How to get lost in West Africa.....

Okay, so this last week was more than interesting and wins the award for hosting the LONGEST DAY of my life! What was originally supposed to be a simple 3 hour drive to a remote village outreach turned into nearly 10 HOURS of endless driving on dirt roads exploring all kinds of small stranged named west African villages that I really hope to never see ever again. Our first mistake (and most deffinately the last one of its kind) was taking a local "navigator" - something that is almost an ironic statement in itself. They say here that in Africa you can't get lost....... HA!!! - soooo not true!
So here's the "how to" on getting lost in West Africa: Step one - When heading to a remote village, make sure to take someone with you who barely speaks French. Step two - ALWAYS assume he knows the way to his home village, I mean, why not - he only grew up there his entire life. Step three - Don't ask, "Soooo are you sure this is the right road" until you've driven half way accross the country and see a stop sign with a crossing paved road. Step four - AFTER admitting that he has ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE where you are at, ask him for further directions including the following - "sooo, at this Y in the road, should we go right or left?" (he said "yes" - so of course we went that way......for nearly 80 WRONGLY DIRECTED km.) or this one "soooo, you recognize this village riiiiiight?" (of course he's gonna say "ya sure" I mean don't ALL west African villages look totally unique?!?!?!) and my personal fav. "heh, we've been driving for over 4 hours now - is it much further?" (oh yes - it was much, much further - in the EXACT OPPOSITE direction that we were headed)
All that said - it is nearly impossible to get lost in West Africa- the catch: DO NOT take someone with you and instead simply ask people along side of the road where to turn next - cause those are the people who live there and know what they're talking about.

Shooting days.....

For the first time in my life, I went to sleep with the sound of gun shots off in the distance. As the night wore on, the shooting subsided and things seemed to calm down. I woke up this morning to find that the power had been out for hours which really isn't all that rare here in Burkina, but still rather annoying.
After talking with a few people here and double checking some local news sources, it turns out that the deep rooted rivalry between the military and the police finally turned violent, leaving one person dead last night.
The International School of Ouagadougou canceled classes today - leaving some American students to futher contemplate education overseas saying, "....in the States we get snow days; but here in Burkina we get shooting days."

The eyes of a child......

This shot captured my attention this last week out in the village here in West Africa. Most of the kids had never seen a white person before - some were even quite afraid of us - other just really really curious.........

A Night Aglow!

This last week in the village can be best described by this picture. Based in the fairly remote region of Ziga, our base camp was a bright light on the horizon of a very dark land. Each day we were able to bring hope, joy, and an abundance of HUGE smiles to 1000's of kids. We saw lives touched time and again and were able to impact over a dozen villages for Christ!
Looking back - everything seems like a blur at this point; but as 2006 comes to a close I'm able to look back and thank God for everything that He has done through the lives of the missionaries here in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

A Week Full of Smiles!!!

Wow - this last week has been an amazing time of outreach and ministry here in Burkina Faso! The last week has really stood out, in that we did nearly 20 outreaches in just six days enabling us to reach over 2000 kids with the Gospel!!! We handed out 1000's of gifts and saw smiles just like this one again and again. It was such a blessing to see the joy on these kids faces - almost impossible to describe in words..........so enjoy the pics and keep an eye out for many more to come!

Litteraly Thousands of kids to reach!

This week has just marked the beginning of what looks to be a VERY promising holiday season filled with outreaches and Christmas joy for thousands of kids here in Burkina Faso! Stay posted for more pics and incredible stories each week this December!

Priceless exprestions!

Once the gifts are handed out (usually in a classroom setting to prevent complete chaos) we give the kids a good 1-2-3 count and watch in delight! This little guys expression says it all!

What it's all about.

After each drama presentation, all the kids are given a chance to actively respond to the Gospel message. During one outreach, some of the kids even went around back to talk to Joseph (one of the local actor/pastor/evangelist) about accepting Jesus into his heart while all the other kids were opening up their gifts!

Drama in Ouaga!

The conclusion to the drama presentation that we do here with each and every outreach here in Ouaga.

Who's that?!?!

It all begins with a drama! When we first arrive at a school here in Ouaga, we set up a small stage and kick things off with a drama depicting the birth, death, and ressurection of Jesus Christ (all done in the local language) Pictured above, the kids are frantically reacting to satan jumping out from behind the stage......

A mountain of gifts!

Seen here is just half of the gifts that were wrapped in preparation for the big distribution here in Burkina Faso!

The assembly line!

Nothing says Christmas like an assembly line! This holiday season, we had our wonderful fill of wearhouse type work - stuffing backpacks some days for some 4-6 hours at a time.

A mound of backpacks!

The first stage was purchasing some 4000+ backpacks and getting them stuffed with suprises for the kids here in Burkina Faso! What you see here is only one third of the backpacks that were stuffed before being wrapped.