Ministry in the Village

One of the things we wanted the girls to experience while they were here was village work. We ended up having more experiences than we thought we would. One Wednesday night at the end of June, we took them out to see John Cooley’s work in a village just outside of Ouagadougou. There is no electricity out there, so John runs two battery operated lights while he preaches. During the service, however, while the lights were still running, we saw the biggest spider I have seen yet in Burkina. The girls got to see it up close and personal as it landed on both of them on two different occasions during the service. I’ve never seen them move so fast! I’m just thankful it was them and not me. I know, I’m so kind. After the service, both were offered a position as wife to the chief. They both declined, despite the very large dowry of 3 cows and a pig offered. All was said in fun, for the parents who are getting a little nervous as you read this.
Then, after our trip to Bobo, Rebecca took the opportunity to go up to Babo, another village work of John and Tammy Cooley. She spent the night there and, of course, ate the food. However, she didn’t get much sleep as there were people constantly around and then they had to get up early to get their lesson in before everyone went out to the fields to work before the rains started. But that was one thing she told me she wanted to do – spend the night in a village.
Then on the Sunday before they returned to the States, we took them out to the first work Charlie and Mary Joyce started here in Burkina Faso, out in Boulwando. That was a fun morning. The people love to sing, and sang for over an hour. Ethel and I got to sing a song in English and French, and Mike preached. We had a wonderful time out there. The people are always so friendly and love to speak with us, though most of them speak little to no French. But we enjoyed the fellowship.