The Shumaker Family's Blog

I met a man just after coming to Burkina Faso in 2005 and now he has falsely accused me.  I thought that he was a great friend.  He helped us in many ways in the past but he has turned against me.

We have about $20,000 that has been raised for building a Christian school.  This man says that this money was promised to add classrooms to the school in their village(which wasn’t true).  Many months ago, we went to the police station but never came to terms.  So the final step in going to court tomorrow morning.  Please pray for me and that God will get the victory.

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Sali has been a member of our church since 2007.  She had been an amazing blessing to our church.  After being in our church for 6 months, she came to my wife and said, “I was baptized at 12 years of age but I never understood what salvation was”.  She trusted Jesus as Saviour, and I had the great privilege of baptizing her.

Before coming to our church Sali was affected by AIDS.  Many times she struggled with her health, but she remained faithful to God.  She was a faithful soul-winner.  Almost every Saturday morning she was at church ready to go and tell people about Jesus. She and my wife spent many hours through the years telling people that, “Jesus Saves”.  She never let her struggle with her health be an obstacle to her serving God.

About a month ago her health began to diminish.  We helped her with some doctors exams and also medicine.  Today, Justin (one of the pastors in training), came to my house and said that Sali is very critical.  Rebecca and I went to see her.  She was unresponsive and evidently in terrible shape.  We prayed for her and decided to take her to the hospital.  My car was being repaired so we sent off to get a taxi.  As Justin and another member started to pick her up to take her to the hospital, she died.

We are sad that Sali will not be with us as we serve God here on this earth, but we know that she is already in a better place.  She no longer suffers with her health and is with the one she loves, Jesus.

Here is a picture of Sali in the blue and white.

Yesterday was the kick off of our Pastors school and conference.  God has greatly moved so far; it is unreal.  Pastor Austin Gardner and Pastor Derik Lawrence have been doing such a wonderful job preaching and teaching.  We have been greatly challenged.

The greatest challenge that I have received has been seeing the effects of a missionary doing too much.  What I mean by that, is that too many times we feel sorry for the people because of their lack and because of our abundance.  So we don’t let them do their part.  It is easy for us to create a beggar mentality in pastors and also in the churches.  They don’t really trust God, but they trust the missionary for their needs.

We will continue to help build, train men, and do as much as we can so that the work of God will advance, but we will definitely make them do more and trust God more.  We want to create a movement in this country, and it can’t be done by an American missionary nor American money alone.  It will need to be done by the Burkinabe people. It has been exciting to see how some of the pastors have received these messages.  It is my prayer that they will begin to accept their responsibility.

Yesterday, there were over 30 pastors or pastors in training in attendance.  8 years ago, there was only one.  God is doing great things in this country.  I believe that a great movement has already started.

Imagine begging the spirits for rain, even going as far as to sacrifice grains from your dwindling food supply in hopes that it will come. If you do not plant soon, your family will not survive another year.  For now, the ground is parched and dry, much too dry to till.  Imagine working with your hands all day under the sweltering sun only to come home to a little mud hut with no power or running water.  Imagine waking up in the middle of the night when it is pitch black and all is silent, deathly silent. As you lay on your little mat, too hot to sleep, too hot to even move, you wonder, is there more to this life?

There are villages all over West Africa where people struggle day to day just to survive. Does God love them less because we consider them poor? No! The beautiful word “whosoever” includes people of every race, kindred and tribe. It includes our friends in air conditioned work places and comfortable homes as well as our friends in villages all over this world, villages where most outsiders will never go and inhabitants have little contact with those outside.  For so many years, spiritual darkness has reigned in these remote villages.  In some of these areas, there are beautiful mosques or “churches” teaching false doctrines which offer no sure hope of eternal life.  Someone has carried them a message, but not the truth.  We have a desire to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ before it is too late.  Through Voices in the Villages, we will work together to impact these villages.  Would you pray for this project and get involved in carrying the gospel to people who may have never even heard of Jesus Christ?

Pastor Austin Gardner will be coming tomorrow night.  We will be making plans of how to reach these people with the truth.  We don’t yet know how we will do everything but  we know the problem (sin) and we have the solution: Jesus.

Just realized that I wrote this update but never published it.  It is a month old but I think it is worth posting.

We just finished our 5th annual missions conference.  We had three different speakers: one american, one Ghanian and one Togolais.  God truly moved and spoke to hearts.  Bro. Steve Volonte was the american that preached and he said something that I will never forget.  He said, “The evidence of true faith doesn’t always come from our lips but many times it come from our pockets.”

I took them to the Ghana border this morning.  When we arrived at the Burkina border, I heard a binding from under my car.  I attempted to take them to the Ghana side but the four-wheel drive shaft broke.  I had asked my mechanic (member of our church) to go with us in case something like this happens.  I don’t have confidence in my car anymore.  I have beat it up in the ministry over the last 8 years.  It has been a good vehicle but its last days are approaching.  We would appreciate your prayers on this issue.  I don’t have the money for a new one as you have to pay cash for everything and I have always put what we receive back in the ministry.

By the grace of God the mechanic was able to remove this piece and we were on our way.  Rene, a bible college student, is from a town near where we were at.  He has asked a few times if we could go meet his family.  S I thought this would be a great time to see them.  They were shocked by our arrival as Rene didn’t call them since it was a last minute decision.  They greeted us and welcomed us.  After a few min. we started witnessing to his big brother.  He was religious but very lost.  It is so sad to see how religion blinds people from the truth.  At the end of our conversation, he did say that he was touched and would seriously reflect on it.  Rene really wanted us to witness to his father and other members of his family.  His father was greatly touched by the word of God.  He said that he has been to church but never heard that he needed to repent of his sins and believe on the Lord Jesus as his personal Saviour.  By Gods grace Renes father got birthed into the family of God.  One of his other brothers got saved also.  I wish you could have seen the excitement on Renes face and heard the joy that came from his heart about the decision of his father and brother.  He has often asked us to pray for his family to come to Christ.

Traveling through town after town and village after village I saw the overwhelming need to get the Gospel to these people.  There are some churches but it is very evident that true biblical salvation isn’t being preached.  How many countless souls perish without ever really hearing the truth.

On the way home God provided some meat for Rene and Pastor Konate.  I hit a hawk and they jumped out of the car and picked it up.  That night Rene made some soup with the hawk and I had a hawk leg.  It was good.

Below is a picture of Rene with his father and sister.

I truly hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas.  We have been extremely blessed this past year.  Last night we had our Christmas Eve Service.  It is truly one of my favorite services we have all year.  We started around 9 p.m. and finished after midnight.  We had singing, preaching, Christmas skit, etc.

2012 is going to be an exciting time in the ministry in Burkina Faso.  We have some great plans.  Thanks for your prayers and your faithful support.  We know that you have a huge part of this ministry and we are grateful.

I am a few days late but our internet hasn’t be working.  Eleven years ago, Dec. 22nd, I married the best woman in the world.  She has followed me faithfully all over the world.  She unselfishly cooked for all the different pastors and their families on our anniversary.  God gave me a great treasure when I meet and married her.

Our team of pastors have been praying and preparing to go and do an evangelism conference at Roungou.  Roungou is a remote village in which we started preaching under a mango tree in 2005.  As a friend of mine said once about this village, “I have finally arrived at the end of the world.”  We would go there every other week to preach on Saturdays until finally Pastor Salif started traveling out there every week to hold services on Saturday and Sunday in 2009.

Upon arriving there were many kids and adults waiting for us.  They gave us one of their traditional drinks.  They had a barrel full of water.  Most importantly they were excited to see us all.

Thursday night we had a kids club.  We taught the word of God and then let the kids play some carnival type games to win candy.  This was a huge treat for them as many of them probably rarely get a chance to even have a small piece of candy.  Then, on Thursday night, Pastor Gilbert and Pastor Justin preached.  I sat back amazed at how God is using these great men that He has given me to train.  I have watched parents get extremely excited when their kids score a goal, score a basket, hit a home run, or score a touchdown but watching God use these men is a far greater joy.  By God’s grace a woman was gloriously saved.

Friday morning we taught and preached on evangelism.  Then, in the afternoon, we went out to the different groups of mud hut houses to invite people to come to the services that night.  I haven’t visited the chief in a long time and felt led to go to his area.  The chief came out and visited with us.  They say that he is 100 years old.  Not sure about that, as they don’t really know their age, but he is very old.  I have witnessed to him in the past.  He has heard some of our preaching.  He has always said that it was good but never would make a real decision to repent and accept Jesus as his Saviour. On Friday it was different.  Justin talked with him for a good long time.  Again he said it was good.  Justin asked, “What are you going to do with Jesus?”  The chief responded, “I am going to receive him as my Saviour.”  He bowed his head and prayed.  It was a moment that I will never forget.  The joy that came over us was unreal, and I can only imagine that all of Heaven began to shout and praise God.

That night we showed a film that our church made a few weeks back.  It is about sin, and how sin consumes us.  There were over 300 people present, and they were captivated by the film.  At the end of the film, Pastor Salif got up to give the invitation.  I was walking over to the pulpit to lead it when I sensed it was best to let him do it.  I normally lead the invitation at a big meeting like this but the Holy Spirit lead me to take a back seat.  Then I watched as Salif, a former Muslim, preached and invited the people to repent and come to Christ.  Men, women, youth and kids came forward.  I stood on the side and watched 5 pastors lead them one by one to the Lord.  It must have taken about 45 minutes.  As I watched all of this happening, tears began to form in my eyes and roll down my cheeks.  I thought of the verse in I Cor. 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”  In some ways we have given up some pleasures and comforts to live here in Burkina Faso, but they are small in comparison to the eternal blessings that God is allowing us to see and experience.  Words cannot describe the blessing it is to me and my family to be a part of an amazing work that God is doing.  I don’t deserve it, but I am thrilled that God has given me this great opportunity.

I have never been that big on numbers but I think there were about 50 people that made professions of faith.  Salif told me that there were many visitors that came on Sunday as a result of these services.

The reason why I say that it was almost unbelievable is because I was there.  I saw what God did and is doing.  Upon going to college I would have never dreamed I would be where I am today.  God has far surpassed my dreams and desires.  I only want God to continue to use me wherever or however He wants.

Chief in Burkina Faso who trusted Jesus as his Saviour

Pastor Salif and Pastor Justin with the chief

Pumping Water in Burkina Faso -- Everyday life

Getting the water jug ready to take home.

We have waited for this time to come.  The roof is finally on Living Water Baptist Church.  We still have a few more things to do on the second floor before it is ready to be used, but we are just as thrilled as a kid on Christmas day.  (Didn’t know how to express the joy in our hearts)  God has been so good to us.  Below are a few pictures.

We have also started working again at Tingandogo.  It has been tough to get water the last few weeks.  It has been cut a lot lately, but hopefully the church building at the Fundamental Baptist Church of Tingandogo will be finished in the next few weeks.

Here is a video of my trip to South Sudan.  South Sudan is a very needy country and there is an awesome opportunity to minister to these great people.