The Shumaker Family's Blog

I am very excited about tomorrow night.  We are planning on having an all night meeting.  I know, we are crazy.  We will start at 9 p.m. and finish around 6:30 a.m.  We are teaching on the will of God.  Please pray that God will work.  I want to see Him move and work in and through our people.

First of all, I trust that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  It is normally a time that family gets together to give thanks and fellowship with each other. I have had many missionaries say that holidays are some of the hardest times to be away from family.  I understand what they are saying, and we do miss our family in America, but we decided that God has given us another family here in Burkina Faso.  We celebrated this with our young men in training and a few others.  It was a wonderful time to share what we are thankful for.

This morning, I went to the church at 7:00 to pray with our young preachers.  After prayer we planned some upcoming events.  Then I came back to the house to work.  I saw many people outside of their houses with a knife and a sheep.  It is tabaski here.  The Muslims were preparing their sacrifices.   There were two thoughts that came to my mind:

1)  I praise the Lord that Jesus is my sacrifice.  I don’t need to find a lamb and slit his throat. John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

2) I truly had mixed emotions.  Although I was filled with joy because of what Jesus has done for me, I was sad because of seeing what people are trying to do to get a place in heaven. Jesus already paid the price, but others continue to attempt to pay the price.

Ernest is a young man who has been a faithful member of our church.  He was born into a Muslim Family and came to our church in Jan. 2008.  I think he is about 20 years old.  He has been faithful to services and works hard in our church.  He has helped with our children’s church.

A little over three weeks ago, he was in a wreck on his moto.  It happened on a Friday night.  We weren’t contacted but knew something must be wrong because he wasn’t in church on Sunday.  Monday we went to his house, and the neighbors told us that he was in a bad wreck.  Tuesday morning we went to the hospital.  We didn’t know what to expect.  When we walked in, I realized he was in bad shape.  He had hit his head very badly.  He couldn’t talk.  He was trying to take out the stitches in his head.

After three weeks, he is talking but he still doesn’t know who we are.  He doesn’t remember our church.  I doubt he even remembers being saved almost a year ago.  He still can’t walk.  It seems he is improving daily, but he has a long road before him.  I had great hopes for this young man because of his love for God.  Please pray for Ernest.  He really needs God to help touch his body.  I would love to see him in church in a few months.

Last Sunday was the first Sunday at Bread of Life Baptist Church.  We had a good crowd.  We did give away some free t-shirts and do some other things.  We had about 50 adults and over 50 kids.  It was a great service.

Thursday night we had our prayer service.  I didn’t know if many would come but we were well pleased that about 15 adults were there.  Six ladies trusted  Christ.

Today, I was a little worried that maybe the newness would wear off and we wouldn’t have to many, but God truly blessed.  We had over 25 adults and many children.  That is great for a new church plant.  There were two who raised their hands for salvation.  I left to preach at Living Water Baptist Church while Mamadou was dealing with the two.  Tonight he told me that in addition to these two, three others trusted Christ.  Since we began a week and a half ago we have had 26 professions of faith.  God is great.  Thanks for all that have prayed.

Since coming to Burkina Faso, we have had many people suffer from different types of persecution.  Most of the persecution has been verbal, but we have seen some physical(not life threatening).  Monday morning I was praying with some of our young men when four different requests came up dealing with persecution.  I suppose I never really thought about it, but a good majority of our people have suffered from it one way or another.  Here are some examples:

Abraham — His father called him on Sunday and told him if he didn’t leave our church he would no longer be his son.

Edward — His family told him he has gone too far.  They told him that he must stop coming to our church or they will send him to the village.  He is looking for another place to live.

Ada — She got saved over a year ago.  She got really faithful at first but more recently, she hasn’t been around as  much.  Lately she has come back.  She is from a Pul family.  They are 99.9% Muslim.  Her uncle told Salie (the member who brought her) that she was mean and not a nice girl.  Salie asked why.  He said that, “Don’t you know the Pul can’t be Christians, only Muslims?”  Stay to yourself.

Mamata — She is our house worker.  She got saved in 2005.  She is like one of our family.  She brought a sister to church with her the other day.  When she got home, it was war.  They told her she is already lost, a pagan, and they have given up on her but made it very clear that nobody else from the family can go.  Her brother Omar made a profession and was with us for about 1 year.  He caved into the persecution from the family and hasn’t been to church in over a year.

Mamadou — He is the young man that is leading our new work.  He told me that a lady who made a profession the other day told him, “I know that I received Jesus.  I am glad, but when my husband finds out I will be beat and won’t be allowed to come back.”

Kids — We have tons of kids that sneak to church.  We have had their parents or siblings come during service and run them off, sometimes beating them.  A brother and sister that are just wonderful kids have been coming to our kid’s club for a long time.  Both made professions.  The sister began to miss.  We checked on her and found out that her mother is happy she comes but is in deep fear of the father finding out.  She said it would be bad consequences for all of them.  Once we had a mother come with a stick after service.  She said she was looking for her child and knew that she had come to church.  Luckily service was over and the child was already gone.

I have been told hundreds of times.  You have given me the truth.  I see it, but I can’t accept it.  They are afraid they will be kicked out of their homes.  I will be preparing a message on Biblical Persecution to try to help our people.  May God help us all to stand firm in our faith and never waver.

Just a few hours ago, we finished our third night of our evangelistic campaign.  We have been greatly blessed.

I am sorry that I didn’t get to write a blog last night about the second night.  God greatly blessed and we had 6 more professions of faith.  I talked with a young man named Soumaila.  He was born into a Muslim family.  A few years back he became paralysed on one side of his body.  He told me that he spent  hundreds of dollars on witch doctors.  He thought he could find a cure to his sickness.  Last night, he found a cure to a sickness much greater than his physical sickness.  He told me that he knew that the Muslim religion and also witchcraft couldn’t do anything for him and he was ready to trust Jesus to save him from his sin.  He is excited about his new relation with Christ.

Tonight, the youth preformed a skit about sin.  It was powerful.  God really blessed and we had a few more people come forward tonight.  Tomorrow, we will hold our first Sunday morning service at this new location.  Thanks for your prayers.

The picture is a little bury because it is dark but I thought it would be good to show.

It is late.  Almost midnight and I have been running all day and it was worth it.  We had a great crowd tonight to start our first night of our evangelistic campaign.  What is better than that is that we had six professions of faith.

Please continue to pray for tomorrow night and also Saturday night.  We are praying for God to continue to work.

We will soon begin Bread of Life Baptist Church.  I am truly pumped about this church plant.  Almost all the other church plants that we have started, I have been the leader.  I will help with counsel and also I will be there to preach but I won’t be the leader.  A young man, named Mamadou, will start this work.

Please be in much prayer for the start of this church.  We will have evangelistic services the 12-14 of this month.  Then on the 15th we will have the first real service of this church.  We are praying that many souls will be saved each night and also that many of the contacts that we make will be faithful to the church.

I am very excited writing about this church plant.  Living Water Baptist Church is about 5 miles from this church.   The members of our church have been working for a few days now, preparing the land.  We have made bricks, dug the foundation for the building.  We are in the process of building one wall of the building and put a roof on it.  It is hard for us financially to do even this but God has been good to us.  Whenever He provides we will complete the rest.

Below are a few pictures of us working.

A good friend of mine, missionary John Cooley, started a work a few years back in a village called Babo.  It is in the northern part of Burkina Faso.  The area is very close to Mali, and it is very Muslim.  Bro. Cooley invited me to come with him so that we could question some of the men that he and I trained.  Bro. Cooley is leaving in a few weeks for furlough and needed to put some of these young men in charge.  I was greatly pleased by the responses that we heard.  It is amazing to see how much God worked in and taught one of these young men.  The village is about 5 hours from Ouagadougou, and we had a great trip last weekend.

Vicente went with me.  I asked him last Saturday night at the village, “What are you thinking?”  His reply was simple but so very true.  “We need workers.”  There is village after village and town after town that doesn’t have  a true Gospel witness.  It is so sad to think that so many people will perish without the opportunity to hear the Gospel.  We need workers (both foreigners and Burkinabes).  This country is wide open, and there is so much to do.  I have seen people cry and be moved because of the poverty, lack of education, lack of health care, etc.  here.  The problem is that I haven’t seen too many people cry and be moved because people that don’t know Jesus will be separated from God for an eternity.  Where are our tears?  We cry when one of our pets dies but we don’t shed a tear from the billions of souls that will perish into a Christ-less eternity.  There are lost souls that are ready to accept Christ, but they have never heard.  I see people broken and sad because their favorite football team lost, but they aren’t broken for those who need God.  I am sorry if I insulted somebody;  that wasn’t my purpose.  I just think that we desire too much of this world and its riches.  When will the church get stirred and begin to think about what God wants?  We are running hospitals for the Saints instead of rescue missions for the lost.

Where is your treasure?  We put more money into going to football games, hunting, fishing and other things than to spread the Gospel around the world.  Are we truly dead to self?  There is nothing wrong with the things above.  There probably isn’t anybody who wants  to fish more than I do right now.  I love it.  I haven’t put a rod in my hand for almost four years now.  There was a time that I had one in my hand almost everyday of the week. I look forward to going on furlough in a few months.  I love to hunt, but God means more.  God’s will is more precious than my will.  My desires are futile but God’s plans are eternal.  My plans make an temporary earthly difference.   God’s plans make a difference that will last for eternity.

Here are a few pictures from Babo:

Some of the church members wanted to organize some French classes to help the community and to have the opportunity to win others to Christ.  They created 3 different classes that correspond with the different levels of French.

God has blessed their classes the last 3 weeks.  We have about 100 taking French.  What excited me was that on Wednesday night many of the people from these classes were at our normal mid-week church service.  One lady made a profession of faith on Wednesday also.  I am thrilled that the members are interested in helping and reaching others with the Gospel of Christ.

Below are a few pictures.  The young man teaching in Konate.  I will make him the assistant pastor of Living Water Baptist Church.  I am encouraged by his desire to serve God.  He has given up a good job to serve God.  He asked me today if he could teach a few courses at night.  Where he taught last year wanted him back.  He told them no.  Then he asked me if he could teach and give what he made to help in our new church plant next month.  I like his heart.