Africa Journal Day 7

Day 7

This morning starts slowly for all of us, after a late night of soccer and Super Bowl viewing.  A regularly scheduled team meeting at the Richter's is scheduled for this morning from nine to noon.  The agenda included prayer and praise, project and activity reports, scheduling and planning, and scope discussion. I am amazed at the busy-ness of this team.  With the three families working in different areas, while moving the ministry ahead in the positive forward direction, there are a lot of moving parts.  Chris, being a long term thinker has helped the team recognize and assess some challenges around achieving their goals while also planning furloughs, retreats, and the 2014 departure of the Johnson’s back to USA.

After lunch, devotion time, and waiting for 3pm (businesses close from 1pm to 3pm), we drive into town to have tea with Mr. Barry.  This wonderful gentleman, a native of Dano and a tailor has been a friend and unofficial language teacher to the team from Texas since their arrival in Dano ten years ago.  While manning his tailor shop during the day, he is the Johnson’s night guard, (not sure when he sleeps), has nine children, and tells me is 56 years old.  He speaks five languages, but does not read or write.  He has been immensely beneficial in helping Andy and now Chris learn French and Dagara.  He is Muslim, but has been doing bible study with Andy for several years, and is seriously considering the claims of Christ.  For him, following Jesus openly will be a costly event, as his entire family is Muslim, and likely a decision to follow Jesus will result in great persecution.  Our prayers are with him as he considers this life changing decision.  Another concern for those of us who have come to know and love him is his health; the life expectancy of a man is about 50 years in Burkina Faso.  How he will provide support for a large family, some of whom are still in school is a concern for the team, and what other employment will he find after the Johnson’s return to the USA, and his night guard services are no longer needed.  

As we sit down outside his shop in a dusty side yard, shaded by a canopy from the hot sun, his young assistant starts to prepare the tea.  A small charcoal brazier sits in the dirt, with a worn metal pot sitting on top.  The tea is brewed, poured into three "shot glasses" and served on a small serving tray.  We spend a couple hours talking and drinking "three cups of tea."  Mr. Barry tells us that:

The first cup is bitter like death

The second is good like life

The third is sweet like love

While we enjoy our tea, a brother of Mr. Barry and another man walk up, and begin to wash themselves, spread their mats on the dirt, and face the east for their afternoon prayers.  As we watch these men pray,  I get another glimpse into the life of a man who will sacrifice much to follow Jesus, just as Jesus talked about in His teachings.

Chris and I drive to the outskirts of town to visit the home of Severin.  Severin is Chris’s day guard, a Christian, Chris’s bible study partner, and language learning partner.  He is also the first participant in the Joseph Project. He is a true entrepreneur, also owning a motorized trike that he uses as a taxi and hauling service, having hired one of his brothers to drive it.  He is the type of person that the team seeks out and invests in with bible study, discipleship, and business leadership training.  This model of leadership training in both business and spiritual training is paying rich dividends and is the key for this ministry to become self-sustaining after all the “white people” leave. 

He shows us the 70+ bags (100kg each) of corn that are stored in his bedroom.  The plan is to buy or build a magasin (storage building) to store additional grain next season.  The corn was bought locally at the end of harvest when prices were lowest.  During the height of the dry season, the price of corn increases.  Severin will sell the corn at then market prices, and give 15% of the proceeds to feed the widows and orphans, keep 10% for himself for his work, and reinvest the remainder in another purchase of corn at the next harvest.

The second Joseph Project item for Severin is to plant a crop of green beans for the next growing season.  He takes us to some property owned by an uncle, who has agreed to let him grow beans instead of corn.  This will not only revive the soil for future corn crops, it will provide another revenue stream from the bean harvest to donate to widows and orphans while providing a profit to Severin, and an investment return to the JP for future use.  Chris hopes to be able to send Severin to The Chalmers Center (http://www.chalmers.org) for additional leadership training later this year.

    Just another example of using business skills, capitalism, and honest hard work to further the cause of Christ.  And yet, I think of the quote by C. S. Lewis: "He who has God and everything has no more than he who has God alone."  We must always keep first things first, and know that money can't solve the world's problems.

  For more information on the Joseph Project and other ways you can participate in this, go to http://www.sandsinburkina.com/