This is not my beautiful house....

When we returned from this memorable trip to Africa, I fell in love with my home country all over again and with a new appreciation for seat covers, clean water, OTC medicines, and paved roads. At the same time, I'm finding it difficult to go shopping as usual. I walked into a major retailer today in search of one item, a trash can. In the past, that one item multiplied by the time I reached the check-stands. Today, however, I roamed throughout the store and could not find anything that I needed. Seems like a healthy outcome, except that I'm swinging toward the opposite extreme; I am growing a subtle disgust toward my own American culture. Instead of adding to my "kingdom" I'm compelled to purge. One can only imagine my husbands perplexed reaction when I came home and said, "I love this car...let's sell it".

I think there's a term for this re-entry condition, and I hope to make sense of it all soon. It's quite confusing.

Journey of the green coat

We were encouraged to bring warm, discardable clothes with us to NY at the beginning of our trip due to the length of our layover. So, naturally I grabbed the most hated piece of clothing in my closet, a size small green in color American eagle coat, with faux fur lining . Loathed, not for color or style, but because I have had it for years and many times have tried to give it to goodwill and somehow it works it's way out and back into my closet. I truly laughed as I grabbed it out of my closet thinking this time I will get rid of you once and for all.

The joke was on me because when we arrived at the airport in NY, with all the distraction of gathering and moving luggage, one piece reeked of cat spray, I forgot the coat in the airport for our short chilly outing. I mean really it was saint Patrick's day in New York and I forgot the one green thing I brought in the airport. When we returned I cursed at the coat and as I went to throw it out my friend Debbie said, "I think I will carry it to morocco to use as a pillow on the plane." fine with me as long as I don't have to be responsible for it any more. Be gone with you green coat!

As we exited the plane in morocco we were made very clear to not be a spectacle and follow exact direction. "do not deviate from the plan or the route." we quickly boarded a shuttle off the plane and waited further instruction, all of which is either in French or Arabic. A flight attendant boarded our shuttle and was questioning everyone about who knows what, and us white women sat quietly trying not to draw attention to ourselves beyond the obvious spectacle we already were. The more time that went on the louder the women got until finally she waved franticly back at the plane as the captain walked towards our shuttle. To my horror he was carrying the STUPID green coat! I quickly questioned Debbie and she said "I knew we didn't need it and figured someone would take it later." she was right, on air Moroc flights that is a normal assumption, but not today! Everyone kept saying "your coat Janna, it's your coat." Oh, someone hide me!!! To be anywhere but there! So, again the coat mocked me. The next flight we were on, Debbie decided that she wouldn't run the risk of leaving it on the plane and having the same reaction. Why not take and give it to the missionaries in burkina heat,middle of the summer,110 degrees daily with little to no real winters.Makes sense to us. I secretly wished they were going to cut it into a million pieces and use it as kindling.

When we arrived at the missionaries house we had a wonderful lunch that included amazing stories and even more amazing people. As we were getting ready to leave Deb remembered the coat was in the van. We quickly retrieved it and I stood next to her as she sweetly gave them the garment with a smile and a "hope you can use this." I threw in some sort of snarky comment, sarcasm being my second language, "oh, the coat that keeps on giving." to our surprise Amy started crying and thanking us. Well that coat about brought me to tears once, but only out of complete distain. She followed with a story along the lines of, " my daughter is headed on a trip were she will need a warm coat and all week I have struggled with Lord, I know you have this team coming and lots of plans that include me, but my daughter needs a coat." she explained how she had felt so torn about her time with us and the responsibility of finding her daughter a warm coat in the middle of west Africa. She cried praises to God for providing a coat for her daughter and peace for her day. We shared the story of the coats journey and thanked God for using what was such an irritation in my life to provide comfort in others.

God is not unaware of our lives and he cares about the details!





Our friend Amy on the left....much love for you sister!

Location:In Transit

posted by Janna

We are home

home sweet home! ask lots of questions and give us lots of hugs and kisses, especially Lori, thats her favorite!!!

stuck in morocco, but sense of humor still intact

we had a 8 hour delay in ouagadougou which caused us to lose our connection here in Morocco to NY. So we are here from Sunday to Tuesday.....this video is our tribute to all who feel the need to complain, us included.

posted by Janna

All Gods creatures

Ode to our new friend Rebekah:





Rebekah is an eleven year old animal enthusiast! It has been so much fun spending the last couple of weeks with this missionary kid and all her african creatures. she has such a gift with these animals even the dog they have name "deka" which we have nick named "doctor deka" because of his Jeckle and hyde tendencies. one night while coming in for dinner, he quickly turned vicious over a crepe debbie gave him, the next morning he came up to her wagging his tail. Rebekah loves all Gods creatures great and small, crazy and more crazy....God bless her!

posted by Janna

Toads wild ride!

a picture of a thousand words:





this was a taxi we caught after spending a few hours at the market here in bobo. first notice the lack of door handles, lights, and window handle. you almost felt trapped in this tin can. the best way to describe it is imagine driving 65 mph through the state fair. one of the things that makes me laugh the most in this picture is the man driving past us in another taxi staring at the "tu baboo" (white women.) this is such an accurate portrayal of the spectical we are here, a circus on wheels. on our ride home we ran at least one red light, as to which our driver said in broken french "I'm responsible, no problem." when we finally arrived at the guest house he reached through the window and pulled the wire sticking out of our door to let us out. In the words of my dear friend Deborah, "it was hilarious."









posted by Janna

Burdened for the Widows of Burkina

Saturday morning we spent some extended time with a local church’s widow’s group. I was greatly moved upon hearing some of their stories.

When a woman in Burkina loses her husband (which sadly is not all that rare) she not only has the tragedy & grief to deal with but also faces many additional challenges from her community.

Regardless of how she is widowed (Malaria, HIV, car accident or appendicitis like my dear friend Sarah’s husband) the wife is blamed for the husband’s death. They believe that if a woman’s husband dies suddenly then SURELY she has put a curse on him & killed him. He could have died while serving in another country with the military, but she is still responsible. Thus begins the social alienation from her community.

In Burkina (and other West African countries) a woman is considered property… property of her husband. When her husband dies his family inherits all of his property, wife included. Most families are quick to descend on new widows (who most assuredly have conspired & killed said husbands) and pillage their homes & belongings. They then decide if a brother, uncle, or other relative then inherits the woman, as well. Without her own consent, she can lose her husband & be remarried to a virtual stranger within hours.

Sometimes being remarried like this is actually a best-case scenario because then the woman can keep her children. Even her children are now her husband’s family’s property, and if they DON’T marry her off to another member of the family she may never see them again.

Sadly, many of the Christian widows are remarried to Muslim men & severely persecuted for their faith. Many are beaten, and all of them work non-stop to tend to the households. Add to that the fact that most households here are Polygamist, and that adds a whole additional dynamic of stress as a woman enters a new, established home.

Regardless of where they land, they are considered cursed women and outcast from their own community. No one associates with a widow. In fact, children of widows also suffer- they often can’t find a suitable spouse to marry as they are also branded as “cursed” and no family would marry their son to a daughter of a widow- surely she would kill her husband, as well!

It is just tragic & heartbreaking to see these otherwise loving, social & loyal people (Burkina means “the Land of Integrity”) turn their backs on those in need & even kick them when they’re down. It is the opposite of what we believe & aim to practice as Christ-followers…

“Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.” Zechhariah 7:10

“Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.” 1Timothy 5:3

“Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.” Exodus 22:22

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure & faultless is this: to look after orphans & widows in their distress & to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

“The Lord watches over the foreigner & sustains the fatherless & the widow…”Psalm 146:9

Kids being....kids.

The kids love getting their picture taken and then looking at the image. It's not long before they start goofing off, making silly faces for the camera. This group of kids are from our visit to Trudie's Bible Club...a weekly activity for the neighborhood kids that includes music, games, and a brief Bible story/lesson.








Our time was cut short, however, because the children ran off in fright when one saw, in the distance, "the Masks" coming. This is a gang of people wearing masks and leaves, plowing through town during the season of the dead, whipping and hitting anyone in their path.

Location:Bobo

We Are Family...

These little girls at the Maranatha Bible School remind me of my niece..I'm getting homesick, I suppose.

Location:Bobo, Burkina Faso

Word Pictures

Soon we will be leaving Burkina taking many memories with us. Here are some of the things I will remember -
People: beautiful smiling faces, brightly colored, boldly patterned outfits, greetings all around. Women carrying anything and everything on their heads ad babies on their backs. Amazing strength and stories of struggle from the women we met and got to know. A great love for the Lord - singing, praising, dancing, and praying. Children - so many children who love to get their pictures taken!

Sights and conditions: dust, dust and more red dust, everything is dry. Piles of trash, plastic bags everywhere (great free resource for crocheting with plastic bags.) Mango trees, round thatched huts, bumpy roads, boys with red tomato cans collecting for the Imam. Trucks piled high with things, animals and people. Hot, very hot. Sweat - taking sweat to a whole new level! Soothing air conditioning at night in the guest house. Power cuts, water cuts...squatty potties.

Animals: Donkeys, chickens, goats, sheep, dogs, lizards everywhere - often on the road in front of the car.

God at Work: Amazing things are happening in Burkina. Dedicated missionaries with a heart for God and a passion for the people of Burkina to know God. A national church that is growing and developing leaders. Still this is a land where many are lost following false gods - either Islam or animists. A strong sense of need to pray for the church here in Burkina, missionaries and most of all for the lost. May the church grow strong and remain faithful to our faithful God. May the missionaries persevere and have renewed energy for the task God has called them to. And may all the lost be set free from the darkness and bondage of sin and come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. To God be the glory in Burkina Faso!

A Hard Day's Work

Here's a little glimpse into life in the bush....for a woman.
A glimpse of life in the bush....for women. Gives a whole new perspective of Take-Your-Child-to-Work Day....everyday!

Goodnight, Africa Moon

When we stayed the night in the bush, we slept outside, falling asleep to the sounds of animals up high, and down low. In the distance was a tribal celebration that drummed until the rooster crowed.

Mother Comforts

Attending our third wake, I saw something so sweet...so universal to a mother's heart. A small child, not more than 2 years old, in a tattered tank top and undies walks over to a clothesline and begins tugging at a piece of fabric. Once it is down, the child carries it over to mama as if to say, "mama, please carry me, hold me, rock me". Look at another photo on the blog to see how they hold the babes on their backs.

Well, mom was preoccupied with the happenings of the wake, so, the child, instead, reached into moms shirt and pulled out one of her two "pacifiers" and cuddled up. This is so common and casual around here.

Shortly after, I walked over to say hello to the child. Once I picked the child up, though, the child began to cry. I quickly returned the child to mama. White people sometimes frighten the children, but most are quite excited to say hello. I later learned that the mother had said to the child, in Joula, that I would take the child home to my village, causing the child to fright. Basically, mom was giving stranger danger warnings to her young child, not unlike the warnings I give my own children. Still, it's quite interesting to be on the other side of that statement.

Pics

Kenedougou



Church steps at kenedougou


Lunch with widows


Pastors son who took tons of pics with Janna's camera




Compassion kids





Lori taller than the trees

Kenedougou

Day 12
Out to the bush! Our group filled two Toyota land cruisers and let me tell you, these aren't the cutesy SUVs that we float down the highways in the US.
We utilized everything in that Landcruiser except the periscope exhaust during our two hour trek off the paved road!
Some highlights:
Severe washboard roads at 50+ mph, frequent bailing off the side of the road, down the 6 foot embankment to the 'smoother' frontage road , then back up on top when the frontage road ended. All this while one land cruiser pulled a long flatbed trailer and dodged the regular moto, bicycle, goat, or brahma ... I have two thoughts on that.. Faith in our driver and white knuckles!
There was plenty of both!

Brand new Christian churches, believers, church planting. Good stuff. Two years ago, this was a completely unreached group. Love the system of local pastors leading these churches while expat missionaries are available to support the pastors as needed. Cool

Visiting the church that Salem alliance youth spruced up two years ago. Still looks great and the kids are still singing favorite Canyonview songs and still talking about Jack Bauer...

Sharing digital camera technology with the village kids. They loved taking photos of their friends, especially with our sunglasses on : )

Village sharing squatty-potty with white women who scream and laugh as we splatter on our shoes, we are crazy tubabu(white lady)

Attending a 'greeting' (wake) for the family of the chief of the village that died last week.

Can no longer say, "I've never seen a fetish burning"...that was weird/amazing.
posted by Debbie, Cheryl, Janna, Mia

Signs, signs, everywhere are signs....

Last Sunday I attended church where I met a beautiful Deaf woman and an interpreter. We were amazed at how much we understood eachother! There are a few differences but we have a way to communicate! I am so excited to see how God had this planned from years ago...I never would have thought that learning American Sign Language would have prepared me for Africa - yay God!

Well, later in the week I ran into the interpreter and we had a chance to chat some more. Then, on Friday, five of us gathered to chat. That was funny because I totally had a faux-pas with the French greeting of kissing both cheeks...I kind of kissed on the lips, accidentally, during the switch! Oops! Anyway, tonight I met five more Deaf individuals!!! Also, our team has been exposing the hearing community to Deaf language via a song that we sing with ASL. The song is "You are Holy" (copy/paste link below), and we were able to sing it for the Deaf group that met tonight. They loved it!!!

There are many more, but alot of them are working and couldn't gather at the same time. The time flew by before we had to head off to our next committment...as usual.
My passion, now, is to pray for these who are isolated and outcast. They are educated and have so much to offer but nobody wants to give them the opportunity. Another benefit of America is that we have civil rights, ADA, and resources.

I hope to see them again, but, until then, I exchanged e-mail with one in hopes that we can connect via videophone or something like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUp7oxOLans

It's a girl thing....

A team of all women brings a certain uniqueness...which is most obvious with the chatty factor. For example, we went to "The Rocks", the mini Grand Canyon of Bobo, for a bonfire, hike, and dinner. A local missionary remarked that usually the hike down is pretty quiet but we are just chatting away all the way down. In our guest house we girls, some more than others, get a little wild.... Rockin out to Toto's "Africa" song, peeling down to next to nothing just to keep cool, making "your mama" jokes.... I'm sure the guard is selling tickets to watch the scene! It all began on the plane ride(s) out where everyone in the plane knew exactly where we were because of the giggling and talking.

Most fun, though, has been the morning class with the pastor's wives at Maranatha Bible School. The topic was what to do when your "not in the mood", from 1 Corinthians 7:3-5. We found ourselves suddenly on very common ground....women. No language or color differences with this topic. That is, until we started listing the reasons for "not tonight"....

"I pulled my hip out of socket while harvesting from the trees today"
"It's my first day home with the newborn baby"
"My arm is broken"
Or, when he comes to bed, "Please pray for me, I'm not feeling well"

While we all were laughing up a storm, there was a certain shock from the Americans about how extreeme these excuses were. Hmmmm....

KFC burkina

this might be the most pathetic chicken in bobo. when we come across things like this we often chuckle,but it is always followed by a sadness. One thing we have come to see is that God has a plan for the weak and discarded. this little chicken will be a meal for some one and some one will be blessed by Gods provision, but maybe not full.




posted by Janna

Mah twiggy bah

It's hot, who knows how hot. 110+ every day, I'm pretty sure.
Went to vbs type thing for compassion international kids today. Sang the song where half the kids sing hallelu, hallelu, hallelu... and the other kids respond with 'praise ye the lord'. The kids stand when they sing their part. Do you know that song? Awesome, the kids loved it. We actually sang it in JULA believe it or not!
hallelujah is the same word, but praise ye the lord is "mah twiggy bah"
We also sing a song, 'God is Holy'. This is a repeat type song that has a two part round type of chorus.
Since Cheryl is fairly fluent in ASL, we also added the ASL signs to the first half. God is Holy, God is Mighty, God is Worthy, etc.... We've been able to communicate that we are using ASL and teach them the few signs. They are fascinated when Cheryl does a little sample monologue. today, one of the Burkina girls, about 12 years old, repeated the song after me IN ENGLISH with the ASL SIGNS!!! She was amazing!!! Her friends thought it was hilarious that she was speaking such ridiculous sounding words! So much fun : ) We get laughed at A LOT here :) lol. apparently, our jul a accent is a little off...

we did have JULA lessons today and yesterday. another lesson tomorrow. pretty fun. people here are ALL relational so knowing a few words really goes a long way. LOTS of people walking and will enjoy talking to you if you only say hello.

Fun talking in JULA. Only have met MAYBE 6 burkinabe that can speak any english at all.

a sera
(peace be with you, bye)
- Posted by Debbie

pics

Location:compassion kids