Another Forever Family!

This week we had the wonderful privilege of introducing our little Astride to her new parents. Astride is a delightful little 2 year old who has been with us since she was just a few days old.

As a newborn, Astride was found crying in the middle of the night outside of a family courtyard. She was placed in our orphanage while we waited for the processing of her adoption.

Saying goodbye to our little ones can be bitter-sweet but knowing the loving home that God has given to Astride and knowing that God has a great plan for her and her Forever Family takes away all of the sadness.

We love you, Astride, and will be praying for you and your family!

Trip to Dano

This week I made a trip to visit some missionary friends in Dano, a small town in southwest Burkina. The Richter Family has been living and working in Dano for a little over 3 years. Geoffrey works on water/well projects, evangelism, and church plants, and Suzanne takes care of her family and is reaching out to help the orphans in her region.

The purpose of my trip was to see what Suzanne is doing, to meet some of their local workers, and to see how I might help Suzanne to get her projects up and running more quickly than if she had to do all of the start-up work on her own.

We spent time dreaming of what the work might look like, praying together, going out to visit orphans in the village, talking with and encouraging her local workers, and talking with and praying with their team members.

For me, this trip was pure joy! What fun to have time with dear friends and to dream and plan together about how they will help the children in their region.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful opportunity to help someone else who is wanting to help your little ones!

Water for Kimini!!!

As we look back, we are in total amazement at what God did in Kimini. I cannot speak enough about the outstanding drilling team that God sent here from North Carolina. Many of the men on the team have made multiple trips here to Burkina and to other countries to drill wells. They came to work and they took their work seriously. The people responsible for the drilling, Friends in Action, are qualified and professional drillers who led the team with a steady hand and with wisdom. And, at the end of the week, God orchestrated a beautiful thing and may He get all of the glory.

Kimini actually now has TWO new wells!!! If we or someone goes into Kimini to do a project, there is essentially a private well with limited but enough water for their use. The village also has new well, just 42 meters deep with lots and lots of water.

The first drilling was very hard and long. They drilled 300 feet and only reached a small pool of water. After working hard all week and drilling 6 other wells, the team was not content at all to leave Kimini without giving them water. So, they mustered all of the strength and energy that they had and with the help of the Lord, they moved the equipment to another site and started drilling again.

On this second drilling, at about 12 meters, they found water. And as they continued to drill, they found more and more water! Praise to our living God who gives water for our physical and spiritual thirst!

We left Kimini tired in body but so refreshed in our spirits and praising our wonderful God.

Drilling in Kimini--

Just wanted to put a quick note and a picture up. We started drilling in Kimini today. The drilling team worked hard. They drilled for at least 6 hours. They have gone down about 210 feet so far. . . . and we have not found water.

We will start drilling again early tomorrow morning and would greatly appreciate your prayers. . .. to find water.

Wash U Occupational Therapy Students

I would like to introduce Erin Sanborn, Frances Montanye, and Sarah Dacy to you, all Occupational Therapy students from Wash U in St Louis. Sarah is graduating this May with her Master’s degree and Erin and Frances will study for one more year to have their PHD’s.

These young women have arrived ready to work. They are highly motivated and they are full of great ideas and energy.

The main purpose for their trip is research into the medical conditions and needs of the women and children in our region. They prepared a survey of questions in English and French and are working with three different translators who help them to speak to the village women in their native language of Moore.

This week, we have already held two days of survey taking, one in Sector 6 of Yako and one in the village of Doure. Tomorrow, we will go to Kabo, a small village about 15 kilometers outside of Yako.

In addition to general health questions in the survey we are looking for malnourished children and offering to help their mothers get help for the children.

International Day of the Woman, March 8, 2012

Here in Burkina, the International Day of the Woman, is a national holiday. There is a special fabric created every year for this day and all of the women want outfits made out of this fabric. It is said here. . . that a ‘good wife’ always buys enough of this fabric to have a shirt made for her husband as well as a dress for herself!

There is an annual celebration in each province for the Day of the Woman. The celebration includes a parade, special speakers, special musicians, and gifts given by the government to local women’s groups. This celebration is often held in Yako but this year it was held in another village a bit outside of Yako.

Since we were not able to attend the celebration, we decided to have our own little International Woman’s Day party at the orphanage.

Amy organized games which were a huge success. Some of the women were laughing so hard, they were crying. All of our children came from the 4 corners of the courtyard to see what all of the excitement was about.

We played a modified version of hot potato which we called ‘pass the balloon baby’ and when the beat of the drum stopped, the lady holding the ‘baby’ had to answer questions about herself.

Then we divided the group into two teams and each team competed to see how many balloons they could stuff under the shirts of our two nurses. I think that you can see how much fun everyone was having.

A party here in Burkina always includes something to eat and to drink and our party was no exception. We ordered meat sandwiches from a local restaurant and everyone had her choice of coffee or tea to drink.

The goal of our party was to let each of our women know that they are so very special and that they are loved by God and loved by us. By the smiles on their beautiful faces, I think that the message was received.

Training for our Baby Caretakers

This past week, together with the other two orphanages in Yako, we held a two-day training session for all of our baby care-takers. In total there were about 40 ladies in attendance.

The discussion topics were chosen by the ladies and included: health and hygiene, the psychological development of a child, professionalism, how to prepare a child to leave the orphanage, nutrition, and balancing the responsibilities of work and home.
The sessions were taught by our social worker, Ely, as well as by a social worker sent by Social Action and by our nurse, Josephine, and by the nurses from the other two orphanages.

Everyone enjoyed extra cups of coffee, sardine sandwiches, and cups of cold water as we listened to the teaching and worked together in the break-out sessions.

The Giving Tree

I want to thank the Lord and praise Him for all the wonderful friends who share the burden of the work here in Burkina Faso. Through the years you have been faithful to fulfill the mandate to send us here, to hold us before the Lord in prayer, and to sustain us in our personal as well as project needs.

This evening I am particularly rejoicing over what God has done in and through the St Agnes Church and their school, St Agnes Academy in Massachusetts. Through the initiative of a very dear friend, Sister Linda Wilk, the school and the church held ‘a Giving Tree’ fund raiser and in less than two weeks raised over $8,000 for our school and orphanage. This is truly a gift that will keep on giving and giving as we sow into the hearts and lives of our children here in Burkina.

I met Sister Linda many years ago when she came to Burkina with a team from Operation Christmas Child. She has become a faithful personal friend to me and a faithful supporter of Sheltering Wings.


And finally, the Lord is allowing her to return to Burkina this summer and she is bringing two of her friends along with her. Hmmmmm, I am smiling in thanksgiving for what the Lord has done and in anticipation of seeing my friend again!

A New Home for our Weavers

In the past, the ladies in our weaving and soap making projects have done their work in a multi-functional area that we called the technical center.  But, this year when we decided to add one more class to our primary school, and considering that we only have a 3 classroom building, we pushed the weaving and soap making ladies literally out into the cold. 

For 4 months they worked without complaining in a temporary area out in the middle of the courtyard.  It was far from ideal but they continued to work with the promise that we would find a more permanent ‘home’ for them.   

Thanks to a generous contribution from a friend, we were able to build a new permanent work area for them, complete with electricity, where they can work protected from the sun and wind, and away from the distractions of our busy courtyard.

Now, more than ever, we will have beautiful hand-woven products for your shopping and gift-giving pleasure!  Please contact Brenda Dantico at the Sheltering Wings office (314-635-6316) if you would like to order place mats for your table, soap, or bookmarks.

Construction in progress--

Noomie, our seamstress at work!

The St Louis Blues and Burkina! What is the Connection?

At first glance one may not make this connection but the real connection is St Louis Blues fans, Tim Hunn and Stephanie Holmen, and their recent visit to Yako.  While getting to know our children, Tim and Stephanie randomly saw some of them wearing St Louis Blues and Cardinals shirts that other visitors had brought in for our children. 

Tim is a fire-fighter and Stephanie is a nurse but they both took leave of their jobs and the comfort of their homes and came to Yako  to work in the orphanage.  Tim helped to build a new work area for our weavers and our soap making projects and served as ‘handyman’ in many other much needed areas of the orphanage.  Stephanie exercised her nursing skills on several occasions as she worked with our local nurses and cared for our babies.

Thanks so much for coming to visit, Tim and Stephanie. . . . and tell the St Louis Blues that the Yako Orphanage says ‘hi’!

Sponsorship Gift Distribution

Whew! Everyone is tired this evening but it is such a ‘good’ feeling of tired. Today we held one of 2 distributions for sponsored children who were the recipients of ‘special gifts’ sent by their sponsors.

The children all came with a parent or care-taker. Some of them even arrived as much as an hour and a half early! We were ready so we took advantage of the extra time and started working with the children as soon as they arrived.

Each child colored a ‘thank you’ picture for his sponsor, got his or her picture taken to send to the sponsor, and then left with their little pile of gifts which sometimes included a new bicycle, a sac of grain, and/or a goat or two.

Lots of smiles and lots of happy families. . . and for me, a heart full of thankfulness for the wonderful sponsors who pour their love out on our children in these tangible ways.

Grandmothers and Care-takers

Getting ready for pictures.

Getting measured for new uniforms

Do you remember Lisa?

Lisa Otterpohl spent one year here with us at the orphanage in 2009-2010. She left in July, 2010 and started her university work that Fall with a major in Social Work.

This past month, Lisa has returned to Yako for a visit. She slipped right back into African life and it has been a great joy to have this time with her.

Among many other things, Lisa spent her time caring for the babies, playing with the older children, and holding art classes for our primary school children.

Thanks for remembering us, Lisa, and thanks for returning to visit.

This is Lisa interacting with some village children.

All Glory to God!

Recently, during a random visit to a village, a pastor asked whether we could look at a young boy who had injured his leg. I expected to see one of the huge ulcers which occur when a wound has not been properly cared for and infection has set in.

But, this time was much more serious. The 16 year old boy had been in a moto accident. His leg was broken and the family used only traditional medicine to treat the break and the wounds.

Now a year and a half later, there was serious infection in the leg, his foot was swollen 2 or 3 times its normal size, the bones were still broken and he was walking with crutches.

We called Dr Zala in Ouayaghuia and made arrangements to take Moise and his father to see the doctor on the following Friday.

Upon arriving at the hospital and having x-rays made, we learned that the leg was broken in two places and that his body was actually generating new bone to replace the now dead bone.

But, the most amazing part of our day was that we learned that there was a team of surgeons and bone specialists arriving that very week-end and we were able to put Moise’s name on the list to see the specialists.

This past week, Moise had surgery and we learned this evening that he is doing well. We do not know many details about the procedure but we do know that the surgeons were able to save his leg.

God’s ways are mysterious and His timing is perfect!!! We thank God for playing this small part in getting Moise where he needed to be in order to see the specialists that God brought all the way to Burkina.

Toys for Tots--

This past week we received a wonderful gift from the Toys for Tots Program sponsored by the US Marines. Four Marines from the US Embassy here in Burkina came to Yako with a huge box of toys for our children.















The toys were for children of all ages from the babies to the primary school age children. There were also several soccer balls for our older boys who love to play ‘football’ as it is called here.















Because there were not enough toys for each child in our primary school, our director chose 5 or 6 of the neediest children from each class and we invited them to stay after school for something special. It was heart-warming to see the smiles of some of our children who possibly had never received a gift of a toy before.










It was also great fun for us to meet our new Marine friends and to introduce them to the project.















Thank you so much to the Marines inside of Burkina and outside who promote this wonderful program throughout the world.

Visit from Messiah College

We were blessed by a visit from students and professors from Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania this week. The whole Burkina team was 14 people who divided into smaller groups and visited various places of ministry in Burkina. Three education majors and 2 professors came to visit Yako.

The students earned credit in cultural studies and also towards their ‘student teaching’ hours as they taught prepared lessons in each of our primary classrooms. The team leader, Angela Hare, also taught lessons in our 5^th and 6^th grade classes.

In addition to teaching, the students melted into daily life with us and participated in caring for the babies and a myriad of other orphanage activities.

Thanks so much for the visit, Messiah College, and we look forward to more times together in the future.