My husband's cousins, Russ and Shelley Cannon, are serving as LDS (Mormon) missionaries in Accra, Ghana. (Russ is the son of the first Mormon missionaries sent to West Africa in 1978. More on that in a future post.) Russ explains what they do like this: "We are Self Reliance Missionaries and run the Accra Self Reliance Center with the help of a dozen returned missionaries ages 24 to 28. These volunteers help us facilitate workshops that help members and non-members get a job, start a business, or get an education that leads to a job. We also have a computer center where people can write their resumes, look for jobs, or write their business plans to start a business. We spend our Sundays visiting wards and branches around Accra telling them about our Self Reliance Center and teaching Temple Preparation Classes."
Russ and Shelley help administer the
Perpetual Education Fund, or PEF, a program that provides motivated people over the age of 18 with a small loan to be used for education and training, which should in turn prepare them for future employment opportunities in their own communities. The money for the PEF comes from donations from LDS church members.
The program is modeled after a similar program used by the Mormon pioneers, the
Perpetual Emigration Fund, which helped impoverished converts to the church move to Utah. Once established in their new homes, the recipients were expected to repay the money so that the funds could be used for future emigrants.
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Limited funds were available, and one of the ways the Mormon pioneers saved money
was by traveling with handcarts rather than by wagons pulled by oxen or horses. |
Similarly, modern PEF recipients are expected to repay their loans once they procure a job.
Shelley and Russ have loved being part of the pool of "senior" missionaries for the church. There are currently over 88,000 Mormon missionaries serving around the world, and 5,000 of those are seniors. All missionaries, young ones and "mature" ones, go through some training in a Mission Training Center at the beginning of their mission. In Russ and Shelley's MTC group there were senior couples going to Uganda, Montreal, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, New Delhi, Omaha, Armenia, Cambodia, Iceland, Mexico, Nicaragua, Auckland, and China. Wow!
Unlike the young 18- to 26-year-old missionaries that the LDS Church is known for, senior missionaries have a little more flexibility. Russ said, "There is always plenty of time to have fun activities with over 24 couples that are serving in the Africa West Area office and the two missions based in Accra." Lucky for us, they were also able to have some fun with
us on a trip along the Ghana coast, a trip we could not have taken on our own and without their knowledge of the Ghanaian world.
Senior missionaries can also choose their length of service--Russ and Shelley committed to 18 months in Ghana, and they'll be returning to the United States in January. Their mission just happened to coincide perfectly with our trip to Africa. While not exactly close to Kenya and Tanzania, Ghana was more or less on the way home, which made stopping there "convenient." I know you'll be shocked to learn that Bob and I were the
only family members to drop in on them during their entire mission.
Russ and Shelley live not far from the Accra airport in a gated and very well-maintained complex owned by the church.
