Burkina Faso - Summer 2004

Burkina Faso News - 7/11/2004

Dear Mrs. Vader and faithful supporters,

Here we are! We have arrived in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and are now at the guest house. It is 9:35pm on Friday which would make it 5:35 where you are. Erin Calpin (former member of DE) is here and helping us get things organized very well. Everything has gone well overall, but we had a few glitches. Thankfully God provides and most of them have been worked out quickly.

The first thing was (and still is something to keep in prayer), they wouldn't let us ship one of the batteries that we were bringing over. This was in Philadelphia, so it is still sitting there all by its lonesome while we work with Matt Walsh in figuring out what we can do with it.

The flights went well though. We arrived in Paris with all of our belongings (minus that battery) at about 9:00am (Parisian time). A few of us got some upset stomaches due to the airplane food we think, but everyone seems to be doing great now. Joel accidentally left one of his backpacks on the bus transit from terminal to terminal at the Paris airport, but praise God we were able to get it back within 45 minutes and it didn't hinder anything!

The flight from Paris to Ouaga went well also. It took an extra hour and a half for us to land though. Due to this being the rainy season, it was raining, and well, it just took extra time to land the plane. So, we encircled Ouaga for a little over an hour and then finally arrived safely.

The Ouaga airport still has our solar panels that we were bringing over, and they're being held in customs. It is not very important that we get them back soon though, but I suppose the earlier the better. I (not being very technically minded) am not exactly sure, but I believe that we were going to do very little to no work with the pannels, but they were a gift for the SIM missionaries to work with here.

Other than that, things are great! We are at the guest house in Ouaga and we were treated to an excellent dinner of beef stew, bread, and brownies! (Exponentially better than airplane food in every way!) We are not too tired, but we are planning on sleeping soon so we can get up tomorrow morning and shop for some things. It's amazing here! Everyone seems to be really excited and doing well. Praise God for all that He does!

I should be sending another update soon, but until then, thanks again for all the prayers. God's blessings!

Love,
Bre and the team

Burkina Faso News - 7/12/2004

Bonjour Ariela and faithful prayer warriors!

It is now Sunday evening just before dinner, and this is the last email update that we will be sending out for a while. Tomorrow (Monday) morning we leave for Mahadaga! We are traveling on a public transportation bus and it will leave at 10:00am. The team is so excited and ready to get started on our work. I know I personally cannot wait to meet Francoise (the Parisian missionary in Mahadaga) we've all heard so much good about her!

This weekend has been great! We got to split up into 3 teams and go shopping on Saturday in Ouaga. A few went grocery shopping, others went shopping for pump parts and other things like that, and Nicole, Joel and I just casually walked around with Louise (one of the translators here that will be helping us out in Mahadaga also translating between English, French, and Gorma) in the markets and took in the experience of the city Mesgana already has stories that have impressed us and made us laugh because he has already been bartering so much just in the past two days, haha. Other than that, we have had a nice bit of down time where most of us took naps, read, or just hung out, and it has been very relaxing. Today (Sunday) we went split up again and 1/3 of us went to one church and the rest to another. Both groups returned with positive feedback. The children were adorable and just watching the worship of our Father in a different culture was incredible. One of the churches invited us to come sing in English (and if we can learn a French song we'll do that too) the next time we are in Ouagadougou on our way home. That should be fun!

It's just so great here! The dirt roads, the warm breezes, the people; everything! Just earlier as I came in to type this email I turned on the light and a lizard about 6 inches long waddled across the floor into a corner! How cute! The geckos are pretty fun too; they are quite a bit smaller than the lizards; and Lalrem doesn't really like them, haha; but they're quite fast and fun to watch.

Here are some prayer requests that you can keep in mind:

1) Health. Today, Liz had a problem with her anti-malarial pill and it caused her to become sick to her stomach. It just didn't sit well with her stomach because she did not take it with food, but she has been quite fine since. The effects of the pills have not been bad at all, but we can continue to pray for health and wellness all around.

2) Travel to Mahadaga. Our transportation to Mahadaga tomorrow is known to be pretty reliable, but it never hurts to pray for safety still. It will also be a long (about 10 hour) journey and probably a fairly warm one as well. So thanks for keeping that in prayer.

3) Lastly, we want to pray for protection against the critters (such as snakes and scorpions) that we may encounter in Mahadaga. We were having lunch at a missionary"s house the other day and they were telling some stories about these such animals, and many on the team are just a bit squirmy now. (Geckos are great, the rest; well, not so great). So prayer for no worries and no problems would be great!

Thanks again for all of your prayers. We hope that you all are doing well. God is so good all the time! I look forward to sending you another update, although I am not sure where it will come from or when it will be. Know that everyone is doing well and we're all having a great time. Dinner is just about ready, so I should be going now, but thanks again and God bless you all!

In the deep love of Christ,

Bre and the team

Burkina Faso News - 7/12/2004

I think Bre wrote to tell you about our trip to Ouagadougou. You can imagine that between the usual chaos of travel and the stress of new cross-cultural experiences, there are plenty of opportunities for relationships to break down. Minutes after I called the house from the airport, Air France called us to say they would not carry the battery we were carrying to complete the solar project begun in January. They mistook it for a live battery filled with acid, and could not be persuaded otherwise. Although the battery was not crucial to our work, this was a disappointment. The original was cracked in shipment last fall, and we have been working since January to replace it. Please pray that Matt Walsh will be able to straighten things out with Air France, or make other arrangements at a reasonable price to ship the battery. We praise God that two smaller batteries for the electric tricycle were sent through. On the airplane I also realized that I did not have receipts for the 32 panels we were carrying for the solar team. Please pray that our SIM friends will not have to spend much of their time getting them out of customs.

In Paris Joel left some important papers and other items in a bag on an airport bus. We assured him that these things happen, but he felt terrible. A kind employee at the airport worked with us to track it down, and we made it to the gate for our flight with 15 minutes to spare. Security was very tight in Paris, which delayed our departure by at least 30 minutes. Then a big storm over Ouagadougou kept the airplane from landing for a while. We circled for 20 minutes in this huge jet only 2000 feet off the ground, making sharp banks and shaking in the turbulence. It made Lalrem and Liz feel sick. The pilot finally made for the runway and then aborted at the last minute and circled some more. He said it was the weather, but not to worry because he had fuel to stay up for 2 hours. Our friends on the ground said he was coming in from the wrong direction. When we landed we waited another 20 minutes for our docking station (i.e. parking space) to be "ready". Ours was the only plane there, so my guess is that the airport staff went home because of our lateness, and had to be called back to get us through immigration and customs. Finally, we rolled forward about 10 meters and they let us off, down a steep stairway, to the ground and across the tarmac in the rain. Bre said she always wanted to get off an airplane and climb down the stairs.

Through all of this, everyone seems very pleased to be here. Praise God for the team's spirit of cooperation and grace, a blessing to me and everyone. Our testimony for Christ begins with how we treat each other, and we pray for a testimony that pleases him. I thank God for the ability and industry that everyone is pouring into their team assignments. These are not project assignments; rather they are those essential yet dull jobs that must be done to carry us through. Nicole, our team leader, communicates with everyone very well and is great about considering all opinions and interests. She knows how to make good decisions, and the others respect her for this. Liz got us off to a great start by coordinating the huge task of making an inventory and packing all of our parts, tools and supplies. J-Lynn Conrady, who drove us to the airport, complimented the way she organized the team. Well deserved! Joel is keeping very careful track of our finances, which are complicated. They include separate project, team and personal expense accounts, and the job requires a good bit of interaction with the SIM Treasurer and many team members. His work will help us to budget more precisely and be better stewards over our resources. One of our Burkinabe hosts took Dan and John shopping yesterday for parts and supplies for the tricycle project. This is no small task, and amounts to a scavenger hunt with intermittent negotiation (for the price). We still have some funds on account here given by the Dillsburg Brethren in Christ Church to help with the more expensive construction of tricycles for persons with the most severe disabilities. Joseph, Craig, and Mesgana did the shopping for the pump project. Lalrem, Pete and Joel are also on the pump team. Joel stayed back to do accounting work. Lalrem volunteered to coordinate our meals and shopping for all food and other non-project supplies. What a difficult job that has been. She, Pete and Liz purchased food for the team for three weeks. The guest house is piled with boxes of goods we will take with us to Mahadaga. Finally, Bre has already proved invaluable as the team administrator and chief translator. She keeps track of our passports and tickets, manages the first aid kit, and sends news home. Best of all, she is our resident translator and French language instructor (with some good help from Liz and Nicole). I am so pleased that almost everyone is saying a few words in French, which has done wonders for relationships with our Burkinabe hosts.

Yesterday, Bill and Joy Stregger hosted us for lunch. They are on vacation for two weeks here in Ouaga (selected as an inexpensive destination). There mission work is in Piela. Joy was honest with us about the challenges they face. She homeschools her children, and in a good year, when the rain is plentiful and food abundant, ten or more people come to her door every day asking for help. They sit on her porch for as long as it takes for her to come out, and repeat her name over and over: "Joy" . . . "Joy" . . . "Joy" ... There are many reasons for poverty, a lack of industry is not one of them. In a bad year, when all the efforts of the poorest of the poor can not produce enough to remain alive, there will be one or two hundred people waiting at the Stregger's gate and in the yard before sun up. I was struck that these missionaries, who had sacrificed much of the wealth, privilege and power that were theirs at home, were still the richest and most powerful people in their village. They do not have enough to help everyone, but they do buy a lot of local goods they don't need and created a lot of paying jobs for others, much of it out of their own pockets.

"Whatever you have done for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you have done to me," Jesus said. I am challenged to know why having more makes it more difficult, not less, to live more humbly and more generously. Treasure in this world is always at work to usurp treasure in heaven, the perishable displacing the imperishable. Unless we are active in our pursuit of generosity, "the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth" will choke the word of God in our lives and make it unfruitful in the Kingdom. In our culture we look to the future, and exhaust ourselves and our resources trying to control it. But at the end of time the only thing that will last is our treasure in heaven, so Jesus recommends an alternative investment strategy "Use worldly wealth," he says in the parable of the shrewd manager, "to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."

This morning we worshiped in a local church. In the afternoon we ate lunch at Alan and Alison Dixon's, played with their very large turtle, napped, and a about half of us (not me) played spoons. You would have loved it. Our SIM hosts have been tremendously generous and gracious. Erin Calpin, who will go with us in the morning, has been a great help. Tomorrow morning we depart on the bus for Mahadaga. Please pray for us as we move culturally even further from home, and begin the main relational and project work of the team.

David Vader

Burkina Faso News - 7/21/2004

Louise, Lee and Erin joined us in Ouagadougou. Louise is the project manager for SIM Burkina. She also grew up in Diapaga (50 km from Mahadaga) and speaks Gourma (one of two local languages), French and some English. Lee is a short term missionary from the UK who lived with his parents for many years in France, so he also knows French and English. Louise and Lee, along with Bre, provide translation help every day. They have also pitched in to help with the many tasks of daily living. It has been great for everyone to actually live with Louise, a local person, and learn all about life here. Erin Calpin, a former student leader in DE, is on short term assignment here for the summer and teaches high school physics the rest of the year. She organized many things for us in Ouaga and has been a great help here with everything from project work to cooking.

The entire team sends a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone praying for us. We have enjoyed some very good times together, and endured some adversity. I am amazed at the way, by God's grace, the team has handled adversity. The bus ride here, for example, was quite an adventure. We broke down only 45 minutes or so out of Ouagadougou, and spent 2 hours waiting on the side of the road waiting for the driver to catch a ride and return with some transmission fluid. During that time some of us got to know some of the other passengers on the bus, while others dug out a soccer ball and started a game. Some creative women on the team got hold of Craig and totally reworked his hair. The transmission fluid only allowed us to limp into the next village, where we waited another 3 or 4 hours for another bus. Amazingly we did not hear complaints from the other passengers, children or adults, at either stop. Jenny Fallon, an SIM friend, met to bus in Fada with bread and drinks. It was close to midnight (or maybe later) when arrived in Diapaga. Francoise and Diada were there to welcome us, but there were no lights on in the village, so it took us quite a while to load our gear and people in to the two vehicles. Then we learned that the headlights were out in one vehicle. In the end, we shone flashlights out the windows to help Diada see the way. It was 50 km from Diapaga to Mahadaga through some amazing mud holes that almost stopped our 4 wheel drive vehicles. Of course there was not another car on the road. Most of us made it to bed just as it was getting light in the east.

We were thoroughly exhausted by the end, but I think everyone more or less enjoyed the bus experience. Living and working in the heat has been a bigger challenge, as was the day we ran out of water when the sun did not shine on our solar panels for an entire day. When the sun does shine the pump cuts in and out, apparently because the water level is falling below the intake. I am amazed, however, by the grace and patience that everyone has for one another. We have enjoyed excellent times of discussion and prayer, and been blessed by our interactions with the 15 to 20 children of all ages that gather on our porch whenever we are in the guest house. This is the first time I was here when the children with disabilities came to hang out with other children from the village. It is great to see how they are accepted. We took the children on a hike to a water falls on Sunday afternoon, carrying some of the disabled ones and pushing others as far as we could in wheel chairs. The Messiah students all climbed up to stand directly under the falls. Everyone had a great time. On Thursday we visited the market, and many of us purchased cloth to have clothing made by a local tailor.

Our project work is challenging but going well. We are very thankful to all of the people at home who have contributed to the design and preparations for this trip. The team has had many interviews with local people about the status of our past work on the pumps and tricycles. Some changes in the ministry have also changed use patterns for the technologies, but the overall direction is very encouraging. Much more of the work with the disabled is happening in their own villages and homes. Four team members have been out with the staff from the Center on motor bikes to make home visits. The rest should have an opportunity to go before we go home. There is strong interest in making the pumping technology available persons with handicaps on their own farms. The "garden" at the Center is now mostly a mango and papaya orchard, but we will still use a well there to showcase developments in our pump design. The team's work to reduce material costs is very important to making the pump affordable to individual users, so everyone is pretty pleased with what we have done. I think the team has mapped out a five year plan for additional work.

We see now that the tricycle work is more important than ever. As of this summer, however, we do not have a student leader for the team or enough committed members back home to carry on the work. Please pray for this urgent need. Francoise was thrilled to learn that we brought a design for an electric tricycle for Yempabou, a boy with cerebral palsy. Dan and John have construction well under way. We see that Mousa, the man who fabricates the tricycles and other things for the Center, is now making only the design we introduced, the one with opposable handles and a deraileure for the chain. He is unable, however, to properly align these components and it is a lot of work for him to modify the standard bicycle crank to make the handles opposable. Unfortunately, the rest of the tricycle team did not complete their design of tools and fixtures to help Mousa with the manufacturing process. We ask for prayer that God will provide a capable leader and some additional dedicated members to the team.

This afternoon we had wheelchair races with the children, and a foot race for their friends. They put us on donkeys then, and everyone had a good laugh when we tried to race them. I hear the sounds of a soccer game outside the window, and in a few minutes we will eat and then discuss a reading by Dallas Willard on Christian discipleship. Everyone but two of us are recovering from colds, and we have had a couple of upset stomachs. The water is not so clean as usual since the tank was drained two days ago when there was not enough sun to keep the pump going. John is keeping an eye on the water for us. We have seen only one cobra so far. Apparently is has been a banner year for snakes. I don't know if the team is relieved or disappointed that we have not seen more. Francoise and Diada will drive to Ouaga Tuesday morning on business, and she has offered to send this e-mail update on for the team.

Thank you again to everyone who is praying for us. For the entire team, we are very grateful.

David

Burkina Faso News - 8/1/2004

It is Saturday, and we are all together again in Ouagadougou. Nine team members returned from Mahadaga yesterday by bus. The rest of us remained behind to finish up some work, pack and clean up. I don't know how to summarize the past few weeks in a few words, but soon the team will be home and each member will be able to tell his or her unique story. The team worked very hard. We successfully constructed an electric powered tricycle for Yempabou, a boy with cerebral palsy, and a new version of the DE pump that will significantly lower the cost to local farmers. Both teams worked very closely with many local people to help them understand and reproduce the designs. Frangoise, director of Handicapis en Avant, has asked her staff to begin constructing another tricycle and pump. The water team also surveyed the "mango orchard", which has some mango trees and a lot of good ground suitable for growing vegetables, and everyone helped continue the Participatory Rural Assessment work begun by the January team. The Center that serves persons with disabilities has grown tremendously since I was last here, but the ministry is now also putting a lot of its resources into helping people in their own homes and communities. We all had an opportunity to ride on motorbikes into some remote areas to observe these visits and learn how DE can help with the work. God provided many other exciting opportunities to learn and share with many people from the village, including a dinner with local pastors, a soccer game with the village team (5 * 5 tie), and a hike to a nearby waterfall with children from the Center. Of course we also kept our tradition of holding donkey, wheelchair and tricycle races with our friends.

I thank God for the way this team cared for each other as we were worked and lived together constantly for three weeks in challenging conditions. He provided us with a lot of grace and patience with each other. It was a pleasure to be part of the team. We suffered no serious illness or injury. A few of us had upset stomachs, some had colds, and we had a few scrapes and bruises, but all were able to carry on with the work and enjoy our time in Mahadaga. In addition to constructing pumps and tricycles, the team spent a lot of time talking to local people to learn what God is doing in the village and learn how we may serve him better. We are returning home with some very clear direction (and much encouragement from Frangoise) to continue the water and tricycle work. The team also has a long list of new project opportunities, especially in micro enterprise development.

We ask all of our friends at home to please continue to pray that God would send more workers and advisors to join the work at the College. For those who have not been here, it is hard to understand the importance of this work. Ask God to help us share the story with others and to be effective ambassadors at home so that we might continue to share the Gospel in word and deed. Please also pray for us as we travel, and have the reverse cross-cultural experience of returning to the US. Ask God to help us remember everything he taught us about ourselves and his work in the world, and that he enable us to respond according to the leading of his Spirit. From the entire team, we send thanks to all of our prayer and financial supporters. You are a vital part of this team and ministry. We are also grateful to the many DE team members who were not here with us but labored faithfully to on the Staff or a project team to make this all possible. For each one of us here this summer there are many at home without whom the work would be impossible. God bless you all, and see you at home in a few days.

David