Kids Bible Club in Doure

This evening, we participated in another Kids' Bible Club in Doure. Local children's leaders led the singing and told the Bible story, and Rebecca and I brought a small craft for the children to work on.

There were 105 children who came to the club. At the end, when the children's worker, Renwende gave an opportunity for the children to ask Jesus into their heart, 5 children raised their hands and came forward for prayer.

These children were from an unbelieving home but after hearing about the love of Jesus, they wanted to invite Him into their hearts.

We are thanking and praising Jesus for the work that He is doing in the tiny village of Doure.

27 July, 2011

This has been such a busy time that it has been hard to find the time to write.

Maria Casaleggi and Rachel Holper from St Louis came and worked with us and have already left. Thank you so much, Maria and Rachel, for sewing into the lives of our children and for blessing us with your smiles and warm hearts.

Kelsey Graczak and Rebecca Dalton, also from St Louis, traveled back to Burkina with me and they still have about 2 more weeks with us. Kelsey and Rebecca have cared for our babies, played with the older children, participated in sponsorship distributions, held VBSs in neighboring villages, and many, many more things. They have definitely left their imprint on us and all of our children.

Anna McLees, from Virginia, has been with us for one month now. Anna is a teacher and also a talented artist. Anna has worked with several of our primary school age children tutoring

them in reading, writing, and math. She also painted a mural on one of the walls of our older baby room. Rebecca also helped in this project. Thank you so much, Anna, for all that you have done for us and for our children at the orphanage.

Finally, we finished the food distributions for June. We held distributions in six different centers and each child's family received a 200 pound bag of corn and some soap. This is a picture of distribution day at the Sayo church.

Three weeks ago now we started a weekly Bible club for the children in Doure. The first week there were about 30 children in attendance. The second week there were 60 children and this past Sunday, there were 90 children at the Bible club. We are training 2 of the children's workers of the Doure church to hold these meetings. We sing with the children, tell them a Bible story and then do a simple craft or play a game with them. This past week, the pastor told us that there are now about twice as many children coming to the Sunday morning service as there were before starting the Bible club.

We are thankful for this opportunity to sew into the lives of this next generation of Burkina society.

Mobile Nursing Clinic

Yesterday our nurse, Bea, held the weekly children's clinic in Doure. Kelsey and Rebecca and I went along to help in whatever way we could. There is a new pastor in Doure, Pastor Salomon, who came by to greet us.

Because we are now in the rainy season, the number of children at the clinic was down. But, still Bea treated 45 sick children.

This week, Bea treated several cases of malaria and typhoid fever, many skin disorders including fungal infections and impetigo, and dysentery. The little girl in the picture with the green dress was treated for a serious fungal infection on her head and she had received multiple bee stings on her face at school this week. All of the children received medicine as needed and the mothers were reassured that their children would be okay.

Child Sponsorship and Widows Basket

Yesterday we visited Doure, a small village about 14 kilometers from here, where we held a child sponsorship food distribution and a widows' distribution. Seven children and ten widows participated in the distribution and each person received a 200 pound bag of corn and some soap.

There is a new pastor in this little village so it was our first time to do a distribution with him at the church. We were very happy to see that the church is thriving. In fact, they are putting an extension onto the church because there is no longer enough room in the building for all of the people.

We had a planning meeting with Pastor Salamon and a youth worker and have arranged for a weekly meeting for the sponsored children to start this Sunday. This will allow the church to more closely follow the children to see that they are well, that they are doing well in school, and that things are okay for them at home.

The children wrote letters to their sponsors and we took new pictures of them to send out soon.

Final Walk-through

When you do a construction project here in Burkina, throughout the time of the work, you pay the contractor 90% of the cost of the building. The remaining 10% is held back for one year as a guarantee for the work. If there are repairs that need to be made during the first year, the cost of these repairs are subtracted from this 10% amount.

This past week was the one-year mark on the completion of our secondary school building. We held a walk-through with the contractor and the quality control specialist and found only 2 small cracks near the roof on one end of the building. The contractor repaired these cracks and we scheduled a meeting for everyone concerned to sign papers that the work was finished.

In our construction experience here of building six buildings, I think that our school building is in the best shape of any of our buildings at this one year mark. We are thankful for the help of the Lord and for the faithfulness of our contractor and our quality control specialist. We have a building that will stand for years and years to come where our children will learn math and science and French and also that they have a Father in heaven who loves them.

Scorpion Carriers--

Seasons come and seasons go here and I always have trouble knowing when a particular season occurs. Like, when are the veggies plentiful in the Yako market and when are they sparse? And, when are mangoes in season? How long will the season last?

But, one season that I now know for sure is the 'Scorpion Carrier' season. IT IS NOW! This week, we have killed 3 scorpion carriers in the house. More than we have ever had in the house in one season!

These little critters are one of my least favorite. The name 'scorpion carrier' is not an official name. If you google it. . . . you will only find a blog by a previous Peace Corps person who wrote about them. Our local children and friends call these little guys by this name because they say that scorpions actually jump onto their backs and go for a ride.

My children tell me that they do not bite or sting. My problem with them is that they are very ugly and that they move very fast when I am wanting to kill them!

Introducing Kelsey and Rebecca!

Kelsey Graczak and Rebecca Dalton, both from St. Louis, traveled back to Burkina with me. The trip went great and it was wonderful for me to have travel companions.

Kelsey is in her last year of university studying to be a teacher and Rebecca is in her junior year of high school.

During our recent visit of Jules' adoptive parents, Kelsey and Rebecca prepared fun Mexican and Chinese meals for us leaving me free to take care of all the final details of the adoption.

Thanks so much for coming to visit, Kelsey and Rebecca. You are as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside!

A Forever Family for Jules

Jules is an adorable little 3 year. His story is long and complicated but it was clear that there was no place in the extended family for Jules.

Jules came to live in the orphanage 2 ½ years ago.

But, today Jules and his new parents left Yako. They took the road to Ouagadougou and on Monday, June 29^th, they will take a plane and return to their home in Italy.

What a rescue! What a wonderful thing that the Lord has done for Jules and for his adoring parents. Life will never be the same for Jules and for his parents but for sure, life will be good for them.

From everyone at the orphanage, we say 'goodby Jules and may the Lord bless and keep you forever in His care'.

A visit with Therese and her family

What a special treat! I just returned from spending 24 hours with Therese and her family.

Therese is doing wonderfully well. She is thriving in every way and it was delightful to see her interacting with her parents and siblings.

Physically, Therese is doing very well. She is only on one remaining medication and she is on a running team where she and her sister, Sitota, are running up to 3 miles a day. Pretty amazing for not even 2 months since undergoing open heart surgery.

Here is a picture of Therese (on the left) and her sister, Sitota, dressed up in clothing from the 1860's.

Missions Banquet Fund Raiser

Visited the First Baptist Church (FBC) in California, MO this week-end (April 30- May 1st) and attended a Missions Banquet Fund Raiser. The purpose for the dinner was to raise support for Sheltering Wings and to raise funds for FBC's visit to Burkina this summer.

The church gymnasium was beautifully decorated with African art and crafts. Tables were set to serve 125 people and a full meal plus a dessert room complete with a chocolate fountain were ready to go by 5:30 on Saturday afternoon.

The evening was a huge success with vision shared and an invitation given to GO to Africa through praying, sending, going, and sponsoring a child.

Thank you so much, First Baptist Church, for your heart to go to Kimini and for your love and support for the children of Yako!

Fun Day at the Children's Museum

This is Lillian, age 6, and Claire, age 3, bringing me yummy food that they have lovingly prepared at a visit to the Children's Museum in Edwardsville, Il.

What a fun day we had. The girls played dress-up in the medical clinic, at the fire station, at the police station, and even at the library.

Precious times and precious memories for Grandma!

Therese is recuperating!

Wanted to give you a 'Therese update'. This picture is in her hospital room 3 days after her surgery with her father and sister and they are making cookies!

Therese is home now and she is doing very well. After major surgery and just 5 days in the hospital she returned home expecting to return to school the next day. She did need to stay home from school just a couple more days to rest and recuperate but she has now returned to school.

The prognosis is very good for a complete recovery. Therese will need to take blood pressure medicine possibly for the rest of her life but her heart is now functioning normally and pumping blood throughout her body.

Thank you, Jesus, for bringing Therese to this wonderful family and for arranging for her to have heart surgery at exactly the right moment that she needed it.

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.

Civil Unrest in Burkina--

The recent reports out of Burkina are:

• Military in FadaN'Gourma have shot a rocket into the local courthouse and blocked the city off with tanks.

• Simon Campaoré, mayor of Ouagadougou, was attacked by military and his home was ransacked. Simon Campaoré is considered third to rule in Burkina (behind the President and the Prime Minister)

• Blaise Campaoré, President of Burkina Faso, is scheduled to meet with the military tomorrow (Thursday) as he calls for calm. It appears his calls have been ignored. It is suggested Blaise is "between the devil and the deep blue sea" (entre le marteau et l'enclume). This dilemma is rooted in the balance between justice and the desires of the military.

• The University of Ouagadougou reopened today. The atmosphere appears be calm.

Here in Yako, things are calm. The children went back to school on Monday of this week. They were out of school for 5 weeks due to the unrest. The government has extended the school year and the standardized testing dates by 2 weeks to allow the students a little time to catch up.

Marshal Law was established last night throughout Burkina. This means that no one is to be on the streets from 9 PM until 6 AM.

We were out last night and were returning home at 8:50 and everyone whether on foot, moto, or bike was scurrying to get off the streets by 9.

Teachers Training

While waiting for school to re-open this coming Monday, we were able to arrange a 2-day seminar for our teachers this week. Two friends from SIM in Ouagadougou, Janet Haight and Paul Yalga, came to Yako and for 2 days our teachers went 'back to school'.

The subjects of the seminar were how to prepare Bible lessons, how to make learning fun and interesting for the children, and how to teach Bible verses. There was lecture and demonstration time and also practical application time where our teachers taught Bible lessons and Scripture to Jonas, Biba, and Ferdie who did not have a family to go to during this long break from school.

At the end of the training, everyone was encouraged and inspired to work even harder to reach each one of our children for the Lord. Most of our children come from Muslim and/or Animistic homes. We have a wonderful opportunity each day to touch hearts and impact the lives of our children for the Lord.

Trip to Kimini--

Quite miraculously the Lord opened the door for me to make a trip to Kimini today. I have been trying to contact a friend here in Bobo, named Adama for 3 weeks and had not been able to reach him. But, last Saturday, Adama and I talked on the phone and arranged for this trip today.

Kimini is a tiny village just 15 kilometers from the border of the Ivory Coast where we have been working with the First Baptist Church from California, MO for 3 years now. FBC will be sending a team here in August and I will be going back to Kimini with them at that time.

As a result of years of prayer and tears, the Lord has answered FBC's cries and there are now a few new believers in Kimini. FBC is working through their long-term plan and their commitment to these new believers.

The purpose of the trip today was to meet with the village chief and begin plans to drill a deep well in Kimini, to make arrangements to survey a piece of land that the village has given to FBC for a church and a clinic, and to see about having a latrine built in preparation for the team's visit in August.

We met with the village chief and leaders and they are thrilled with the possibility of a well with pure water coming to the community. We also walked the land in order to get some idea of where to drill the well, with the final word coming from the water experts. And, we talked with a local mason asking the costs of building a latrine.

All in all, an exhausting and at the same time exhilarating day. We will still have some meetings tomorrow morning with associations that are drilling in the area of Kimini and then I will head back to Ouagadougou and continue on to Yako on Thursday.

These pictures are some of the adorable children of Kimini who need to hear about Jesus!

Civil Unrest in Burkina--

Wanted to send out a request for continued prayer. The civil unrest here has intensified. . . . not to the point where I feel that we are in any actual danger. . . but at the same time, things have not calmed down but have in fact greatly intensified.

The brief history is that about 2 1/2 weeks ago a police officer beat and killed a 10th grade boy for involvement in a typical 'love triangle'. The police officer and the girl were not married but were involved romantically and then the boy also became involved with the girl.

Immediately after the event, the government tried to cover up the brutality by saying that the boy died from meningitis. The first week the students went on strike and through violence six people died and 100's were injured. The second week the government closed all of the schools in Burkina hoping to disperse the students and calm things down. But, the violence continued in most of the major cities. Last week, the students demonstrated in Yako and threw bricks through the doors and windows of the courthouse and attempted to enter into the governor's courtyard.

Today was the first day back to school and again the students have been demonstrating all over Burkina often with violence. In Yako this morning, they marched and surrounded the police station and with bricks and whatever else they could find, they completely tore down the wall around the compound, entered and completely burned down the police station. All official documents have been lost, the building was destroyed, motos and bikes which were parked next to the building have been destroyed, etc. A couple of police men were injured but no one was killed.

At the university in Ouaga, students burned down the library!

Tomorrow is a national holiday, the international day of the woman, and the students have already declared a student strike for Wednesday.

Would appreciate your prayer support to calm the high emotions and the violence that is rising on just about every front. Also, please pray that the children can return to school so that this year will not be a complete loss.

Joey and Benny--

After receiving a call on Friday from Social Action, Becky and I hopped in the car and drove to Guircy, 35 kilometers away, to pick up newborn twin boys. The babies had been thrown down a dry well which thankfully was only a little over 2 meters deep. They were covered with dried blood from their birth and were scraped and scratched a bit but do not seem to be seriously hurt.

Some children who were playing nearby heard the babies crying and the villagers called the police to come and rescue the babies.

Becky named them Joseph, on the left, and Benjamin, on the right, because in the Bible, Joseph and Benjamin were both loved by their parents. We want these babies to know that they are loved. Benjamin is really tiny but he is eating well so we are hopeful that he will be okay.