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.

Just thinking....

As the sun set each night this last week while I was in Ghana, I had time to really reflect on the past year spent here in West Africa. I'm beginning to realize just how far off I've been in trying to "guess" or try and "estimate" where I'll be in the future. I mean, who could have ever told me three years ago that I'ld be here in West Africa doing full time missions - certainly not me......and so I've allowed myself a new freedom of looking ahead at life. Gazing into the future with an open mind and no end in sight - dependant upon God's daily leading for my life......What a place to be.....

Looking a little closer.....

Soo, these last couple weeks have been filled with observations of all kinds. Throughout many of my travels here in Burkina Faso, I am always amazed at the flood of American t-shirts that seem to saturate the country from boarder to boarder.......but on this last trip it wasn't any American name brand or Nike swoosh that caught my eye. This pic was taken just before leaving a wonderful (and very gracious) family that we stayed with out in the "bush" for a few days. Notice the little girl's nice clean white shirt.......then look a little closer. It's moments like these that open my mind up to a whole "other" world out there. A perspective totally different than my own complete with other world views and sooo much more.........

No bus station here......

On one of our last village trips - we had a little time to burn on the side of the road just waiting for the next bus to come along that was heading our way. Luckily we had the shade of some trees and this great truck load of logs giving us a little shade and something to lean against