Rioting/Demonstrating/Manifestations

Gosh, things were hot in Yako again this morning. As we were preparing to leave town this morning the first thing that we encountered was that the two gas stations in town were closed. Okay. We didn't have enough gas in either of the vehicles to make it all the way to Ouaga. But Ema, who was driving the truck led us to a very small station by the bus station and for just the cost of a coke, the young man there agreed to sell us some gas.

When we tried to leave town, we found that students had formed a human chain and would not let vehicles pass in either direction. Ema came to our rescue again in leading us off-road, way around the students, where we eventually met up with the paved road again and continued on to Ouaga.

Throughout the day, we kept hearing reports from Yako and they were not good. The students continued to march down the road arriving at the party headquarters of the senator of our region. They burned down this government building and then proceeded to the private home of the senator and burned her house down.

The basis of the discontent is that in response to the last burning. . . . the burning of the police station. . . . the senator blacklisted the students responsible for the damage . . . . meaning that these students will not be allowed to take the final exams at the end of this school year. So, students decided to take justice into their own hands and have caused more damage and more loss of precious time in class.

All of the schools in Yako were closed today and will be closed again tomorrow.
Please pray for peace in Burkina.

Please Pray for Therese--

Our little one, Therese, who was adopted by a lovely family in Chicago this past December is scheduled for open heart surgery on Wednesday, April 13th.

Please pray that the Lord will guide the surgeon's hands and for a quick and complete recovery for Therese.

Please pray for her whole family during this stressful time, Momma, Papa, and 4 children.

Animal Project

We went to visit our animals yesterday and thought that I would show you a couple of pictures of them.

We have 2 little calves and one more of our females is pregnant and will calve in the next couple of months.

One of our males is full grown and we have tied him up and are fattening him up to sell in the next few months.

In total, we now have 8 adult or young adult animals and 2 babies.

We have also just recently hired a new shepherd to take care of the animals. Our old shepherd was a young man and was not real interested in doing the work. Our new shepherd has a wife and 3 children and is committed to taking good care of the animals.