The Shumaker Family's Blog

We have some of the best experiences in Africa. This morning before church got started, I was talking to some of the members. Isaac came up to me with sucker in his mouth. Then one of the African girls came up to me and told me that the sucker was hers. I am not totally sure but the African tradition is when one kid has a lollipop it is necessary to share licks with all the other kids. Yes, that is right. A sucker is a precious commodity. When one kid gets one, they pass it around and every kid gets a lick. I think that Isaac was given a lick but decided that he didn’t want to pass it on. I know what most of you are thinking, “How could you let your kid suck a sucker after 10 African kids have already?” We have learned that:

#1 – It is inevitable, you either lock your kids in the house or they are going to take a lick.  We don’t push it or tell them to do it, but you can’t stop it.

#2 – If you are a germ freak, don’t come here.

#3 – If you want to fit in, take a lick.

#4 – If you want a good immune system, come live with us, we will help you build one.

Seriously, to be a missionary in a third world country, sometimes you have to accept things that aren’t normal. Well, it is normal for them(Africans) but not normal for us(Americans). The Apostle Paul said that he would become all things to all men. So don’t worry, just take a lick.

The other night I visited with Bro. Zacharie, my assistant pastor. We try to visit new members or new visitors on Monday night. We visited one of the women of the church. She has been a blessing for months and has been very faithful. Her husband is dead.

She shared with us the story of her life. She grew up in a Muslim family. One brother and her began going to church. Her brother, after a short time, began being persecuted. He soon went back to the Muslim faith. She told us that after she saw the truth there was no way that she could go back. Her testimony of endurance really encouraged my heart.  She has been faithful the Lord Jesus Christ for many years now and we are glad that she is in our church.

I wanted to give an update on Salie, as I know many of you have prayed for her. She is doing quite well. It is always a blessing to see her face at church. She told us that she wanted to be baptized a few weeks back.

The Lord willing we will be baptizing on the 27th of this month at Cissin. We will have our Celebration Day. We will have our one year anniversary at this church. We will be having Pastor Austin Gardner visiting for us these days.  We will actually start a revival meeting the 24th.  Bro. Gardner was a missionary in Peru, South America for many years and is now a pastor on the outskirts of Atlanta.  You can check out his website at www.visionbaptist.com or his blog at www.visionbaptist.com/blog

We are really interested in having people come and visit Burkina Faso and the work that God is doing here.  We will be having a group trip, that will last about 2 weeks.  Bro. Dean Hamby and his wife Karen will come with the group.  Bro. Hamby is assistant director of Macedonia World Baptist Missions.

We will also have an internship for 6 weeks.  This is mostly for college students.   All of this will happen this summer.  We don’t want groups that are to big, so they will be limited.  If you are interested, please let me know as soon as possible.

We actually have some other people coming throughout the year.  Whenever you are interested, we are ready to have you.  Please let me know.

Twice a month we have youth meeting.  I decided to have it at the house, tonight.  We had a great time.  I feel that we are starting to make headway with them.  I truly believe that they are future.

God gave us a great trip to Roungou.  We showed a film last night and had over 300, in spite of the cold.  It gets cold for two months here.  I know, the 60’s at night doesn’t sound cold but when you are used to 9 months of over 100 degree temp. and sometimes up to 120, 60 degrees can be cold.  This morning we had over 250 for our service.  We had kids coming from everywhere.  We must have had about 200 kids.  God has been good to us.  I only wish we could be more faithful and more frequent to this work at Roungou.

I know this picture isn’t clear but we took it at night. My dad took it a few weeks ago.  Do you know wheres Waldo?  Well can you find the missionary.  I know it is hard.

I wanted to try and give a quick review of what God did here in Burkina Faso in 2007.

* We started a new church in January in the capital Ouagadougou, in a section called Cissin.

* The first night we had 15 people make professions in Christ, most coming from one family, and they are still faithful members.

*In April, the members at Cissin began digging the foundation for our church builiding/classrooms for Sunday school and also our Bible Institute. We dug for over a month. We have built little by little. We will begin to use some of the building in a few weeks. Many different people have donated, and we are very appreciative. We have never attempted to build a building of this caliber, and we know it will be greatly used of the Lord.

* We built a church for the village work of Roungou. The people did a lot of the work. We had a church dedication with over 300 present. I think we baptized 18 the same day. We had David Lundy and David Velke with us during this time as well. They also helped do a VBS and had over 300 one day with about 200 the next day.

* In September, we baptized over 20 new converts at Cissin. We had our biggest crowd at this church with over 120 present.

* In October we hosted a pastors conference and helped start new work. We had over 70 pastors from all over West Africa. We helped start a new church in Ouagadougou. We are glad to be able to help others start new church plants.

* We had our first missions conference in Nov. We had a faith promise of over $90 a month.

* We had Christmas Eve services at our three churches. We had great crowds. We had over 70 at Tingandogo, over 80 at Cissin, and over 500 in the village (Roungou).

* Our last Sunday at Cissin, the main work in town, we had over 100 present. In less than one year we average over 80. In addition to the normal services we have three times a week, we have many other things going. On Tuesday nights, we have Bible Study and discipleship classes. French language classes are held two times each week. Twice a month we have ladies meetings. Twice a month we have youth meetings. My wife recently started a teenage girls/young ladies meeting. God has truly helped us.

There is no way to list everything without writing a book and I know that I forgot to mention a lot, but God really blessed, and we are expecting more blessings as we work for Him. “Attempt great things for God, Expect great things from God.”

We want to wish all of you a Happy New Year.  God greatly blessed 2007.  I have asked Him to do more through us in 2008.  We have great plans for this year.  May God richly bless you this new year.