Back from Burkina

I did not do a whole lot of journaling when we were in Burkina.  I have several names written down, but not much on what we did each day.  I realized when we got back that because I did not journal when I tell people what all we did it is in order of importance to me.  So as I share some of these stories and illustrate how God works they will not be in chronological order, but in order of importance to me. 

Our Team

We left in the afternoon hoping to be allowed into a Tuareg Refugee camp.  We were invited the day before by the church at the L.A.C. We took an offering to purchase sugar and tea, (which are a staple of the Tuaregs) so we would be able to show Christ's light through the act of sharing.  As we arrived and carefully made our way out of the vans.  The missionary men from our group and the local Pastor named Agabus walked over and met with the head men of the Taureg refugee camp.  While they were meeting we all stood around quiet just taking everything in.  We did not know if pictures were allowed so we waited to hear from our leaders.  Slowly children and women came out of their tents.  They came up to us and greeted us.  One little guy named Amadou came up to me and said "comment tu t'appelle" I was confused at first even though I knew exactly what he had asked me.  So I slowly put out my hand shook his and said "Je m'appelle Elizabeth" (for those of you wondering why I said Elizabeth.  My name does not translate into anything nice.  If you say Beth it means stupid.) He then brought over some more of his friends to say hello and no sooner had I looked down at them and back up and we were surrounded by people who were meeting and greeting us.  We began to let our guard down.  Not long after our the missionaries came over and told us we were allowed to stay and take pictures, but asked that only a few of us take pictures.  We congregated under a hangar where we took the tea and sugar.  They asked our guys to remove their shoes and sit with the men.  The leader then gave a speech thanking us for our gesture. 
Here is a link to the video http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=637331061583 
We then proceeded to hand out 5 sets of tea and sugar.  We were welcomed into the tents to give the gift. 

(The thing to remember is that this was during Ramadan so they could not eat or drink what was given to them until later.)
Once everything was handed out they invited us to play with the kids and look at the items they had made.  They asked us to move into the shade so the kids would not get too dehydrated.  We played and bought some of their homemade items.  The really cool thing was the people wanted us to take pictures and they did everything to help us get good pictures and feel comfortable.  It was a real God moment just being there sharing with these people.  While we were hanging out they took Pete one of our Missionaries and dressed him as a Taureg.

We went in not knowing what to expect they only thing we knew is prayer was the only way in.  God provided us with this awesome opportunity to be the first Christians welcomed into this Taureg Refugee Camp. 

Another high and low point all at the same time was passing out grain to the local village.  We did this through Grain of Hope 58:10.  Charlie's team purchased a few bags of grain and invited us to help hand it out.  When the bags of grain were purchased the Pastor at the L.A.C. went to the village leader and asked him to give out tickets to the 30 neediest families in his village.  These people with tickets would receive 2 buckets of grain to take home with them. 

We were set up to have a person take the ticket and the bag for the grain and it would then be filled with the 2 buckets of grain.  It was then given back to the person to take home with them.  When we were through with the tickets the girls who were up front switched with the guys.  At that point there was some grain left and the Pastor would tell the people who did not have tickets whether they would get some grain.  (The grain distribution is to be done in secret to minimize the amount of people who will beg for food who have not been chosen as the neediest.) 

The guys had to form a barrier holding hands with each other and standing as close as they could so that those women who were fighting to get in and get some grain would not get in unless Pastor Agabus said so. 

It was a truly challenging experience.  It was amazing to give out grain to those who need it, but humbling to see how much grain means to the rest of the people who were not chosen.  They would fight and push to try to be the one to get grain.  We cannot truly understand how much it means to be in need of food to keep your family alive.

There were so many different experiences that we had I cannot sit here and write about them all.  These were 2 of the most intense experiences.  I will gladly fill you in on more as time goes on, but this is a lot for one day. 

Here are 2 things you can pray for:

• Sali is a muslim kitchen worker at the team center in Burkina.  We had the opportunity to pray for her.  She asked that we would pray she finds Jesus and that her kids would do the same.  She said she needs a change.  We also prayed for her existing heart condition.  
• Suzanne the kitchen worker who runs the kitchen has been having ulcer pains in her stomach.  Pray that those would go away.