She's a beaut!

First of all, don’t worry mom, I still have all my appendages. Second, yes it’s real. Third, yes it’s alive. Fourth, yes that is me saving a poor African’s life from a deadly crocodile.

This is me and the croc after I had established my dominance. That’s our “bait” in it’s mouth: chicken on a rope (sorry animal rights folks-they've gotta eat right?). Actually these are “sacred” crocs at a little tourist site. I know these are technically crocs and not gators, but could this be a prophecy of how the Wildcats will handle the Gators this football season.

Burkina newsletter #11

Greetings from Burkina Faso! The theme of the past few weeks has been, “Wow, nice road!” (much sarcasm intended) I’ve been on a few more research trips: to the Sambla, Southern Toussian, and Turka people groups. Each one has seemed to have at least one “road” that could vie for the “worst-road-I’ve-ever-been-on award.” Again I hesitate to call these passageways “roads” because much of what we’ve been doing is typically called “off-roading.” Nonetheless, these trips have been adventurous and successful. Part of the difficulty is that we are roughly at the peak of rainy season and since the majority of roads are dirt/mud/rock/sand they are ever-changing, almost always for the worse. Then there’s the fact that we’ve had to drive up a couple small, rocky mountains. We’ve also traversed a couple problematic bridges and even had to create one bridge. All this may sound fun, hazardous, or foolish to you. Yet this just illustrates the point that there are still many places in this world that are very difficult to get to. That means there are many people in this world who are still quite isolated from the outside world. And that means there are still many souls who have not heard the “Gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24), because so many have chosen to go down the easier path. If you are up for taking some tough, grueling roads for the sake of the Kingdom. We’ve got a job for you.

What has our research found? The Sambla people are only about 17,000, but most of their villages are within an hour of the big city, Bobo. Still we only found two small Sambla churches and a total of about 100 believers. The Turka number about 37,000 and are located around some of southwestern Burkina’s tourist sights. Many people, undoubtedly including many Christians, pass through Turka territory to visit these sights. Yet few have gone to take the Gospel to the Turka. We found only one Turka-speaking church and about 150 total believers. For time’s sake I will simply say that the Southern Toussian are in only slightly better condition. Unfortunately this is pretty much the norm for our findings. Will you pray? Will you send? Will you go? We’d love for you to partner with us.

Soon I will be on another research trip to the southeast of the country, this time among the Yanna. Soon after that we will welcome a team from Bartlett Baptist in Tennessee. They will be looking into partnering with us to reach one of these unreached groups such as the Vigue, Sambla, or Turka. This is an exciting possibility for our team and for the unreached peoples of Burkina Faso.

Praise God for:

*safe and successful travels despite the challenging conditions.
* churches like Bartlett Baptist that are seeking to reach the unreached in the difficult places.

Please pray for:

* God’s guidance for Bartlett Baptist concerning what they can do for His kingdom.
* God to send more workers among these unreached people groups.

As always, thanks so much for your interest in and prayers for God’s work here in West Africa. God bless!

Farming and stars

So this is me trying my hand at farming . . . oh wait, that's the next picture. I just wanted to show the folks there was more than one use for these hoes.
Now I can tell my kids (Lord willing), "When I was young, we used to have to break up the ground with a plow pulled by cows!" Yea, this is really how they work, if they are fortunate enough to have cows or able to rent them out. Otherwise, they use the little hoes seen above.
This is just a fun night picture taken thanks to the clever photography skills of Donald Page - master photographer and ultimate fighter.

Burkina newsletter #10

Greetings from Burkina Faso! Since I last wrote I’ve been on another research trip, attended our regional meeting in Togo – “Advance”, visited among the Marense and Sininkere, where the Woods served last term, and spent some time in Bobo recovering from the events of the summer. All has gone very well. “Advance” was a wonderful time of fellowship, relaxation, worship, and teaching. On both ends of the conference, I got to go to the beach, the second time because our flight home was delayed 24 hours – Praise the Lord! While in Togo the Lord also continued to drive home some lessons He’s been teaching me all summer. I would like to share some of that with you.

In summary I’ve been learning that participating in missions is not so much about what we can do for God but about what God can do through us. Thus our service is not so much dependent on our abilities but on our openness to God’s working through us. This means any of our excuses about our inadequacies and weaknesses are null and void. In fact, our shortcomings make us even more likely candidates for God’s work. The Bible tells us “consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1:26-27). In this way, we cannot boast and God gets the glory He deserves.

Even still, many of us ask the question “who am I to serve God in this way or that?” That’s not necessarily a bad question because it has been asked by some fairly reputable folks: Moses, David and Solomon among others. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” (Moses – Exodus 3:11) “Who am I, O Lord God and what is my house that You have brought me this far?” (David – 1 Samuel 18:18) “Who am I that I should build a house for Him?” (Solomon – 2 Chronicles 2:6) We know of these men’s faults (Moses was a murderer. David had a man killed. Solomon allowed foreign women to lead him to worship foreign Gods.), yet we also know how God used them mightily in His master plan. He can work mightily through us as well.

I think another issue besides the “who am I” question is our belief that we need some miraculous, unmistakable “call” in order to attempt great things for God. I am convinced that He accepts volunteers. Isaiah 6:8 says, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” This was a general call and Isaiah stepped up and volunteered. I see the Great Commission as our general call today. Who will volunteer? Another story of volunteerism is in 1 Samuel 14. Verse six says, “Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, ‘Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the LORD will work for us, for the LORD is not restrained to save by many or by few.’” We do not read that the Lord called Jonathan to fight this battle. Nor do we read that Jonathan decided he would go defeat the Philistines in his own strength. Instead we see that Jonathan put himself in a position where the Lord would have to fight for him or else he would be squashed. He trusted in the Lord’s strength to work for him. The two of them went up to the Philistines and in the rest of the story we see that the Lord won a great victory for Israel.

Now even if I understand that God can use even me, and that I can volunteer to serve Him, it is still wise to count the cost. Yet what cost can be too great when we consider what Jesus has done for us. And have we not been called to take up our cross just as Jesus did? Consider this quote by missionary pioneer David Livingstone: “Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? . . . Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these things are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.” May we all have this perspective.

This is a summary of what the Lord’s been feeding me with. I rejoice that we have God’s promise that He will always be with us (Matt. 28:20; Heb. 13:5), but even more He will help us and fight for us (2 Chronicles 32:7-8). He will give us the words to say. He will give us strength (1 Peter 4:11). This is my story. This is why I can be here. I pray that you are allowing God to fight for you.

Here’s what’s coming up. Monday I will be taking another research trip, this time to the Sambla people (“Seeku” on the Burkina peoples map on the website if you’re keeping track at home). I will be joined by Abdoulaye Pafadnam, one of our translators during our summer ministry, and Jenny White, the summer volunteer who has stayed an extra month. After that we plan to make a couple more short excursions, one being a day trip to Karankasso-Vigue to warn them that we have will be bringing more volunteers. On the 14th we will welcome two two-week volunteers who are coming for a vision trip. A vision trip is a visit to see firsthand the country, the people, and the ministry possibilities to know how a person or a church can join in God’s work here. We have another group or two doing this in September. We are always open to more.

Praise God for:

* a wonderful time of refreshment at “Advance” in Togo.
* volunteers who continue to come serve with us.
* the fact that the Lord will work and fight for us in the ministry.

Please pray for:

* the upcoming research trip: safe travel, health, good info to be gathered.
* the upcoming volunteer teams to learn how they can be involved in God’s work here.
* God to continue to send laborers into the harvest (maybe you will pray about whether God would use you as His laborer here).