Into the Swing of Things

This Christmas season was a real treat for us. Mike's
parents, Ermen and Melvey, had the opportunity to come
visit us here in Burkina. This was their first trip
here and we were all so very excited to see them. They
were able to spend just over two weeks with us, and we
got to show them all around Ouagadougou and even took
them to the game park at Nazinga. We had a wonderful
Christmas spending time with family. The kids were
spoiled, of course, and received so many fun new toys
for Christmas. But they spoiled us too. They brought
over Doritos and Oreos and several other goodies we
can't find here. Needless to say, we had to make a few
new years resolutions.

January was busy as well, getting back into the swing
of things. Mike started teaching again the second week
of January at the Institute, and life kicked back into
full swing here at the house as well. We started a new
ministry at church the first week of January –
volleyball. Each Sunday night at 5:00, we have
volleyball at our church. It's proven to be a great
tool to reach out to our neighbors, and already 4
people have come to visit our church as a result of
this ministry. Two of these young men have started
coming pretty faithfully now. These volleyball nights
have given our people more opportunities of fellowship
as well. They are developing friendships with each
other and with us. This has proven to be an exciting
ministry for our church!
At the end of January, we had another visitor – a
friend from our Internship church in Rock Island, IL.
We got to show him around, too, and involved him in
the ministry as well. The last Sunday he was here, he
taught the children's church. He taught in English, I
translated into French, and Benoit translated that
into Moore. The kids did so well listening to him. I
was pleasantly surprised how well they did,
considering we had 112 kids in attendance!

Now we're into February, and we are busy planning and
implementing new ministries in our young church. In
December we baptized 8 new believers, so now we're
eager to see them grow and get involved. Some of our
new ministries that we will implement this year are
Bible studies for men and ladies, teacher's meetings
and a second Sunday school class (much needed), more
outreach activities (film nights), more fellowship
activities (game nights)….just to name a few. We're
looking forward to see what God is going to do this
year in this church.

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