Peabody woman part of mission to West Africa
Staff writer
For most people in Peabody, June means summer heat in a small town. For Jennifer Bush, it will mean the same thing. But in Ghana.
The Peabody resident will leave June 12 as part of a six-person team traveling to the West African nation for a humanitarian and missionary trip focused on agriculture, wellness outreach, and village assistance.
Bush, who attends Newton Christian Church, said the group would work alongside Kansas missionaries Bobby and Mandy Graham through Team Expansion, an organization already established in Ghana.
While faith is part of the trip’s purpose, much of the work will center on practical needs: farming, food, animal care, and helping communities access basic support.
The group plans to assist with animal husbandry and participate in a farming initiative called “Farming God’s Way,” which focuses on crop rotation and natural growing methods instead of chemical fertilizers.
“They don’t have access to any of the chemical-based fertilizers that we have here in the states,” she said. “So it’s very much crop rotation and using what they do have available.”
The trip also will include traveling into villages surrounding where the missionaries live.
“They also help provide community health and wellness and getting the people the assistance that they would need,” Bush said. “If an outbreak happens, then they’ll need to be able to help get those needs processed and facilitated.”
Bush has avoided over-preparing herself.
“Truthfully, I’m kind of going into this blind because I want to be excited and wowed,” she said.
Part of that, she said, comes from wanting to experience another culture firsthand.
“The only thing I was told culture-wise is I had to take skirts and they had to be ankle length for when we are out among the people,” she said.
Bush expects conditions to be rugged.
“It’s going to be kind of like rough camping,” she said.
Still, she does not sound intimidated.
“I’m good at going in the unknown,” she said. “I’ll make it.”
One misconception, Bush said, is the assumption volunteers are trying to westernize other cultures.
“No, I wouldn’t want to do that,” she said. “There’s things about the westernized culture that I think they would find offensive.”
Instead, she wants to learn local customs and avoid becoming disruptive or disrespectful.
“I’m more concerned to making sure that I’m not offending them,” she said.
Preparation has included training sessions, devotional study, and fund-raising.
Bush said each member of the team contributed $1,000 personally before additional costs were covered through church mission funds, meals, garage sales, and donations from friends and family.