Baby Moussa

We received a new baby this week. His name is Moussa and he has already been nicknamed Moose and Mini Moose. Moose was born on Feb 12^th and seems to be full-term. He weighed in at a little over 5 pounds.

Moose's mama died this past week so we will care for him until the family has some time to stabilize and Papa either finds a new wife or finds an aunt or grandmother to take care of Moose.

Please pray for Moose. He is eating well but he may have a bit of a reflux problem in that he often throws up almost all that he eats.

Nurses from St Louis

This month we are privileged to have a visit from two nurses, Katy Frankel and Lyndsay Kleekamp from St. Louis. Katy has specialized in neonatal intensive care and Lyndsay has specialized in post-op intensive care.

Both Katy and Lyndsay very quickly slipped into daily life with us here in Yako. At any time during the day, they are found interacting and working with our nurses, Josie and Bea, hugging and caring for our babies, playing with our older children, cooking and baking, etc.

It is a joy to have these young women here with us. They have come with expertise and hearts to serve. This month is already going so quickly and I for one, do not want it to end.

Thank you, Freeman Fourth Graders and Teachers!

The Fourth Grade students at Freeman School, Aurora, Illinois, celebrated Valentine's Day by sharing their love with students in Burkina Faso, West Africa, by hosting L.A.P.S. for Love. L.A.P.S. for Love stands for Let's All Provide Supplies. The students walked four laps around their school yard to raise funds to build another classroom for Therese's former school in Yako, Burkina Faso.

The children raised money by finding people to sponsor them per lap and by seeking donations.

LAPS of Love was a huge success! Together, these students raised $2100. This money will go a long way to further the education of students in Burkina Faso. More than that, the Freeman children showed the children of Burkina that they care about them and that they are worthy of an education.

Donna Meets her Sponsored Kids--

Donna Schroeder is here to visit her daughter, Becky, to visit Burkina, to eat tô, and to experience whatever each days brings to her. Today we went out to visit the Schroeder's two sponsored children. Both of their children are little first grade boys, one living inside of Yako and the other living about 10 kilometers outside of town.

Rachid is a very timid and shy little guy who was singing and dancing inside, but was sitting still and stoic on the outside.

Alidou is a more outgoing little guy and his eyes were dancing as he realized that inside the bag was a t-shirt, a ballcap, a harmonica, and other special things. . . just for him.

Both families were blessed by a 200 bag of rice and a few other very practical things for preparing the family meals.

Video of the Drilling

If you want to watch a short video of the drilling, just 36 seconds long, click here!

Water at the School Property!

A team from Fada, north-east Burkina, were here on Monday and Tuesday, drilling for water on our school property. And, they found water!!!

This is the first of hopefully three wells that we will drill with the money sent from Faith Lutheran Church in St Louis, MO. Thank you Faith Lutheran for this gift of life and for the opportunity to introduce the people who live right around the school property to the 'living water'.

They well is 61 meters deep. The water will be tested in the next few weeks to assure that it is pure. But, at this depth the drilling team is certain that the water is pure.

This week, another team will arrive and begin pouring the concrete terrace that will be the foundation for installing the hand pump.

We are thankful to the Lord for all that He is doing for the children of Burkina!
Thank you so much for your faithful prayer support and for your partnership in our projects here.

Mobile Nursing Units

This month we held our first medical outreach in a neighboring village about 14 kilometers from Yako, a village called Doure. We worked with a local pastor, the village chief, and several of the village fathers to arrange a temporary shelter that was placed under some nice trees so that the mothers and children were not waiting in the hot sun to see the nurses.

The nurses treated over 100 children. Four of the children were very sick, with very high fevers. But before leaving our temporary clinic their temperatures had started to go down.

This month, we have two nurses visiting from St Louis, Katy Frankel and Lyndsay Kleekamp, Katy and Lyndsay worked shoulder to shoulder with our nurses Josie and Bea to evaluate and treat the children.

We will be returning to Doure each week now and hope to also start this project in another village very soon. This video shows some of the hundreds of mothers and children who came for medical treatment. The need is so great! We could go out everyday into a different village and still not begin to be able to meet the need. But, we are thankful for this opportunity that the Lord has given us to help the children.

Thank you, Riddering Team

Still catching up on things that happened last month--

We received a wonderful visit from a team of 6 from Missouri and Florida. They were Jeff Riddering, Mike and Delaney Riddering (father and daughter), and, Brenden, Kathy, and Kelsey Graczak. (This was Brenden's second visit and he brought his mother and sister with him.) Jeff and Mike held a 3-day seminar for the believers here in Yako on the theme of 'Signs of the End Times'. And the team worked in our baby rooms, painted baby cribs and our monkey bars, re-built the walls around the orphanage kitchen and the primary school kitchen, installed electricity in one of the huts that we have built. . . . and encouraged us in many, many other ways.

We have lots count of how many times Jeff has been to Burkina, but it is always a tremendous blessing to have a 'Jeff Riddering team' here to visit.

Baby Rachid

We received a new baby last week named, Rachid. He is 4 months old and his mama just died. Rachid's story is that his mama was very young and was engaged to be married. While she was waiting for her wedding date, it become known that she was pregnant and not by her fiance.

The waiting husband agreed to take Rachid's mother as his wife but refused to take the baby as his own. While the family was waiting for Rachid to be old enough to be weaned, his mother became sick and died.

We will take care of Rachid until he is one year old and then he will integrate into the family of his father where one of his father's wives will care for Rachid.

Video Team

Our second team to visit in the month of January was from St Louis and they were a team of 5 people, John and Sharon Anderson, Jim and Shari Grueninger, and Scott Armstrong. The purpose of this team's visit was to take photographs, still shots and video to use in making promotional materials for Sheltering Wings.

Their time with us was short, just one week, but it was power-packed and we felt that God gave us divine opportunities to capture on video various aspects of our project here.

Please pray for Scott that the Lord will lead and guide him as he completes the tedious work of editing and that the end product will bring glory to the Lord and will present clear images of the Sheltering Wings story.

A Gift from Manna Relief

We received a huge gift of a dietary supplement called PhytoBlend from Manna Relief this month. PhytoBlend powder provides our children with natural vitamins and plant-sourced minerals in nutritionally effective amounts and will be added to the food for the children in the orphanage and in our schools each day. For the children in our schools, their lunch is the most nutritionally sound food these children will eat all day. And for some, it is the only meal that they eat per day.

Our children say 'Thank you Manna Relief' for making this available to us and thank you to each of you who contributed to the 'Spare Change for Real Change' program to make it possible for us to have this product!

Jill and Alyssa return to Australia

Our Australian friends, Jill and Alyssa, left the end of January to return home and to start another year of university. After spending 2 months with us here in Yako, we have many, many happy memories of our time together. Jill and Alyssa will be missed by everyone, our children, our workers, and Becky and I here in the house.

In addition to leaving memories, the girls brought funds to buy more school books and to build another 'hut' in our courtyard to protect our children from the sun and to give them a place to study in the evenings.

Thank you, Jill and Alyssa, for coming all the way to Yako to visit us, for all that you did for us while you were here, and for the sweet memories that you left with us.

New School Books

Our Australian friends, Jill and Alyssa, came in with big hearts to serve and also with contributions from home to buy more school books. We had already bought some books but were still in need. Thanks to their fund raising efforts and faithful friends from Australia we were able to buy new books for our primary school and for our 7th grade class.

For our 7th grade class we bought History books and copies of a novel that the children needed for their French class.

This is a picture of Alyssa and our 7th grade class.

Meet Josias

Introducing Josias, born on December 13, 2010!

Josias came into the orphanage on Jan 1st. His story is that his mama is not well mentally and his papa is unknown. There are a few holes in his story. . . . but pending more in depth information and a home study, Josias will probably be available for adoption.

Josias is good size for a Burkinabe newborn and he is eating good!

Emma has a Home in Denmark

Emma has a Home in Denmark

Another of our little ones, Emma, made it home to Denmark in time for Christmas.

Emma was abandoned in the bush as a newborn infant and Social Action placed her in our orphanage. After preparing all of her papers and placing her on the national list of children available for adoption, she was proposed to a couple in Denmark.

After waiting for long years through the adoption process in Denmark and then waiting for Emma's case to go to court in Burkina, Thomas and Jean arrived in Burkina in December to pick up their child.

Emma is now two years old. She was a little shy but after just a few minutes, she allowed her new mother and father to take her in their arms and to release all of the love that they had waited for so long to give to her.

We are rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord in giving a child to these parents and that their child. . . . is our Emma.

Dec. Food Distributions

Sponsorship Food Distribution

Sponsorship food distributions are held in December and in June. This month we held distributions in six different distribution centers in and around Yako. The distribution centers are churches where there are clusters of children who live right around the church. The children come to a weekly meeting at the church where our workers stay in close contact with each child to monitor their progress in school, monitor their health and to introduce them to Jesus.

This month we distributed 200 pound sacs of corn and soap to 110 of our sponsored children who are living in extended family situations and attending local schools.

In December, we hold the distributions right before Christmas so that the family will have a little extra for their Christmas preparations. As usual, the distributions were times of great joy in seeing each of the children again..

I love this picture. This is Nonwendi, a sponsored child from Songnaba, a small village about 10 kilometers outside of Yako. Isn't she beautiful?

Yako Christmas Tree Ceremony

The Christmas Tree Ceremony

Each year in Yako a Christmas Tree Ceremony is held and gifts of food, blankets, and clothes are given to vulnerable children and to the aged by the government. This year we were busy with sponsorship distributions on the day of the Christmas Tree Ceremony so I did not plan to attend.

But, at 10 in the morning of the day of the ceremony, I received a call saying that I must be at the ceremony by 2 PM because the orphanage would be receiving a gift. Of course, this was a pleasant surprise and we scrambled to re-arrange responsibilities so that I could be free to go to the ceremony.

In total, a meal was provided for 300 children and 35 senior citizens, all social cases, and they were each given a gift of rice, some clothes and a blanket.

Then, 2 orphanages, ours and another one in town, and an association which works in the domain of AIDS each received 100 pounds of rice, 400 pounds of corn, some clothing and soap.

We are thankful for this surprise gift which made our Christmas dinner just a little sweeter and gave each of our children a new outfit of clothing.

A Visit from France

A Return visit to Burkina for Jacques and his Parents

This past week we have enjoyed a visit from France of Jacques and his parents.

Jacques was adopted in 2006 when he was not quite 2 years old and he is now 6 years old and in the first grade. The family lives in a small village in the Alps, near the border of Switzerland.

Jacques is doing wonderfully well and his parents are delightful. They will be spending Christmas with us here in Yako and then will do a little traveling and sightseeing in Burkina before returning home in mid-January.

Yesterday, the family searched out and found the village where Jacques was born. They took pictures of the village and the maternity ward where he was born to save for him as he grows older. Jacques is 100% French and 100% Burkinabe. Within hours he had blended right in with our children here at the orphanage, playing soccer with the primary school boys and eating tô with our children. He speaks beautiful French. . . of course, and is a delightful little boy.

Therese and her family

We have had a very sweet week-end with Therese's mother, grandmother, and sister here in Yako. Today we will be going to Ouaga for Therese's physical exam required by the US Embassy. The family will stay in Ouaga for a few days while all of their papers are finished and I will return to Yako to introduce little Emma who is going to Denmark with her new family.

Last night we had a little party so that our children could say 'goodbye' to Therese. It was bitter-sweet, but everyone is happy for Therese and her family. This picture was taken on an outing to visit a man-made resevoir outside of Yako.

Jill and Alyssa from Australia

The Australians have Arrived!

I would like to introduce two beautiful young ladies to you, Jill Ennever and Alyssa Craig from Australia. Jill and Alyssa arrived in Burkina on November 30^th. They will work with us at the orphanage for 2 months.

Jill is here fulfilling a public service requirement for a course at her university. Alyssa has just finished high school and has come along as a friend of Jill's and has come with a heart to work.

Both of the girls are already involved and integrated into the orphanage. Their days are filled with loving on and caring for our babies, playing soccer and other games with the primary school children and older children and helping me with administrative things. This past week they were able to make a trip to Ouaga on the public bus to attend a soccer game between Egypt and Mali.

In the picture, Jill is on the left and Alyssa is on the right. In the middle is a young girl that we discovered while doing the widows' distribution that needs a sponsor so that she can go back to school.