The Shumaker Family's Blog

I should have put this update on Sunday. Sunday we had a great day at church. I no longer feel like I am just a missionary here. I am really beginning to feel like a pastor. That may seem like a weird statement, but let me explain. Since coming to the field we really have never felt that we have a strong church family. Now, we are excited when we get to go to church. We want to be with our people. There are missionaries (not sure what they are actually doing) here that don’t even go to church or don’t go faithfully. They have church at home. I told our church that if I did that I would be in America. Most churches don’t have a Sunday night service. Outside of going to church most of the missionaries don’t want to be close to the people they work with. I’m not sure if it is fear of being hurt, lied to or stole from (I have faced all three many times) but the relationship is weak or non-existent. Again, I told the church that if I couldn’t be close to them I wouldn’t live here. It does make you vulnerable but then we have to ask the question, “Why am I here?” I don’t want to be a normal missionary. I want to rejoice when they rejoice, cry when they cry, hurt when they hurt because God has allowed me to be their shepherd. After church, my wife used to say, “Are you ready to go yet?” That doesn’t happen any more. I have finished talking to everybody and packed up the car. Then, I look for my wife. I just wait with joy in my heart for her to come. I definitely am not all that I need to be and I need to do much, much more, but I praise God for the love he has given my family for our church family.

I just found out that a young lady, who trusted Christ a few weeks ago, came from a Muslim family. My wife was visiting a few of the ladies from the church today and it was these faithful women that invited Ina to church. My wife saw Ina today and talked with her some. In talking with the other women that invited Ina, my wife was told that her parents are Muslims. That information has really encouraged my heart.

Many of you have been faithful to pray for Salif. He is doing much better. I was truly amazed at how many people have prayed for him and asked how he was doing. That also encouraged my heart to see how many Christians are compassionate and care about this ministry.

Our hearts break for the number of people trapped in the Muslim religion here. There are several different sects, and the family next door to our church belongs to one of the stricter sects. Today, I (Rebecca) was able to go with two other women from our church and meet the lady. She mostly speaks the tribal language so my attempts to greet her in the past using French haven’t been too successful. We basically just wanted to establish a friendship with the lady and let her know that we, as a church, care about her and her family. I was surprised at the warm reception the lady gave us.

Her four children weren’t home at the time, but the children’s clothing hanging on the clothes line, was evidence of the precious young souls that also live there. I kept wondering, as I looked at the clothes and thought of the little ones, if they will ever be able to hear and accept the truth. They like to sneak into the churchyard whenever they can and see what is going on, and they are always excited to greet my husband when they see him.

It is quite obvious that this dear lady would not be allowed to come to regular services so one of the ladies with me invited her to our free French classes, also held at the church. She said that her husband (a Muslim leader) would not even allow her to come to these courses. She could probably be easily won to the Lord if she had the freedom to come to church. Before she escorted us outside the gate this evening, she first went inside to get a traditional Muslim garment to wrap over her already modest dress. She would only step outside the gate once her head and all the rest of her were covered with this long garment. I was informed that in the past, she has even had to weir a veil to cover her face. Please pray for this sweet lady and many like her who would most likely be very open to the gospel if their husbands would allow them to come to church. Pray for the husbands as well to be open to the truth and for the children trapped in darkness in homes where they are forbidden to go to Bible preaching churches.

Thursday morning I dropped off two pastors at 5:30 in the morning. They spent a few days with us. As soon as that was finished, we(3 other Africans and myself) left for a village about 70 miles away. One of our church members told me that land down south is more fertile than the land here. It rains a lot more there and crops are great. I have often thought about having a plantation of mangoes or some other type of crop but have never went through with it. I have always wanted to figure out a way that we could help our churches, church members, pastors and Bible Institute students. When we got off the main road, I was a little disappointed because I wanted land right next to the main road but after 4 miles, much to my surprise, we came into a rather big village. We met with many of the people and look forward to having a work started there sometime in the future. We decided that we would plant about 12 acres of cashew trees or other trees and leave the rest (12 more acres) for the church people to plant.

I was talking with my parents about our desire to help and what our plans were. Thirty sec. after I got done talking with them, they called me back. They are going to help pay for the land(25 acres). I praise the Lord for such wonderful parents. They taught me at a young age to give and help others. They have been and are a great example of unselfish love (always looking at how they can help others).

Tonight we started French class at Cissin.  We felt that teaching French has two goals.  #1) To help our people read their Bible and songbooks.  #2)  To reach out into the community with the goal of winning the students to the Lord.  We had about 15 for the first class.  I think that this will really grow and help our church.  This is just one of the many ministries that we want to implement into our church.

We have a night guard by the name of Salif.  He has been my guard since I came to Africa.  He has been very, very faithful to my family and is is also faithful to the Lord.  He grew up in a Muslim home.  At a young age he was sent away to learn the Koran.  His father was the leader of the Muslims in his village.  Salif became my guardian by the grace of God.  He was with my for two years before he got saved.  I need to write this whole story one day.  He is now faithful to teach the kids, lead singing or whatever I ask him to do.

He hasn’t been feeling well the last few days.  The great problem is that Africans, when not feeling well, tell you they are o.k.  We always say that they can have a gun to their head and say that there isn’t any problems.  Tonight he didn’t come to church which I am not sure when or if there was a time he hasn’t come since being saved.  He came to work and couldn’t even walk straight because he is so sick tonight.  I looked for a pharmacy, which can be hard to find one open at night, and it took us 35 min.  I bought him some medicine for Typhoid Fever.  He had already started a treatment for malaria.  He is on our couch this very minute sleeping.  Please pray for his health.  He is a great friend and brother in Christ.  He gave a testimony the other day that he didn’t look at me as his boss but as his brother.  Nothing could have made me more proud.  Amen!

I know that I have written about Omar a few times now but I wanted you all to know what is going on. Omar is a very nice young man, and he loves the Lord. He doesn’t have the best singing voice in the world but that doesn’t seem to bother him as he is the loudest in the whole church. Last week he came to Bible Study, Youth Meeting and church. When we dropped him off from church Sunday morning another young man approached him. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I knew he was giving Omar a hard time because he came to church with us. He was playing with his face like he was a kid. I guess he was trying to humiliate him. My heart broke because I know that it is hard for somebody to undergo such pressure from family and friends, but he will be stronger in the end if he rests faithful. Please continue to lift him up in prayer.

At 2 AM it started raining. It didn’t stop until 11:30 AM. Man, did it ever rain. Ouagadougou became a big lake. It was good for the fields as they desperately need rain, but for the church service it wasn’t really great. (Most of our people walk to church, some coming from at least a mile away. Some of them have bicycles, and a very select few have mopeds. It is very difficult to go anywhere in this type of weather, and most people stick close to home when it pours.) We showed up at Tingandogo, with my family and 3 others. I thought that it might just be us at church because of the mud, rain and new rivers everywhere, but we had 5 others show up. I was truly amazed because when they got there they looked like they had jumped in a lake, but they still came. We had a great service and God really touched those that came.

At Cissin when we showed up, we had a few present. By the time I started preaching we must have had about 20. People continued to wonder in throughout the service, most of them completely soaked. I was again amazed at those who came. My heart was really encouraged because of the faithfulness of the people.

We also had our first teachers and workers meeting tonight. When I announced the meeting, I told the people that we are going to require certain things for them to be leaders one being arriving on time. When I showed up for the meeting tonight, there were already 20 in the church. Man was I ever surprised. God is forming a team. He is building a model church here, that He will use mightly. I was told by other missionaries that the Africans can’t come on time. I told them tonight that we wanted to take boys and make them men.

The message this morning dealt with the children of Israel and Moses. They complained because they thought they were going to die. They were trapped with no way out. Moses told them, not to have fear because God was going to deliver them and fight for them. God made a way and He will make a way for us. We must learn how to have faith and confidence in our God and wait for Him to work. If you are like me, you don’t have much patience and move before God can work.

I had a great day serving the Lord today! I couldn’t imagine doing anything else in the world than what I’m doing right now. God’s work is always exciting! Nine of us left early this morning to go to our village work, Roungo. It takes about 2 hours and 15 min to get there. Rainy season started late and I really didn’t expect many to come because they are in the process of planting. We still had a great crowd of over 100.

This evening we had our first youth meeting. Youth here is considered 18-35. Weird, I know, but that is how it is. We made many plans for the future. I am extremely excited with the direction we will be going with them. A young man by the name of Emile lead the meeting tonight. It was his idea, so I told him to run with it. He did a great job. Emile is in university. He is in his 6th year of law. He has been approved to go to a University in Switzerland and is trying to decide what he needs to do. I hate to lose him as he is a great asset to the ministry, but I told him he had to do the Lord’s will. Please pray that he will make the right decision. He could be a tremendous pastor or missionary, but it has to be the call of God.

I just finished having Bible Study with Omar.  I felt that we might lose him, a few weeks ago, due to pressure from family and “friends”.  He is a young man that I feel has great potential.  He seems to be on the right track.  Please continue to pray for him that God would use his life. 

I used the exemple of a daba.  A “daba” is like a little hoe that is used for planting.  They don’t have many tools for planting their fields but they always have a daba.  I asked him if the daba had a great value if it was on the table.  He said, “no.”  Where does it have great value, I asked.  He told me in the field.  That is true but only if the master of the field takes it and puts it in his hand.  The daba has no will of its own, only the will of the master.  I told him that we needed to be like a daba.  A tool in the hand of the Master.  Let go of my will and He will use me in His harvest.