The Shumaker Family's Blog

Last Thursday, we went to Salif’s village. He hadn’t visited his family in over a year, and I told him that I would like to meet his family. It took us over 8 hours to get to his village. We had a brake line bust, transmission fluid leaked, a tire blew up, and we had problems with our battery. The joys of trying to maintain a vehicle in Africa. We had a great time, though. I know that they haven’t seen any or at least not many white people in this area. For almost three hours, I would see a little head peek around the corner, little black eyes looking right at me and then hear little feet as they ran away. They haven’t had something exciting like this for long time. Its not everyday a white man comes to their village. The funniest thing is that some of the children are absolutely terrified of the white man. They see me and scream. I guess I was the village clown for the day.  Here is a picture of Salif with his mother.

A few hundred yards from Salif’s house was a garden. The woman, pictured below, was trying to water her plants. They looked good and should normally be ready in about one month but she was explaining that her well has dried up. My heart broke. To see her effort, to see the beautiful plants and to find out that water lacks. I looked in the well and almost got dizzy. It was so deep, but yet the water was gone. I was thinking about the area that we were in. Village after village and mile after mile there was no church. Beautiful people, kind and generous, but the Water of Life isn’t there. The well has never been dug, the first seed has never been planted. I was extremely shocked and utterly broken by what I experienced. I prayed in my heart the whole time I was there. God help us to reach these people. They need the Gospel, they need the light, they need the Water of Life. I tell people that I am totally filled with joy, but I am also sad. I am thrilled to be a child of God, to have my sins forgiven, but I am broken and saddened by the people that will perish without even hearing about the truth that Jesus loves them. God, please let us reach them, please let us win them, please do a great work through us.

Here is a picture of our work in the village, Roungou.  We had a wonderful crowd this past Saturday.  Salif taught and did a great job.  This baby was born a few weeks ago.  They asked me to name him.  I have him the name Jacques or James in English.  I asked God to save him and use his life.  The baby is beautiful, but can’t say that about the man in the picture.

I am sitting here, listening to my wife teach Mamata. We have talked about her before. She comes from a devout Muslim family. She trusted Christ back in 2005. She has been very faithful. Her brother Omar trusted Christ and was very faithful until he bent under the pressure of friends and family. He has not been very faithful lately. He told his sister the other day that he wasn’t going to church because he didn’t want to get hassled. We learned yesterday that Mamata’s sister, Fatimata wanted to come to church on Easter Sunday. She even asked for and was granted permission to take off from work to come. Since they aren’t close to our church, we pick them up on the way. When I arrive on  Sunday, normally Mamata is waiting for me or comes out in a few seconds, but last Sunday we waited for her for a few minutes. That is not normal, but I was actually early(big surprise) so I didn’t think much about it. She came as well as Omar this time and her younger sister Bibata. We found out that the reason it took them a few minutes to come out, was the family (mother and other family members) were in a heated discussion saying that if all of them come with us to church then the neighbors will really give them a hard time. So Mamata finally said, I can’t keep the pastor waiting and left. Unfortunately, that is why Fatimata didn’t come. I don’t think that they have ever been physically abused, but they are definitely mentally abused. I thank God for Mamata’s stand and love for the Lord. They have given her a hard time and she said there is no reason to even do that because I am not going to change now.

We had a wonderful Easter.  I will try to get some pictures up soon.  We had a special service at Tingandogo and Cissin.  At Tingandogo we had 140 people come.  100 of them were children.  We also had about 120 at Cissin.  There were over 70 adults present at this church.  God really  blessed in the services and I really enjoyed preaching on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We celebrated with a meal at both places.

One would think that after 6 and half years of speaking another language that you shouldn’t have to many mess ups. I will say that I struggled and I mean struggled to even say a few words in French even after a year  but God has been good to me and has allowed me to communicate in another language.

This is not the first time that I have done this but the second. I was preaching and explaining that we need to have a good testimony. I shared with the church that before I gave my life to Jesus, I drank some. After I got saved, I was celebrating New Years Eve with some friends. Of course alcohol was present. That was in 1995. After I started drinking, I felt a pulling at my heart. The Holy Spirit was telling me that I am now a child of God, why was I being a bad testimony. That is the last time that alcohol has touched my lips. Anyhow, I told them that it was 2005 and not 1995. There is a big difference. I have done this twice. Good testimony for the missionary to be drinking after he has already come to Africa in 2002. Speaking in another language can be very interesting.

Last week, I was able to pay the price to change the land into my name. I want to thank all that gave. We had $3,500 given to help with this expense. I praise the Lord that I was able to borrow the $1,500 that was left. I will have to repay this a little bit later but I was thrilled to get it paid off before we would have to pay a penalty.

We had one profession of faith last Sunday. We are preparing for Easter. We will have service tonight(Friday).  We will be having a meal as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  We don’t know how we will have for this day but I suppose that we will have a bunch of visitors.

On different occasions, I have talked a lot about Salif and Simon. They are our guardians. We have a night guard and a day guard. It is necessary because of the theft. Anyhow, both of them came to Christ a few years back and both of them help tremendously in the ministry. Whatever needs to be done, they are ready. They are a huge help. I wanted to send a photo of them. This is for you brother Gardner.

Last night I woke up and heard our tin making some funny noises.  I thought, that sounds like rain but can’t be possible.  We aren’t suppose to get rain for at least 2 more months(sometimes in April but very rare).  It wasn’t a downfall or anything, really it was a drizzle(whatever that actually is).  An older man told me that he has never seen rain in March.  Trust me, it didn’t fill up any lakes but it sure made the day feel good, for once.  A break from 108.

We are literally at a standstill with our church building at Cissin. We have made so much progress and I hope that you can tell it by the pictures. As I stated, we must pay about $5,000 in taxes by the 14th or it will supposedly double. This was a tax that I wasn’t expecting, next time, I suppose I will be prepared(but in Africa, I am not sure you are ever prepared). We praise the Lord that $3,500 has already come in. We have had to stop construction also due to lack of funds. The second half of the building is ready to pour.  As you can see in a picture below: the iron is in place,  the wood is in place, the bricks are in place.  We will need to buy some more granite, a little bit more sand and 200 sacks of cement.  The only problem is that we don’t have it.  I know that is Gods timing we will.  We need about $4500 do finish this.  Thanks for everything that you have done, especially your prayers.  They are greatly appreciated.

Today we had the joy of celebrating Emily’s 5th birthday.  We are so thankful for the wonderful children God has blessed us with.  They love Africa and our church family here.  Even at her young age, Emily is curious about things of the Lord, although she does want to know if God will give out candy in heaven.  We pray earnestly for the salvation of all three of our children when they are old enough to understand.