It was a good thing we were in the village for only two days, because our house was infested with giant spiders. Both Heidi and I have a fear of even small spiders, but I nonetheless worked up the courage to kill one high on the wall. I mounted a chair, armed with an insecticide spray. We had observed that the spray required more than one shot to take effect, so I was prepared to start running in case the spider retaliated. I took a breath and put my finger on the trigger...But at that moment, Heidi decided to capture my “brave” efforts on film. The unexpected sound of the shutter made me jump. Not realizing the reason for my jumping, Heidi asked, “There’s another spider?” I, however, did not hear the question mark in the sentence; to me it sounded like, “There’s another spider!!!” Not seeing the other spider anywhere, I assumed it had made a pre-emptive strike and was on top of my head. I leaped from the chair and sprinted across the room, madly swatting at my hair and screaming “Where is it?!! Where? Where?!” Even when it descended the wall and one of my missionary friends smacked it dead with her bare hand, I, of course, screamed. None of the spiders killed us, however, and we were able to teach two rallies for children the next day.
I suppose most of the things we’re afraid of are like those spiders and don’t turn out to be as deadly as we thought. Because of a seemingly deadly drought, Abraham left the Promised Land where God had brought him, and as a result, ran into all kinds of problems. At our Child Evangelism Fellowship® national conference, the speaker used this illustration to explain how we shouldn’t try to change God’s geography—how we shouldn’t be afraid to face problems where God has put us, even when the “Promised Land” isn’t exactly how we imagined it and threatens to rob us of our joy. Living in my “Promised Land” of Burkina Faso is full of problems (ones that make a giant spider on my head seem like a flower petal), problems that make me long to be back in the U.S., but none of these problems have killed me.
Our regional director just told us to go a new (and, for me, scary) direction in ministry. Instead of focusing on ministry directly to children, we will be starting church partnerships and training church members to spread the Gospel to children outside their churches. For some reason, walking into a church to talk to a pastor I’ve never met is almost as frightening as taking insecticide to a giant spider, but I’m sure this also will not turn out to be deadly. So, if I live through it, would you pray with me that God would make this new ministry flourish?
Praise God for:
· Protection as we traveled (by car, bus, and taxi) to many towns and villages for children’s rallies, conferences, and 5-Day Clubs.
· The hundreds of children we were able to work with during our focus on direct children’s ministry.
Please pray for:
· Good communication with churches as we work to start partnerships with them.
· My intern Heidi as she begins Bible school in Holland.
· Another intern or missionary to work with CEF here in Burkina.
Fun Facts
- During our two-week trip to Ghana, I’m sure everyone was confused about what country I came from, since I kept gasping about all the things they have that I hadn’t seen since arriving in Burkina Faso: drinking straws, public trash cans, grocery stores with fruit and vegetables inside the building, etc.
- For people who came from the villages to attend the CEF national conference, seeing foreigners was so exciting that many of them sneaked up to stand beside us while someone else snapped a photo.
- Frogs fried in their shape with the skin still on them actually taste surprisingly good.
