Rain, Rain Go Away!

You might think a missionary who lives just south of the Sahara Desert would never say these words. Believe me, they rarely come out of my mouth. However, when we get a heavy rain on a Sunday morning, it means disaster for our church attendance. Why you may ask. First, we do not have a single member of our church who owns a car. Most of our people walk, ride their bikes, or ride their moped (small scooter). Therefore, they don’t have the protection from the rain that many of us who own automobiles are used to. Secondly, with Burkina being one of the poorest counties in the world, we don’t have the infrastructure that we are used to in the States. A lack of drainage systems means water all over the roads, which are mostly dirt. It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will let these images explain the rest.

Money Well Spent

Above is a picture of our new church building. Pretty amazing what $9,000.00 will build you here in West Africa. JUST KIDDING. This morning I had the opportunity to build a hanger "village style" with some guys from the institute and my friend Missionary Randy Smith. What you are actually looking at is our guard shack. Although the rainy season is almost over, we still get a shower from time to time. This is simply a little hanger where he can get in out of the rain. I'm sure our guard will think that it was money well spent.

A Place of Our Own

I grew up hearing the old saying, “home is where the heart is.” Although that is true, I can tell you from the personal experience of deputation that it is nice to have a permanent place of residence. The same is true for a church. We all understand the building is not the church, the people are. However, it is nice to have a permanent place to meet.

I am happy to tell you that we were able to buy a piece of property on the 28th of June. In fact, today we were able to start construction of a small brick building where our church will eventually meet. Place pray for the spiritual and physical growth of the new church plant as it is in its infant stages.

Another One Won for Christ

This past week I found myself a little discouraged. It had been several weeks since we had seen anyone accept Christ as their personal Savior. In fact, I recently talked with a friend of mine concerning the way that they do their invitation. I’m always looking for biblical methods that God is using. However, I found out that my friend, like most of the other missionaries here in Burkina, do things pretty much the same as us.

This past Sunday, despite the method of invitation and despite the “not so great” French, the Holy Spirit spoke to a young woman’s heart. Abzeta and her little baby boy have been attending our services on and off from the beginning. However, this week she decided to invite Christ to be her Lord and Savior. Praise the Lord! Please pray for Abzeta as she begins her new walk in Christ.