When?

As I write these words my heart is being ripped to pieces. The call to prayer is expounding from the Mosque around the corner, calling people into a lifetime spent seeking something that cannot save them. And at this same moment I am hearing the words “You’re the God of this city, you’re the King of these people, you’re the Lord of this nation. You’re the light in this darkness, you’re the hope to the hopeless, you’re the peace to the restless. There is no one like our God, greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.”

When will the lost hear? When will the perishing be saved? When will the veils be removed from the faces of those not knowing they are being blinded by hopelessness? When will God’s people humble themselves, fall to their knees and plead His blood over His lost children? When will the Kingdom of God reign on earth, in Burkina Faso, the lives of hundreds sitting in the mosque right now? When will their destitution strike our hearts leaving us at a place where there is no other place to go but to our knees? When will we go to the ends of the earth? While we wait thousands die. Will you plead His power over these people? Will you take 5 minutes and pray that these loved ones would see the light, would chase the truth?

“the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.” Matthew 4:16

“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:16-17

“there is no other God, there never has been, and there never will be.” Isaiah 43:10

Pate d'arachide

Three times a week I have french conversation with Virginie. This week we have been working on kitchen and cooking terms, so we decided to actually make the recipe we were coming up with. Pate d'arachide is a traditional african sauce eaten on rice. Pate d'arachide means peanut butter, so basically we made a peanut butter sauce. Since we were already in the African cooking spirit we decided to make a traditional african drink as well, Beesap. Beesap is a type of flower found here that when dried is placed in water and left to soak and after a few hours you add mint to it.

Here is Virginie and I making the Beesap.

Here is the Pate d'arachide in the cooking process

Voila! Everything is finished and was delicious!

Pour un Mois!

After living here for a month now my perspective has changed immensely. French has been both a challenge and a joy, a stress and an adventure a complete frustration and a huge time of growth. Everyday I walk past the same guy sitting on the bench who knows 6 words in english; "how are you, I am fine." The same baby playing in a bucket of water behind the peanut stand, the same man laying beside the bench because he does not have the means to support himself, and everyday my heart breaks more and more for these people. Through the frustration I am humbled by the beauty of what an honor I have to serve here.


Here are just a few photos of what is happening here :

This is how dark it gets when a rain storm is coming in, first we experience a dust storm and then this, keep in mind this is at about 1pm.

A little decor being added to my very bland and stark white walled room :)

My new curtains and sheet (aka, a tablecloth) it may not match but it lights up the room!

The other day I had the opportunity to visit a ministry site here called Pan-Bila. Pan bila is a center for street boys and women to come and receive food, education, and the Gospel. Their primary ministry is taking these pregnant women and young boys off the street and attempting to negotiate with their families to allow them to come home. These women are abondaned because of pregnancy and these boys run away due to the fact that they are being sent to Muslim school and will be beaten and tortured immensely. Pan Bila has had about 150 boys this year and 60 women.

A little baby whose mother lives here at Pan Bila!

The Women's housing. The missionaries here belive that if you provide luxury for these people they will never leave, never return home so they live simply as they would if they were nto on the streets.

How can you help Pan-Bila?

-Pray for Pan Bila, that these women and boy's hearts would be opened to the Gospel.
-Pray for interns, interns are their primary source of finances and they no longer have any.
-Pray for financial support, that they would recieve exactly what they need to make it from one month to the next.
-Give, support them in providing finances for their food distribution ministry.

Requests

Lately I have been realizing how crucial prayer is in my life and how desperately I need others to be praying for me as well. So I want to share a few struggles I have been having, obstacles I am facing and requests I hope people will meet on their knees before our Father with.

-First, God has been stretching me so much, teaching me to depend on him all the more. You lose a certain sense of independency here and he is growing me into complete reliance on Him. Please continue to pray that I would seek Him first for all that I need or all that I am facing.

-I have learned so much, been challenged beyond all I can imagine and I have no one to share all of this with. It's been really hard being half way around the world from those I am closest with, it costs money every minute to talk to rob, and skype never works to speak with anyone in the states. I have so much on my heart, so many questions, concerns, insights that I want to share face to face with those I love and I don't have that possibility right now.

-My primary ministry right now is prayer ministry, and knowing that feels like a huge responsibility. Obviously I cannot clearly communicate with people here and so most of my time is spent in unceasing prayer for people I pass, encounter, and work with. Yet, I still feel a huge responsibility and burden for those back home, for my family, my friends and at times the lists can be defeating.

-I am struggling with feeling like I have alot of down time right now. Granted it's summer and most of the ministries don't start back up until august, I just some days wish I could be out working with the children, helping the women, etc. I also know that in order for those things to happen I must first grasp the language so that those ministries can be all the more effective.

Please just pray in general for what God is doing here on the field, alot of visions are being cast and opportunies are arising every single day, pray that those working here would be lead in the right directions and attentive to the voice of the Lord.

My life thus far

My days all start out pretty much the same, wake up at 7 a.m. shower, get dressed, head to french class on this wonderful bike (minus the helmet). Getting to french class is quite a task, first it requires a very keen eye and quick feet (for peddling). I will describe the driving here as every man for himself. There is no such thing as yielding, or stopping for that manner and no lanes for 'your side' of traffic. Thankfully the school is not too far away, maybe a mile but it does require crossing a busy street. After that the long hall comes the treacherous mountain biking expenditure, and by that I mean a dirt road of pot holes. And voila the school finally appears in the distance. It's quite fun, daring, and challenging every single day. Once at school I spend 2 hours with Sacre, who is a university student and also my first professor who speaks ONLY french! Let's just say those 2 hours never seem like they are going to end most days. After those 2 hours pass my next 2 hours are spent with Mumoni who speaks English very well, it's quite a riot because he will point to a word and ask me what it is, so I tell him in english, and he compliments me as if I have done something spectacular. For example, "What is the first month of the year Jessica?" "January" "Oh tres bien, jessica, tres bien." I have never felt more appreciation and encouragnment. I love those 2 hours!

There is no telling what the rest of my day will hold after french, some days it's to the REC (which is the American Embassy) to eat lunch with Alice and the kids, some days it's to the market with Virginie, some days I have conversation practice with Virginie, and some I just spend laying in my bed wishing it wasn't so hot to go to sleep. But I will in fact say that I am learning so much, learning how to cook, learning how to speak, how to live in a completely different culture. Most importantly though, the Lord is teaching me how to depend on Him, how to trust Him and how to be His light in a dark world where I can't speak the language. Lately it seems like alotof my ministry has been through prayer, prayer as I walk past the mosque, as I sit in french (when I am not paying attention of course), praying without ceasing is what I have been trying to make a priority in my every day life.

Je Veux

Yesterday Virginie took me to the market for our hour of french conversation. When I say market I mean vendor after vendor or woman after woman seeling the exact same produce as the one before her. Everything is covered in flies and the price is always marked up if you are white. If I had sent virginie on her own she probably would have bought the same amount for half of what I paid, not that these items are very expensive. It was quite the experience going and speaking almost only french. (Virginie is very good at english but also a very good teacher of french). At the market I bought a pineapple, ananas which was about 300 cfa, less than a dollar. Bananas, banan which were about 200 cfa about .40 cents. Potatoes, pomme de terre (which literally translates apples of the ground),which were about 600 cfa a kilo so about 1.20 a lb. Mango, mang,which is about 100 cfa, about .20 cents and peanuts for which i do not remember the french name nor the price.

En francais

Today began the first of many french lessons. I will be attending french tutor 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for the next month. After the first month is over I will be only attending 2 times a week rather than 5. It was quite humbling to go in and sit down for the first 2 hours with a professor who only spoke french. I had a very difficult time understanding him at first but was super grateful that I had taken french this past year in school, otherwise I would have had absolutely no idea a single thing he was saying. My first 2 hours are spent with him, we refreshed numbers, and talked about what I want to do with my future. I didn't know how to explain to him that I wanted to eventually do dental hygiene so I just told him I wanted to be a dentist, and from that flowed an entire comparison of doctors, dentists, and nurses according to what they do (keep in mind, all in french). I only even brought that part up because I had no idea how to say I was studying InterCultural studies. He then proceeded to ask me what doctors, nurses, and dentists do, ha good one. I thought surely, I can figure this out. After many stick figure drawings and what seemed like endless games of charades we came up with maybe 3 or 4 things each profession did. Those first 2 hours passed quickly. My next 2 hours were spent with a professor named Moumouni who thankfully speaks a lot more english. He was quite a hoot to learn from and very postivively reenforcing on absolutely everything I did. We had a very good time, he even told me that I was a native french speaker due to my pronouncation.

This is Virginie, our house girl and her new kitten.

Today Virginie took us to the market to buy these beautiful cloths you see above. It was extreme culture shock when on our walk that way some man grabbed my wrist and hand and began yanking me with all his strength into his shop. I was terrified and he wouldn't let go, finally I got loose and took off. It's easy to forget the fact that we are white girls regardless of the number together, walking on through an impoverished market unprotected.

Home is where the the Heart is...

Welcome to my new home!

This is called the Dependence, aka guest house

We actually do have a washer, but Virginie (the house girl) usually washes the clothes

This is what we think to be a chicken coop

The porch and garage

More porch

Snickers, our wonderful dog who will eat your hand off if you try to touch her the first time meeting her. She likes to chew underwear, chapstick, and paper.

The dining area

Our fridge which looks much larger than it actually is, this picture is deceiving.

Our kitchen

The hallway to our rooms

My room, minus the wall with a disgusting fridge on the side that smells and is infested with bugs :)

And my storage room :)

Welcome to my new home!

What are you going to do about it?

These past 2 weeks have been an adventure, filled with joy, laughter, heartbreak, and challenges. As a team we sat down to debrief over all we had experienced and our hearts ached. Everything we have seen, every child we have touched, or hugged, every place we have been and everything we have done leaves us with the question of; "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" In Burkina a child's survival rate is 3 out of 5, and 3,000 children are dying every single day because of Malaria alone. When I look into these children's faces I see fear, fear of not knowing where or when they will have their next meal. Where is their hope? What am I going to do about it? What are you going to do about it?

A little deeper

I know that my past few posts have been nothing but simple and brief, and I want to apologize because I have not had the time to share my heart, my thoughts, and the vision behind everything we are doing here. I promise that in the next few posts I will go deeper into the reality of which I now am living to the heart of the mission and the passion for these people that I have. God is doing a glorious work over here in Burkina Faso and I want you to hear about it, not just hear about it but know it and see it and feel it. I want your heart to beat for His work, to break for His people, to race for his praise, and to surrender to His beckoning call. I will shortly be somewhat backtracing so that I can describe in more detail the things that we have already done and the ministries we have already been a part of so please stay tuned. :)

Compassion Day

Thursdays in Burkina are Compassion day.

This little girl is writing a letter to her sponsor.

There are 5 people on the team who sponsor compassion children in Burkina, so they brought them all to us at the central church. 2 years ago I met my little girl for the first time, her name is Claudine. She is now 11 years old and when I saw her again she ran to me with arms wide open and gave the me the most heartfelt hug I could ever imagine. It was a glorious moment to know that God divinely orchestrated and placed her in my life.

For the next few hours we sat in on classes and the class Claudine and I were in asked every child to draw their favorite animal, these are claudine and I's drawings. Mine was orginally an elephant and then a giraffe and then a flamingo which just turned into a bird. I am pretty sure hers is a crocidile.

They had a recess so we all went out to play games with the children, their favorite games are to copy the white people.

Claudine had never tried an apple before and we had bought some to send home with our girls, so this was her ver first bite of an apple.

Compassion also gave us all a bottle of soda which was a very special treat for all of our children.

When I told her we were leaving she immeditely lost the smile on her face. I could see the sadness in her eyes, it broke my heart. I asked abby to come over and translate that I would be back to see her soon, she got so excited and joy filled her again.

Compassion is an incredible ministry that is saving the lives of children and giving them hope for a future. To find out more about compassion go to www.compassion.com

Day 1

Today we went to visit our first work site. The LAC is a school and compassion center where the vision is to build a high school. Right now the school system only goes up to 9th grade, in order for the school system to reach 13th grade they must have a science lab. The high school is in the process of being completed and will hopefully be completed in time for the next school year. Also on this property (which is rather large) is a house for a family that will potentially be moving in in August to run the new team center. The team center in the picture above is a duplex that will house double what the guest house holds right now and has the convenience of little travel to work. The teams that come out will stay here and be working on this property. Our team came out to put the roof on this center and the first day we scoped it out and attempted a few tolls (the roofing material) to get the hang of things.

There were so many little children who came out to watch us, this community has hundreds of children who do not and cannot ever afford to go to school. If you notice the water behind me and see the 'cleanliness' of it you will see their primary drinking source. We saw woman after woman come with donkeys and barrels to fill up their jugs and take back home. In this same water we saw people bathing, peeing, and playing.

As we were walking around the work site Pete (the missionary) dared me to sit on the donkey, and well I did. He then attempted to hit it and cause it to run but it was too lazy thankfully.
After we left the LAC we went to a ministry site called Tanghin, this is the area where the people use to worship a very large snake that ate their children. There use to be a Muslim school on this land and when the land was given over to the church and the school was torn down the snake completely disappeared. There is now a native burkinabe pastor who is planning on moving out here to start a church. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of land I have ever seen. As soon as we stopped the van the children, by the hundreds, came running towards us, and as soon as they got to us they grabbed our hands and walked with us. It was a heart breaking moment to realize that more than half of these children would not make it to the age of 10.
This is also the site where I raised money for the new Compassion center to be built, which should be starting really soon. They are hoping to have it done in the next few months. Compassion will give these children a hope and a future and I am thrilled to know that they will see that their lives matter to God.

Departure and Arrival

We are finally here! After 2 long days of flying we finally made it. Everyone is safe and feeling good, besides my cold that I caught 3 days before leaving I am A+. We had a very enjoyable lunch with everyone's friends and family at the Gazebo and then headed out!

A team picture!

All of our luggage which ended up costing us about $300 extra dollars, 150 due to one bag being 3 inches too big, and the other 200 due to a bag that was extra and overweight, it barely hit the 70lbs limit.

And finally we arrived! We were greeted by Susan and Lynda, it was nice to be 'home'