Just wanted to send you a couple more photos of the progress on our school. The foundation has been dug. After just 4 or 6 inches of soil, they workers hit solid rock and it was a lot of work but everyone is saying that we have excellent ground on which to build. The foundation is not dug very deep here, but our building will be sitting on a foundation of solid rock both in the natural and in Jesus.
The concrete bricks are made on site as well as the iron for the reinforced cement. The wind blew down the temporary shelter that had been built to protect the bricks from the sun. But, we have had a couple of days of reprieve from the sun and the temporary shelter will be re-built in just a couple of days.
This past Thursday was the first weekly progress meeting for the construction of our new school. All of the main players were in attendance, the contractor and his son, the head mason, the controller, the director of our school and myself.
The meeting was short but in important in that the controller read through the quality requirements of the contract including the specifics for the amount of bricks made from each bag of cement, the diameter of iron used for the reinforced foundation and support poles, the dimensions for the building, the walls, the terrace, etc. Everyone present signed the first meeting report.
After the signing of the meeting notes, the controller reviewed the orientation of the building and re-measured the foundation that had been staked out.
Please pray for our contractor and his son. Our contractor, Issa, is a Muslim man and at the end of our meeting, he asked me to pray for the project and for the work that was to be done. Of course, we are praying daily that God will direct the progress of the building and protect the workers as they do their work. But, even more importantly, please pray with us that the Holy Spirit of God will give Issa revelation of the Father's heart of love and of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus.
We are so excited! God is doing wondrous things for us!
Yesterday was an exciting and unusual day in Yako. In the morning was an opening celebration of the 'Tomato Market'. The region of Yako is one of the largest producers of tomatoes in all of Burkina and the market is being setup as a place where producers and buyers can come together in one place to do business.
Then in the afternoon there was another ceremony to open a soccer tournament here in the region. And, part of the ceremony included a donkey race. Ten little boys sat on the back of their donkeys while beating them and urging them on to win the race.
We had the most wonderful privilege last month of meeting Celine's adoptive parents and introducing Celine to them. Mama and Papa and 6-year old sister came to Yako and stayed with us for 4 days. We laughed and played together, ate together, and were privileged to share almost moment by moment the integration of a child into her new family. They are each doing very well as they are learning how to give and receive love from each other.
Celine is 2 ½ and this is a picture of her and her family as they arrived home.
Every adoption that we have the privilege of participating in puts me in touch once again with God's great plan for our adoption into the family of God. We are chosen by Him, loved by Him, and grafted into His family just as Celine was chosen, is now loved, and part of a new family!
1 March, 2010 Kadi was born prematurely at about 7 months. Her mother and father were not married. Her mother did not receive adequate pre-natal care. Her mother died in childbirth.
Kadi had essentially been left to die by her mother's family. For 3 days after her birth, Kadi was not given anything to eat, not even water to drink. Her father who is a married man with 3 children took her to the maternity ward in his community and the nurse there called us asking for help.
We went to pick her up and as quickly as possible got her to Ouagadougou where there is a neo-natal ward who received her. Although she weighed only 1 kilo 900 grams we were hopeful that with good care, Kadi would make it.
But, we received a call this morning that Kadi has passed away. Although we are mourning the loss of Kadi, we are thankful for even the few hours that we had to hold her and to love her. Her life here on earth was very short. She did not have a birth certificate. She did not have a death certificate. Her father did not even want to give her his name. Although her short time here on earth was hard, Kadi is now singing and dancing around the throne of Jesus. She is no longer suffering. She will never again be hungry or mistreated. She is in the Arms of Love.
Little Dresses for Africa There is a project called 'Little Dresses for Africa' and we have been the recipient now of 3 groups of ladies making these dresses and sending them to us. Last September when torrential rains hit Ouagadougou we were able to give 150 dresses to families who had lost everything except what they could carry when the flood waters washed their homes away.
This week, Lisa and Sarah planned a party for the girls in our school and gave each little girl a new dress. The purpose of the party was to teach the girls the value of women in society and to inspire them to be all that they can be 'in Jesus'.
They played games, sang songs, and Sarah taught them the story from Matthew 19 where Jesus said 'Let the little children come to me'. Each little girl also took home a little heart that said 'Jesus loves you'.
Chicken Project This past year Sheltering Wings was the recipient of a grant from the J Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust in the amount of $2,500. The money was to build a project to raise chickens and to expand our weaving project.
Last summer, we built a chicken house out of concrete blocks with a concrete floor and a concrete pad surrounding the house. We enclosed the chicken yard with wire fencing. And, we were ready to buy chickens. We bought chickens 3 times and each time within a few days to a week, the chickens died. One time, they were too small. The other two times, they were not vaccinated and they died. But, the 4th time, we took the chickens from the animal market straight to the veterinarian to be vaccinated. And, after 2 weeks we can now say that our chickens are thriving!
We are now looking forward to our chickens producing eggs for our children to eat.
For the weaving project, we bought a new loom and now have 3 young women weaving. Two of our weavers are now experienced and they are helping to teach and train our third weaver.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Dear Family and Friends, 22 February, 2010
Another new baby in the orphanage!
I would like to introduce David to you. He came to the orphanage when he was just 9 hours old. He was born in Arbole, a small town about 35 kilometers from Yako. His mother is not well mentally and his father is unknown.
Social Action will do an investigation to see if there is anyone in the mother's family who wants David and if not, he will be available for adoption.
Herman has a place in school!
Herman is a little 8 year old who has been blind since birth. We first met Herman in 2008 and began trying to find a place for him in a school for the blind in Ouagadougou. The school only accpets 10 new students for the first grade each year and there was at a 2 to 3 year waiting list to have a place in the school.
But, this year a new school for the blind opened in Ouayaghuia, a town about 70 kilometers north of Yako. And, we were able to get a place for Herman among the 10 first graders accepted in the school.
We are thankful to the Lord for this place in school for Herman. Please pray for Herman as he adjusts and adapts to his new family and his new experiences in school.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Dear Family and Friends, 13 February, 2010
The house is finished! It took just 2 ½ weeks to tear down a house and re-build it. Grandmother and the twins, Mouniratou and Rachidatou are thrilled and are now living in a new house that has 2 rooms, a concrete floor, a door and two windows. They also have a privacy wall on the front and side which was made from bricks that we were able to salvage from the old house.
Grandmother was literally speechless. All she could say was 'thank you so much, thank you Lord'. We also are thankful to the Lord that we could give this gift to this family. Many, many houses fell in this year from the terrible rains and hard winds and many families are still suffering from their losses. But, we are thankful that this one very special little family are now safe and happy in their new home.
A New Baby in the Orphanage
I want to introduce you to Salif. He was born on February 12, 2010. He comes from a village about 50 kilometers from Yako. It is a rather isolated village and the roads between here and there are very bad. Often during the rainy season the roads are impassable with a vehicle and nearly impassable with a moto.
Salif's mother is not well mentally. He was sexually abused and Salif is the product of this abuse. The mother gave birth completely alone and only when the family heard the baby crying did they know that he was born.
Salif's mother is not able to care for herself and she is totally unable to care for a child.
In this culture, the children belong to the father's family. Since Salif's father is unknown, there is no one in his mother's family who is willing to take care of him. Even though the mother is not well mentally, the fact that she became pregnant and gave birth outside of marriage is a terrible shame to the family. And, the family does not want the product of this shame to remain in the family.
Salif's grandfather brought him to the orphanage asking us to take him and to find a home for him. It is possible that Salif will be available for adoption but for now, we will care for Salif and pray over him as we wait for a final decision from the family to release Salif for adoption.
Please consider partnering with us to save the children of Burkina by sponsoring a child from our orphanage or a child from our school. If you would like to make a commitment to a child, visit our website at www.sheltering-wings.org or send me a note at yakorphans@gmail.com.
Our short-term worker, Sarah, recently heard about a bible society in France who provides a good quality Bible for no charge. Sarah wrote to them describing our orphanage and the number of children that we have here and asked for 50 Bibles. Well, the Bibles arrived last week and we were able to give a Bible to each of our children who are old enough to read.
Most of our children had at least a New Testament but very few of them had a whole Bible of their own. Here are a couple of pictures that show the great joy that it is to have a Bible of your very own.
I was overwhelmed with joy at seeing the joy of our children receiving these Bibles. Our prayer that that the Word of God will be planted even more deeply in each of their hearts.
Visitors from St Louis--
This past week we had a wonderful visit from Pastor Jeff Riddering and Brenden Graczak from my home church, Southgate, in St Louis. This was Jeff's 4th visit to Burkina and Brenden's 1st visit.
Each day was so filled with activity and divine appointments that it is difficult to summarize their trip. But, some of the highlights were visiting their sponsored children in their villages and tearing down and then re-building a house for another of our sponsored children.
This is a picture of Jeff and his sponsored child in front of her house.
Mouniratou is the youngest of 7 children. Her father has died and she is being cared for by her mother. Only 2 of the 7 children are in school. Mouniratou is in the 3rd grade.
Mouni's mother said that without the help of the sponsorship program, she is not sure what she would have done. She said, 'There were days that she thought about leaving all and running away'. But, with the help brought to her through the sponsorship program, she found the courage to stay and to care for her children.
This is a photo of the re-building of a grandmother's house. This grandmother has raised her twin granddaughters since they were 2 years old. This past September their house started falling in during a storm of hard rain and strong winds. They family got safetly out of the house but were no longer able to sleep there.
With lots of help, it took only about 4 hours to tear the old house down and then the next day, we started building a new house out of mud bricks. In the next 4 or 5 days, Grandmother and the twins will be safely re-installed in their new house.
Thanks for your visit, Jeff and Brenden. We love you and please come back again soon!
Thanks to your generosity, we have partied so much this year! This past Monday, Jan 4th was a holiday here so we planned a huge party for our sponsored children. We have estimated that about 125 of our children came. Some came from right here in Yako and some came from 10 or 12 kilometers away. They came on foot and on bicycle and they started arriving at 6:30 in the morning. Everyone came looking forward to having fun!
Our day was filled with serious times and fun and games times and since 'a picture is worth a thousand words', I will not bore you with long sentences but will show you the highlights of the day through some pictures.
Our day started with with prayer, singing songs, and listening to the story of Jesus.
Twelve children gave their hearts to Jesus for the first time. On the right is Pastor Valentin praying with the children.
Next each small group from our local area churches presented a dance routine or a skit. The children really enjoy these times. Everyone did their very best to prepare and afterwards we voted on the best performance. The Sector 3 church won with their animated performance of 'Father Abraham had Many Sons'. For lunch we enjoyed riz gras, a traditional African dish with fried fish and vegetables. Connie, Mme Kindo, and Sarata served the children.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in playing games. There were 7 stations set up where the children could pass from game to game as they wanted. They went fishing at the fish pond, were challenged by an obstacle course, tried to follow an obstacle course by using a mirror, loved the sac races!, played marbles, and other team games. Here are some pictures of game time.
At the end, each child received a small gift and left with smiles on their faces and parting words of 'we'll do this again next year'. It was a great day and our local childrens' workers made the day a great success. These last 2 pictures are of children heading home and of a little boy giving us a gift of a chicken. . . . . his family's way of saying thank-you.
Again, thank you so much for reaching out to and loving the children of Burkina through the sponsorship program. Your children are thriving. You are making a difference in the lives of your children. We have letters from each child and new photos that you will be receiving in the next month or so. . . . as soon as we can get them from this side of the world to yours!
Thank you so much for your generous response to my request for funds for a Christmas party! So many of you responded and this really touched my heart.
We have partied now 3 times with the orphanage children. On the evening of the 23rd Sarah, Lisa and Ruth, (my short-termers who are here) planned an evening of fun and games. We played Twister which was great fun and then we played another game where each person tied a balloon on his ankle and then tried to pop the balloons of the others without getting their own balloon popped. This was just a riot with 25 kids hopping and dancing around the courtyard trying to pop their neighbor's balloon. The girls had baked cookies so at the end we sat together telling and acting out the Christmas story, eating snacks and drinking kool-aid.
On Christmas morning, each child received a gift. Because of your generosity, we were able to have matching outfits made for everyone. The children love this. The girls picked out the fabric and two local taillors made our outfits. The boys each received a new pair of shoes and the girls received hair extentions. And, everyone received lotion, candy, and a packet of cookies.
Although you may not recognize them, these are some of our children acting out a skit at church on Christmas Eve. The message of the skit was that Jesus is more powerful than anything that the enemy can try to do to us. The boy in the chair was the son of a animistic village chief who converted to Christianity. During the night he was tormented by demons but he cried out the name of Jesus and the demons left. The next morning he began telling his father and younger brother what the Lord had done for him and they also committed their lives to Jesus. The people in the congregation were clapping and cheering! I was really proud of our kids!
January 1, 2010
Hmmmmm, I wonder how many times I will write 2009 and send it out without catching it this year? I hope that you all have a blessed and properous New Year!
We celebrated the New Year at the church last night with singing and dancing, drama, preaching and praying! Some of our older children did not get home until around 2 AM and then the boys were up again at 7 killing and dressing the sheep which will be part of our traditional holiday meal. With the meat, we will have huge bowls of spaghetti.
Right after lunch, Ruth, from England, and I will leave for Ouaga, a bit of shopping, dinner, and then on to the airport for her to catch her flight home. It has been a joy to have Ruth here with us. She came in during her Christmas break from university and spent 3 weeks with us. It will be hard to say 'good-bye' to Ruth. Within just a few days, she had slipped into our African family life and the children all adore her.This is a picture of Ruth and Yolande, one of our girls, at our Christmas party.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope that your holiday season is filled with the love and peace of the Christ Child.
Distribution News-- Last week we faced one challenge after another ranging from a couple of our local the pastors double booking their churches during the distribution hours, to the grain for the distribution not arriving until 10 PM Friday night (the first distribution was set for 8 AM Saturday). BUT, in the afternoon distribution at the Central Church, 15 children responded to the invitation to invite Jesus in their hearts. Oh, it was all worth it! What is a little opposition from the enemy when the Lord has gone before us and prepared the hearts of his children?
In total, there were 160 happy families with grain and some supplies for their holiday preparations. We are so thankful for each of our sponsored children. Thank you for caring for them and for giving us the opportunity to touch each of these families. The Lord has promised that His Word will never return void and He is a faithful God.
As I sit here and reflect on what to write my first thoughts are 'where did this year go'? It is almost scary to see that we are at the end of the year.
My recent trip home was quite outstanding! I am so thankful for the faithfulness of the Lord. He is so good!
I traveled with my mom to the East coast to see my sister and her husband, and my daughter, Stephanie, and her boys. We celebrated Thankgsgiving together, the first time in many years.
I traveled to the Northwest to visit with Adoption Advocates International and enjoyed meeting all the players there who are working on Burkina adoptions. I also greatly enjoyed touring Olympic National Park, driving along the coast, and passing through Forks, WA. . . . yes, the Forks, WA, the setting of the book series, 'Twilight'. :)
Then I continued on to Hawaii to visit with my Chinese friend, Grace, her husband, Pat, and their little boy, Josh. Pat took time off from work to take me sightseeing and to tour the island of Ouahu. It was great fun.
Between trips I had wonderful times in St Louis. The family there are all doing well and it was really great to have had time to go to a grandson's school play, attend ballet class with Lillian, visit with friends, and of course, sit an enjoy coffee at every opportunity.
Upon returning to Burkina, I found everything in the orphanage, school, and clinic working smoothly and in order. Our local leaders and all of the employees did a great job of seeing that everyone and everything was properly taken care of.
Although hoping for a slow re-entry into African life, when I arrived I learned that we had been invited to attend an international forum on adoption in Ouaga this past week. There were 20 nations represented from West Africa and from Europe, and 275 participants. The meetings were informative as we listened to speakers from Africa and from Europe and challenging as we grappled with how to meet the great need that poverty brings to the children of the world. Some of Burkina's staggering statistics are that almost 1 in 10 women die in childbirth and 1 in 4 children die before the age of 5.
While I was away Sarah and Liza stayed in Yako becoming more and more involved in the lives of our children. They are teaching English in our school, teaching German to some of our older children, loving on and caring for the babies, and interacting on many different levels with all of the children and our employees. I am very thankful for them and for all that they are bringing to daily life in the orphanage.
A Wedding Announcement--
This past Saturday, we attended the wedding of Pastor Salou's daughter, Tinbnoma. The wedding was held in Ouaga and the bride and groom will be soon be moving to Bobo where Eloi is employed as an accountant. The wedding was beautiful and here is a picture of the bride and groom.
The next two weeks will be full of Christmas activities. The sponsorship program will hold a food distribution and also a Christmas party for all of the children. The orphanage and the school will have Christmas parties. Our emphasis this year as in past years will be evangelism. Among other activities the children will be watching a child appropriate film and one of our local pastors will be explaining to them the glorious birth of the Lord, Jesus.
The children in the orphanage are all involved in preparing for the Christmas Eve service at church. The children will present special songs, special dance routines, and drama that they have worked on for the past few weeks. For us here in Burkina, the Christmas Eve service is the highlight of our celebrations. It is a time where everyone comes to church and everyone enjoys what the children have prepared.
In the past 2 weeks we have said 'goodbye' to two dear friends, Miriah Hodgins and Liz Richert. Miriah returned to Canada on September 1st after spending 4 months with us here in Burkina. And, Liz returned to the States on September 15th after spending 11 months with us. During their time in Yako, they labored and ministered in caring for the babies in the orphanage, in teaching at our primary school, in tutoring children in reading, English, and basic math skills, in conducting a weekly Bible Club for children in our neighborhood, in a Vacation Bible School, in home visits of our sponsored children, in preparing home
studies for prospective sponsored children, in teaching English, in typing tedious French documents, in planning movie nights and fun activities for our older children, in praying with our children, in singing in the church choirs, etc., etc., etc.
Both of these young women left a legacy of love in the hearts of our children and our local church. Everyone from the youngest of our babies to the oldest of our secondary school children were impacted by your living Christian message, Liz and Miriah. Everyone loves you and misses you!
Preparations for 'Back to School'
My observation is that no matter where you are in the world, this time of year brings a flurry of ivity in getting children ready to go back to school. And, Yako is no exception to this phenomena. This year we have 27 school age children in the orphanage, 120 children in our primary school, and 190 children in our sponsorship program and 'most needy list' who we are sending to school. In total, that is 337 children to verify that they are enrolled in school, pay their school fees, order their school uniforms, and buy their school supplies.
The official first day of school here in Burkina is October 1st. For our primary school, teachers will be in place, school rooms will be prepared and school books and supplies will be in order. But, because we live in a rural area and harvesting of the millet will not yet be completed, most of our children will still be needed at home to work in the fields. School will actually start for us towards the 10th to 15th of October.
Raising the flag ceremony
New Children in the Orphanage--
Each year at 'back to school time' our orphanage family usually grows by 3 or 4 children. This year is not looking to be an exception to this trend. Georges is a vulnerable child who has come to the orphanage so that he can continue his studies. Georges parents are both living but his father abandoned his family many years ago. Georges' mother sells peanuts and sometimes wood in her village in order to try to provide for herself and her children.
Georges is a good student. He is 17 years old and he is in the 10th grade this year.
Abdoul Karim was born on Aug 21, 2009. Because Abdoul's mother is not well mentally, she refused to nurse him and even tried to kill him. When Abdoul's father realized that the child was in danger he took Abdoul to Social Action who then called us to see if we could care for Abdoul. We will keep Abdoul until he is 12 months old and then he will integrate back into his family. This will give his father time to get treatment for his mother and if necessary, find someone else in the family to care for Abdoul.
Soumaila was born on Sept 26, 2009. His mother also is not well mentally and is not capable of caring for him. Soum's father wants him and has assured us that he will find someone in the family who is willing and capable of caring for the baby. We will care for him until he is 12 months old.
Soum is very tiny, possibly pre-mature. When he came into the orphanage he weighed 1,450 kilos or just a little more than 3 pounds. We tried to get Soum into the neo-natal ward in Ouagadougou but they would not accept him because he is already over one week old. Today we took Soum to Ouayaghuia to a private pediatric clinic because he is not eating and is becoming dehydrated. Please pray for Soum. Dr Zala thinks that he is strong and that with good care he will survive.
New Short-Term Missionaries!
Sarah and Lisa are from Germany and they arrived in Yako on September 26th. They have come to work with us for 11 months and they have come to us through the mission SIM (Serving In Missions). Sarah and Lisa are settling into daily life at the orphanage very quickly and tomorrow will start working with our toddlers in a pre-school class.
Upcoming trip home--
In the midst of all the normal activities here I am planning and looking forward to a trip home. I will be home for 6 weeks and the purpose of this trip is rest and relaxation. I will be in the ST Louis area for most of my time home but am also planning a couple short trips here and there to see friends and family.
I will be leaving here on Oct 15th and will leave the States to return here on Nov 30th. I look forward to catching up with each one of you!
It is amazing how quickly things can turn around here. Sometimes it seems like we work and pray and work and pray. . . . and nothing seems to be happening. And, then there are times like these where things are falling into place faster than we can keep up. In all things, God is in control and I am thankful for this.
Adoption News--
We have been working with Adoption Advocates International (AAI) in the state of Washington for over a year now, hoping to place some of Burkina's children in American homes. But, without our even being aware of it, Burkina had suspended all requests for recognition of US agencies and all US requests for children. Their reasons for this suspension are lengthy and complicated and it has been very frustrating to suddenly learn that the path we were going down was not the path that we had expected it to be.
Then this past week I was in Ouaga with Gay Knutson, a representative from AAI, and in a meeting with Social Action, we learned that AAI has been approved for accreditation with Burkina and that Burkina would now receive requests for children through AAI. How amazing that these decisions have been completely turned around in just a matter of a few weeks and that now we are free to again move forward on US adoptions!
In several meetings, Gay was able to offer the hope that AAI would be able to place some of Burkina's special needs children in American homes. Here the term special needs includes children with physical and/or mental handicaps but also children who are over the age of 6. Throughout the world, the majority of couples ask for a small child, usually under the age of 3. But, the heart is American is great, and many, many Americans have opened their hearts to the 'special needs' children of the world.
We will be placing healthy children but we are also excited and encouraged to see what God is going to do in the lives of these special children and their special God-chosen adoptive families.
Celine Has a Family!
And more adoption news is that our little one, Celine, has been referred to a couple in Italy for adoption. Celine is now an 18 month old toddler who is full of smiles and giggles. Celine's parents are 4th generation cousins but because of the customs here, she was not accepted into the family.
In times past, a child like Celine would be thrown down a well or left out in the bush to die. But, because of the work of Social Action and because of centers like ours, these children are now being rescued and are available for adoption.
Celine's papers are all complete and there will now be a 4 to 6 month wait for her parents while her case goes through the legal process of adoption here in Burkina.
