The Shumaker Family's Blog

Our car is still in the shop or should I say, under a tree. A member of our church is a great car mechanic, but he is definitely shade tree. He has fixed stuff in unbelievable ways. I had to take the moto to church today. I must have heard 500 times on the way and on the way back home, “Nazara”. That means white man. It was cute, when we first arrived here to have the kids yell, “white man”, but I have to be honest, it truly get on my nerves now. I remember one time when I very sick. I could hardly walk and since my wife wasn’t driving here at the time, I had to drive myself. She came with me and the doctor prescribed some medicine. We went to the pharmacy. She went in for me and I had my head laid on the window sill. Some little girl came by yelling, “Yovo, yovo, ainsi, ainsi”. That was when we were in Togo. Both of these words mean white man in their tribal language. Here I am so sick I can hardly walk, and this little brat comes up to me yelling, “white man”. She really wasn’t a brat, just excited to see the white man.  I know you don’t ever think like that, but I looked at her and told her to go to the house. Sorry I’m not real spiritual. Sometimes I wish we didn’t stand out but I don’t think that is possible.

Anyhow, God really blessed today. We had over 100 at Tingandogo, and we had 80 at Cissin with over 50 being adults. I am extremely excited about this week because we will be having our first missions conference this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Please pray for us. I have told the church that I would like for us to be able to do a faith promise of $45 a month to start with. We would like to support two missionaries at about $20 a piece. I am not sure if we can arrive at this, but I am praying that God would allow us to do that. Our normal offering isn’t much more than that but I sure would like God to move in a mighty way.

I was told today that I am becoming Burkinabe. I bought a moto. It’s not a motorcycle but a little smaller. I actually bought it off a church member because he as going to buy a new one and gave me a good price. It really wasn’t going to be for me but for the work. Whenever somebody needs it for the ministry, it is for them. Well my vehicle has been burning some serious oil, so we are have a big revision. It will be in the shop for at least 8 days.

I was told today that I am really a Burkinabe. The reason why is that I have had to take Emily and Meredith to preschool on the Moto. Emily laughed all the way from the house to school. I have seen a man and his wife and two kids on a moto before. The moto is a preferred method of travel in Burkina Faso. It is called the city of motos. I also had to go with one of our members in town today. I followed him on the moto. You should see the way the people looked at me. It could be because I am a white man and they wonder what the crazy white man is doing on a moto. The other thing is that I am just a little bigger than the average person, so maybe it is funny to see a giant on a moto.

It takes more than a moto to fit in here.  Just having a moto doesn’t mean that I am connecting with the people.  It must be my heart that connects with their heart.

I was visiting with an older women who has come to church. She works with a member of our church named, Bado. I think that I have written about Bado before. He is a huge blessing to us. He has probably invited more people and has more visitors than about everybody else combined. The first time I met him, he told me that he didn’t want God. It is amazing how God can change lives. He thought that he could get to heaven by his good works. I invited him to church back in 2005, and he came. After the message, during the invitation he didn’t just raise his hand to say that he needed Jesus, but he stood up and told the whole congregation that he was lost and needed to get saved because for the first time in his life he realized that works would never save him. Even though his works can’t save him, you should see the works that he is doing since he trusted Jesus.

Our visit was a blessing. This lady worked with Bado for many years. She was born in Senegal. Senegal is highly Muslim. She came here and got married. Her husband died a few years back. She is in the process of retiring from her job. She had a friend come in at the same time. She introduced me as her pastor and began telling the other woman that she needed to come to church with us. The other women is a Muslim, not by choice but by marriage. I could sense her desire to come but she basically said that it would be impossible. I have decided that I like impossible situations because you know that it can’t be you but it must be God. Things that are impossible with man, are possible with God. AMEN!

We had our discipleship course tonight.  It went really well.  I am very pleased with the turnout.  We had 12 men and 12 women.  I am challanging them to read their Bible each day.  A few of them had never read their Bibles on a daily basis.  I am having them memorize verses from the Bible.  Most of them have done it.  It is great to see them growing in the Lord.  My wife also says that the women are doing really well.

The Lord gave us a great day.  We went to Roungo this morning.  Our numbers were low and I hope that this isn’t normal but many were trying to get their crops in.  When the crops are ready so are the animals.  If they don’t work when they can, they can lose a good bit.  We also had youth meeting tonight.  We didn’t have a ton but we had a good spirit.

I wanted to tell you a funny story.  My missionary friend, John Cooley, has a new work a little bit outside of Ouagadougou.  The other night, they were taking prayer requests.  One man told about the problem with going to church on Wed. nights.  When they leave their houses unattended, many times theives will come.  They think there is one in particular. He asked prayer that God would the kill the thief.  The beauty of the African mindset.  Actually, when they catch a thief here, many times they will kill him.  I am not talking about the police or military but civilians will beat them or stone them to death.

I wanted you to see our garbage truck.  As you can see it isn’t a truck but a donkey and cart.  It costs us $2 a month and they come once a week.  Have a great day.

I wanted to share with you the progress on our building. We are extremely excited about the progress. As the say, a picture is worth 1000 words and I know you don’t want to read 1000 words from me right now. The first picture was in May, I think. The church people dug the foundation.

Below the foundation is being finished.

Below, the foundation and the columns are finished .

It has been my goal to start at least 40 churches in the city of Ouagadougou. God has been good to us and given us land in key locations already. We have bought two. We have also, through miraculous means, been given some by the government. These aren’t free but they are big lots at a small cost. We have 4 of them. They aren’t totally secured until all of the paperwork is complete, but the paperwork for three of the four is almost complete. That a total of 6 pieces of land God has allowed us to obtain.

We have two full time guards. One works at night and the other during the day. Our day guard is Simon. Simon was very religious when I meet him but he was lost. I took about 30 minutes one day explaining the Gospel to him. I didn’t want to push in a decision, so I just presented the Gospel and was going to leave it to him. He looked at me and said that he has never heard the truth. He has heard about Jesus but never really understood what Jesus did, and he asked if he could accept Christ right then and there. A few months back I was able to lead his father to the Lord. What a blessing it was. He was sick and we later found out that he had a brain tumor (probably cancer). As he was laying on his bed and family and friends visiting him, he would tell them about Jesus. After he died, Simon’s mother has struggled. Simon helps her a lot. A few months ago Simon told me that they wanted to sell his fathers land. The land will cost about $6,500. His mother’s house is made out of dirt and was about to fall in due to the wind and rain. He told me that other houses were being built around their land and because of this his lot was flooded. I paid to have dirt moved in and this helped the situation. One of their buildings did fall though. Simon told me that he would like to sell it to me so that we can put a church on it one day. The goal is to sell the house for $6,500 and they would buy a new piece in a newer neighborhood for about $3000 and that would leave them about $3,500 to build with. There was no way that I could pay the $6,500 due to other projects. It is a great piece of land and soon it will cost over $10,000. It isn’t big but tons and tons of houses are nearby. Simon told me that I could pay it little by little but the problem is that his mother’s house might not be standing much longer. I asked him if we built a small building with two rooms could his mother live in that and then we could give the money for the land next year. He thought it was a great idea. This will cost about $2,000 to do.  This building will serve us later also.  We either need all the money for the land or we will attempt to build the house. Please pray that God would help us to meet this need.

I felt lead to help a pastor from the Ivory Coast build a house. His name is Fouseni. He is a great young man, and God has used him in Divo Nord. This is the village work that God allowed us to start while living in the Ivory Coast. It is in a very Muslim village. I would say that 90% of the village is Muslim. Before we left the Ivory Coast, we built a church building and bought the piece of land next to the church for a parsonage.

As I stated, the young man that took over the work is named Fouseni. He grew up in this village. He was born in a very devout Muslim family. His brother made profession in Christ and after two years won his twin brother(Fouseni) to Christ. God called them both into the ministry. The older brother has fallen into some spiritual problems but Fouseni is really working hard. He hasn’t had tons of fruit but God is greatly using him in this village. He has been persecuted, laughed at, mocked and threatened. Even his father, who is still a Muslim, was told that he should kill his son due to the fact that he left Mohammad and Islam.

Fouseni told me a year ago that he was having a hard time because even though his father has been gracious to him, he doesn’t have full liberty talking about Christ(he stills lives in his fathers house). This is because most of the family are still Muslim. They find his beliefs offensive, and out of respect for his father he cannot freely express his beliefs as long as he’s still under his father’s roof.  I felt that he needed to have his own place and began to make plans to send the money for construction. All of this took place about a year ago. Even though the cost isn’t great compared to major projects, I haven’t had the money necessary to give him because of our other projects. In order to finish his house we will need about $2000 dollars in addition to what I have already saved. Please pray that we can meet this need soon so that our dear brother can have the freedom to do the work of God.

I am not sure but many of you probably already know this: The American dollar is very weak internationally. I think that in some ways it is good for the economy in America, but it isn’t good for those living outside of the States. It seems that most missionaries all across the world are having this problem. The big problem for us is that our currency is pegged to the Euro. As you know the Euro is very powerful. When we first came to West Africa we were trading one dollar for 750 CFA(currency here in West Africa). We are now exchanging 1 dollar for 455 CFA. We have lost more that 40% of our buying power. Since coming we have lost a few supporting churches but we have gained some also. Can you imagine what would happen if you lost 40% of your pay check each month? We are still able to live here, but our work fund is greatly limited. I am going to mention some projects that we have had on the table for a little time. Will you please pray for these projects, that God will help us to finish them?

I don’t usually mention a lot about projects and money but sometimes it is necessary for the work.  I was told by somebody one day, “How do we know where to help, if you never mention a need?”  A good point.