The Shumaker Family's Blog

July 20th to the 24th we held our youth camp for 2009.   We had between 35-40.  Our young men did a wonderful job of helping with the camp.  I wasn’t there all the time because our group from America was with us, but everything was in good hands.

During the testimony time on Friday morning I was filled with joy.  Those that participated mentioned how they were touched by the messages.  Most of the messages that were mentioned weren’t from me but from the other young men in training.  I heard Bro. Austin Gardner say, “My thrill in life is when somebody I train becomes successful”.  I must say that when I see these young men being used by God that I am elated(not sure where that word came from).  It is a thrill.  In order for this work or any mission work to succeed it can’t be all about the missionary.  It must be all about the men of God he is training.  God has really given us some wonderful young men who are selfless, hard working and love God with all their heart.  Please pray for me as I try my best to lead them.

Above:  One of our young men leading.

Above:  The crowd.

Above:  My wife, Rebecca, teaching the young ladies.

Above:  The group that visited us in July 2009.

We have been preparing our church for organization for about 6 months now.  I have taught on our doctrines and also taught them the importance of a local church.

A few months ago, we started meeting with those who were interested in officially joining our church and becoming a charter member.  We questioned them on their salvation, baptism and if they were living pure lives.  We only had one lady get mad and leave the church over this.  She was shacking up, and I told her that she had to leave the man or get married if she wanted to be baptized and be a member of the church, but she did neither and got mad.  Many of her family are in the church, but they agree with our position.  Another couple decided to make their marriage legal.  They had the right attitude.  We ended up with 44 people as charter members.  We will probably add a few names in the next few weeks.  It was truly a great day.  We thank Dr. Dean Hamby, assistant director of Macedonia World Baptist Missions, for helping us.  He was a great blessing to us and our people.

I wanted to add a few pictures so here they are:

Below:  Our Children’s Church

Below:  Church Service

Below:  Some of the Charter Members

Below:  One of the five that were baptized.

I will try to update everything in a few days.  This is the first time that I have really had a time to e-mail and check the internet.

We had a great time with our group.    They left Friday morning.  They were a great blessing to us and our people.  We would like to open an invitation to anybody who would like to come.

We have been very busy the last few days.  Yesterday was a great day.  We were able to organize our church.  We had 44 charter members.  We will probably  add a few more in the next few weeks.  I praise the Lord for the good number and all that he is doing.

We also started our camp.   We have around 35 that are there.  Bro. Dean Hamby preached a wonderful message.  God gave us a great start.

I will try to write a little more later.  The ministry is fun and I wouldn’t want to do anything else.

We currently have a group visiting us from the States.  Bro. Dean Hamby, assissantant director of Macedoina World Baptist Missions, and his wife are visiting us with a group of four your people.  We have had a blast so far.

We went out to the village called Rougou last night.  That is where Salif is working.  He is still doing such a great job.  I think of the story of Davids annointing when I see him.  Definitely would be one of the last chosen but God look upon the heart.  He is doing a wonderful job.

Please pray of us.  Tommorrow will be a great day.  We will be constituting our church.  We will officially become a true local independent Baptist Church.  This is a huge step for our church.

I just wanted to share with you something wonderful.  Our oldest child, Emily, confessed her sins and received Jesus on Friday.  She has been asking for a few weeks but didn’t want to pray.  Rebecca was reading to her about Samuel, and the Bible said he died.  She asked what would happen if she died.  Rebecca told her, I think you know.  She decided that she needed to pray and place her trust in Christ.  We praise the Lord for His grace and goodness.

We had somewhat of a graduation last Thursday night.  It is hard to explain but I have been teaching through a series of books to train pastors.  We finished it on Thursday.  I have been teaching with another missionary.  He had five men training with us.  We had three full time and three part time.  Salif and Simon actually started before so they are finished with this set of courses.  At the end of these lessons, a certificate is given.  So we presented it last night.  The other missionary will not continue but we will have about another 2-3 years of training.  God has been good to us this last year.  We have a great group of young men.  They have worked hard, grown, and God has used them.

Our faithful guard, Simon, got a call a few days ago about his village being destroyed.  He asked me if he could borrow my moto so he could go and see what happened.  What he described sounded like a tornado.  I have never heard of a tornado here.  I asked him if this was normal and he said no.

We can have some extremely high wind, but I haven’t heard of a tornado.  It seems that one passed the other day at Simon’s village.  It killed many people.  From what I understand, it didn’t kill anybody in his family but his grandmother’s house was totally destroyed.  Her food was all lost.  Simon asked me for an advance of his salary to help but I know that this will be real hard on him.  I am seeing what I can do to help.  Here are a few pictures.  His grandmother is the one in the picture.

I will be traveling to Mali tomorrow with the family and a few church members.  We are going to see a national missionary named Francis.  Our church here in Burkina supports him.  Also we will see Dwayne Harrison (missionary with Macedonia World Baptist Missions).

I have been to Mali many different times but I have never been with Francis on a Sunday.  He has asked me to preach on many different occasions.  So we decided that we would go and encourage our brother and see what God is doing.

I know that many of you will think that I am a little late on this, but actually Mothers day for us was on Sunday.  God has given us some good women.  We gave them all a head covering.  As you can see in the pictures, even my wife put one on. (Actually, they had to put it on for her.)