{"id":3204,"date":"2026-02-07T14:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T14:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/?p=3204"},"modified":"2026-02-08T07:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:58:04","slug":"the-metric-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/2026\/02\/07\/the-metric-system\/","title":{"rendered":"The Metric System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Good progress: we are still learning.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It feels a bit like our strategy this year was to shop for new home furnishings by visiting the Chicago Swap-O-Rama flea market and hoping we would walk away with a well-matched ensemble. We wanted to make progress on recording Hausa; plan for the expansion of BiblePlus to neighboring African countries such as Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone, Chad, and Guinea; make local arrangements for Create Mobile instructors to visit in October for a month-long training; mount a mobile phone directional antenna at the Philip Centre North; repair computer equipment; and plan for new video content for C&C to record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On other recording trips, all of the 100+ raw audio and video tracks would have been collected, and by today we might be bouncing down a dirt track to a new village, preparing to record a second language. In the cool of the evening, after a meal of jollof rice and chicken, we might be sitting outside under a \u201csummer hut\u201d (a thatched-roof gazebo with no walls) and editing in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Left: Cyrus recording an Adele paster last year — the studio is the bush. Right: We are in Accra, and can use the OneWay studio. We are more familiar with the bush, and had no idea how to configure the studio. Thankfully, Newman was available.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mariam tells her story. Cyrus records the audio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead, we recorded Mariam in Hausa, English, and Twi. One beautiful story.  Mariam grew up speaking Hausa in Nigeria. As a child, she had questions about her faith \u2014 questions that can cause trouble when boldly asked by a young girl. Yet Mariam was blessed with a father who wanted to see her educated, even when local traditions did not support girls\u2019 education. At school, Mariam continued her questions and her search, eventually learning about Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mariam and her husband pose for a photo outside the office.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But her new life was costly. She was kicked out of her home and eventually moved back to Ghana. Today, she and her husband are missionaries to the Hausa in Nigeria and Ghana \u2014 answering the very questions Mariam had as a child and sharing Christ\u2019s love with many people.  One powerful story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Planning Retreat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the coast of Ghana, just south of Accra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A peaceful sunset. Sadly, in the foreground — disposable plastic waste. A difficult image to include, but it is the harsh reality of daily life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Time in the shade to plan and work through strategies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yet. Yet. The metrics. While in a planning meeting with C&C, I made a joke about a graph that was \u201cup and to the right.\u201d I got puzzled looks \u2014 it was not an expression they were familiar with. Americans are driven by metrics. Even in mission organizations, annual reports highlight them with pie charts, \u201cup and to the right\u201d graphs, colorful infographics, and timelines showing improvement and projected growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Beth and I sat with Ray, Cyrus, and Clement for a set of distraction-free planning meetings along the coast, the gap between our contexts was on full display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My metric \u2014 100 tracks \u2014 how I was considering progress and planning for remaining Hausa work \u2014 was misguided. Ray, Cyrus, and Clement were looking at impact, not integers. I was stuck viewing the world through a metric lens, and while I didn\u2019t have little infographics floating through my thoughts, they may well have been bouncing around my subconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our short, one-day \u201cretreat\u201d to pray, sing, and plan for the next three years \u2014 with expanding to countries such as Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone, Chad, and Guinea on the horizon \u2014 was a fantastic success after we tossed out our metric-colored glasses and tabled discussions of finances and milestones. For Ray, the driving theme was clear: encouraging and training people. Changing lives. Impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just after dawn, a hard working young man brought a shovel and spare tires to the beach. He proceeded to dig large holes, toss in the tire, and then cover it with a nylon sack. After he left, I went down to investigate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Crab trap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As I reflected on the wonderful progress we had made building a plan for encouraging and training people, I thought of a passage from the Gospel of Matthew. Peter asked Jesus for a metric: \u201cHow often do I need to forgive someone? As many as seven times?\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cSeventy times seven\u201d \u2014 which essentially means, \u201cStop counting. There is no metric” \u2014 check your heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe in some situations, shifting away from the numeric score and looking at the people and the impact, can help reframe and set a new course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ray poses for some fun alongside a fishing boat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Coconut.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Fresh coconut on the way home…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We have a bit more than a week left here in Ghana, so there is still plenty of time to learn more. 😊<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good progress: we are still learning. It feels a bit like our strategy this year was to shop for new home furnishings by visiting the Chicago Swap-O-Rama flea market and hoping we would walk away with a well-matched ensemble. We wanted to make progress on recording Hausa; plan for the expansion of BiblePlus to neighboring … Continue reading The Metric System<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3204"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3231,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204\/revisions\/3231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}