Project #2 — New piece of land in Ouagadougou
It has been my goal to start at least 40 churches in the city of Ouagadougou. God has been good to us and given us land in key locations already. We have bought two. We have also, through miraculous means, been given some by the government. These aren’t free but they are big lots at a small cost. We have 4 of them. They aren’t totally secured until all of the paperwork is complete, but the paperwork for three of the four is almost complete. That a total of 6 pieces of land God has allowed us to obtain.
We have two full time guards. One works at night and the other during the day. Our day guard is Simon. Simon was very religious when I meet him but he was lost. I took about 30 minutes one day explaining the Gospel to him. I didn’t want to push in a decision, so I just presented the Gospel and was going to leave it to him. He looked at me and said that he has never heard the truth. He has heard about Jesus but never really understood what Jesus did, and he asked if he could accept Christ right then and there. A few months back I was able to lead his father to the Lord. What a blessing it was. He was sick and we later found out that he had a brain tumor (probably cancer). As he was laying on his bed and family and friends visiting him, he would tell them about Jesus. After he died, Simon’s mother has struggled. Simon helps her a lot. A few months ago Simon told me that they wanted to sell his fathers land. The land will cost about $6,500. His mother’s house is made out of dirt and was about to fall in due to the wind and rain. He told me that other houses were being built around their land and because of this his lot was flooded. I paid to have dirt moved in and this helped the situation. One of their buildings did fall though. Simon told me that he would like to sell it to me so that we can put a church on it one day. The goal is to sell the house for $6,500 and they would buy a new piece in a newer neighborhood for about $3000 and that would leave them about $3,500 to build with. There was no way that I could pay the $6,500 due to other projects. It is a great piece of land and soon it will cost over $10,000. It isn’t big but tons and tons of houses are nearby. Simon told me that I could pay it little by little but the problem is that his mother’s house might not be standing much longer. I asked him if we built a small building with two rooms could his mother live in that and then we could give the money for the land next year. He thought it was a great idea. This will cost about $2,000 to do. This building will serve us later also. We either need all the money for the land or we will attempt to build the house. Please pray that God would help us to meet this need.
