Dorcas House - The Third Year

We will be opening the third year of Dorcas House in just about a month. We are beginning to hear about some of the new girls that will be coming. One of them comes from a village where the Christians have been severely persecuted. When one of her friends came to Dorcas House last year, everyone was excited for her. When she went home after her first year there and shared all that she had learned, the believers wanted to send another girl for this year. Can you imagine what some relief from persecution might be like?

Another girl, Mayi, was the first Christian in her village. She was only a 12 year old at the time. What courage. Her family has not persecuted her, but now that she is getting older, they would like to see her married off to a non-believer. She will be coming for a year of training, especially to learn about God's Word.

What other "treasures" of God's family will be coming? In another month we'll know and it will be exiting to see how He works in the lives of these young ladies, transforming them into women of excellence.

PARTNERSHIPS

Here are a couple of neat partnership possibilities that we have the possibility of working with. Each of them is cool in that partnerships are cool if you don't care who gets the credit.

1. VCP - Village Church Planting - We are just getting ready to begin working together with them. Their program involves a plan to train church planters and in a 40 month period, there is the possibility of planting 180 new churches! The training is excellent. Look at their website for more information - intoafricaproject.org.

2. Franklin, NC - For the past 4 years or more, Kevin has led teams of young people to Burkina to do what they can do and to help put tools in the hands of the church. The neat thing about this partnership is that it really is about meeting needs and accomplishing something, while building into the lives of the young people that come on the trip. Because of these trips, 6 or 7 of these young people are planning to come out for longer term to serve in Burkina.

3. ONE HOPE - is a partner ministry with Evangelism Explosion that has the goal of training one million children to share their faith with ten million. Our church is exploring the possibility of partnering with them. Over 50% of the population here is under 14 years of age. Look at their website to get a better idea - onehope.org.

Partnerships are a good way to get the job done.

Marriage Encounter

Marriages around the world require care and attention. Without that, we hurt one another and destroy relationships that are vital to our lives and to others. We had the privilege of being part of an organization committee to launch a new ministry called Marriage Encounter. The weekend is made up of invited couples who are given the blessing of a free weekend in a hotel, where they encounter one surprise after another, all linked to writing to your spouse and talking through issues that have otherwise been covered over. The sessions are centered on three couples sharing their testimonies of how they went from troubled and hurting marriages to healing. Through the weekend, God does some amazing things.

Our weekend that we helped organize was August 13-15. We had a total of 17 invited couples who enjoyed the weekend. Some amazing things happened that put couples on the road to healthier marriages. One example was one couple, where the husband, due to his job, was in danger of losing not only his wife, but also his whole family. Through the testimonies and the dialogue, he made the choice to change jobs so as to save his marriage and family.

The next weekend is being planned for March 4-6. You can pray for us as we help get ready for this next event. Pray for the follow-up of the couples from this past weekend. We could use your help financially to help sponsor a weekend for one couple. The cost is about $350 for the whole weekend and a changed marrage. Not a bad return!

Creativity in Evangelism

One of our districts here in Burkina Faso organized their 3rd "Evangelistic Bike Rally". During a one week period, 115 bikers visited 56 villages in 4 different districts. In each village, they would stop in a public location, such as the market, a crowd would gather. They would sing a couple of songs, someone would give a presentation of the Gospel. At the end, people would be invited to begin a relationship with the Savior, and off they would go, leaving a person or two behind to follow up on those who would respond. They saw more than 200 people make a decision to follow Christ and entrust their lives to Him. Pretty creative, isn't it? It's wonderful working in a free country where these kinds of things are possible.

Internet Problems

It has been some time since I have been able to open up my blog. Our internet connection was out for nearly 3 months and even when we had internet, it would sometimes refuse to open up a website. Needless to say, we were a bit frustrated. Thus the long period of silence. So, here we go again. Thanks for your patience.

Friday I Was a Total Failure. Tuesday, God was a Hero

"Friday, I was a total failure. Tuesday, God was a hero." This was the phrase that my friend, Jim, expressed to me the other day. He was coming out with Florida with a small solar system to install at a government medical center in a rural area of Burkina Faso. Just before he was to board the plane, he discovered that it would be impossible to transport the batteries. Now what? Jim wrote a quick letter to me to ask my help in finding someone who could help us locate this kind of battery.

In the meantime, a week ago, I was talking with a technicien friend of mine and found out that he is quite knowledgeable in solar systems. I called him up and explained the situation. As soon as Jim arrived in the country, I put him in touch with my friend, who took him to a qualified dealer of solar material and the right battery was located and purchased.

Now you know where the phrase came from. How often do we feel like a total failure, only to see God turn a situation around and make it positive. Jim said that now he can negotiate for these small solar systems and due to the lack of batteries, he can bring out more of them on the plane. God thinks of everything!

Dr. I

Dr. I is all I'm going to call him. He is a wonderful believer who has a heart to help people. We recently had 3 of our girls from Dorcas House who were quite sick. After trying to treat them in the government hospital, we transfered them to Dr. I's clinic. A consultation costs less than 75 cents! Above his examining table is the handwritten sign, "Touch the patient!". He speaks all of the common languages of Burkina, plus English. Our girls are all doing much better, thanks to his loving care and the affordability of his clinic. A hernia operation for one of the girls cost $45 plus medicines.

We are thankful for Dr. I and the vision he had to create this clinic. All I can say is, "may his 'tribe' increase".