The Shumaker Family's Blog

Here are a few pictures of our churches in Ouagadougou.  The first one is from our work here in Burkina Faso.  It is on the edge of town, in a neighborhood called Tingandogo.  We were about 25 adults and over 90 kids this morning.

The second picture if from Cissin.  It is in the middle of Ouagadougou.  We had about 45 adults here and 40 kids here this morning.  You can see the construction in the background.  This church is a little under a year old.

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I have an older man named Zachary, that works with me.  He has pastored two different churches.  Actually, he has started two different churches.  He was with the Assembly of God but had major problems with their doctrine for a long time.  They finally asked him to leave.  When he left, he looked for the truth and found that he was in agreement with the Baptist doctrine.  He worked with a missionary in Ivory Coast for almost a year and then returned here to Burkina Faso.  I have pastors and other christian workers come by all the time, saying they want to work with me.  Of course the problem is that our doctrine isn’t the same and really they don’t want the truth, they just want the money.  But I felt that Zachary was sincere and real.

Zachary has been with us for almost a year.  He has been a great asset to the ministry.  He told me the other day that he wants to start another church somewhere.  I feel it is best for us and him, that he stay here for another year or two but then we will plan to send him as a church to where God calls him.  Yesterday, we traveled to the town of Zabre.  I bet they have over 10,000 people there.  This is where one of the works he started was and very near to his village.   We also visited his first work.  It was a thrill to met his family, see where he came from and what he did.  We also met his older brother.  His older brother is the Imam(Muslim Leader) of the village.  All the rest of his family has been saved by the grace of God.  He told me that after his mother died, the family was divided.  They had all of their houses in one courtyard but because of the Muslim brother they all had to get their own place.  He has another brother that is a pastor.  Anyhow, we had a great day.  I forgot my camera and I am kicking myself because of it.

I saw this on a friends blog and thought it was good. Check it out

I saw a first tonight. I have seen this done many times in America but not here. The Burkinabe missionary to Mali is needing to change locations. We had already decided to help support him each month, but we wanted to help with his building. He wanted to build a hangar from wood and tin. The tin would cost about $200 and the wood $64. I felt lead to announce to the church that we wanted to give $100 for the tin. They were thrilled. Remember that we are in the process of building, and I want the church to pay for the roof on our building. John Cooley, another missionary, was present for the service and gave the other $100. Then the Pastor who is preaching the conference said that his church would give the $64 for the wood. I have never seen this before in Africa. It was a first and I am glad that I was there.

What a blessed day! God moved in the services today, and we had four saved. One young lady named Salie has been coming almost since we started the church at Cissin. I was always unsure of her salvation, but she told us she was saved. She hardly ever misses a church service. During his message, Pastor Ake said that he had a baptized member come to him one day saying she wasn’t sure of her salvation, and that day, she trusted Christ. Salie said she was baptized at 12 but didn’t really understand what she was doing. She gave her life to Christ this morning. We were overjoyed.

Tonight was a great victory for our church. As you know, we are having our first missions conference. We have attempted to teach faith promise. I know of only two other African churches that have done this. I am sure there are more but of the 50-60 that I know about there are only 2 that give faith promise. I decided I would be happy with a minimum of $40 as our debut. I pledged $10, so I thought the church might give $30. We had 32 people pledge. That was great, and they pledged $90 a month. That is absolutely amazing. I told them that I believe that a lot of what we want to accomplish will be centered around our obedience to give to missions.

Man alive, (have you ever noticed that we use some weird terminology) have I ever been encouraged. I was thinking that this conference would encourage our people and I hope it will, but I didn’t know how much I needed to be encouraged. I am with two nationals. One is an Ivorian pastor and the other is a Burkinabe, who got saved and trained in the Ivory Coast and then went as a missionary to Mali.

The Pastor has greatly encouraged my heart. There is a fight that goes on, not a physical one (well I have heard of it happening) but a fight of two different cultures and ideas coming together and clashing. This is the fight between the national(we use this term to describe the the people we minister to) and the missionary and it can be a big one. I have seen some horrible and terrible things go on between the two. People on both sides have been abused and mistreated. The Pastor, Ake Maxime, has been a huge blessing. He doesn’t seem to see the ministry like the others do. He isn’t relying just on Amercia to support him and the work. He told our people that their church is supported by their people. They are supporting missions(which is very rare once the missionary leaves). He has a great grip on the ministry. Sometimes we wonder if they(our church members) will ever get it. I taught the other week that there is a lie going around. The lie is that the Burkinabe are to poor and to uneducated to get the work done. I believe that this actually better qualifies them. In the Bible, most of the time God used the low and the poor so that in the end he would get all the glory. David was little, Gideon was from the poorest family in the neighborhood and he was the least in his family, Moses couldn’t speak right, a young boy had a small lunch that fed the multitudes, the disciples were just average men, Paul was sick (but was at his strongest when he had infirmities) etc. I told them we don’t need to think of American Christians, French Christians, Chinese Christians and Burkinabe Christians. WE ARE NOT DIVIDED; we are all children of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. Our God is the same God that divided the red sea, defeated Goliath, multiplied the bread and fish, etc. He can use us here. I know that I am considered a missionary in America, but I am their Pastor and Shepherd. I love my people(those who God has given us) and I want to see God use them.

We had a great start to our first missions conference.  We must have had about 50.  I really feel that God is going to do something great with us during this conference.  We really want to create a model church.  That has been our plan from the start.  With being a model church, that means a lot of responsibility.

I got a call this morning at 5:45, and yes I was still in the bed. My parents used to say that sleeping in isn’t good. I do normally wake up between 6:00 and 6:30 though. My parents said that we will sleep the day away. I always looked at it as if they went to bed at 10:00 and got up at 6:00 and I went to bed at midnight and woke up at 8:00 there wasn’t much difference but I could never win the battle.

The call was from Francis. A national missionary in Mali. He just arrived at the bus station. He has been in Mali a little over 6 years. Mali is 92% Muslim. It isn’t an easy work. I visited him earlier this year. He had about 80 faithful people. He is doing a tremendous job. I am throughly excited about what God is going to do tonight in the conference. I feel that if God blesses American churches when they support missionaries then why won’t God bless African churches when they support missionaries. Right now Francis is resting because of traveling all day yesterday and last night.

The national pastor that will preach is a great man. He has a church that runs over 200. Last year they gave over $2,000 to missions. Wow, that is absolutely amazing. When most of our independent Baptist Churches here don’t support one missionary, here is a church that supports many and God is blessing them. That is why I asked him to come. He told me that when they made a great effort to support missionaries God blessed their church in amazing ways. He said that God has taken care of their needs in miraculous ways. I have preached some missions conferences in the states and I feel that I could have done the conference but I didn’t want to come in with American stories and American blessings. I want them to see an African church and a pastor that has a vision and burden for the world. I so desire to see God do this here. Please say a special prayer for us. God is going to do a great work.

Man, are they ever flying on the building.  I would have never dreamed we would have made it this far.  What an amazing God we have.  Here are a few pictures of the work from yesterday.  Have a wonderful day.  By the way, the man on the right is the iron man.  He received Christ a few months ago and has been very faithful.

We are really advancing on the building. God has greatly blessed. We are about out of money though. I really thought we had enough money to complete the bottom level but due to some financial problems, we are lacking. From the start of constuction our exchange rate has dropped over 10%. The price of cement went up from $10 a sac to $13. $3 doesn’t seem like much until you calculate how many sacks we have used. I bet we have used more than 500.   That is a $1,500 loss.  Ouch.  The price of iron has also gone up about 10%.  The gravel and sand that we use for building also went up.  Because of the rain, they couldn’t travel to where they normally get these two things.  Their prices went up about 15% or more.  I am not complaining, just letting you know why we are about out of money when we said a certain amount should cover it.  The work will have to stop.  I was really wanting to finish the first floor, but in God’s timing I know we will.  We have all the iron and wood bought.  We just need to get cement, sand and rock to finish it out.  I am not sure the price of what we will need.  I am trying to calculate what we need.