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.