“We are willing to help you get a new printer,” a longtime friend of mine from Walla Walla University said while Fidel and I were home on furlough.

Back on the Pendjari project, Fidel and I took advantage of a school break to make a nine-hour drive south to see if we could find a quality new printer at a good price. The following day, Fidel and I decided to divide and conquer, each going to a different section of town on foot and by motorcycle taxi, searching from one store to the next. While we found many stores with secondhand printers, we wanted one that we knew was going to work and not one I needed to fix every five minutes.

Fidel didn’t have any luck. I found one store, but they did not carry Ricoh, which we were searching for, and the prices were way out of our range. Around noon, God reminded me that a couple of years ago, I had discovered a paper store with a printer annex. As I continued tromping around the neighborhood, I asked for directions to the store and found it 20 minutes later. To my joy, the store carried new Ricohs at a price we could afford.

I called Fidel, and we both went back to the guest house where we were staying since it was the time of day when stores shut down for a three-hour lunch and rest break. I then headed to the bank ATM and withdrew my money limit for the day, knowing that I would need to do the same the following day.

Then the next morning, we tried to find the store again, but I did not know how to get there from the guest house. We finally had to call the store for directions. Fortunately, Fidel was familiar with the area. When we finally got on the right road, I located the store.

We were able to purchase a quality Ricoh printer; a bit slower than my other one, but it makes copies. The store technicians set up its software on my computer and checked to make sure everything worked, then loaded it up on a truck. Following the long drive back, our new printer made it to its new home.

We praise God for leading us to the printer and for those who generously agreed to help pay for it.

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