The Shumaker Family's Blog

This is a day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. I always loved that song in English and I have fallen in love with it in French. Sometimes people ask me what I do all day. That is a hard question to answer sometimes because my day varies from day to day, but I thought that I would give you a detailed description of today.

6:30- My alarm went off, and I had a quick time of devotions. ( I know that it shouldn’t be so quick but I made a promise to Emile that I would be at the clinic by 7:30 or so.)

7:15 – Salif and I left the house.

7:45- We arrived at a health clinic to visit Emile’s friend that has been sick for over a week. (Please pray for him. He is a Muslim and we are praying that God will open his heart). We talked with him and gave a love gift(money) from the church(really my pocket, but I like to say it is from the church).

8:30- We went to visit the little boy that I wrote about earlier(5 year old with a hernia). He had a successful surgery and we wanted to say hello. He was happy and his mother very grateful that we helped her son. While on my way I got a beep on my cell phone. “A Beep” is when somebody calls me and hangs up so I can use my dime to call them back. How thoughtful, huh? It is Pastor Zacharie that works with us. The masons need cement. Kind of hard to get it on the other side of town. My thought(Why didn’t they tell me this last night?) We are building out baptismal pool for our 1st Baptism at Cissin. We should have about 20 to baptize on Sunday.

9:30- Another call from pastor Zacharie. We are on our way home. They need some plumbing equipment for the Baptismal pool.

9:45- Go to that land to give the pluming supplies and the iron workers tell me that they need more cement but not just any cement, cement from Togo(it is supposed to be better but who knows). Again I think, “Why didn’t they tell me this last night?” Togo cement can be harder to find sometimes.

10:00- I arrive at home. I told my wife I would be home at 10:00 so she can take the car to go grocery shopping, but the problem is I still haven’t finished my visits. This is par for the course. She told me that she never expects me home when I say, something always comes up. I get Emile setup for work, as he is translating things from English in French for me.

10:30- We arrive at a widow’s house who has been very faithful to our church for 2 and half years. She wanted me to pray for her. She is having a hard time because her work isn’t going well. She cooks food and sells it, but she is struggling. She owes a shop owner $10 for rice but doesn’t have the money to pay it back. We pray for her and I help her with $14. She has never asked before and is very appreciative. Her friend wants prayer too. The friend tells me that she has bad spirits that bother her and she wants me to get rid of them. Interesting, huh? I tell her that I can pray for her, but it won’t really do any good until she knows Jesus. After 20 min of explaining she trusts Christ. Praise the Lord.

11:00- I have to talk to our church guard. After almost every church service at Tingandogo, somebody asks me for something. After months and months of this I find out that our church guard has been telling everybody in the neighborhood, if you have a problem just come and see the missionary, he can regulate it. Interesting, huh?

11:55 Only 1 hour and 55 min late I arrive home so my wife can go shopping. I decide that I will go with her so it will be quicker, and I will take her out to eat. While having an enjoyable meal together I get another beep, but this is from my day guard. Yes we do have a day and night guard at the house. Somebody asked me why one time. If you want to be robbed and lose everything don’t have a guard. Simple, right? I had in my mind that I wouldn’t answer my phone because I wanted to spend time with my wife, but this is my guard at the house, and my kids are there with the baby sitter so I think, maybe there is a problem. Oh, its Pastor Zachary again. He called on Simon’s phone because he was at my house looking for me. They can’t put the steps in the baptismal pool the way I asked because they put the pipe in the wrong place. Oh well, I will go find a solution in an hour.

2:30 – I get home and unload the car. I get ready to go and play tennis. I know that is carnal but I need the exercise. Before playing at 4:00 I need to go by the church and handle the stair problem. I find a solution and play tennis.

7:00- I get home, eat, play with the kids and check e-mails.

10:15- I start writing this blog.

11:00- Heat some water for Salif, my night guard, he loves coffee to stay awake. I tell him that I am proud of him. He did great with our visits this morning. He did a lot of the talking. If you would have known Salif 3 years before, you would have never thought he would be this bold and out going for Jesus. It is amazing what God can do.

That is a day. I can’t say it’s typical because tomorrow will be nothing like today. That is the great life of a missionary. I couldn’t imagine myself having to do the same job each day. That might not be bad for others, but I would struggle. I could have added more but I didn’t want to write too much as I am sure I already have. God has been good to me today as He is everyday. This is a day that the Lord has made and I will certainly rejoice because I know Him!

I normally would have had some type of Bible Study with at least one person but today it didn’t work out.

All over Ouagadougou, there are young men that stand beside the road holding a stick in their hand, with several cards attached. They go from car to car hoping to sell cell phone cards. Most cell phones are prepaid. You buy the card and charge the phone before using it. You can also buy the cards in the stores, but I like to help the young guy trying to make a little bit by working instead of begging. At a corner near our house, I am always hounded by about four or five of them trying to be the first to my window.

Last Saturday, I was coming back from evangelization at one of our works, and the rain started a little. When I turned the corner off the main road I saw one of the young men sitting under a grass hanger. I was with my son, Isaac. So Isaac and I went and sat under the hanger and bought two cokes. I split the drinks between Isaac, the card guy(Jean), an older man and me. I witnessed to them and to many others that came in from the rain. I then invited Jean to come to church with me and told him to invite the others to come. I was excited when three of them showed up on Sunday morning. The didn’t make any professions but we are praying that God will do something great in their lives.

I just wanted to show you how we have been delivering the iron to the church for our construction. This is a good picture of the life in Burkina Faso. Where there is a will, there is a way.

We had a great day on Sunday. We had about 80 at Tingandogo and 65 at Cissin. During my message two young men walked in. Africans are a little strange when they come into church late. Actually it used to make me mad(I know a preacher shouldn’t get that way). I guess you have to come to the place you are willing to live with it because you won’t change it. The regulars understand but visitors never do. They walk in, in the middle of preaching and have to shake hands and say good morning to everyone (out loud). Can’t they understand that I am trying to preach? To them, it would be more disrespectful not to say good morning and shake a few hands than to be quiet. I have had them walk up to the pulpit and shake my hand as I am preaching away. This story made me think of last week. A lady decided, for some reason I will never figure out, to undress her 2 year old boy. He then proceeded to walk half way down the aisle. So now, I have a naked boy staring at me while I am trying to preach. I have become a little used to these kind of things. So I just preached on. I looked down at him and noticed that he thought our floor was a little dry and decided to wet it. Yes, he peed on the floor. You ask, “What did you do?” Nothing, just kept preaching.

Sorry, back to the two young men. They came in during the message and said good morning really loud. With my attention deficit disorder I got a little sidetracked but figured I could get back on track. What happened next really messed me up. One of them stopped at the door bowed his head and prayed. Then he took two steps and did the same thing. I am trying to preach but thinking, what in the world is he trying to prove? He did this two more times as he advanced to his seat, and then finally, he sat down. I suppose that I should have had a good attitude about their prayers, but it was all for show. They listened well and as I gave the invitation to accept Jesus they both raised their hand. They prayed to accept Jesus and so did an older woman. God is so good.

The other day when I came home, I found that my kids had turned into pigs. We had a good rain the night before, which is rare here. I thought it was hilarious that my children (the proper, well-educated American kids) were playing in the mud, when the African kids were standing around watching them. The whole neighborhood got a good laugh when I was walking back to the house and managed to slip and fall in the mud. So I guess the missionary likes mud also.

I’m not sure the grandparents need to see the picture below. Isaac thought it was fun to take a bath in the mud.

I have written about Emile before, but it has been a little while. He just finished his sixth year of Law School. He has a great heart and a great character. I have challenged him to be serious with God. For a long time he was off and on, but lately, he has been growing like crazy. He told me yesterday that he was moved one day when I told him that I wanted him to read his Bible each day and I would call him each day to see if he has done it and he can do likewise. He said at that time, he realized that my desire is to see him grow and follow the Lord, and he took the challenge. He started reading through John and we would talk about it over the phone or through e-mail. We started in the book of Acts, and we were supposed to be on Acts 2. He told me that he got a little excited about what was going on in Acts and couldn’t stop. He told me sorry. I didn’t know that somebody had to ask forgiveness for reading too far in his Bible. He had read to chapter 19 yesterday, and today he has finished Acts.

We met Emile in July 2006 when we had a group of young people here. He was off and on for a long time. He told me one day that twice he had promised God that if God would help him in the current situation that he would give God his whole life, but after he was successful he wasn’t faithful. It is amazing what a little encouragement and push can make somebody do. Emile is highly faithful and is going to be used greatly of God. He has a big decision coming up. He has been accepted to a university in Geneva, Switzerland. I would hate to see him go, but I told him that I couldn’t tell him what the will of God is for his life.

I was coming home tonight and decided to buy some street food. I guess that phrase may seem strange to some but that is exactly what it is here. At night many different people will set up a little stand and sell. You can buy chicken (looks more like the size of Quail), sheep, rice and sauce, fish, etc. We buy this food sometimes for three reasons: (1)It doesn’t cost much, (2)we like it, and (3)my wife gets a break from the hot kitchen(my wife added that comment).

I was ordering some fish and attieke(a special dish from the Ivory Coast) when a bunch of men, about 20, were gathering together. I watched them as they washed their hands and feet. They then formed two lines, lining up shoulder by shoulder. Then they proceeded to pray. I watched them as they repeated the same prayer time and time again. They do the same motions every time they pray (stand, squat, kneel, and touch their face to the ground then repeat the procedure). What breaks my heart is that they are praying to a dead god. The reason why they repeat a prayer and do the motions is because they believe God is impersonal. I am glad that we have a God that wants to be personally involved with us. He loves us and wants to communicate with us. I was just thinking as I was watching them God has really blessed the ministry thus far, but we have lots left to do. My heart breaks for those who are trapped in religion and don’t know the freedom from our sins that Christ brings. May God help us to reach these people before it is to late.

God truly blessed in our services today.  We had good crowds at both churches.  I taught on eternel security this morning.  One of the greatest lies that the devil had created is that a Christian can lose his salvation.  We are attacked but that greatly here.  After reading about 14 verses on the subject, I think it was very evident that a true believer can never lost eternal life.

Tonight, I shared the story of Elijah and Elisha.  It was interesting to me that Elisha was told by the prophets and by Elijah to go no further.  Elisha didn’t want any part of it.  He was going no matter what.  I feel that if he wouldn’t have went on, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to receive double.  His faithfulness brought greater blessings.  Many people stop short and miss Gods blessings.  Just go a little farther.  Don’t stop, don’t quit, just a little farther and God will take over.  A faithful friend and bother told me after the service he needed the message.  Bado has been a great blessing and used greatly in our ministry.  He has always given of his time and of his money(this is very rare here).  He was helping take care of some paperwork for our 5 acres of land at Tingandogo.  Since I was in the village over the weekend, he was forced to give about $40 of his own money.  He told me that a little after midnight, he felt like somebody was talking to him(we know it was Satan trying to discourage him), “if you continue to give and do all this for the church then you won’t be able to eat and live.”  He has also had many struggles with family as of late.  He said that the message really broke his heart and he knows he can’t quit.  Don’t quit, God has something great in store for you.

Just a quick blog as I am trying to prepare for tomorrow and it is late.  I went to the village yesterday afternoon.  We had a night service in which I taught.  I was really surprised at the number of people that came because it wasn’t really announced.  We had about 120.  This morning we had another service and had about the same.  It is planting season and unfortunalty many miss but we still had a good crowd.  We brought home with us a 5 year old kid and his mom.  He has a hernia.  We will get him checked out and see about an operation this week.

I taught a course on leading music this afternoon and then we had our second youth meeting.  What a busy day but defintley no complaints.  God truly blessed.  Oh yeah, a young man was saved last night.  Salif translated for me and then didn’t feel so good.  His fever came back.  I think he didn’t finish all of his typhoid fever treatment.

I wish that I could explain how much joy is in my heart. I felt that my heart was about to bust as I was buying some granite to begin the construction. I want to share with you a miracle that God has done. Last week I got an e-mail from a man and his wife(they wish to remain anonymous). He told me that he couldn’t get the picture of the foundation out of his head and felt that God wanted him to help. He asked me how much I felt that the bottom floor would cost. I told him that I felt that it would cost about $25,000 for the structure and another $5,000 for the extras(benches, electricity, etc.) He wrote me back and told me that a check for $25,000 was in the mail. Praise the Lord. We are starting again and thrilled. God has truly blessed this work more than we can imagine.

The church members worked on Monday and Tuesday and will return to work again tomorrow. We were hauling dirt back in to get the foundation ready to pour the floor. We had almost 20 people working together. We are literally moving the dirt back in one wheelbarrow at a time.  I know that many of you have prayed for Salif.  He is in the picture below loading the wheelbarrow.