The Shumaker Family's Blog

I received the e-mail below from Pastor Konate (Assistant Pastor of Living Water Baptist church)

Here is the Tranlation:

By the Grace of God and also by your prayers the ministry is advancing.  This Sunday we will baptize 10 people who have completed the Baptism courses.  Please pray for the baptism canidats that they will remain faithful and be members who are engaged and consacrated for the work of God.  To God only be the glory.  Amen!

Bonjour Pasteur
Ici le ministère avance toujours par la grâce de Dieu ainsi que vos prières. Ce dimanche nous allons baptiser 10 personnes qui ont suivi les cours de baptême.Prier pour les candidats afin qu’il soit toujours fidèles et être des membres engagés et consacrés pour l’oeuvre de Dieu.
A Dieu seul soit la gloire. Amen

KONATE

Living Water Baptist Church has been faithful to give to missions for three straight years.  Last year, the people gave around $100 per month.  That is an amazing amount considering many of them make less than that each month.  I recently received an e-mail from my Assistant pastor. Konate told me that the faith promise went up to $130 a month.  I know that this doesn’t seem much to you but that is a huge amount for an African church that is just 3 and half years old.

I wrote this update right after we got home but never posted it.  Here it is a few days late:

My wife and I arrived Saturday night just before midnight.  I personally want to thank all of you for your prayers.  You have been wonderful prayer warriors over the years and we know that God has so greatly blessed this ministry because of those.

We had an amazing trip.  I was very touched, inspired, challenged and excited to see our young preachers doing so well. We had an unbelievable missions conference.   Sunday night two of our churches did skits and the other church represented sang a special.  There was a skit of a Muslim, animist, Catholic and a Baptist.  They had put their faith in their church and their religion.  They all went before God and all were judged according to their works.  Their name wasn’t found in the Book of life.  They were all cast into the lake of fire (even the baptist).  It was well done and conveyed a very true and sad fact that so many people have good intentions and want to go to heaven but are never really born again.  Only Jesus saves.  Not the church, nor baptism, nor works.  Salvation is more than a religion it is a relationship with Jesus, the one and only Saviour of the world.

We had a tremendous missions conference.  All of our preachers preached during the week.  I wanted them to preach 15 min a piece.  They have grown so much in the last 5 months.  It is an awesome feeling when somebody that you have won, discipled and trained for the ministry stands up and preaches the word of God and it challenges you and touches you.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

The last night of the missions conference I felt led to preach on hell.  I don’t think we have ever had such a moving  service in Africa.  We had a great crowd of over 100 people.  Two people came forward that night.  A man in his thirties who had been baptized years before in another church realized he had never trusted Christ.  After being dealt with, he was glowing.

We have a sweet lady name Madame Dianda.  She and one of her daughters have been faithful since the beginning of Living Water Baptist Church.  They were both saved from a Muslim background.  She has another daughter that doesn’t live with her.  She is named Kadi.  She is 20 or so years old.  She lives with her father.  She came the same night I preached on hell.  During the invitation she looked at her mother and said, “that message was for me.”  Unfortunately, she didn’t make a decision for Christ that night.  Please pray for her.

I invited a man named Herve to church and he came on Tuesday.  Thursday I went to see him and talked with him about Jesus.  I told him that when he is ready he needs to repent and trust Christ.  He told me that he was ready.  He prayed and was born into the family of God.

There is so much more that I could share.  God truly blessed and we are thankful for all He is still doing in Burkina Faso.

Below is a picture of the adult Sunday School class at Living Water Baptist Church.

Below is one of the skits being performed.

Below is a picture of our missions conference attendance.

I knew that I missed this place; I just didn’t know how much until we arrived the other day.  When we arrived at the airport at 3 a.m. in the morning, even though I told them not to, eight young men came to greet us. They traveled on their motos, late at night.  What a great feeling to know that you are greatly loved and appreciated.  It really isn’t that I love the land, so to speak.  It is hot, dry and dirty, but I love the people and what God is doing here.

Unfortunately, we are not able to start our new work at this time.   We have had a few things work against us.  The land is very wet.  It would be hard to have a conference there. We are going to prepare a few things so that they can do the kickoff probably in November.

Even though we have had a change in plans, I am thrilled with what God is doing.  Our pastors have remained faithful.  I want to give you an example of that.

I showed up for visitation at 8 a.m. this morning at Living Water Baptist Church.  Much to my surprise many people were already there to go out and evangelize the lost.  There were at least 17 members who came.  We had a good mixture of men, women and young people.  They were excited and very zealous.  The young man that I went with was very bold.  He did a great job of explaining the Gospel.

When I was here, I had too many irons in the fire.  It was hard to be effective in every area.  I didn’t do a good job all the time.  They have taken many of the tasks and divided it among themselves.  They are more organized.   I think that I have lost my job.  That is the goal of the missionary, right?

Actually, I feel that the Lord would have us to work two more years with Living Water Baptist Church when we come back next year.   We want to create a model church.  They don’t know what an independent Baptist Church is.  We want a good model.

Thanks for your prayers.  Please pray for me tonight.  I will be teaching the youth at the youth meeting.  Also I will preach twice tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow night will start our missions conference.  It is going to be a blast. Wish you were here.

We have been traveling the last few days in North Africa.  We have had a great time with fellow missionaires.  This is a tough place and I have a great respect for their efforts and faithfulness. They are doing a tremendous job and I highly admire their boldness.

Tommorrow night, we will board a plane and travel to Burkina Faso.  It has been almost 4 and half months since we left Burkina.  I can’t wait.  I am excited to see my brother and sisters in Christ.  They are so special to me and my wife.  It has been hard to be away from them for the last few months.

We have had a change in plans.   We will not be having a wedding like we first thought but we will still have the kick off to a new church plant.  This Friday and Saturday night, we will be having some evagelistic campaigns.  We hope to have a good crowd.  We want to preach to them.  We will pray for many salvation decisions for Christ.  Normally this gives a good kickoff to a new church plant.  Please pray that God would move in a mighty way.  We sure do need Him.  I want to see Him work.

Also, we will have this Sunday night thru Wednesday night our annual missions conference.  We normally have a missions conference at the different churches but this year we will have a combined missions conference.  I am looking forward to this.  I hope to be able to update you on all that God is doing but I don’t know about internet access.  Please pray for the missions conference.

Vicente and Gabriella Garcia work with us in Burkina Faso.  Here is their latest prayer letter.  It is exciting to see how God is working and moving in our absence.

Dear Friends and Family,

I want to thank you first of all for your prayers that you are making for your missionaries. We are very thankful. Thank you as well for your economic support. May God continue greatly blessing you. We love you.

This month we had our youth camp and it was a great blessing. There were 33 young people in attendance. God worked in a special way. There were pastors from different church, Pastor Mamadu, Pastor Talibala, Pastor Salif, Pastor Zacari, Pastor Daniel, and Pastor Konate with myself and my wife. WE are very happy because many young people gave their lives to Christ and decided to start serving in the work of God. Please keep praying for this country. There is so much need and so few laborers. Pray that God would touch hearts to decide to leave NOW for the mission field.

The second of September pastor Keith Shumaker and his wife Rebecca will be with us returning from the US after four months. They will only be here for a week and then will return again. We have three goals for Pastor Shumaker’s visit:

1. To being building an auditorium for a new work being pastored by Pastor Zacari.

2. To hold a missions conference.

3. To hold a wedding for Pastor Mamadu with Sister Antoinette.

We ask for your prayers to be able to accomplish these plans for our pastor.

We also ask for your prayers for the children’s Sunday School class. It has shrunk from an average of 55 kids to now 25 or 30 due to the month of Ramadan. Many of the children are Muslims and when Sunday morning comes around their parents won’t let them leave their homes until Ramadan is over since they are fasting all day. Pray that all the children will return to church after Ramadan. Every Thursday we have an outreach to orphans. The majority of the orphans are Muslims. We help them with food and Bible lessons. One young Muslim man named Albert recently accepted Christ and came to our summer camp. The other day he came to church so happy to tell us that his Muslim neighbors are learning the songs he was taught in church about the love of Christ. It was a blessing to hear this.

God is merciful ever day and strengthens us to do the work in Burkina Faso. It is a dream of ours that God would allow us to see each of you some day. We miss you greatly. Thank you for the privilege to write you one more time. May God bless you.

Prayer requests:

            •           For Pastor Keith’s travel

            •           For the needs of each pastor: Talibala, salif, Zacari, konate, Mamadu

            •           For the missions conference coming up

            •           For baptisms that are coming up

            •           For the ministry to children and brother Gilbert who runs the orphan ministry

            •           For God to continue helping and strengthening us to move forward in the work

I can’t seem to get this off my mind.

Yes, finances help a missionary get to the field.  I am not minimizing the need of support that a missionary has.  He must be able to provide for his family.  He also needs a work fund.  This will allow him to buy land, Bibles, build church buildings, train men, etc.  Finances are a huge need in missions.  I shared just a few thoughts Sunday night at a church about being more involved in missions besides financial support.

1. Prayer — I talked about this in a blog post before this, so I won’t go into it to much but I truly feel that a faithful prayer warrior will receive many rewards in Heaven.

2.  Communicate —  What I am writing, I know from a personal standpoint.  Sometimes a missionary feels all alone.  Sometimes he can be discouraged.  This can come from sickness, stress of the ministry, etc.  Most church people get encouragement each week from brothers and sisters in Christ at their home church.  The missionary doesn’t get this. Many missionaries have a vonage phone or something similar.  Usually this is a local number in the US.  It doesn’t cost you a penny to call them.  There is facebook, e-mail, Skype, etc.  Communication is not only good for the missionary.  I know that it will greatly help you also.

3.  Take a missions trip —  Instead of taking a vacation next year, why don’t you take a missions trip?  It is interesting that we have the truth.   We believe in true salvation.  Salvation by God’s grace and not by our own works, but we don’t lead in the mission effort. There are groups much smaller than us, but they send their young men on a missions trip for two years.  I saw a video where a man had been saving money since his five boys were born.  He wasn’t saving money for college but for their missions trip.  This should stir us.

I might get shot by saying this but instead of giving Mickey Mouse all your money this year, go to the mission field.  I am not saying that Disney is right or wrong but when I talk to people about going to the mission field, the main excuse is money when there seems that for most people money is there for a vacation.

If the heartbeat of God is missions, then why is missions not our heartbeat?

I have written about Ernest many months ago.  If my memory serves me correctly, last November he was in a bad accident.  It was well over a month before he remembered any of us at church.  He was still struggling with his health when his family sent him to the village.  He was still in the village when we came home for furlough.

Just a couple of days ago, Pastor Konate told me on the phone that he was back at church.  Praise the Lord.  I am excited that he is finally back.  I truly began to wonder if he would be able to return.  He is a good young man that was very faithful and was beginning to be used in the children’s ministry at church.

Pastor Konate also told me that they had 65 adults last Sunday at church.  We are pleased that the work is still going strong.  The picture below is of Ernest.  Konate sent that to me today.

We have been having a blessed time visiting many of our supporting churches.  It is always a great joy to be able to update them on what God is doing.  One of the greatest blessings that we have experienced is that we have been told by many of their faithful prayers for us.

I am afraid that many churches have seen the need to support missionaries financially, to get them to the field but haven’t seen the greater need of prayer.  Money can get a missionary to the field.  It can buy plane tickets, provide housing, build church buildings, buy Bibles, etc.  But money can never replace what God must do.  We can’t save, only He can.  We can’t do the work, only He can.  Missionaries need your prayers.  We are so quick (me included) to criticize a missionary when he leaves the field, but the question must be asked, “Did I pray for him?”  Did I ask God to protect him and his family?  He has been fighting a spiritual warfare,  and money won’t give the victory, only the power of God.  Most missionaries go to the field with a good heart, ready to serve God.  They are excited, passionate, and thrilled to be there, but then things get hard.  Many problems and struggles come that millions of dollars couldn’t solve.

I know when I was a kid, I could tell you almost everybody who played in the NBA.  Can our children tell us where missionaries are all over the world?   Can you name 10 missionaries that your church supports?

Thanks for those who pray faithfully.  If we would pray as much as we criticize, maybe there wouldn’t be near the number of casualties.

Pastor Konate, my assistant pastor at Water of Life Baptist Church, sent me some pictures of the recent construction.  God has so greatly blessed from the start of building this church building.

I don’t know how much it will cost to put the roof on but I assume it will be around $10,000.  It is amazing to see what God has done since we started building.

Konate told me that they have had 5 men make professions of faith over the last few weeks.  It is exciting to see God move and work when we aren’t there.

Here are a few pictures of what was done on the second floor.