Jour 2

Philosophical sayings from the french Benjamin Lackey

"I don't even flush anymore cause no one can even tell I peed."

"if you cry in Africa you'll turn into a pillar of salt."

Day 2 began early this morning with a wonderful hot plate of Larry Wolters famous sticky buns, which after an hour of working may have not been the best choice of a nutritious meal to start a very long and hot day, none the less they were delicious.

We began the day working here at the guest house, it's not every team's ideal first day of ministry but it was an awesome way for our team to serve those who are constantly pouring out of themselves to these people. It was really cool to see everyone work with such enthusiasm, even though we had very little contact with the Burkinabe. We spent all morning digging 18 inch holes in the side lot where all of the team and construction stuff is stored, it was a lot of hard work and even harder when we figured out half of our holes needed to be shifted. After digging all morning we put the posts in the ground and the Burkinabe helped fill the holes with concrete.

(just a little fun burkina fact; most of the walls separating houses and lots are covered on the top rim with broken glass bottles, to keep people from climbing the wall and breaking in.)

After working all morning we had an hour off for lunch and resting before we headed out to see the Dorcas House. (for those of you who know nothing about the Dorcas House it's a center for women who have been abandoned by parents passing away, or by getting pregnant, or by being left on the streets to become prostitutes. Whatever their situation they are chosen to come and spend a year at the Dorcas House learning, most importantly, the truths of Scripture, as well as learning a wide variety of trades that they can take with them when they graduate from the program.

The drive out there is rather long and always filled with interesting traffic...

One of the skills the girls at the Dorcas house learn is how to make soap.

This is the line of classrooms they have, one is for bible teachings, and another is for sewing and soap making.

They recently got a volleyball net, which was such an awesome thing to come out and see, when I lived here a year ago this was one of my main ministries and we spent alot of time together learning to 'play' volleyball (which looked more like learning how to catch and throw the ball, most of these girls have never been involved in sports or been allowed to play games at all).

Just a few pictures from around the property, it's expansion over the past year, and some glimpses into what life looks like for a Burkinabe.

Baby Bunnies, these were buried in the ground with cotton and covered with 2 stones...not quite sure why

This Millet grinder thing is Dorcas House's most recent addition, they are hoping that in learning to grind millet they will be able to make enough profit to pay for health needs at the center.

They also recently started a little pig farm, they have found that pigs are the biggest income out of all of their projects.

The guard's wife just had a baby 2 weeks, ago his name is Samuel, he was a huge hit with everyone on the team.

After touring the center we had a little match of volleyball, americans vs. burkinabe.

This sweet little boy is Herman, he was adopted by the man and woman at the Dorcas house who are basically considered the managers out there (they are Burkinabe) and the wonderful boys, Jake and Ace Burns, that I babysit for in Lynchburg wanted to send some of their clothes out to Africa, this is one of their shirts. When we presented this to Herman, everyone was circled around him, he put it one with unmatched speed and then began jumping around, cheering and shouting his name, as he danced, over the joy of having a new shirt.

This is the team with all of the girls from the Center, it's a beautiful and powerful ministry. So many lives are being changed, and so many already have been changed. Please keep this ministry in your prayers, as the Nehlsen's (the primary missionaries who help out there) are transitioning back home to american in 8 months. This means there is going to be a transition for the Dorcas House as well, they are run by the National group of Women from the National church here but it costs about $1,000 a month to provide the food for all of the girls here and they cannot profit enough from all of the things they make to be capable of earning that much money. The goal of the center is that it would become self-sufficient, so alot is having to happen over the next few months to get them to that place.

These were the 6 girls who stayed after their first year to do a second year and hopefully become interns at the Center. It was so incredible to be back with them and to see how God had been working in their lives over the past year, it felt like I was home again.