The Shumaker Family's Blog

My parents arrived Thursday night.  I am glad that they will be able to spend a few days with us.  My dad went with me to Roungo on Friday and we stayed overnight.  On Friday night we had more than 150.  When we stay over we have a Friday night service and a Saturday morning service.  We had 130 for the morning service.  The best thing about what happened was that we had 7 decisions for Christ.  What  a Blessing!

I just wanted to give a quick update on Salie, as many have said they are praying for her.  Much to our surprise, she is actually doing a little better.    She came to church last night but came after dark.  She remained outside and had covered much of her face.  My wife said that she almost didn’t look the same the other day and I think because of this, she didn’t want others to be able to see her.  We took her home and when she got out of the car I was able to see her face.  My wife was right.  How quickly somebody can change is absolutly amazing.

A little later, I was praising God that no matter what will happen, she has given her life to Jesus.  I also began to think about what physical pain, sickness and death can do to somebody but if we could only realize what spiritual sickness and death can do to somebody maybe we would work harder, pray harder, preach harder, evangelize harder and live more faithful.  My prayer today is that God would wake us up and realize the condemnation and suffering that will happen for lots of people.

Salif was teaching the children on prayer the other day.  At the end of his lesson, he told me that a young girl asked if she could give  a prayer request.  He said sure.  She said, “Please pray that I won’t get beat, when I get home from church.”  Her father beats her when she comes home from church but she has been very faithful.  Can you imagine, just wanting to come to church and you must get beat in order to do that.

We have a young lady named Salie in our church.  She has been faithful for a long time.  A few weeks ago she realized that she was lost even though she was religious.  She put her total faith in Jesus as her Savior.  She has been a big help to us since starting this new work.  She is at everything we do.

She started getting sick a few weeks ago.  My wife went to check on her, after we got back from Ghana and said that she looks like an old women.  She is probably about 27.  We suspected this but it is now confirmed that she has AIDS.  She is really bad.  I guess that we have to all realize that even though God forgives us of our sins, we have scars that will never go away.

I have been very proud of our church members.  They have showed the love of Christ to her.  Her mom won’t feed her, help her or even talk to her.  I know you are thinking, surely that isn’t the case but it is.  Actually one of the women of the church went to check on Salie and her mother wouldn’t even greet her.  That is outright disrespectful in this culture.  She would rather her daughter die.  My wife said that the women of the church have been to visit, heat water to help her bath, and even give money to help her eat.  That is what a church is all about.  Makes me proud to be their pastor.

We had wonderful services yesterday.  Bro. Joe Gueh really preached well.  We took on our second missionary.  Praise the Lord!  I am excited about that.  We had two young men trust Jesus as their Savior.  Bro. Joe preached on, “Are you doing your best for the Lord?”  So I want to ask you and I need to ask myself if I am doing my abosolute best for the Lord.

God Blessed tonight.  Many times I play tennis on Monday and Friday night.  I love the exercise and I love tennis but we have become to busy at church and I had no other night to make visits.  So God convicted me the other week to stop playing on Monday nights, so that I could visit.  Well it payed off.  Tonight, I went to talk with two men that have been visiting our church.  The second visit we made, we were talking with a young man that has been faithful to an Assembly of God Church for years.  I was talking with him about salvation and realized that he doesn’t have  a clue.  I told him that our church can’t do anything for his sins and that I didn’t have the power to forgive his sins but I knew the One that could.  After talking with him for about 20 min, he told us he needed to be saved.  Praise the Lord he trusted Jesus, not the church or me but the Lord.

I meant for this to go out on Sat.  Oh well, here it is.

We made it back home tonight. We had a great trip. I was able to preach at Calvary Baptist Church in Techimon, Ghana. Missionary Steve Volonte has done a tremendous job over the year he and his family has served there. I have learned lots from him. I don’t ever want to get to old or prideful to learn.

Right before I left for Ghana, we had an anonymous gift to help with the building. So I got everything ready and they poured half of the second floor. The Lord has been good to us. We will use half of the building until we have the money to do the other side. I have attached a picture of the work. That is Bro. Joe Gueh with me. He is a missionary going back to his home country of Liberia. He will preach for us tommorrow and we will support him with our faith promise. I think he must be from the pygmy tribe or maybe I am from the Goliath tribe. Not really sure but looking at the picture, I had to laugh.

We will be out of town for a week.  We will leave tomorrow morning for Ghana.  The whole family will go.  I was invited to preach and also to come to a conference.  We also need a little break.  Please pray for me.  I will be attempting to set my goals, plans and my calender for the next year.

I can’t believe that we are already in December.  God has truly blessed this year and I am looking forward to what God is going to do in the future.

I wrote in another post about Marie Paul. She had TB of the spine. Because of this her spine became weak and has major problems. One disc is already almost completely gone. Her spine sticks out terribly. She is only ten years old and I felt that she would be totally crippled if we didn’t help. They are treating the TB. Don’t worry TB of the spine isn’t contagious. She is such a sweet girl.

We took her monday to a specialist. He told us to come back today. My wife took her. They put here in a cast. My wife said that it was terrible. They made her mom and Rebecca leave the room. Then you could here her scream and cry as they tried to push her back into place and put the cast on. My wife said that her mom, sister and her were all crying from hearing her suffer.

After they did this she couldn’t walk. Rebecca picked me up so that I could carry her from the car to the house. When I picked her up, trying to carry her like a baby, she just grunted in pain. The doctor said that she really needs surgery but we are not sure if that is even possible in Burkina Faso. Please say a special pray for her. I told our church people that I want to be their pastor. That means I must rejoice when they rejoice, cry when they cry and be there for them when they need it. I do praise the Lord, because I think if this would have gone on much longer she would be completely in a mess, with the situation of her back.

I was doing some calculations.  I wanted to share them with you.  We currently have over 14 million people.  We have only 13 Independent Baptist Churches in the whole country.  That makes one independent Baptist church for 1,076,923 people.  Wow, we have a great job to do.  We need some help.

I am always amazed at how they build here.  So few tools but very effective.  Here is a picture of the middle floor.  As you can see it is ready for the cement, rock, and sand.  We lack a little more than $3,500 to get this part done.  Please pray for this as we really could use this section of the building.