Handing out "The Book of Life" to kids at a school outside of Ouagadougou.

From Last Ouaga outreach of 2008

Give a Kid a Christmas outreaches.

Getting in just in time for the last cluster of Giva a Kid a Christmas outreaches in the village of Piela. Seen above: Handing out backpacks to some really excited kids!

When left to ask, "What next?" God responds with "Suprise!"

Only hours after my flight had landed here in Burkina Faso, I found myself preparing to head out to the village of Piela for what would prove to be the most interesting trip so far in our Give a Kid a Christmas travels.
I landed just before 10pm Monday night, arrived at the place I was staying at, unpacked and re-packed a bag for the trip the following morning. At 6am I was awake and still trying to figure out where exactly I was at. Within a few hours, I found myself on the road to Piela - a road that in years past has plagued us with strange problems. By 2:30 pm we had discovered that one of our 3 vehicles (the red van - as we call it) had broken down. Apparently the barings had been broken to pieces, seizing the wheel and actually causing a small fire! (no injuries). Two hours later, the vehicle that I was in came to rather harsh stop. We didn't know it at the time, but a ring in the piston housing had broken to bits - leaving us stuck on the side of the road.
I could go on about other details - sleeping on the side of the road, having the power supply in our speakers go out, and the 3rd vehicle snapping two belts at the same time; but the main reason of this post is to show you a small and very short clip of why I do what I do.
ABOVE: You'll see and hear the kids screaming and shouting as they have just received new backpacks filled with school supplies and other treats. That same night we did an outreach and saw just shy of 200 of these very same kids come forward to make a decision to follow Christ. With no speakers and just two flood lights - God still came through with a "Suprise" reponse.
[update 6:15pm - problems uploading video - will try again in a few hours. Stay tuned]
[update 9:58pm December 13 - was not able to complete the video upload after multiple attempts. I guess I will stick to pictures for the time being]

A VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

A HUGE THANK YOU!!! to all this Thanksgiving weekend. May you have a relaxing and wonderful time - and may the Lord bless you each and every day this holiday season.

(stay tuned for more updates as I will be returning back to Burkina Faso in just 4 short days!)
[pictured above: All smiles at Christmas time for the Kids of Hope (taken 2007)]

Certified with Leadership Training International and trained by Crisis Consulting International

For the past 5 days, I have spent over 50 hours in a class room environment here in Jacksonville, Florida. (the location of the world headquarters for Calvary International). I have been able to spend time with and learn alongside top notch missionaries representing 11 different locations around the world. It truly has been a "growing experience" in the sense that mentally I have jumped leaps and bounds in just five days.
[pictured above: The awesome missionaries from around the world together for a quick 'class picture' juast after completing our certification with L.T.I. (Leadership Training International) ]

Up by Paradise...

I was recently able to get down to Mt. Rainier here in Washington with my family and take some amazing pics of the mountain! Growing up just 4 hours north of here, I could always see Mt. Rainier on a clear sunny day, but never have actually taken the time to drive down to it! Quite an amazing sight indeed!

Hiking in the Cascades.

On a recent trek up to the ice caves, I was able to get up into the snow at barely over 1,000 vertical feet!!! There was a rather excessive amount of snow fall this year, resulting in an amazing snow pack that is still around well into August!

Out on an island...

So this weekend, the sun came out and kinda warmed things up. I was able to get out and enjoy a local kite festival in Everett on a little island. Behind me is one of the rare "sandy beaches" in Washington state. Most everything else is covered in rocks and wonderful beach dwelling creatures - like barnacles.

Local Kite Festival

Fireworks on the water

So I left eh exposure on my little
point and shoot open just long enough to get the
whole "blurr" effect. It's hard to tell what's going on here
but if you look closely, all those little multi colored lights
on the water are boat lights. We were just a few hundred feet
from the barge and were having blast (no pun intended).

Fireworks on the water

Out on the lake in a boat for the Big Lake
Fireworks display here in Washington State.
It truly was an awesome evening!

Home Sweet Home

Within the first month of being home,
I had the opportunity to get up to Wallace Falls
just an hour or so away from where I'm staying.
It was an amazing hike and with the snow level
just a few hundred feet above us, it was quite chilly
as well!

Latest Video Release

Okay - so there are still revisions to be made and this is only a trial run; but I wanted to put it out there for all of you who can't make it on Sunday night or are in other states/countries. Enjoy!

Upcoming Event:

As many of you already know, I have been back in Washington State now for about a month. I will be speaking this Sunday evening (May 4th) at 6pm at Arlington Assembly of God, during which I will be sharing just a few of the awesome things that God is doing in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

The Weather Back in Burkina.....

So with the rain/snow/sleet/sun that we've had over the past two weeks, I thought I would jump online to see what the weather was like back in Burkina. Looks like another HOT week back in West Africa. Scope out the forecast. Thank you God for cool Washington rain!

Back in Washington State and doing well....

The past couple weeks have flown by and found me with quite the large appetite. Having been born and raised in the Northwest, I enjoy seafood and love my coffee. I had the opportunity to visit the first Starbucks in Seattle wile my sister was in town. (Pictured above) My sister and I with about 5 pounds of coffee - enjoying the smells and sounds of the first Starbucks!

Traveling Home.....

Well - I'm here at last! It was a smooth flight from Ouaga-Paris-Seattle and I was very happy to arrive home to some crisp cool air and a cup of Starbucks in my hand.

On the Move

Well - with recent power cuts and such, this could be my last Blog post from Burkina Faso for a long time! I will be heading out on Monday night to return to the states for aprox. 5 months. Things I'm looking forward to are seeing family, Starbucks, good food, and even getting up into the snow before it all melts. The main purpose of me going home for a while is to raise more funds as recent finances have dramatically shifted.
Most likely - I will see many of you soon.

In my dreams....

So - if you're reading this for the first time in a long time then the news that I will be home in April may come as a suprise. Then again, if you're reading this and it's already April - then HEY - I'm home! Let's do coffee sometime and I'll tell ya all about the past 19 months in West Africa! Favorite Starbucks drink - Tall, Peppermint, light room, Americano - (with a touch of cream and a little bit of raw sugar)

New Newsletter in the mail….

Well, 2007 was an interesting year and so far 2008 holds a very promising future for me. I will traveling back to the U.S. around the first week of April and hope to see many of you in person. Of course with the change in location, there will no longer be pictures of elephants or our kids club on this blog, but instead you will be seeing and hearing great posts from Washington State!

I miss you all very much and hope so see many of you very soon. Just today (Feb. 13^th 2008) I mailed out a fresh newsletter with plenty of pictures and information on what will be happening. If you did not receive a copy of my newsletter and would like to – simply leave a comment and I'll try and get one to you as soon as I can.

Each Saturday.........

Each Saturday, I help lead the "Kids of Hope" club here in my neighborhood. I've been posting to another blog with pics from the program over at this site (CLICK HERE). Browse on over there and check it out to see more pics of what happens each Saturday!

More elephant fun......

Love taking pictures - and video..... Need I say more?

Chillen with the elephants.....

So I was driving around a few people this last weekend
and we came across this rather "not so happy" bull elephant
that felt like he needed to make it known that we were not
welcome on his turf. I love it when they do this!

Don't forget to check your mirrrors!

With yet another opportunity to go down south to see the elephants, I was able to take plenty of pictures and even a little video this time - all while driving more than 15 people around in (and on top of) an SUV.

Cutting it a little close.....

So after all was said and done with the Christmas outreaches, I had yet another opportunity to head on down to see the elephants in December. As you can see in the shot, I'm standing about 20 feet from this guy trying to get some good video and not get stomped on. It was a great rush and YES - the video turned out quite nice as well!

Back up and running in 2008!!!

Soooooooooo, 2008 has been quite an interesting year so far. In keeping with our newest tradition here in Burkina Faso, we (Joel and I) like to start off the new year with COMPUTER PROBLEMS and all kinds of crazy errors, viruses, crashes, trojans, and the like! Okay - not really - but i have been spending the last 3 weeks trying to get my computer back into working order and it has been a HUGE challenge.
It all started right around Christmas, when I thought I was doing someone a favor by putting some music (recorded by a friend here in Africa and PERFECTLY legal) onto a USB key for him. As soon as I inserted the key into my laptop and looked to see what was on it, I knew I had made a mistake - WAMO @#$@#$#@$!!!! - and just like that, I had a trojan horse planted deep within my system. So for those of you who think you have to be connected to the internet to get a virus 0r the likes of one - BEWARE!!!
To make a long story short, I spent most of the following week hunting this rotten thing down on my laptop. I then made the second BIG mistake. I installed YET ANOTHER virus that - YES - I paid for!!!!! in the hopes of protecting my computer (see pic: above right). Yes folks - that's right - for the next 3 weeks, I battled this rotten virus that I had a TWO YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to trying to figure out strange things on my computer - like WHY my broswer stopped working - of course this was only Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 but NOT Opera. Why I couldn't access certain sites - like my Yahoo! Mail or even THIS BLOG!!!! Strange things indeed - like why the firewall program showed that I was connected to the internet and gave access to ALL the programs that I chose (latest versions and updates included) but I STILL could NOT connect to the internet!!!!!
LONG story SHORT - Mcafee IS A VIRUS!!!!! For those of you having problems with your computer - check your "ANTI-VIRUS" program FIRST! In an attempt to prevent ALL bad things from happening to your system, these companies think that blanketing and blocking everything possible from accessing the internet is the ticket, and though that may be partially true, I would have to say that in the process Mcafee has become a VIRUS itself.
Well - that is all for today. Thanks for reading and don't worry - my virus problems have been solved for now - which means - more posts to come!!!!