The Shumaker Family’s Blog

We recently celebrated our third anniversary at Living Water Baptist Church.  I was so proud of our people.  They worked so hard.  The ladies worked all day Saturday preparing the food, and Sunday they came early to finish it.  Our young people worked on a skit about sin that was absolutely wonderful.  God has given us some of the hardest working people I know, and they love serving God.  I told our church people that I believe that God looked down from Heaven and smiled at the way they worked.  I am a proud pastor.

God blessed our efforts.  We had over 100 adults and over 150 kids.  We had close to 50 first time visitors.  There were 5 professions of faith with the adults, and 26 children made professions of faith.  God worked in tremendous ways.  It is amazing how God is bringing His church together.  I am excited and thrilled about the future.  He has already blessed, and I can’t wait to see what He is going to do next.

I never posted this article on our family conference.  Here it is a few days late:

On Monday night, we finished up our family conference.  God blessed in tremendous ways.  Pastor Austin Gardner preached and did a wonderful job.   He  talked about men mistreating their wives.  At the end of the service, we had three African couples come down and pray together.  This doesn’t sound like a whole lot to most but when you have never had it happen once before this week, three in one service is a lot.

At the very end of the service, a man stood up and asked for prayer and forgiveness.  He told us that he has recently hit his wife (unfortunately this happens all the time here).  He said that he did wrong and that they were heading for divorce.  This man told me this morning that they ate breakfast yesterday and today together.  He told me they haven’t done that is a very long time.  He said that they are talking again.

No it isn’t the fifth anniversary of my wife and I .  We are actually heading to our tenth.  In 2005, we started Fundamental Baptist Church of Tingandogo.  This month is our fifth anniversary so we decided to place the tent and have a special service.  Tonight we had an evangelistic campaign.  We had over 400 present.  People were standing outside our tent.  What was really exciting is that I got to preach to many unsaved people and we had four people make professions of faith.

Pray for us tommorrow.  We expect a big crowd and I really want to see more saved.

I wanted to show you a Burkina Faso Coca-cola truck.

I wanted to share with you something that I developed on the different levels in a church.  I guess the only bad one would be the first one.

1.  The First Level – Those who do-nothing

            Churches are full of these types of people. They are good people.  They have been saved.  They just haven’t engaged themselves in the work.  Or maybe I should say they haven’t been lead to follow.  They haven’t been challenged.  Pastors and missionaries get frustrated because our churches are full of people who do basically nothing.  I know and understand the frustration all to well.  But I have realized that the problem isn’t really them, it is a reflection of leadership.  Yes, it is a reflection of my leadership.  I will say that 60% or higher of church members are in this category.

2.  The second level – Followers

            These people will make up about 25-30% of the church.  Every church needs followers.  They are workers.  They do exactly what they are instructed to do.  They don’t mind working.  They just can’t see the need.  They need to be told exactly what to do. 

3.  The third level – A solitary visionary

            Most of the time churches have very few visionaries.  These are people who can see a need and get the job done.  These people are a great blessing to a pastor or missionary.  They take a load off of the leader.  Their struggle is that they normally work alone.  They aren’t able to lead others to action.

4.  The fourth level – A leader – A visionary that leads followers

            Most of the time, unfortunately the pastor/missionary is the only one in this category.  A pastor can be a success if he is a success at this level.  His goal should be to train and go to the next level but many stay here.  If a missionary wants to be a success he has to be a good leader but he must move on.  He will not leave an indigenous church if he is only a leader with followers. 

5.  The fifth level – A leader of leaders – A visionary that leads other leaders

            For a missionary to be a success, he must one day arrive at this level.  There are a few pastors that have arrived at this level but most truly haven’t.  Most missionaries, unfortunately, haven’t arrived here either.  I am not saying that I have arrived here.  Actually, I am striving to train true leaders and I am not sure if we have gotten there yet.  I have some good followers and I have a few third level people but not many. 

I know that many of you have prayed for Ernest.  I was truly concerned that he might never recover from his head trauma.  A few weeks ago though, I went with two brothers to see him and pray for him.  When Gilbert waked into his room, immediately he said, “hey Gilbert”.  Then when I stepped into the room, he said, “good morning, Pastor”.  We were thrilled to see how he has advanced.  He is still having difficulty walking but he is doing better.  God has truly done a miracle in his life.

It is always hard to write and express the feelings and excitement in your heart.  God has greatly used Pastor Austin Gardner.  He is a great friend and a true man of God.   Since he has come, we have had four professions of faith.  God has been good.  Our people have received much help.  Last night, Bro. Gardner preached it straight about the strange women.  Some very hard things were preached but the people responded.  I truly believe that people can handle hard preaching if it is done in love.  Last night, the altar was full.  Oh, by the way, we had a 2nd

Burkinabé couple come to the altar and pray together.  This is truly amazing and wonderful.  I can’t wait till tonight.

Check out the update on Pastors Austin Gardners blog.

God is blessing in tremendous ways.  Thursday, I took our visitors to a game park to see elephants and other animals.  We had a good time.  Then on Friday, we went to Roungou.  God is still doing a wonderful work there because of the love and compassion of Salif.  Saturday night God truly blessed.  We started a conference on the family.  Pastor Austin Gardner preached on the strange women.  It was a tremendous message.  It truly helped our people.

The assistant pastor of Living Water Baptist Church, Konate Lansina, went to the altar with his wife.   This doesn’t sound like a big thing to you but to us this was a major stepping stone.    This was the first time a Burkinbe man and his wife have went to the altar to pray toghether.  The family here is very strange.  The relationship between a man and wife is strange.  A man almost never sits with his wife.  I have fought that in the past but it is something that is so engrained into their thoughts and customs it is hard to get out.  I tell them, “I love my wife and I love to sit by her.  I am not ashmed of her.”  In most churches the women sit on one side and the men the other.  The altar was full and people got help.  Praise the Lord.  We will continue tonight and tommorrow. Please pray for us.

Pastor Austin Gardner arrived last night.  He came with Bro. David Lundy and Bro. Scott Lance.  We with our leaders today and Bro. Gardner motivated and challenged them.  We are planning on visiting Roungou this Friday and also starting a family conference on Saturday.  I am excited to have such wonderful men of God with us.  Please pray for our different services.

I have been helped and trained through the years by a good friend of mine, Pastor Austin Gardner.  He has taught me many different principles but one of the greatest things I have learned from him, is that I must think like a coach.  Pastor Gardner looked at me in January 2008 and told me I was a ball hog.  I never liked a ball hog when I played sports because you can’t win and be a success with a ball hog on the team.  I have learned that in the past.  A missionary can’t play all the positions, he can’t be a ball hog, but he must lead. 

I played many different sports growing up.  Basketball, soccer, football, cross country.  I have had many different coaches.  I played on winning teams and losing teams.  I want to share some thoughts on what makes a good coach and will make a good missionary.

1. A coach is only successful when he makes others a success.
2. A coach can’t win ball games.  He must lead others to win.
3. A coach always takes the blame and rarely gets the credit.
4. Game time is a reflection of what the coach has taught and instructed behind closed doors.
5. A coach must create unity.  (I have been on teams that should have won lots but didn’t because of a lack of unity.)
6. A coach must continually develop his players.
7. A coach will not always be a best friend to his players but he will always be there when they need him.
8. A coach will have to discipline and be hard at times. 
9. A coach can’t expect perfection but they must not accept less than 100% effort.
10. A coach should never focus on one or a few players.  When the star gets hurt, what will you do?
11. A coach needs to remember that it is supposed to be fun.
12. A coach must really know the game.  (I had a few coaches when I was younger that I thought were good.  I realized while playing in college that they knew very little about the real game of basketball.)
13. A coach must continue to learn.
14. A coach must know how to communicate with his players.  (I had a coach in college that knew the game very well but he wasn’t a successful communicator.  Because of this we struggled.)
15. A coach must lead by example. 
16. A coach will spend a lot of time with his players.  He must make an investment.  (Most coaches at the high school level get paid only a little for coaching for the time they spend.  They do it because they love it.  They go the extra mile.  My high school coach figured out that he made 32 cents an hour.  Big pay.)