The Shumaker Family’s Blog

God has allowed us to do lots of different things since arriving in Africa.  We have seen God move, souls saved, churches started, been through two civil wars,  lived in three different African countries, and the list could go on.  The one thing that we haven’t been able to experience first hand is a wedding in our church.  We have been to a few, but never one in our church.

It is hard to understand the challenges to marriage, if you don’t live here.  There are three different types of weddings here.

#1 — The customary wedding — This is very diverse because it changes between the customs of each tribe.  When a man wants to buy a woman(sounds harsh, but that is the reality) he approaches the family.  They will tell him what he must give in order to have her.  The dowry can be anything from some special cloth, money, sheep, cows, etc.  After you give the things requested, she is yours according to customary laws.

#2 — Wedding at the Mayor’s office or the legal marriage –  This is the only marriage that is truly legal in the country.  The government doesn’t recognize the customary wedding nor a church wedding.  The catch is that you have to have a testimony from the wife’s family and one from the man’s family.  If you haven’t paid your dowry, you can forget the testimony from the wife’s family.

#3 — Church Wedding — As stated, the government doesn’t put any importance on this wedding, but  we encourage it because it is good to make vows  and celebrate with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Not to tarry too much longer on this blog, I wanted to say that on August the 8th, God allowed us to celebrate our first wedding in our church.  A brother in Christ, Konate, has been very faithful to God and the church.  He actually is one of our young preachers that is in training.  He has left a good paying job to go into the ministry.  It has to be hard on him when he is newly married, but I know that God is going to greatly bless his new family and ministry.  If everything works out, he will become the assistant pastor of Living Water Baptist Church and will run the church while we are on furlough next year.

Our internet has been down and still isn’t working really well.  I will try to do better with some updates but I wanted to say thank you for those who pray for us.  God is doing a great work and we know it is because God’s people are praying.

We hold a kids club in an area where we want to start a church.  We would like to start this new work in a few months.  Last week, we had one profession of faith there and this week we had three.  This area is called Sanre.  God gave a piece of land here a few years ago.  We would like to build something so that we could begin services in this location.  We have a young man capable of leading the work.  Please pray for this need and God’s wisdom.

July 20th to the 24th we held our youth camp for 2009.   We had between 35-40.  Our young men did a wonderful job of helping with the camp.  I wasn’t there all the time because our group from America was with us, but everything was in good hands.

During the testimony time on Friday morning I was filled with joy.  Those that participated mentioned how they were touched by the messages.  Most of the messages that were mentioned weren’t from me but from the other young men in training.  I heard Bro. Austin Gardner say, “My thrill in life is when somebody I train becomes successful”.  I must say that when I see these young men being used by God that I am elated(not sure where that word came from).  It is a thrill.  In order for this work or any mission work to succeed it can’t be all about the missionary.  It must be all about the men of God he is training.  God has really given us some wonderful young men who are selfless, hard working and love God with all their heart.  Please pray for me as I try my best to lead them.

Above:  One of our young men leading.

Above:  The crowd.

Above:  My wife, Rebecca, teaching the young ladies.

Above:  The group that visited us in July 2009.