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]
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