We need your prayers
I would like to ask you to pray for us. God has greatly blessed the ministry here in Burkina Faso. He has opened up many doors for us. The ministry is growing; souls are being saved and young men are being called into the ministry. It is absolutely amazing, and it is a privilege for us to serve God here in Africa. I was asked today by an American embassy worker, “how long do you plan on living here?” What can I say to that except, as long as God wants. God could change our plans or call us to another place but as of right now, I plan on dying here.
About a month and a half ago, I went up on the 2nd floor of Living Water Baptist Church. I noticed after a rain that the rain and the intense sun here in Burkina Faso were beginning to destroy the floor. This floor is the ceiling of the first floor. The men of the church and I worked a whole day to put up a temporary structure to protect this part of the building. It was working great until the massive rain last week. Water got under our structure and made a mess. Monday we took it down and in the process destroyed it. There was no choice. I wasn’t planning on building this section of the building until a later date but it seems that we can’t wait. I don’t want to ruin the investment that was already made. We probably have more than $50,000 in the first floor and foundation. The second floor will take between $15,000 and $20,000. I don’t have an exact total. I praise God that He has already provided $1,000 of this need before it was even mentioned. Please pray with us. God has greatly used this church. We support 4 missionaries out of this church and two of them are sent directly out of this church. We also will be starting another work out of this church in November. The church members have promised about $700 for the bricks of the second floor. This is a lot for our people. I am proud of them for giving and wanting to do their part. We, some of the men of the church, made a couple hundred bricks today.
The second prayer request is for a piece of land that the government is giving us for a church. The only thing that they require is for us to pay some taxes. We applied for this about 2 years ago and by the grace of God, we have been granted this land. The taxes are about $4,500. This is really a good price for a piece of land in the city. This land is 37,000 square feet. A normal lot for a house is only about 4,000 square feet and normally costs more. I have to pay about $1,500 before the end of this month and the rest I have two months to pay it. If we don’t we will lose it.
Here are some old pictures. As you can see God has greatly blessed.
Below: Our church people digging the foundation in 2007.
Below: I am on the second floor with a missionary that we support to Liberia.
Below: This is the first floor. This was our 2nd Anniversary. We had over 500 people.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Amen. May the Lord be magnified.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
We will be praying for this. We know God can provide!
September 17th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Dear Shuhmaker family,
I found your blog on the website as I was searching for more info about the rain/flood on Sep. 2nd.09. Today I received an email from a man from Burkina Faso. I dont know how he got my email address and if his story is true. But I believe that God doesnt make mistakes and also that God helps people no matter the distance. The name of the email writer is Issa Pascal Kafando, he and his family live in an open school building since the flooding. Issa writes that the people in the building starving and suffering as the gov. is not keeping its promise to help. He is desparetly asking for help, to find some kind of job, any job, to provide some food for his family. I dont know how big this city is or if it is possible to find him. But if you can and God is leading you, would you please look for him? Thanks, and God Bless.