Today’s post was adapted from an update written by Isaac, a CAMA international worker serving with the Guinea Agropastoral Project (GAP). GAP is currently in the process of setting up experimental farms in each of the four climate zones in Guinea to share the gospel through teaching better agricultural practices. Isaac and his family are working to set up one of these farms in the northern region of Guinea.

For the last several months, we’ve been focused on getting a well up and running.

We’ll be putting the well’s water to work to plant 100 coffee bushes and open irrigation up in a field where we plan to demonstrate how to garden for households and markets.

However, even more exciting than the upcoming agricultural progress are the relationships being built by this work.

At the start of the project, I asked a young welder named Abe* to build frames to mount the solar panels for the well. He was eager for the work and gave me a list of the materials he would need along with the costs to rent and transport a generator and welding machine since we don’t have power on the property yet. I explained the design that I wanted for the panels to Abe and his team and stayed with them for the first few hours as they worked.

The next day, Abe and his team realized they had underestimated the number of supplies they needed by about half. I gave them more money for the extra materials, and they wrapped up the project before I could make it out to the farm. They returned the welding machine and generator they had rented and eagerly awaited their final payment for the labor.

Unfortunately, when I arrived at the farm to inspect their work, I found that they had not followed the design we’d agreed upon. Discouraged, we all sat down to figure out how to move forward. The situation was particularly difficult because the generator and welding machine were necessary to make the changes needed, which meant someone would have to pay for renting and transporting them to the farm again.

After praying about what to do, I explained to them that if they want to be seen as professionals in the community, it would be important to make good estimates for materials and time because customers don’t like it when the final cost of the project is double what was anticipated. We then planned on how to correct the frames and agreed that we would each pay half for the additional rental and transportation of the generator and welding machine.

After wrapping up the project, I was surprised when our farm manager told me that the advice I gave Abe had really encouraged him. In this culture, advice and knowledge are not shared freely. The fact that I took the time to think about Abe’s future and speak into his life beyond just thinking about this current job had made a big impact on him.

Since then, Abe calls me or comes by about once a week. He has come to our Bible study three times, and this past week he was even the first to arrive! Praise God for what He is doing on the farm and for the little ripples and small steps toward faith that we are seeing because of this project!

*Name changed for security reasons