple zones I don’t know how many but there are at least 7 of
> them, it was a tough ride. Once there we had to walk down this trail,
> you couldn’t take the bikes down, to one of the fields where they were
> growing kassava, which is a tree-like plant that they harvest for
> their root. I don’t know much about kassava and it’s uses but I do
> know that they grow a lot of it an one of the things made from it is
> called and apparently is eaten for breakfast. They use the inner part
> because the outer part of the root is poisonous, it makes me think
> about the trial and error involved in finding out what’s safe to eat,
> anyway… They also grow ground nuts (essentially peanuts), palm nuts,
> and pineapple. From there we traveled to another zone, which one I
> don’t know. Here they were working on a new farm where they where they
> are going to plant some more Kassava, which takes about a year to
> grow. They plant it in November, and then it’s ready for harvest the
> following November. The thing is that they have to clear the whole
> area by hand using machetes (they call them cutlasses here) and it’s
> not some light brush that has to be cleared. It’s chest high brush,
> small trees, and other tough plants. If there is one thing that God is
> really tearing me apart every day with the things I and experience
> here it’s the fact that I complain excessively. The things that I
> complain about every day are nothing compared to what these people
> have to do here. For instance, the hospital celebrates it’s 50th
> anniversary the first week of November and the people here, in
> preparing for the occasion, “mowed” the hospital grounds. It’s a lot
> of land, and while a lot of people were working on it, it’s no small
> task. They used machetes to chop down all the brush and weeds, I was
> so bad about complaining that I had to mow with a push mower at home.
> Complaining has always been one of my biggest problems, but the things
> these people deal with every day and the things they have to do leave
> me no legs to stand on if I even consider complaining. Anyway,
> self-analysis aside, the rest of my adventure was interesting. I’ve
> learned that if an African says something is not very far that you
> shouldn’t always believe them. Albert told me that we were going to
> take another way back to Kamakwie from the second farm because it
> would be easier, he said it was not very far… haha. The trip back took
> probably twice as long to get back as it did to get there, a lot of
> that being that it’s so hot here. I can do 30 miles on my bike at home
> but that’s a flat trail and the weathers cooler. Round trip it was
> only about 10 miles but by time I got home I was dying. It was almost
> 1 o’clock when I finally got back to the hospital. It was a really
> tough ride, but thinking about the people who have to walk there, or
> even ride, and then work all day long in the hot sun only to have to
> make the return trip home. The experience was really humbling for me,
> I’ve had it so easy in my life. It’s an incredible undertaking that
> these people are doing and it’s not even for personal profit, they are
> currently only being able to continue to work through the blessings of
> donations from people in the United States. They had 38 students last
> year and with the contributions from the farm and from people at home
> they are adding another 40 students, students who will be able to go
> to school, and they are effectively doubling their work force, they
> have big dreams for this project which is wonderful to see. The
> Asher’s showed the Jesus film in Krio at the hospital, I didn’t stay
> there to see it all because I had promised to make a call before it
> ended, but it was really weird seeing Jesus speak Krio. There were a
> lot of people who came to see it, patients from the hospital and kids
> from all over, there were tons of them. The Africans love movies so
> it’s a great method for reaching out to them. Reaching people is hard
> here I would say, partly because a lot of the people who come around
> to the hospital are Christian already and the other part is that being
> a Muslim here has it’s benefits. From what I’m told about the Muslim’s
> here is that the men have all the perks, they can have up to three
> wives who all provide for him and prepare him food. Tom told me he has
> seen a few Muslims that respect their wives but for the most part it
> isn’t so. Anyway, be praying that God will open the hearts of these
> people here. They have a lot working against them, and a lot of it is
> themselves.
>
> Blessings from Africa
> Ryan Brooks