Moto VS Cow

Full joy and contentment I hop on my motorbike heading for the ABC school. The shadow of my motorbike now disappears before me as I watch the sun drop below the horizon line in my rear-view mirror. As I bob up and down on the dirt road I recognize that the coolness of the evening begins to win the battle of temperature as the sun scurries off to warm some other distant land.  Absorbed in the beauty that lay before me, along with the concentration and focus of dodging various holes, rocks, and baby goats I fail to recognize the herd of cows moseying along in the middle of my path up ahead; not to mention the fact that they are all black cows that seem to blend in perfectly to the impending night sky. With the approaching wall of cow meat and horns, and with my motorbike still puttering along at the same speed I think to myself, “That’s a lot of meat! Also, out of all the ways that I would want to die, I think that being skewered in the face by a bullhorn would be pretty low on the list.” At this point trying to stop would be to no avail, “I must think of another way. When life gives us lemons, we gotta try not to be impaled.”  So I look at the consequences of going left… hole, probably leading to death. Right… “Ooo, I might be able to fit through on the right.” I contracted my right elbow and extended my left thus causing a quick jolt to my right. However, this entire thought process about the death hole on the left, and the lemons must have been going on the cow’s mind as well because as I lunged for the space to the right, so did the bull. I look the bull in the eyes and say, “I’ve run outta options.” Standing at the cliff eternity I prepare myself to take the step when suddenly a thought comes into my head! “I have watched enough action movies, all I need to do is lay the bike down, slide underneath the cow, and continue on the other side. It is a flawless plan! “But I have to act fast!” I say to myself, with the cow now only 3 feet in front of me. I clench my right fist with the speed and power of a cheetah implementing a full front wheel break thus causing my tail end to whip around. Everything is going perfectly, now what is next… think back to the movies. Now that I think about it, I realize that I can’t think of one time where someone does the awesome motorbike slide on gravel… or under something smaller than a semi truck. Fear begins to take me, but I have no time for fear. Not now. Not now that I am so close. I can almost touch the cow’s utters. I close my eyes and hope for the best.

            “Am I on the otherside? Did I make it? Why does my leg hurt?” My eyes open to reveal a disappointing reality. Though I did successfully lay the bike down, I neither went under the cow, nor even came close. Because of my inexperience I guess I forgot that I needed to move my leg of of the way when I laid the bike down. The bike did not skid on the gravel, rather on my leg. There is only one thing to do now as the African children who were previously yelling “the white dude, the white dude!” are now laughing. My pride is shot, my leg has been ravaged, and you should feel sorry for me.

Is that story true? Why did you tell us that?

I want you to know that 97% of the story is true, and to be honest I have no real reason for telling that story besides the fact that it got your attention didn’t it?

Well here we are June 7^th with less than four weeks left in Bobo. My last blog post I talked about where I was at and asked for prayer against the “just survive” mentality. Well I am so excited to report that things the past couple weeks have been great (attitude wise), and more importantly the future is going to be even better (God willing). I am really excited about the future and finishing strong here. If there has ever been a time that Zack and I would have the most opportunities to be of influence, it would be in the last couple weeks. We have built the relationships, we’ve lived as a Burkinabe, and we’ve prayed for opportunities and how to finish strong. It’s all ready to go, and I’ve never been more excited! Both fed up with our complacency and sin Zack and I are having a spiritual “check-up” daily with one another. Daily striving to surrender everything we have/are to be used by God according to His plan. Pray for us in this area. And for me particularly I am really working on my prayer life, seeking to: 1) Not be so selfish, 2) Have “prayer burdens” for others, and 3) learn to pray continuously. 

The last thing I would like to ask you to pray for is finance stuff.  Ever since I began doing anything missions related I have hated dealing with finance stuff. The other day I was listening to Paul Washer and he was talking about his missions organization who was $350,000 in debt because they had just started a new project and was trusting that God would provide the money. Well, the day came when their fundraising (and when I say fundraising I mean praying and fasting) was almost over and they were still something like $250,000 in the hole.  If they didn’t have the money by the end of that day they were going to have to stop all projects that they had going over seas. Without telling a sole, and solely by prayer they had over $300,000 by various donors that day.  I struggle with asking for money because I have seen and heard stories of miraculous things that God has done. That was my mentality for a while, “I’m not going to share my needs anymore, God is bigger than anything I can say, He alone moves hearts to give.” However, I realize something now, God does do miracles, God does test and build our faith, but He rarely does it in the same way every time.  Sometimes (and I would say more often then not) God uses the man who expresses his need to move hearts to give.  And it does not make one giving towards a specific cause any less miraculous. The early church was commended for it’s ability to share everything they had. That means that 1) everyone was willing to give anything they had to a brother in need, abut also (and probably the more difficult of the two) is admitting that there is a need and bringing it to light.

In Africa there are a lot of people who express their needs openly and even to the point where Zack and I really struggle with how to respond. But then there are also the people (even within the church) who are really struggling, to the point where you can just see it in their eyes. And you just long for them to tell you what the problem is so that you can be part of the solution.

I bring all this up because I do have a financial need. Originally I felt really bad about saying anything, but after a conversation with my dad I realized that I was more testing God and putting Him in a bubble rather than letting Him work through others. It is already a miracle that I have raised the $11,000 that I have for the past 9 months. Thank you to all who have given and prayed faithfully. I have a video that shows all the ministries that I have been involved with coming in the next week! I hope you know how amazing this year has been for me in my life, and I think I can say the same for Zack and the people we have witnessed to here.

It’s not over! Pray that we finish strong. We are tired, and looking forward to the future, but have never been more aware of His presence and reign in our lives. Love God, Love People. Amen.

It's Not Over!

I just sat down and re-read all my past blog posts from last September till now. I was SO encouraged to see how far I have come in the past 9 months. It brought me such joy reading about my evangelism stories back in wales, and how God was growing and stretching me back then. Also how He had me experience certain things, and had to grow me in certain areas to prepare me for my time here in Bobo. It was especially encouraging because I haven’t felt like I have been growing much recently, rather just surviving (which is what I have been praying against). Two weeks ago we finished teaching French to the Marinatha ladies, and just this last week our guitar lessons finished. A few weeks ago my back went out and kept me down for a couple days, but then the week after it started feeling better it felt like it went out again. With the physical pain, the feeling of things coming to a close here in Bobo, events going on back home, and the acceptance to Moody I found myself more just trying to survive than really thriving. It’s a good thing that God’s perfect will and purpose is so much greater than “how I feel!”

It was in this state that the reality of life in Bobo really hit me. I think that for the first time I stopped treating this like a “convert the heathens” missions trip, and saw things through new eyes. Let me tell you a story:

            Zack and I had just arrived at home after teaching at the ABC school. We were walking to our door when I heard yelling to my right, so I looked over and saw this boy named Clave hitting one of the girls in the compound. You know those kinds of kids where it is really easy to be angry with them all the time? Well, Clave is one of those. It seems like he is always trying to get into trouble. He goes through our trash and takes things, yells in our windows while we are trying to read or sleep, and seems to always be fighting with other kids during kids club. He’s always dirty, and rarely changes his holey shirt and pants. So angry-Blake ran over to break things up (not necessarily b/c clave was hitting her, b/c all the kids here hit each other nonstop, but more so b/c it was Clave causing trouble…again!) But when I got there I saw why he was attacking her. I took the little dirty ripped photo from her and gave it to Clave who was ready to fight me to get it back. I asked, “who is it?” he said, “my dad.” At that I got shivers knowing that this was probably the only thing that Clave had of his father. Even here in the compound that I live in, where everyone is “Christian,” the majority of the children do not know their fathers. I realized that Clave is not a terrible child. He is a little boy without a father. A little boy who wants to be loved.

I think I am beginning to see an answer to my daily prayer for a love for the things that He loves, and a hatred for the things that He hates. It is cool to see the transformation of my passions and desires as well as my relationship with sin as I seek Him more and more. Here’s another quick story:

On Thursday I was feeling rather apathetic and sinful, and was well aware of it. That afternoon I was speaking at kids club. So I sat down to read my bible and prepare. Here is where, if I were telling a good story, I would say that I had some great revelation and God spoke to me or something… but that didn’t happen. I left for kids club ready to share the story of the prodigal son with the children, but not feeling spiritual ready. Once again, it’s a good thing that the God’s will is not dependent on how I am feeling! I began to speak with a Jula translator translating. As I spoke, more and more people began to stand around the mass of children sitting on mats in the dirt. A bunch of teenage boys were listening and also a group of older women. As I spoke the reality of the revolutionary forgiveness from the father became real to me as well! I spoke as a sinner who didn’t even deserve to come back to his Father on hands and knees begging for mercy, but while contemplating what to do the Father RAN as fast as he could to me and threw his arms around me. Because the people were listening I went ahead and took advantage of the opportunity. I spoke about Jesus, and forgiveness. I shared what it means to repent and how all we need to do is “repent and believe.” And then asked if the children would stand and pray with me. To my surprise some of the boys came forward and prayed also. I led everyone in a prayer of repentance. Then we went off and played games and the boys took off, but it was cool for me to see God at work despite me and my “feelings.”

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support! I have never been more excited about my future and how God will use my time here in Bobo to grow and stretch me for years to come! Know that God is GOOD! And that he IS at work here in Bobo. Love you all. Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDGJyeFIJ9s

Why Am I In Africa?

“Why am I in Africa?” A question that may be asked when you wake up drenched in your own sweat at 7am, or when you find yourself wiping down the table for the third time in a day because of the relentless infiltration of dust, or when you finally sit down to read the bible and realize that there are still people in your house at 11pm, or when the water has been cut for weeks and you need to use the toilet, but the stench of your bathroom forces you to either go find some water to try and flush the toilet or to wait till you can go at a friends house, or when you are craving a milkshake and realize the closest thing you have is a cup of warm powdered milk. However, it is NOT for any of those reasons that I ask God why I was in Africa.  I asked myself (and God) that question after getting settled in, and I started seeking out His ministry for me here in Burkina. I was worried about how and when I would start being influential. I saw little fruit for our labor, and so I asked, “why am I in Africa?”

Now, first off, I do not want to be presumptuous by saying that “I understand why God has me here in Burkina” because I know that I will still be learning from my time here years after I return.  He has definitely been showing me a glimpse of His plan. Coming to Burkina, I had very few expectations. I had never been to Africa before, and was preparing myself for anything! However, of the few expectations that I did have, I knew (or at least thought) that I would always be doing ministry and that I would be constantly serving and being a light wherever I was.  It was going to be ALL about serving the Burkinabe people, and the other missionaries and working 100% toward whatever ministry I was doing at the time. I forgot about the “living” part of the missions field, or in other words, the less glamorous side of missions that you don’t think about until you are here.

For a while I got frustrated when we weren’t doing specifically ministry related things. However, I came to realize that my priorities were totally wrong. On my own I could not possibly come to Africa and be influential. In fact, apart from the grace of God I could not even be a part of his ministry. So I realized I needed to SOLELY seek out Jesus Christ. ONLY THEN would I be in a state in which I could be used for His ministry here in Bobo.

When I asked the question, “why am I here in Africa?” He gave me an answer: “You are here to fall more in love with me!” It has been AMAZING to see how he has met me. Now, whether I am preaching at church, or cleaning a dirty table at home, I am sustained. Zackary J. Smiley and I have had an amazing time digging into his word, listening to sermons, and reading books. We have been learning SO MUCH!

Here are a few things He is teaching me:

1)     Understanding Human Depravity. Boy have I come to realize the great need I have for God’s grace. But not only the fact that I need it, but also that I can do nothing without it! The good news is it has already been given! Here is the hope that I have in Jesus Christ:

Being born into a fallen world I have been radical depraved since birth. Unaware of my daily, hourly, even minutely sin I was a God hating creature. BUT God in his sufficient grace humbly sent his son to the earth. Jesus stood next to my grave where I was “dead in my trespasses” and wallowing in my own filthy sin. And in His unconditional, incomprehensible love, the God of the universe and the one man in all of time that walked blameless on the earth, plunged head first into my filth. Jesus took upon himself, not only my burdens, failures, and sins, but also the wrath and punishment from the Father that would have otherwise been on me. THAT is the hope that I find in Christ Jesus.

2)     Understanding Costly Grace. At first glance “costly” and “grace” don’t seem like they should go together. “Costly” means effort and sacrifice. But isn’t “grace” free? Isn’t it a gift? Well in order to understand costly grace we must first look at what cheap grace is. “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.” (Bonhoeffer) Modern day “cheap grace” is everywhere! Everyone wants to be forgiven, but no one wants to acknowledge the cost of discipleship. So what is “Costly Grace?” Costly grace is grace that costs a man his entire life! “It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.” Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it, a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.” That is the type of grace I want to receive! The costly grace that shatters my entire existence! That costs my entire life! I am beginning to learn about The Cost Of Discipleship that Jesus calls every Christian too! And as a disciple of Christ nothing excites me more than to follow his call: “Come, follow me.”

3)     HIS Future For Me. His answer to my question has redefined all my expectations for my time here! No longer am I frustrated when I am not directly doing evangelism or discipleship. Before, my #1 priority was my ministry, but that is not biblical at all! My #1 priority MUST be my own relationship with Him. This allows me to dig into his word like I never have before. I feel like He has brought me here to Africa to prepare for my future ministry. He’s given me the opportunity to have hours to study and learn about him without other distractions that I would otherwise have in America (school, relationships, entertainment, comfort). Jesus says that if you are a good tree you WILL produce good fruit! As long as my dependence is solely in Jesus Christ, and I continue to seek freedom from myself and adherence to Christ, I WILL produce good fruit whether I like it or not. What a comfort it is to have freedom from the pressures saying the right words, or looking like a good Christian, or converting people. Those things are not my responsibility. Absolute adherence to Christ IS. And as I conform my heart mind and soul to the likeness of Christ, all other things will happen according to the Father’s plan.

I apologize if you wanted to hear more about our ministries and the African children, and the cultural differences and such. I just realized that this blog is more like a sermon than an update, but this is what is on my mind/heart right now! And it's my blog... so ha. But I will be posting other exciting things soon! i have a list of things on my computer that i want to share about!

Now we have built strong relationships with people here I feel comfortable taking video of our different ministries.  So, I will try to get a video update to you sometime soon! Thank you all for our continued prayers! (also, prayer update to come in a few days J)

Untill next time.

Anee Saoga Ma

Videos!

If you haven't yet read my last blog, READ IT! haha and watch this video :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5KY6I6i3BI&context=C309b0f8ADOEgsToPDskIH9mVw2Z1lKA4pQ_bHM8zw

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

Well HELLO there! Wow this is an overwhelming task, i am about to embark on the impossible task of blogging about everything that has happened in the past month. I am VERY excited to finally be contacting all of you! I am going to give a very brief summary of our time before Bobo really quick so that you can get an idea of all the things that we have been experiencing. Here it goes:

CHAD(Central Africa)- On Jan 12^th Zack and I flew to Ndjamena Chad with 3 very respected men from California (Alex Wilson, Mr. S, and Tom Klope). We went to Chad with the mission to share in, and experience the ministry going on in Chad, and to do 2 separate yet similar seminars at local churches on spiritual leadership, and understanding the Word of God. Zack and I had the opportunity to preach on spiritual leadership at both churches, and I feel like our message was well received even in a culture where wisdom and leadership is only determined by age. We visited schools and prayed for the students and teachers. We ate fried locust, BBQed camel, and this very authentic dish called dried fish long sauce (only for very special guests). We shared in some very special moments in Chad such as: the overflowing joy coming from the worship at church, seeing the children at the different schools, and sharing in a house church service (all can be seen in the video that I made about our experiences in Chad! Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6pXhOh1qiI). The inescapable heat, and the overbearing Islamic rule makes living very difficult for Christians in Chad. Nonetheless the Gospel has power and for the Christians of Chad, following Jesus is worth the inevitable persecution and rejection from their families.

            Zack and I then flew back to Charles De Gaulle where, after a 10-hour layover and a quick frolic through the streets of Paris, we caught the next plane to Burkina Faso. Upon arrival in Ouagadougou we met up with the West African field leader for Horizons (a man from England) and headed up North. After driving 250km (half of the way we had paved roads which was nice) we arrived in Djibo!

DJIBO(Northern city in Burkina Faso)- Arrival date: January 22. After 5 hours of driving through the dust and brush of what looked like “real Africa” (after being in the capital city of Chad for 10 days) we knew that going to “the bush” was going to be exciting! Our time in Djibo was like our orientation and “welcome to Burkina” time. Steve and his wife Charlie had us at their house for 10 days. In that time we learned a lot about the Fulani people group of Africa. If you don’t know anything about them then here is a quick lesson on who the Fulani are:

            Throughout history the Fulani tribe has always been a nomadic people group that primarily herds cattle. Because of their travels throughout West Africa the Fulani were an easy target to convert to Islam. After being converted it was the Fulani who brought Islam to the rest of West Africa, converting village by village (who previously practiced different forms of tribal worship or animism). They believe that any expression of emotion is shameful, but pride themselves in the work that they do. Traditionally, having a big house or things like possessions were not very important. Rather, the thing that declared your status or wealth was how many cattle you had. From Steve’s teaching we learned that they are a very prideful and stubborn people group. So you can imagine how difficult it is to reach these people! However, many Fulani are now settled down in villages and have acquired other learned occupations. These are the people that Steve has been working with for the past 10 years.

Every Wednesday the largest cattle market in all of Burkina takes place in Djibo. During this time if you have an animal to sell you just walk around with your animal until you find someone who is looking to buy. Then a there is a long process of bartering (which sounds a lot like shouting) until they reach an agreement. It was here that we saw a lot of camels, which was exiting! We took advantage of this opportunity of having the entire city in one place by doing some evangelizing! Steve has cassettes (yes people still use those) in Fulfulde which start with stories of Adam and go all the way to Jesus, and there are photos that go along with the tapes. Then Zack and I had the opportunity to share our testimonies! There were at least 50 children and men around listening for over and hour! It was a great experience!  (see video) i dont know if the videos are going to work...

Some people call Djibo “the bush,” but really it isn’t because there are things like a big market, and semi reliable electricity and such. But then we went another 50km North to a place called Burro which even Steve and Charlie consider “the bush.” We stayed with a Brazilian missionary couple (Christiano and Mercia, who are also with horizons) in their mud brick home! It was fun to sleep in an authentic mud hut. The following day was Friday, which is significant because Friday, for a Muslim, is like a Christian’s Sunday.  They go to the mosque to pray for an extended time, or to hear a teaching. For Christiano this was the perfect opportunity to have a Christian service at his home. This allows men to come to his house and hear about Jesus during their normal prayer time. This way, someone can come with the excuse that they are just “going to pray” and not experience unnecessary persecution before they have even decided to become a Christian. This particular Friday morning they had a guest speaker. It was me, I was the speaker. And boy was I intimidated to preach on John 10 “The Good Shepherd” in front of a group of shepherds by occupation. It was about a 20 min talk, sitting in a mud hut with only four young Fulani men, but I know that God used me to speak to these men. At the end I said that, “Jesus IS that good shepherd! And he is calling his sheep. Here. Today. He is calling you by name and you have the choice to follow his voice out into the green pastures or not.” At that they all started chatting/ mumbling and after Steve told me that they all were agreeing that they wanted to follow this shepherd Jesus. Pray for Christiano’s ministry with those boys that we spoke with. That they will continue to learn more about Jesus and that they would come to know Him personally!

After that we returned to Djibo and the next day traveled back to Ouagadougou to FINALLY meet Trudie (the Dutch woman that we will be working with for the remaining 5 months). She would then take us on a 5-hour bus ride Southwest to our new home, Bobo-Dilasso! (chicken video)

So here we are in Bobo! We arrived February 2^nd and got straight to work! The first 4 nights were spent at Elie and Trudies house while they finished our home at the “Grand Famille” (Big Family, the name of Elie’s father’s compound. Not really sure how many people actually live here…maybe 10, but somehow they are all related to Elie). (VIDEO of new home).

But now we are in our 3^rd week of living in our house J It is fun to have our own place. Elie built this home on his father’s compound so that missionaries, or friends would have a place to stay rather than trying to find a hotel. Hence, we have many accommodations that Zack and I were not expecting to have! We each have our own room, and share a nice spacious living room where we have a small cheepo gas cooker. After 2 weeks of getting used to and enjoying defecating in a hole outside, we now have a western toilet and shower. However, we often take bucket water bathes b/c the water always turns off during the day when one needs it the most.

 On the 3^rd day after we arrived we started teaching English and doing sports at the ABC school. The school is actually supported by the Icelandic government, and supports 250 students. There are only 4 classes for 250 students! That means roughly 60 students per class. The classes are the equivalent of our 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th grades. Teaching is difficult for Zack and I. Not because it is hard, but because it is difficult to see the influence that we are having. We are also doing English teaching on Saturdays with the teachers of the ABC school. We teach Jula on Sundays to women who want to learn to read the Bible (Jula is all phonetic, so we can actually read Jula and help the women learn how to pronounce the words.) Then we also teach French to a different group of women who are Pastor’s wives. Starting this last week Zack and I started a Football club with men around our age (and older). We play 3 times a week! (hopefully it will keep us in shape despite all the rice and bread we are eating everyday). We also have a kids club on Thursday afternoons where we have between 50-100 kids who come everyweek and hear a Bible story and play games with us. (PHOTO)

As you can imagine we are staying very busy teaching, playing with kids, playing guitar at the church, baby sitting, and not to mention cooking all our own meals and cleaning up for ourselves! It has been a WONDERFUL three weeks so far here in Bobo. We are both very excited to see where God leads us in our ministries as we keep undertaking different responsibilities, and we keep allowing Him to conform our hearts and minds to His purpose. I will continue to update (now that we are settled in and know where and when we have internet connection) you on the specifics of all the different ministries and specific prayer requests, but for now I just wanted to get the updates started with a HUGE thank you to everyone who has been praying and supporting us for the last month (even though we have had so little contact). Zack and I have been so blessed to be here so far, and are daily praying about, and learning how to bless the people of Burkina Faso with the many blessings that we have received. Here are a few prayer requests that I would ask you to pray for!

Prayer Requests:

1) Pray for wisdom in ministry! There are SO many things to be involved with here in Bobo, people who need help with English, or need money, or our time/abilities. This is wonderful, but please pray that Zack and I would know when to give our time, money, abilities, but also when to say no. We don’t want to have the reputation of “the westerners who can help,” but rather “the Christians who rely on their God for help.”

2) Pray for my heart! Pray that my heart will break for the people that don’t know Him. Pray that the desire I have to see His gospel spread will give me a supernatural desire to study the language and to be in His word preparing for any opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Also, pray for our hearts about teaching; that we would enjoy it and that our hearts would continue to change according to His plan, His will.

3) Finally, prayer for finances. Coming to Burkina we were unaware that purchasing a reliable source of transportation would be necessary. However, the ABC school that we go to everyday is 5km away, and the big market is about 10. So therefore, Zack and I went ahead and purchased a new motorbike with the prayer (and faith!) that we would be able to re-sell it after our time here (Elie said we should buy new if we want to resell for a good price), and the support would come in to help this unexpected expense.  The cheapest new bikes in the area are between 450,000 CFA and 650,000 CFA (sounds like a TON huh!? But in US dollars it amounted to $1000.) If you feel led to help with this unforseen expense please contact me: beachdude21@gmail.com or my father: Chris@highway.org. It seems that the longer I am working with missionaries and people in poverty, the more I look at God as "the provider." He has many names, but just like the isrealites in the dessert, He will supply us with our daily bread! Always pray with faith!

The other night I was laying in bed thiking, kinda half awake. I began to think of missions, an our role in missions. Here in Africa, or you in America. I put my thoughts on a "stickie note" and then fell alseep. When I woke in the morning I read it, and I think it contains alot of truth. "

Missions is not a career, it is not something that can be achieved, and it most certainly does not have ONE definition. Missions is a lifestyle, a DAILY CHOICE that EVERY Christian is called too. A life style that YOU are called to. A lifestyle where millions of imperfect people from all walks of life seek to proclaim the good news of a perfect savior to every ethnicity, every tongue, every individual. Thus, bringing glory to the father. THAT is our calling! Forever and Ever. Amen.

Chad Video Complete!

Praise the Lord that after 5 power outages last night, and one failed upload attempt, i finally managed to upload our Chad video! Thank you so much for watching, and commenting! We love hearing from everyone! Also, our address here in Bobo is:

Blake McCormick c/o Trudi and Elie Sanon
03 PB 4204 Bobo Dioulasso 03
Burkina Faso, West Africa 

From what i hear it takes about 4weeks for things to send, :) we love letters. Thanks again for all your support! My next blog update will include all of our current prayer requests! Zack and i had our first week of teaching this week and are so excited for the ministry we are going to be involved with for the next 5 months! We already taught 3 english classes to grades 2, 3, and 4. And Just this morning we had an English class for the teachers of the ABC school! Keep praying! thank you!! 
God Bless
Blake McCormick and Zack Smiley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6pXhOh1qiI&context=C309b0f8ADOEgsToPDskIH9mVw2Z1lKA4pQ_bHM8zw

Africans are African, but we are Africa

Hello everyone! My Gap Year Blog is officially being rebooted! I am SOO excited to share of all the adventures that zack and i have had in the past 3 weeeks! so i am currently writting that blog which will be posted asap with photos and video! This is the fist time we have had internet in a long time so i thought i would write and give a quick update! This is an update that zack wrote a few days ago after our overnight stay in "the bush":


Hello all!


Just spent the night in the bush or 'le bruce' as they call it in
French, in the town of Burow.  We've been in Djibo, since Monday now
we haven't slowed down a bit!  The very next morning Steve took us
out to the nieghbors and we did the traditional greeting that you say
to EVERY person, EVERY TIME you meet then.
Me: Jam wali?
Person: Jam tan
Me: Affini a jam?
Person: Jam knee.
Me: somethin somethin
Person: Basi fu wallah
Me: somethin somethin
Person: Fulfulde (the language) words that I don't understand.
Me: Woedi (good) or aieyoo (yes/yeah)


That happens every time.  Very different and cool.


Things are going great here in Djibo, last night we spent the night
with Christiano and Mercia (Brazilians) in the bush-town called Burow,
very fun.  They only speak French, Portugese and Fulfulde, so all of
the conversation was in French since Steve and them did not stay with
us.  It was quite the deep end, but I think we did a little better
than just float, if ya catch my drift. :D.  Last night we went into
town where about 100 Burkinabe's surrounded a tiny television run by a
generator to watch the Burkina vs. Cote d'Ivore football match that
was played. It was like going to the cinema! (except only a 15inch screen... and 100people jammed in one room. Africa is having its own 'Africa Cup' type thing, pretty cool.  Burkina lost, 2-0 we scored an own goal :/.  But this morning we had church and Blake spoke on John 10, the Good Shepherd, JesusChrist. Which was funny because he preached it to herders, so they
know ALL about what he's talkin' 'bout.  Very powerful and many of the
guys commented at the end saying that that's the kind of shepherd they
want, and very cool comments like that, not all of them are
Christians, there were supposed to be around 8ish, but only 4 were
there, and the rest came after Blake finished talking, very African.
We then had a prayer time with the WH team and then we drove back with
Blake and I riding in the bed of the truck with our respective green
and blue turbans with the wind running through our...turbans.  Good
fun good fun!


Cool story: Yesterday afternoon as we were driving to Burow, we
stopped and said hello to this one man (we were picking up two people,
and the man actually pointed us to where they were) and after we said
the greetings that you say to EVERY person when you first meet, then
he told Steve that Blake and I were "full of light and that light was
eminating from us", and he told
Steve that he had some good people with him.  Steve told us as we got
in the truck to drive away that that guy was actually a religious
leader, and was quite aware of the spiritual realm. However, not a christian. Interesting huh?


So we leave on Wednesday, Feb 1st and drive down to Ouaga where we'll,
inshallah, meet up with Elie and Trudi, and spend the night/drive down to
Bobo.  It's only actually 3-4 hours to Ouaga from Djibo, and then 3-4
hours to Bobo, so..that's pretty cool.


We've been doing French since we've been here, with a guy in his early
20s, not much teaching exp. but have been learning nontheless.


Last Wednesday we went and preached at the cattle-market.  Sat on a
mat for two hours with Fulfulde cassettes playing the gospel message
with me turning a large picture book like things that corresponded to
the message being spoken, had around 50 Fulani people around us all
listening to the gospel message, very cool. Blake and i were both able to share our testimonies with the people standing around.


It's great to be in the center of God's will, we wish that all for all
of you as well.


Alright we love you all very much, give my hugs, kisses and love to everyone!
En nom de Jesus,


-Zack et Blake 


ALSO! watch this: (MORE VIDEO UPDATES TO COME)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l72Dwks4MC8