Photo Friday

This is the Photo Friday blog that almost posted on a Saturday thanks to an ill-timed power cut.  We had given up on electricity returning and were getting ready for bed by lantern and headlamp when the lights flickered back to life.  All around the house you could hear a chorus of, "YES!"

Our social worker friend visiting the kids in host families.

 This is really insignificant, but I thought I'd show you the difference between an onion like the ones you're used to (on the left - found in the capital) and the ones we find here in our town.

 Remember those worms our neighbor was drying the evening we arrived?  

Well, it happened.  She so sweetly fixed a dish of worms with tomatoes, green pepper and onion for us. 

Philip, Daniel, and Emily shared them. Philip said if you put them in a tortilla, they'd be like fajitas.

 I just found this sunset picture on Philip's phone from his trip here without us last spring.

I love it.  It looks so peaceful.

This is happening right NOW!  Friends!  Sleepover!

Please do not take your English speaking friends for granted.  They are a treasure.  

This weekend I hope you have long talks about everything important and nothing at all.

Love, love, love on those with whom you do life.

And, thank you, for doing life with us, too.

Jesus is strong, isn't He?

"I didn't know your God was like this.  Jesus is strong, isn't He?"

Four people watching Baby Sara return to her village have asked to learn about Jesus.  The way they said it makes my wanna-be Burkinabé heart happy.  What are they seeing?  Strength.  Where are they seeing it?  In the life of one who was once a helpless baby girl.

In our Western culture "truth" is often the greatest claim of Christianity.  This isn't the highest value everywhere. In this part of the world, there is greater interest in the power of a religion over the truth of it.  One conversation Philip had with an animist a couple of years ago highlighted this cultural value: The man knew the story of Christ.  He rejected Him because of His death.  It didn't matter that He rose three days later.  It didn't matter that He allowed Himself to be killed to save others.  All that mattered to this man was that Jesus was killed and, therefore, He was weak.

So now when people with this same worldview are seeing strength in Christ, I know He's really reaching them "not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that their faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power." (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)

Photo Friday

My girls in the village.

 I cannot make this stuff up.  Hand-me-down clothes come from abroad and it is commonplace to walk around wearing clothes without knowing what they say.  As I looked across the room at Sarah at the ceremony welcoming her to her village, her shirt said "BEST DAY EVER."  Not a person involved in dressing Sarah can read a word of English.  What are the chances?

 In the last two weeks we have had three evenings with this awesome American family as they have passed through our town!  Woohoooo!

 The boy next door gave Titus this ingenious toy made solely of sticks and trash.

Happy Friday!

Outtakes

These pictures didn't make yesterday's summary post, but I think you will love this glimpse into the less noticed scenes.  Many people in the village didn't speak Jula, let alone French, and obviously not a lick of English, so you can imagine how much these kids understood.  They can totally rock the "listening intently to a language I do not know" scene.

 Oh, sweet girl!  The village had never seen a baby like her.  

People were so happy just to touch her.

Titus got to give the chief a gift.  

Gift giving was his favorite part of the day.

 So happy about this!

 Noodles with fish sauce.  No one would have guessed by their enthusiasm that 

my big two didn't want it.

Titus has mad skills at pushing food around his plate, covering up the fact that very little of it makes it into his mouth.

 The classic family pose.  We had a whole village watching us take this picture.

The ladies watching me buckle the baby into her car seat!  

What strange things we do.

Her Father's House

"On earth as it is in heaven"

prayer of Jesus

I realized late last night that I my breathing had been shallow for many hours.  This was the day our first baby returned to live in the village with her father (pictured above). As the day began, my breaths were short in anticipation of the unknown.  As the day continued, my breaths continued to be rapid in excitement for what was unfolding.

On this day Islam, animism, and Christianity looked each other in the face, and we got to represent The One Who Saves.

I figured we wouldn't just drop a baby off at the village entrance, but I didn't know what to expect.  The day started with a friend loaning us a truck so that eighteen of us could make the nearly two hour drive together.  (By distance, the village isn't that far, but the dirt roads are so bad we never got out of third gear.)  The eighteen included our family and the host family, the baby and her stepmother, a government worker, our local preacher, and two neighbors.  Since no one in the village seems to have a car, the road into the village wasn't wide enough for us to drive all the way in.  Before we even piled out of our vehicle, villagers began streaming to the spot to watch us.  I wanted to capture the walk into the village flanked by a crowd, but I also didn't want to offend or disturb as I felt very out of place and unsure of what was going on.  As the day continued, I came to understand the people were happy to have their photo taken and so you have the rest of the story in pictures......

All the important people of the day, including Philip, our ministry leader, our preacher, the government worker, the village chief, Sarah's dad, the head of the local church, and the head of the local mosque gave little speeches.  Over and over they told us how the day the mama died had been a sad day for the whole village, and they knew the baby would die next.  We learned the local Catholic priest and Protestant preacher prayed with Sarah's father both before and after he went to the city in search of help for the baby.  Both were there to celebrate her return.

(Photo in the typical African fashion, no smiles)

As we sat in a covered outdoor gathering place, the speeches were made, the paperwork was completed, two songs were sung, and we gave gifts of rice, spaghetti noodles, and clothes while most of the village crowded around outside to watch.  Then they served us a feast of local foods and gave us gifts of guinea fowl, chickens, and a sack of field corn.  Word cannot express how deeply they thanked us, each one, regardless of his religion.

Our preacher said to us afterwards no evangelism campaign we could plan for that village would teach them of Jesus as that day had done. The whole village, and especially the younger ones, witnessed the saving power of His love for one of their own, a helpless baby.  Let it be so.

Keep praying for each of these as He is calling them to Himself.

Program Update - Let Them Come

There are now five Christian families approved by the government to be host families with us.  Four of those families have received a child to care for, and the other is ready and awaiting the logistics. We are also thrilled to announce that as of this week, the first three host families are fully funded!  (Sponsorship opportunities for the newest two host families are in the works.)

I wanted to share with you some of the prayer requests mentioned at our last host family prayer meeting:

For God's love to be over all we do

For the five host families to become family to each other

For health, as two of the children and one of the host mamas was sick

For paperwork to be completed

For the partnership with the government

For the witness of Christ to the government workers through this ministry

For protection in the new security climate

For the American church who is partnering with this ministry

Strength and love in the host families for these children

And repeatedly mentioned: the birth families of the children, especially for them to come to know Christ and raise these precious little ones in His love when the family crisis is over and the children return to them

Will you join these families in this prayer?

"Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love

and his wonderful deeds for mankind,

for he satisfies the thirsty

and fills the hungry with good things."

Psalm 107:8-9

Photo Friday

First, pics from the host family prayer meeting

Look at her go!  Isn't that impressive?  Do you see baby Sarah peeking around her host mama's back?

The Burkinabe don't use our style of brooms or mops or hoes with long handles.  For all their work, they bend at the waist with their legs straight and sweep or mop or work in the field just like that.  Mopping is done with hands and a rag and bucket of soapy water.

Thankfully for me, the big kids have designed their own mopping system from the Burkinabe supplies and nothing but laughter can be heard as they do it.  Win-win!

 This is a peek inside a Burkinabe classroom.  Our homeschool is back in session, though schools here won't begin until October.