Coke is a big thing here. I’ve never been much of a Coca-Cola fan, but nevertheless, I’ve had many cokes this week. When we visit people, we either bring coke for them or they offer it to us. When people visit where were staying, we bring out the coke and offer it to our guests.

Marcel said when he was in America, it was like we had endless fountains of coke! (He was referring of course to the free refills at McDonald’s, in which the supply is pretty much endless). We’re like the land of milk and honey, but with coke. Coke has also indirectly humbled me this week. It’s not cheap for the people here and it’s not often drank by them. We have been offered a coke (or a Fanta) many times, and it humbles me that these kind people would offer us what is so precious to them. They could probably feed their whole family a dinner of sagabo (their millet staple) with the money it takes to buy us coke. In fact, most people drink one coke a year, at Christmas, when people often get it as a special gift.

When Nicholas spoke last week at a church, they rushed us offstage afterwards to sit us down and offer us coke. I was so thankful, not just for the cold fizzy beverage on a hot day, but for the heart behind it. The generosity and selflessness that goes into supplying the white people with coke astonishes me. It reminds me of the widow that gave out of her poverty, all she had in the two small copper coins, not out of her abundance, as I know I usually do.

Coke is not the only thing that has humbled me this week. We have so much stuff in America, yet many (even Christians) lack real joy. The Christians here have much less material stuff, yet their joy is evident in their daily lives! We have many distractions in the States that draw us away from focusing on the Lord. We usually know where our next meal will come from and we can afford to put gas in the car. When kids are sick we don’t think twice about taking them to the doctor, and we have so many books and Bible study aids that we don’t know which to pick up and read. None of these are innately bad things. I thank God that my cupboards are full and that health insurance covers a trip to the doctor.

I also know I need to have some layers stripped away. I need to be bare and exposed so that God can work in me.

Waiting in the Paris airport to fly here, I noticed flight entertainment listed on the screen. The French translation was “Le distraction”, so accurately depicting what entertainment is: a distraction. We distract ourselves from real life. I get so easily distracted by what people think, by my comfort and safety, and relying on my own ability. We have hobbies, careers, television, and so many other things that make us believe we can do everything on our own. Not that there are none of these things in Africa, but we have them to such a greater extent. I don’t even necessarily feel like I need to come home and sell all my things, in order to send all the money to Africa. There is indeed great need here, but I don’t want to give them an American lifestyle. They have a Burkinabe lifestyle, simple and devoted to the Lord. The people we’ve met eat one good meal a day and have a Bible per family. They have livestock to care for or a church to shepherd. They know Jesus and love Him with all their heart. They know daily how much they need Him. Do we really know that every day, that without Him we’d be completely lost and incapable of anything?

What I want, as I return to America, is to find the pure simplicity of loving Jesus when I’m home. Despite being immersed in an over-stimulating culture, I want to be stripped of complexity and filled simply with love for Him and love for others.

-Krista

I would like to share a chapel style sermon I had the privilege of sharing at the Bible college at Nagabagiri a small village to the east of Ouagadougou about 25 kilometers. “I have been given a great gift, that of traveling to Burkina Faso from America. Back in America I have a Beautiful family, I have ONE wife, ( great laughfter and applass) She loves and supports me. I am very Blessed to have her because she is a Good Cook(more laughter and applause). She can make anything taste good I also have been blessed with two beautiful children. My oldest, a girl, is named Charis. Her name means “One who is governed by the power of Devine grace”. She is eight years old and is gifted in music and language. My other child, a daughter is named Olivia, symbolizing fruitfulness, dignity and beauty. She is six years old. She has a big heart and loves her Daddy. My home is greatly blessed with sound of Laughter and Music. One day my pastor, Loren told me about this place in West Africa called Bukina Faso. I had never heard of this place, but as he told me about the beautiful people that were in this very warm place, and about how their hearts were even warmer than the Air. My heart began to burn. I was feeling that I needed to go and meet these people. Pastor Loren told me he was planning a trip to see his friends from many years before. I told him I wanted to go with him to africa. I asked what we would be doing while we were there. In america when someone thinks about missions to Africa, they usually think about building something, or digging wells, or helping the sick, or even just feeding the hungry. These were the sane thing I had on my mind. I figured that since I am a man who works with my hands, I could do just about any of those things. I was only thinking about what Peter could do as merely a man. Not to mention what God wanted me to do. Pastor Loren then told me that the only thing the people wanted us to was to come and teach, I thought Ok I can teach, I could teach building, or well drilling or maybe helping some sick, and on and on as I was looking at my personal bag of skills. I can do a lot of things and even if I can’t I can usually figure it out. I figured I can handle this. Then Loren said that I would be teaching the Bible, the Word of God. Even with that I could wrap my brain around how to study, I am a pretty good speaker so I got his handled. I have sat under some great bible teachers and read a lot of good books so how hard could it be, right. So I went to work studying and reading and rrading and studying for about three months leading up to this trip. I was still feeling like I wasn’t getting any where, like something was missing. I thought about it, I have my notes, I have the chapters figured out so it must be that I have to learn some more about public speaking, that must be the missing piece. Time to go. The Lord had blessed us with the funds for the tickets, and the time to take away from work. So off I go to this country in the Middle of West Africa that nobody knew anything about. Before I had gone I had told some people about where I was going and what I would be doing there and I was told I was wasting my time. “There are already to many missionaries in Africa, the work is already done there.” Or I was told, “You are just one person on a very large continant, you can’t even speak the lanuage, how can you make a difference?” As I am sitting on the plane I began to dwell on these things. I began thinking that I was just one guy, how could I be of any help to even one person, let alone help change an entire nation. I began to doubt that I had anything to offer. I began to miss my wife. I began to miss my children. Then the plane landed in Burkina Faso. I was defeated and I hadn’t set foot on the ground. I had made a huge mistake and I didn’t even realize it yet. The whole time I had been in my preparation and travels I had not yet really sought God on what he wanted from me on this trip. I had not yet asked his help in ministering to these people. Most importantly I had not ask God to truly empty me, in order for him to work trough me. I was still operation on the premise that Peter had some thing to offer these people here. What I really needed was for Peter to step aside and for the Holy Spirit to fill me up with his Love, His strength, so that He could minister to these people not me. I was here to teach the bible to Pastors so they could than go out to their churches and teach what they had learned. This was very sobering to me. I began to realize that if left to my own devices that was an Impossibility. What I had come to do here was Impossible. Not because God couldn’t do it, but because I was still in the way. I was like a bottle filled with mud that was good for nothing. I had to be emptied so I could than be filled again. I was about to learn this the hard way, unfortunately that is how I learn a lot of things. I had been here for five day, I had struggled to give two teaching, my preparation time was a struggle. The teaching were OK I just never felt like it wasn’t just me trying to show I was capable of doing the task set before me. I was operating on my own power and that was fading fast. Saturday morning came along, I had been looking forward to Saturday because I was had been invited to share a meal in the home of one of the Pastors who lived Ouagadougou. Jean Kabore` was a missionary pastor to Niger, a very nice man who had a little English along with French, Moore` and I am sure a few others as well. I love food and new food is even better so today was going to be a great day. We were then given the schedule for the Sunday services. Up until this point I had not really thought about the services, I did not even think that I would have to share at a church. I was given a pulpit for Sunday. “What am I going to do with this?” I though. I had been given an assignment that I was not prepared to do. This was impossible. I had nothing to offer these people. This was not just reading and interpreting the meaning, this was truly share of myself to a people that had more to offer in the way of Joy, Love, and Faith than I could even hope to experience in a lifetime. I began to wilt. I was not qualified for this and I now realized that I needed something more than I had to offer. There was Crack. A little fear crept in. I looked at the guys and began to explain what I was feeling, that I was incapable of truly Ministering to these people so I didn’t want to. Then it happened. I broke. Tears began to flow down my face, I wept. I was being emptied. I had come to the end of what was possible for Peter to do now I had let God come in, fill me back up with his power so I could even continue. This was the part that I realized that I had made the mistake of not bringing in God long before. We prayed that the holy spirit would empower and fill me so I could do what had to be done in His name not mine. In his strength, not mine. In his will, not mine. As a team we were than able to than ask for the guidance in burkina Faso, that we would be the tools for Christ’s work while we are here. I finally had the realized that I was useless in this place. I had nothing. I needed to see that with out be filled with holy spirit I was useless and nothing was possible. The time here after that has been a series of beautiful events well orchestrated by God to further his Kingdom. I have been nothing more that a vessel for the Lord’s work here in Burkina Faso. I have been able to study more freely. Knowing that all I was going to say was the Lord speaking through me to these men that had taken time out of there lives to come for 10 days on there own dime to learn God’s word. Thank God for his work in this amazing place.

Peter

This is important because I have written much about how God is working on my heart over here, and I want to be clear on this.  My heart is not broken because of how poor they are (they don’t know it) my heart is broken because of how poor we are.  America in General fits the laodacean church to a T!  We are neither hot nor cold, we say we are rich and we have prospered, but we ARE the ones that are wretched pitable poor blind, and Naked!

It is for this reason that I had such a difficult time answering a girls question when I was teaching the kids.  She asked  “ Is it easier in America”?  I said some things are easier (life, comfort, etc….) But some things are harder, like desiring Jesus and really needing and relying on Jesus because we are so caught up in ourselves.  I guess I would ask you back home what are you thankful for!  What things do we quickly take for granted.  We don’t need to get rid of them, but we should thank God everyday for the simplicity of what they have.

Do you have a dishwasher… Be thankful and use your extra time to love your family

Do you have medication… Be thankful you can get to it

Do you have water…. Be thankful you don’t have to wake up at 3, go to the cistern find out the water gone, and then have to drive 15 minutes to get some….

I think because we are rich, we have so much time to fill our lives with something…. For many that is malcontent, bitterness, entertainment etc…and they are sucking the life out of us.  Think about it nobody here would really have enough time to read this blog.  The men are just trying to get food, and the woman are trying to make it in a pot on the fire, and then they hit repeat.  Just a heart check TFAB.  I know mine is all messed up…

On a side not I met the new president of all the Ag churches here in Burkina.  Pastor Michael.  He said you have a open door to do whatever you want in any church at any time, because we are connected to Marcel and the Swansons.  So thankful we get to stand on other peoples shoulders and continue a work God has begun!!!

I want to say thank you for those that have donated money for the roofs.  We are trying to do 16 total from TFAB!  So please pray and see if God might have you give, to cover the household of faith here in Burkina!

Finally, I had the honor of baptizing 5 people yesterday.  3 that were muslim, and 2 that were atheists.  Then I taught on God is able, and just hit on the fiery furnace, and a Muslim woman came to the Lord!  That’s a Shocking highlight!

Much Love TFAB,

Loren

There has been so much going on for us here in Ouagadougou, in our hearts, our minds, our activities, and our experiences!

Hopefully, by blogging while here, we can give you all some snapshots of Burkina Faso and life here. We’re excited to share even more in a few short weeks.

The pastors conference started Tuesday and went through Friday of last week, continuing through this Thursday. The Burkinabe (burr-kee-na-bay) pastors say they have been learning so much and appreciate us coming all this way. They have also come from great distances to hear the Word of God taught verse-by-verse. Daily we have new adventures, taste new flavors and see new things. The first day we were given lunch in a big pot to take back to our house. It was in incredibly flavorful stew of goat meat, potatoes,green beans, tomatoes, and spices. The goat was raised specifically for this conference and killed just that morning to feed the pastors. I don’t think I’ve had fresher meat than that!

I think we all spent the first few days adjusting to the heat. It’s probably about 110 here on average, and we have been eating hot food just about every day. The guys have been freezing bottles of Coke to make slurpees, so that cools us off in the heat of the afternoon. It’s very hot, but we drink lots of water and maybe by the end of this week we’ll hopefully adjust like the people here- they don’t even sweat most of the time! Well, maybe it would take more than 2 weeks…

Yesterday I was honored and humbled to be able to share with a group of Burkinbe women. We were in a brick building in the suburbs of “Ouaga”, with fans blowing much needed air throughout, and rows of handmade wooden benches. There were probably about 70 women, dressed in colorful attire, plus their adorable children gathered in this one church. They were from the surrounding area, and I heard some had even come farther.

I shared about Biblical womanhood and why it’s so important to hear what God has to say about marriage and family. I told them how exciting it was that we had both traveled long distances to teach and learn the Word of God, respectively. I had a time slot of 9am-12:30pm, so when they seemed to look tired and the room was getting really hot, at about 11am, I told them (through the translator) we could stop and do lunch soon. After some discussion with the ladies, the translator turned to me and said “no”, with a smile. They had said they came to hear me teach, and they wanted to listen until 12:30, the full three and a half hours! I was so excited to realize their hunger for the Word of God. It was more real than any hunger for lunch. Praise God that these ladies desire Him and what He says to us.

After teaching about what it looks like to submit, to love our husbands and children, to be a crown, and a little about wisdom, I opened it up to questions before concluding. These ladies asked tough questions, like “What do I do if my husband is lazy and doesn’t provide?” “What if I have problems with my in-laws?” “how can I get my husband to act differently?” And these are the same tough questions we deal with in America. Marriage and childbearing raise difficult issues in every culture. We face the same trials, though they come wearing different coats according to culture. In the end, our trials are a result of the fall, of our own sins, and of our lack of focus on Jesus, who is the only One who can help. When I went to conclude with the section of teaching about Satan’s attacks, I found the material I had prepared was answering the concerns of the ladies. Scripture confirmed that we need to look to the author and perfecter of our faith, no matter what country we’re in or how long we’ve been married, or what our culture looks like! With Nicholas and Loren’s help, I was able to answer these ladies’ questions and hopefully encourage them! It was humbling, being younger than some of them, and probably less wise than many of them, to convey what the Lord says to us all as women and daughter’s of God.

To thank me for teaching, they presented me with two chickens! Live ones! They were roosters, tied together by the feet and hanging upside down (they looked dead to me). We took them back to Pastor Marcel’s house, and they were to be lunch for the next day. And I wanted to have a part in the prep. When am I next going to have the chance to learn to pluck a chicken? I asked Marcel if I could help and he said I didn’t’ want to see him kill and pluck it. I begged to differ. He the agreed to let me help (but may think I am a crazy white woman.) Nicholas actually got to kill one rooster and Marcel killed the other. I was happy to learn how to pluck it. We let the blood drain out after the chickens’ necks were slit, and then we put the two birds in a bucket of boiling water. It cleans them and helps loosen up the feathers, apparently. Marcel’s son demo-ed the process for me. I then plucked one whole bird and cut it into pieces. Today after church we had it for lunch, barbecued! Mmm, good! (Well, a little scrawny and tough, but very flavorful!) I will never look at a package of drumsticks from Fred Meyer the same way again!

Today Nicholas and I got the privilege of returning to the church that I spoke at for their Sunday service. There are so many great things to say about it! The music was so fun, full of passion and clapping, dancing, and praise! The ladies wore the most beautiful dresses, with vibrant prints and fancy head wraps. Two choirs sang, many people danced and prayed, and my husband got to do the teaching! He shared about faith, giving examples from Hebrews 11 and stories from the Old Testament. It was really encouraging when our well-educated translator, Abraham, told Nicholas how well he did. He said he liked that the Word of God was taught and he had lots to think about and be challenged with. We went to this church to bless them, and ended up being so blessed ourselves! Isn’t that always how it is? So fun!
We then got to share a wonderful meal with Marcel’s family and our whole team here. We had split up and gone to different churches in the morning, but met at Marcel’s house afterwards. We had the fore mentioned chickens, a national dish called sagabow (millet that tasted like cream of what to me), cooked veggies with aioli-like sauce, French bread, okra sauce, fried plantains, and pasta! They treated us like kings and we thoroughly enjoyed our authentic Burkinabe cuisine!

Time to sign off for today, but we’ll try to share again soon!
Love from Burkina,
Krista and Nicholas

I don’t know if words can rightfully communicate the joy that we see in the lives of the people here that love Jesus, or the impact that they have made in our lives in such a small amount of time.  We have taught them, laughed with them, encouraged them and as a team at various times we have wept over them.  There is a Moore proverb that says “until you see the dead body you will not have tears in your eyes”.  I think that our biggest fear is that when we come home we will not be able to communicate rightly the impact they have made on our hearts, and the vastness of the door that is open for us to see Christ work in an entire Nation.  After I was done teaching yesterday Marcel called me over to talk to one of the pastors that had traveled about 200 miles.  This man needed to leave to get back to His church for Sunday morning, and He would not be able to come back next week.  Our plan is to present all 100 pastors with a Moore’ bible and 10,000 cfa which is equivalent to about 22 bucks or 5% of there yearly income.  So I went outside to say good-bye to him and give him his gift, and I asked Him our time of teaching here was beneficial to Him.  With wet eyes he pulled out his notebook (college spiral size) pointed at it, and fanned through the whole thing.  It was full!  Through interpretation he told me that he would go back home and share it with his congregation, and all the other pastors in his region that he meets with.   Just Humbling……

Well today I had the pleasure of watching Nicholas stand by Kristas side as She spoke into the lives of the woman at one of the 4 churches that Marcel has started.  She did a great job teaching from 9-12:30 using many of the notes that she had taken from the biblical womanhood study.  The woman were exceedingly blessed and with Nicholas they spent time counseling some of the woman through the questions that were asked.  While they were counseling I went outside with the  children of the moms that had come to hear her speak.  I taught the kids how to play tic-tac-toe on paper then showed them how to play in the sand.  After about a hundred games of it I introduced them to another game I play on wed night with th 1-5 graders called poopdeck…. (uhhhh it’s the upper part of a boat)   While we were playing neighborhood kids and adults all came out to watch, it was really cool.  It got me thinking about bringing over some people from tfab and doing some childrens outreach or a camp.  While we were with at the church, Peter was invited to go over to a missionaries house that was sent from Burkina to Niger.  He had an amazing time there and I am hoping that he will blog about his time with you tomorrow. Tomorrow we are all teaching in 5 different churches.  I actually get to baptize some people in Marcels church, one of which is a former muslim.  I am honored to be in the water with these people!

Before I go I would ask any of you reading the blog if God would not have you give to this work this week.  IF you desire to do this you can mark a check or envolope with Burkina.  We would like to help some of these guys put a roof on a church while we are here.  We are thankful that someone from ACF gave money for 2 roofs (1700) but we would love to do a couple more.  IF this is something you would like to help with let Scott know and we will make this happen! Well I love you all and miss you, and I want you to know that your prayers are being answered!

Before I go here are some of the names I promised you to pray for…

Amos from Ougua waiting 7 years for a roof

Henry from Saaba Needs a roof

John from Sanse – Time to teach verse by verse, Financial, transportation to conferances

James from Kongoussy- windows doors, Evangelism equipment speakers, Houses that wont fall apart raining season

Paul from Boromo- Evangalism equipment, transportation

Etienne from Kaya- Evangalism equip

Maddi- Tema- Islamic stronghold in village, persecution,

Pray for the children of the pastors

Much Love,

Loren

Music
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Prayer Request
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More Prayer Requests
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Krista Jacques speaking
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Woman thanking Krista
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I first want to apologize for not updating the blog sooner.  The past 3 days I have been extremely busy teaching the first 2 chapters of the book of Hebrews, which has taken a lot longer than what I thought.   (SURPRISE SURPRISE)  I also have been unavailable in the evenings, as we have gone every night to the airport to look for my lost luggage that I still do not have.  I personally could care less about my clothes.  The pastors keep praying that my clothes will come, and I keep reminding them that when Paul went on mission he would end up stoned or in prison, so I think that a lost bag is pretty do-able!  That said, I am concerned about the luggage that had 2 computers, a printer, some books, reading glasses, all of which we were planning to give away while we were here.   So if you read this, please pray that they will come soon.  All that is to say, that things have been very busy on this side of the world and I pray that once again as we are on this mission here that you are on mission in Bend.

This morning was the first day that I wasn’t on to teach, so I had the opportunity to take in the word with my African brothers as Nicholas Jacques did a great job teaching Hebrews 3-4:11.  Nicholas reminded us of how Jesus was greater than Moses, and how much better His rest is!  After Nicholas taught, my good friend Brian Fowler from ACF was teaching from the book of Leviticus and He had the Quote of the day at least as conviction was concerned for me personally and the men in the room!  Brian was talking about the job of the priest, which was to point people to God and not to Himself. Then in reference to our role as pastors, he said,

“If people talk more about you than Jesus, you have an unhealthy ministry”

He then said if people are constantly telling a pastor Good job and complementing a sermon, rather than Glorifying God than as a pastor you are in error!!

The question isn’t how was my presentation, was it moving, was it funny, was it entertaining, or was it GOOD!!!!!  The Question is does this Glorify GOD!  Do people worship God because of what was spoken from His word!  Every man in there went ohhhhh, including myself.  Listen TFAB, I know this, I teach this, but in that moment in that room I confess that I have been guilty of this in my own heart, and I am thankful that Jesus is gracious and He has covered this sin!  Lord forgive us for so desiring to hear praise, or receive a pat on the back!  The only recognition I want to hear is WELL DONE GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, and that doesn’t need to come from any man but God!  This is one of the many reasons I so enjoy teaching these men.  I have absolutely nothing to gain in pride, or in possession by being here.  They give me nothing but the joy that I receive from serving them.  Even if they wanted to say GOOD JOB or great presentation I CAN’T UNDERSTAND THEM!!!!  I will be honest, back home there is always a pressure to do better, or as a church to keep growing, because that’s what “seems “ to be success back home!  Can’t be a tall gotta go Vente, Can’t be regular need to supersize, and in the midst of it all arrogance and pride creep in!  God Help us to Keep Jesus central!  God Save me from lifting up myself!  TFAB I would ask for your continual prayer, that God well keep me, and my heart in a right place before Him, and that my goal would always be that we as a body would see Jesus, and Jesus only!!!!

Well now that I have unpacked my junk to you, I have to tell you that I love these people!  I am constantly humbled by their passion, their quickness to pray, and their extreme love for Jesus.  We now have over a 100 guys that have made the journey to come and hear the word taught.  If you have followed me on facebook I am sure you have seen some of the pictures that I have placed online.  I want to add more, and we have taken some great video, but the Internet connection isn’t being very cooperative, so we may have to wait until we get home to give you a visual of everything.  On facebook I mentioned that we had about 50 guys on the first day and now on day 3 we are over a 100.  The reason this number has gone up is because of the travel it takes for some of the pastors to get here. Some of these men hopped on there scooters 2-3 days ago and started driving.  They had to stop and sleep off to the side of the road at night in fear that they might get robbed if they kept on going.  WHY?  They are craving Gods Word!  I am sincerely moved to tears right now, and for those of you that know me you know that is not easy to do.  They drive days for what we take for granted.  They risk being robbed for what many American Pastors have discarded!  God Help us! God Forgive us!  I am sure that they had to cut down a forest for the amount of notes these men have taken.  This morning I was asked by my genius of an interpreter who speaks French, English More’, and teaches Greek, if he could get our notes.  Later on another pastor stood up and asked if we could please, please, please, send them our notes and have someone translate them into (more’).  Once again I am humbled…. We are so overly spoiled with our ability to have teaching that glorifies Jesus at our fingertips, and podcasts that go into our ears any time we want it. There resources are so limited.   I mentioned the disagreement between the early Eastern Orthodox Church and the western Catholic Church and they didn’t understand.  I mentioned Martin Luther, and no one had ever heard of Him.  When we started Hebrews I asked how many had taught it, 0, then I asked how many had studied it only 2-3 had.  Marcel later told me that they only had an overview of it in their bible school.  All that is to say, they are so thankful for this kind of teaching.  They are seeing Jesus in His word.  They understand how these 2 books fit together, and they are loving it!  Thank you TFAB for allowing us, and supporting us in being here!

Before we started the sessions this morning Brian asked the guys how we could be praying for them.  He wanted to know what the needs were, and I want to list some of those for you as we at TFAB pray how God might lead us in assisting these men and the churches God has called them too.  I do have the video log on this, and I want you to hear it from them but I cannot upload it.  So I will share some of the requests that you can pray for.

1. A pastor who was a muslim, told a story of a man that was a muslim, he got really sick and the pastor shared Jesus with Him and prayed for Him and he was miraculously healed.  The man then came to the church and was baptized.  He then called the 14 members of His family together to share the amazing things that God had done in his Life.  After Hearing this His Islamic children said they would disown Him as there father and they would never help Him ever if he did not go back to Islam… and sadly the pastor said he went back…..  The pastor asked for prayer as his church is in a large Islamic community and this has happened many times… SO TFAB PRAY!!!!  I will update a name later as I wasn’t taking note but video.
2. They asked if we could pray that they as pastors could be freed up to study the bible more so they could teach it better.  It is not very common here to see men dedicated solely to the work of the ministry.  They have many other things in life that they need to do or else they will DIE.
3. Roofs….. As Jerry told us when he first came this is still there primary practical request.  After the first guy stood up, there was another, and another and another, so I said how many of you have the blocks built and are in need of a roof.  I think over 18 hands went up.
4. They asked for mics speakers for outreaches so the people can hear them.
5. They asked us to pray for there families, that the children of the pastors would walk with God.  Some things are cross-cultural!!!
6. Transportation needs to be able to get to the conference, as some don’t even have a bike….

These are all very important and if the leadership agrees I see us being involved in many of these areas…. But one of the things that I saw and was reaffirmed in when I talked with the interpreter Jewlz…. Was the importance of the retreat center….

He sees this place as being a massive outreach to Burkina.  If you were here you would see that although it is outside of town, the town will be there in 10 years.

There is a church there already so the place is always in use…

It is used for retreats but as Marcel told me it holds 60 best and is difficult with space for over that. (we are over that)

He does childrens camps in the summer for over 400 children…. Kind of like a vacation bible school and this is a huge outreach.

My hope would be to see more facilities built there to accomadate more men in training…. I think a bunk bed system rather than everyone on the floor would be good.  They have a new well that is cranked by hand, thanks to athey creek Christian fellowship, but it would be helpful to engineer some type of electrical or solar power to it.  They may also need another dorm (cost 4500 dollars)

I say all this to that there is huge opportunity for continued teaching, and provided an atmosphere to disciple so they can go out teach, baptize, and disciple which is our model for missions…..

Please Keep us in your prayers.  Everyone is Healthy.  Krista will be teaching over 100 woman this Saturday, we are teaching in churches on Sunday and then back to work at the retreat on Monday.

Keep your eyes out as I will be having Nicholas, Peter, and Krista giving their perspectives very soon!

Love you all !!!!

The Jacques and I have arrived safely in Paris after being on a plane for about 13 hrs.  Seeing as how the in-flight movies were incredibly lame (the secret life of Bees just isn’t gonna move me to put on the head phones)  I had a lot of time to think back on this mornings study.  There was so much more that I wanted to talk about and address (SURPRISE SURPRISE) but making my flight was pretty much a top priority.  So perhaps another time I will be able to share with you a little more concerning how our lives can live out the mission of God in Bend, but there is one thing that I want to clarify.  At one point I said

This is the Heart of TFAB missions… Matt 28

We are To Go, To Teach, To Baptize, To make Disciples and Hit REPEAT….

NOW What you may notice about missions in the early church in the book of Acts, is that they didn’t build a building and then expect everyone else to come to them because of there amazing kids programs..

There many offerings to the COMMMUNITY —

THEY WERE GOING- THEY WERE TEACHING THEY WERE BAPTIZING THEY WERE DISCIPLING—-

IT wasn’t just one of them or the elite apostles— BUT

All of them From The Apostles—To GUYS LIKE PHILLIP—

Who was a servant of Widows in Acts 6-

An Evangelist in Acts 8—

A Pastor of his family in RAISING for VIRGIN daughters that prophesy in Acts 21

Then I went on to say that

We can’t just expect people to show up here on Sunday—

We have to infuse ourselves… perhaps a better word is

Incarnate ourselves like God did in JESUS into this CULTURE-

He became Flesh and Blood as Heb 2:14, He ate and drank with us, Celebrated holydays with us, laughed with us, and cried for us.  He is the model of Missions

Therefore we need to be biblical in all we do- as He was

We need to teach repentance so people will recognize sin and turn to God

We need to go into culture- This is important we need to be like pal at mars hill went to Athens saw there idols and was able to talk about them…

We need to disciple- Keep on edifying and building up the saints once saved

We need to be spirit led- Without the Spirit we have no direction, we need to rely on the spirit leading continually…

What I want to Clarify is this, it isn’t a sin to have a building, or to have a place where you can hold meetings and gatherings and talk about Jesus and not have to worry if some day your going to get kicked out or that your rent will be raised.

A building can be a huge blessing.  It can be a place where the Saints/Body can come to be edified and strengthened in their walks.  As EPHESIANS 4:12-16 talks about how God has Given Gifted men to edify the body  (can be at a building, it has to happen somewhere) TO DO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY….  You could have a building and you could use it to equip the saints through daily studying the word and communing together, but then the point of fulfilling mission would mean that you would then need to be ready to go!   You see, sometimes Christians are like the average American… They come to church they feed, and feed, and Feed some more and they keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and then never WORK OUT what they have been feeding on!  We get fat, and we are edified but we miss out on the mission of God.  We are partakers of it, but we don’t help in fulfilling it!  This is our purpose, because its Gods Purpose!  This is Gods heart, This is His desire!   If we do not evangelize we will fossilize!  We will Die like a diabetic!

The last thing we should do is get lazy and think that we as a body can just sit back eat our meat weak after weak and think that either people will just somehow find us as they are dead in sin, or that we will win people to TFAB with dumb gimmicks, churchy tricks, or passionate promotions. My pastor use to always say you keep people with what you catch them with.  At TFAB we want people Caught by the Holy Spirit, and brought to the Father through the Son and the teaching of His Word which will cause them to crave Him, and be a witness for Him.  The only way they will be taught is if we embrace the mission of God to our schools, neighborhoods, parks, playdates, jobs etc…..

So I leave you with this reminder as we prepare to board the next flight…

You don’t have to go to Burkina to be involved in Gods mission this week! You get to go to bend this week.  Gods called you to this mission field- He has given you a mission, you get to be apart of His mission! Do you accept that or are you ashamed of IT? Some of you may say, Well if Gods going to make His mission happen then  wont it Happen, why worry why care?

Because Jesus cared! Jesus WEPT over Jerusalem—Paul cried over  lost Israel-

God Will make it happen I have no doubt about that Matt 24:14 BUT HE USES US—

Rembemer Without Him We CANT—Without us he wont

Can I encourage you once again to embrace the Mission of Reconciliation!

We had a excellent night of prayer on Wednesday night for the body, for city of Bend, and for Burkina Faso.  I am so excited to see what God is going to continue to do in these 3 entities.  My prayer for you is that as a few of us get ready to head out to another continent to carry out our mission of training pastors that you would find yourself carrying out the mission of God  in your homes, in the body, and towards this city.  I do believe that as we are built up in His word and empowered by His spirit week after week that it is for the purpose of reaching those that are lost and reconciling people to our great God and King!

Well I am finally packed, teachings are almost complete, and I am a day a way from saying goodbye to my family and the tfab family for 2 weeks.  Please Keep Nicholas and Krista Jacques, Peter Barnes, and Myself in your prayers.  We will miss you TFAB!  Be sure to check the blog over the next couple weeks as we will be blogging and hopefully posting videos from Burkina as internet access is available.

Grace,

Loren

Galatians 6:10 says “as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith”.

We at TFAB may be a small fellowship in the greatness of the Body of Christ, but we are a part of that body, so perhaps God would spur us along with the rest of the body to reveal the goodness and glory of God by helping and aiding them.

We as a church body will continue to pray, and have designated funds to aide our brothers and sisters in Christ. If you desire to help, I would ask you to continue to pray that God will save many through this, that they will see His goodness and His glory, and I would ask you to pray about helping by donating to Churches helping Churches.

http://www.churcheshelpingchurches.com/

Much Grace,

Loren