Burkina Faso - January 2005

Pre-Trip News - 12/23/2004

The campus is quiet as students have left for their Christmas vacations. Equipment that has been ordered continues to come in and we are in frequent contact with SIM Burkina and SIM Charlotte as our trip gets closer. The team will be returning on December 28th to prepare for our departure on January 1st.

We have some very exciting news!! Our visas just arrived so we have officially finished the last task that is required for the trip. With visas, passports, and tickets in hand we will be able to leave the country.

More updates will continue during the time the team is back before the trip so please continue to logon and see what is happening. Until then, I hope that everyone has a relaxing Christmas!

Matt

Support Raising Update - 2/11/2005

Our current level of support raised is: 77%

Thank you everyone for your prayers and your support. We try to process all the gift records as soon as we get them from the college business office. The number above reflects gifts processed through February 11, 2005. We will continue to update this as we receive reports.

Pre-Plane update - 1/1/2005

It is 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning. We rang in the New Year with the official pickle dropping ceremony in Dillsburg, PA. And now having trained for a strenuous cross- cultural experience, we have decided its time we grabbed a plane to Mahadaga. Most of the team is downstairs meeting their adopted baggage for the first time. Frey 68 feels like the setting for a reality TV show as the ultimate makeover is being unveiled and our Frankenstein packaging creations come to life. (Due to an extraordinarily large number of bags, we have invented the “Siamese suitcase.” The design sketch for this can be found on the Dokimoi computer).

Aside from all the funny stories already created by stressful pre-trip situations, the team has become namely that---a team. Despite our 6 different projects, we have started to solidify a real identity in our passion to support and serve the people of Burkina and SIM missionaries. We have opened each day in prayer for all the delicacies of this trip; we appreciate your voice joining ours as we pray over each need for our long travel to Mahadaga.

Happy New Year and Happy New endeavors!

Ken and Jess


Arrival in Ouaga - 1/3/2005

Dear friends,

Here is good news about the DE team in Burkina Faso. Matt Walsh called at 12 noon EST today (Monday, January 3) to say that the team arrived safely in Ouagadougou. All of the odd-shaped "luggage" (nearly 1600 lbs worth) made it onto the plane and arrived with the team. We are especially thankful that everything has also cleared customs! The team was carrying a lot of material goods for ministry, and that is sometimes a problem at customs. Matt reports that everyone is well and in good spirits. We have been praying for good health. The team was able to accomplish some of their shopping for project supplies and food. They depart for Mahadaga on Wednesday. Thank you for continuing to pray for the team. We had a great time of prayer just before departure on Saturday. God is at work in and through this outstanding team.

God bless you,

David

News from Ouaga - 1/4/2005

After two long flights and a visit to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, we have arrived in Ouagadougou. The guest house here is a wonderful refuge in order to transition us into the Burkina culture and to begin to stretch us as we engage in French linguistics. The team has had a wonderful attitude of service towards one another. (I can't seem to get Sean to stop washing everyone's dishes). Our initial discussions of the Rapid Rural Appraisal have started our corporate engagement in the culture. Ouaga is the fastest growing city in all of Africa according to building rates. Most of the roads are dirt, and motorbikes hurry by like hordes of bees buzzing to some active honeycomb. It is hard to explain this place to all of you. I wish you could join us. If I walk away with nothing else, I will leave you with a picture of our team. We have become 13 now as a German translator named Esther has joined us. We spend each morning in prayer and then we flame-lick french bread over a gas stove in order to protect ourselves from germs. Despite our often demanding and separate work, I am amazed at our ability to serve one another. Our communal meals have been enjoyable. Its probably the kind of food we would never choose to eat at home, but tastes wonderful to our weary bodies here. So far, we have all been very healthy. We leave for Mahadaga on Wednesday morning, I can't wait to begin working there and living there. To all our DE community, Pastor John Le Paul greets you. He asked me how Craig Frey and David Vader were doing. He is an amazing man to talk to. I am beginning to engage in conversations however I can. I hope to bring you more stories as the days trickle by.

Ken

Prayer needs:
Please pray for travel safety as we travel Wednesday. to Mahadaga.
Please pray for the mission's spiritual life conference at the end of the month.
Please pray for translation needs as we are heavily relying on Esther.
Pray for the survey team, that they may be safe and their sources will be available.

Arriving in Mahadaga - 1/5/2005

It's the end of the world as we know it.

We awoke at 5:30am in order to prepare ourselves for the coming day of travel to Mahadaga. We were blessed enough to have our own bus for the 9 hour travel from Ouaga through Fada N'Gourma to Mahadaga. The roads begin in an urban sprawl, crawling away from the city, ending in washed-out dirt and thatch huts. Mahadaga lies far beyond the edge of anything we have ever known. At one point in our eventual 13 hour-bus ride, Jess admitted, "If I hadn't known we had been to Mahadaga before, I would think it didn't exist." It is difficult for me to explain the wide open spaces of Africa. To an American, it is hard for us to imagine a space that holds no purpose. We ended up stuck in Diapaga for 2+ hours because the equivalent of the State troopers wished to see our papers. The team made the time well, pulling out our guitar and singing worship songs. We drew a small audience. The sight from our bus windows, as the sun set upon our endeavor, unveiled a world closer to our Savior's than our home. Donkeys and donkey carts filled the sides of the roads. As we traveled away from Ouaga, French became less of a universal language. The team began to work on Gourma and Fulani languages.

We arrived in Mahadaga close to 11p.m. This was a blessing considering the condition of the road. It is wonderful to finally be here. The 13 (the DE 12 plus Esther our translator) looked like coal miners as the red dust of West Africa had claimed us as its own. The next phase of the trip is where the true work begins. We joined the SIM missionaries for a late dinner and I felt like a prodigal son returning home. The parables are becoming more real to me as this world makes us more human.

Please pray that we would be overwhelmed by love for the people here. Despite the fatigue of travel or the rigor of research, our goal here is to incarnate Christ’s love to a hurting world. It’s only now that I’m beginning to understand DE’s mission as a sacramental organization. Give thanks that we are safe and have been healthy.

Ken

Mahadaga - 1/6/2005

Walking with the World and Meeting Yempabou

The rigors of our journey have begun to take effect as some of us awoke sick this morning. The rest of us spent time organizing our tools and walking the compound, the clinic, the Handicap Center and around Mahadaga. As Matt Walsh became our guide, we traveled the footsteps of DE members long past (okay, so maybe not that long). Soon there was a small herd of young children in our midst. (Thursdays are market days so schools are closed so that children can help sell at the market). As I stared at the cliffs in the distance, I felt a small calloused hand on mine.

Soon Erik, Jessica and I each became an intricate part in a child snowflake. All hands were held. Soon our tour of Mahadaga became the journey of the Pied Piper wandering through the red dust teaching children “I’ve got the joy.” We fumbled to communicate to these small children boasting smiles more beautiful than the African sun. I soon had more than a few friends, and our traveling band was an amorphous mob of bon jours, songs, and smiling faces. I could here the words of Jesus echoing through the valley, “Let the little children come unto me.” These children cared little whether we could wow them with a phrase or even do much. They just wanted to be with us. My new sidekick is a small boy named Bhana. (It is interested to note that children here rarely know their own age, since malaria and other epidemics curb the number of each family; therefore, birthdays are frequently unrecorded).

Late in our tour, a yellow lightning bolt cut across the red dust of Mahadaga. Here was Yempabou! The boy received this Summer’s motorized trike and can be read about in this Fall’s Newsletter. His trike painted bright yellow, I have never seen a boy smile with such intensity. I was struck suddenly with the reality of our work here. This little speed demon with the angelic face had been given a chance to be a curious 14-year old again. I talked with Yempabou for awhile (with a great deal of help from our translator Esther). The day is far from over. But it is these moments of collision, when our hearts meet with others and our hands meet with their experience that DE finds its purpose.

Thankfully, all previously said health problems have diminished with a little rest and carefulness.

Ken

Mahadaga - 1/7/2005

Work Weary and Joy Laden

I awoke to the soft dawn of Mahadaga, unraveling a knot of excitement. I couldn’t wait to spend time with the children! My organizational mind desired some sense of progress also. (Yes, I am the result of the Ben Franklin culture). My heart keeps telling me that the people here are the most important, while my mind yells that the project will have more of an impact. Meanwhile, my soul whispers that God is above it all. I can’t handle the chiasmus as priorities fight with one another.

After a short time of computer work, Jess, Dr Norman and I tumbled into our vehicle to head to Logobu to interview the environmental agent for the area. We hoped to discover more about the cotton crisis in Burkina, and the cotton pesticide’s affects on Burkinabe health. We literally chased this man in order to interview him. The interview was very helpful---although he asked DE if we would do an aerial survey on the elephant population. Any takers?

We returned to the children. Bhana quickly ran to me and hugged me. The team spent the afternoon talking over international issues (as a part of our class credit for some of us) and meeting with several contacts. We then went hiking in the cliffs behind the compound. I’m glad to say that all of us returned in good condition, except for a few cuts and bruises.

The team is surprisingly healthy. We are beginning to truly bond with this community as we wake up and go to dinner serenaded by the voices of the children.

Please pray that our health continues and we are enabled to do the work and be with the people, yet glorify God in all.

Please pray for the Survey team (Mark, Matt, Matt, and Joel) as they leave Mahadaga on Monday.

Please pray that God would transform us as we experience a world that is so authentic.

Please pray that you will be overwhelmed by love along with us as we bring these stories home to you.

Ken

Survey Team - 1/16/2005

I got a phone call from Matt this evening, so here is a quick report from our travelers:

The survey team (Mark, Matt, Matt, and Joel) left Mahadaga on Monday, Jan. 10 to begin their survey work, connecting with people and exploring opportunites for future DE work. They spent the first half of the week in Fada N Gourma. Then on Thursday they traveled up into northern Burkina to Djibo. Today they had a long day of travel as they returned to Ouagadougou this morning, then left for Piela this afternoon. Piela is similar to Mahadaga in that it has a clinic and it does not have electricity. The team will spend the week looking into potenial project opportunites there until they return to Ouaga again on Saturday, Jan. 22. They have been able to ride along with missionaries and SIM staff for most of their travels, which has been a blessing since the public bus would take longer and can be somewhat unreliable.

A more detailed report on all their activities will be coming. Thank you for keeping them in your prayers. The Mahadaga team will also be returning to Ouaga on Saturday, Jan 22, so we look forward to hearing from them then.

Julie

Survey Team - 1/22/2005

Hey Everyone,

My trip is now coming to a close. We just returned from our trip to Piela. We’ve been there since last Monday. It’s been very good to stay there for a little while. We have gotten to know the missionaries there (the Stregger’s) and seen the work that they do. There is a Bible school about an hour from Piela called Nindangou were we got to talk with the president of the school and learn about the problems there. We may help them in the future with electricity. Its very exciting to see their vision of empowering pastors for Burkina Faso and be able to us our skills to further there mission. We also went to the clinic in Piela that has very bad electicity and are going to look into getting them reliable electricity. This would help them with there operations and there maternity wards as well as save them a lot of operating costs in the future. I never knew that engineering and missions can blend but it can in amazing ways.

It was an experience to go into the market at Piela and try to speak French. We actually got our point across and were able to understand the process for things. So we were able to buy some cloth and some slingshots. We also got to play some soccer on the compound with the neighborhood kids. Baslayi is one of the kids I met and got to talk a lot with. He speaks broken english but it was good enough. Its been lots of learning the culture and lots about learning about me. I can’t remember if I mentioned this in the last email but God has been with us the whole trip to guide us through. We lost two of our bags on the bus that had some important tools and we found this out hundreds of kilometers after we switched rides. God had his eye on them though and they made there way back to the missions compound!!! I look forward to talking to you all when I get back. God Bless.

Joel

PS: How’s the snow?