Satellite Modem Used in Guinea!

It's almost miraculous! Since we received funds in December 2003 to purchase a satellite modem for our National Church Ministries Team through the Alliance Women's "Connecting" project, our ability to communicate has been revolutionized! While we lived in Conakry, the capital city of Guinea, we were thrilled to be able to do e-mail from home using our cell phone. Sometimes it could take only a few tries to get connected and be able to send and receive our e-mail somewhat slowly, but often we would spend an hour without connecting, wasting precious time and leaving us frustrated. Since our work takes us all over the country, during the two to three weeks out of every month that we spent in the interior, we were unable to communicate via e-mail. That meant that sometimes pressing ministry questions or responses, as well as personal interaction with our children in the US and Dakar, were simply dropped during those trips.

Since receiving the satellite modem in January of 2004, we can do e-mail anywhere we go. I remember our excitement on our first trip after receiving the modem when we were able to do e-mail from Telekoro Bible Institute, 7 kilometers from the nearest town (where, incidentally, there was no e-mail access either). We received and were able to respond immediately to urgent e-mails concerning our ministry, as well as to receive and send news to our children and those praying for us.

Now we have moved almost as far from the capital as you can get, back to N'Zerekore. We have only solar electricity or use a generator where we live. E-mail is an iffy thing at the one place in the city that sometimes offers it, far from our home. But we can do e-mail using our satellite modem! We know we are only an e-mail away from having people pray for urgent prayer requests. Having just settled our youngest child back in the States, I can't imagine living here without the satellite modem. I definitely have a great respect for those missionaries who went before us and couldn't communicate with their families for months or even years. But I am so thankful that the Lord has used the Alliance Women to make it possible for us to be able to communicate with our young adult children.

Thank you, Alliance Women, for the wonderful blessing you have provided for our ministry, as well as to us personally.

Dian Harner