Dorcas House

Welcome to a place where God is moving, changing, molding, teaching, acting, empowering, and triumphing over girls whose hearts have been given to Him. The Dorcas house holds a very special and intimate place in my heart and that special place expands with every moment I spend there. 2 years ago this place was a piece of land with great vision and now it is a safe haven for 15 girls who have been abandoned by their families, a place where they have ALL come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, a place where they are learning ways to make a living in the real world, learning how to care for themselves physically and most importantly learning to live a life devoted to Him.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Dorcas House, it's nothing special that meets the eye, it's the meaning behind it all. This is the spot where we stood 2 years ago and prayed over a desolate piece of dirt, truly the harvest is plentiful! This tree was the only indication of where the property was and now is only a small piece of the grand dream that has come true.

This is the well of 'living water' or so I like to call it. This well is the only water that has been found in this area for a very long time, and was divinely placed on this land by God's providential hands.

These are the bathrooms at Dorcas house, on the right is the actual potties (or holes in the ground) and on the left are the showers (more so a walled in area for you to pour a bucket of water over yourself.)

These are the dorms, I believe that each one sleeps 7 or 8 girls.

This is the brand new kitchen that was just built in the past few months.

This is the inside of a classroom where the girls lean their projects, memory verses, etc.

This is one of their many fields or gardens, this one has peanut leaves in it, a leaf they use in sauce.

Amy standing in the shower!

The very NICE toilets, you wouldn't believe the ventilation in these things, which is always a high point of using a squatty potty. (ventalation is key)

The inside of the dorms, each girl has her own bed and mosquito net.

This is the inside of the very nice, new kitchen that was just built in the last few months.

This is the new border mark around Dorcas house, 2 weeks ago the mission almost lost the property (for reasons that are too complicated for me to understand or explain), all that matters is that by prayer and God's provision the property was more than doubled!

This is the view from the new marker, the Dorcas house is dead ahead, and if you look in both directions at some what of a diagonal each way you will see the magnitude of the new property. (Basically to the left, way past that tree and on back.)

And this is the view to the right, to the far trees and beyond.

With all this new property there are many propositions for what can be done. Previously the money was covered for the wall to surround the entire property, giving the girls protection, security and rights to the land. But now that all this new property has fallen into our laps we need double the amount of walls. There is also talk of a livestock farm, including sheep, cows, pigs, chickens and fish. This will enable the girls to learn to care for and prepare animals for sale. There is also hopes of more dorms to enable a larger group of girls to attend, and to allow the first year girls a second year of trades. A Moringua field is going to be planted here, Moringa is the 'good for all' leaf that is harvested off the trees, dried and then made into a spice. It helps with malnutrition along with a list of many other things.

A team from Appleton, WI. was out here recently, they brought along with them crocheting yarn and spent 4 days out at Dorcas house teaching the girls to Crochet.

Sarah came out to help teach as well, ( I was not much of the crocheting teacher due to the fact that I was learning right along with them).

Then we played the human knot game, they thorougly enjoyed this game, though had a very difficult time solving the problem of getting untangled.


Below is a picture of every girl with their name tag for anyone and everyone who wants to see the faces of the girls whose lives are being changed. (I hope in the very near future to add each girls story to their picture, so be looking for that to come).

Delfine is the Guard's wife, they live in a little house by the well.

Suzane is the musically talented one of the group, she loves to play the 'tam tams' or any sort of object that can be used as a drum, and to sing her heart out for Christ.

This is one of the girls who has a baby.

Martine is the other girl with a baby.

Amy knew a little about crocheting and was able to lend a helping hand to anyone having trouble, oh and the project they were working on was making a hat.

The guys from Appleton started to put the fench around the garden.

Kari and I made some village friends, the little boy with his eyes closed was terrified of us at first.

We ventured over to the well, which has the cleanest water I have yet to see in Africa, a blessing from God. The story goes that for the longest time no one was able to find water in this area of the village and then when Dorcas House came to look for water the only place was on their land, a spring of living water, holy and blessed by God. (It's even drinkable for foreigners)

Anyone in the community can use the well, but they must first pay 10cfa, the equivalent of .20 cents. We spent some time helping pump water for these girls, unfortunately we were unable to communicate with them since they only spoke More.

Every Saturday Amy and I do a health lesson in Jula (aka Amy does the lesson and I stand there and pretend to help) for the girls. The first week was on taking care of our skin and teeth, so it was awfully fitting to give out toothbrushes and toothpaste, and soap.

A few products made by the Dorcas House girls:

I was astonished to find that after a week the girls has made these items and many more. (keep in mind they were only taught to make a hat), these items will all be for sale.

The second week our health lesson was on physical fitness, we learned some basic stretches (of which I wish I had pictures, it was priceless) and then learned a few volleyball moves and played 'ne touche pas la terre' (aka don't touch the ground). I have never seen such delight over a game as I saw playing with these girls.

Their next project, one they just started is dying bazzin. Bazzin is a very elegent material here in Burkina and makes some of the most beautiful outfits, though it looks like a pice of thck paper, after washed a few times softens to normal fabric.

Recovery

The Rebuilding has began! I have tried and tried to get this post online sooner but everytime have failed to do so because of our lack of internet. So I want to quickly to an update on what has been happening post flood here in Ouaga. Alot of relief aid has been given and people are beginning their to build again. Right now the government is setting up 'tent camps' or more like refugee camps for all those with out homes. Pray as these are places that people will live for years, in unsanitary conditons, waiting for the government to build them new homes.

Though rebuilding has began many if not most who lost their homes are still without, seeking help wherever they can find it.

The CMA gave 1 million cfa to help out the flood victims and to supply immediate aid.

We have also been doing many distributions at our Chruches and schools, giving away rice, clothes, mats, and blankets.

Then we drove out to Sector 30, where many families were staying to distribute the rice, mats, coverts, and clothes as well.

Being out here so often the kids are not only familiar faces but they become your friends.

The next week the national CMA church here gave 1 trailor, 2 trucks, 1 van, and 1 very large truck full of stuff to the Prime Minister to the flood victims. Total we gave 1,600 pots (or potty's), 1,000 toothbrushes, which have made Burkina National television 3 times, 250 mats, 10 bags of clothes, 1 bag of shoes, 1,500 blankets, 36,000 cans of deworming medicine and 10 tons of food.

We gave 10 tons of rice and corn. And at 220lbs. a bag it was quite the job trying to get it all off the truck and into this supply magasin. They are storing all the food in this magasin for now because the U.S. government gave enough food for the first 2 weeks after the flood and then they will use this supply, which was more than this picture will show.

After watching the guys carry a 220lb. sack on their head with no hands and joking that I could do it too, i surprised them all with my 50 lb. sack, at this moment a round of applause broke out. 50 lbs. may not seem like alot, but let me tell you our necks are not made to support it on our heads, I can still feel pain in my should from doing this.

Even pete helped out!

This guy cut our unpacking time in half.

Le seul manquer de chose était Noé Arc

2 Weeks ago we woke up to what sounded like a wonderful rain outside of our house. My first thought was, "yay, no french today!" But the rain never stopped....

Within hours the roads were flooded...

This is the canal after the rains

This is what all of the roads and looked like during the flood.

And this is the canal during the flood.

The only words Burkina could find to describe this natural disaster was "Le seul manquer de chose était Noé Arc." (The only thing missing is Noah's Ark) It was a time that Burkina never expected to see, never dreamed possible, leaving 150,000 without homes, packed in shelters with all they over worked to own completely gone.....