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4 September
I taught the tithing lesson in Dano-Pari today.
I always learn so much from Severen and Rebecca. Today I learned that
what I had always assumed was a widow's mite, might just be a legalistic
checkpoint. They told me that they had never heard that someone's giving
on a Sunday morning should be correspondant to how God had blessed them.
It is common for Dagara to give 10 - 25 francs to each family member of
the deceased at a funeral (equivalent to $0.02 - $0.06). In my experience
this is usually the amount people give at church once on a Sunday morning
and, knowing that the Dagara are dirt poor, I always thought that meant that
that was all they HAD to give. However, Severen indicated that we are going
to be seeing more generous giving, at least, in the Dano-pari church. Pray
that the Dano-pari Christians can take this necessary step of faith to trust
that God will take care of them in the midst of their tithes.
7 September
Today
we worshiped in Nakar. We had a good time of worship.
I taught them an abbreviated version of the seminar
on tithing for the lesson. They laughed when I used the analogy from the
old testament of someone trying to give God a lame animal for their sacrifice
being like someone who just throws in a couple of pennies (assuming that
that is not their tithe).
10 September
Every once in a while I get really excited about a project and I don't stop
even if my body is telling me I need to take a break. Today I had the opportunity
to install an externall antenna on my house to boost the cellular signal
on a CDMA data modem so that we could have a better internet connection.
Under this connection we will no longer have to pay per minute we are connected
to the internet and it will connect at about 5 times faster. Well installing
the antena involved not only climbing on our roof, but drilling a hole big
enough through our 1 1/2 foot thick solid brick and concrete wall at a 45 degree
angel to avoid rain getting in. This took a lot more effort than I thought
it would and it took a lot of breathing in dust. This finally sent me over the
edge and I got sick for the next two weeks.
17 - 23 September
I spent this week getting ready for the Howard's visit by preparing a seminar
on teaching Christians the importance of having simple devotional / study
times with their families. I also went to Nakar to ask them to invite Nyinyime
folks to Nakar for a lesson.
21 September
I went to Nyikpier for worship this Sunday morning. I was still very sick and
couldn't really sing and when I tried to teach a little, I started coughing so
much that I had to cut it a little short, but they appreciated my coming anyway
and we discussed what villages would be included in the upcoming eyeglass seminar.
They decided that they would invite people from Mebar, Bavule, Wa-jele, and Nawn-
25 September
We went to Ouaga to pick up Bill and Judy Howard visiting us from our supporting
congregation, the Homewood Church of Christ in Birmingham, Alabama. They arrived
healthy though a little tired. They are the first visitors from Homewood to fly
into Ouagadougou and more importantly they will be the first visitors from Homewood
to have meet some Dagara Chrsitian brothers and sisters.
26 September
We went to Nakar
today with the Howard's to teach a lesson on spending time to pray and study with your
family. The four main leaders at this meeting, two of whom crossed the river to come to
the meeting, said that they were all already doing this. These guys are all great evangelists
who do church plants. However, I tried to emphasize to them that though it is great that they
do family devotionals, if they don't get the other fathers in the church to lead their
families in this way as well, we cannot assume that the next generation will follow Christ.
27 September
We did another
eyeglass clinic today, giving over 50 reading glasses to folks from 4 different villages.
5 villages were supposed to come to the clinic, but only 4 made it. Bill enjoyed joking
with some of the older men and Daniel got to be my little helper. Also, Severen and Donatien
joined me in making it a big success.
28 September
We got to go to the Mutori church this morning. We got to hear Donatien preach a sermon about
Jesus being the same, yesterday, today, and forever. It was a nice large (for African standards)
church service again with at least 10 men 30 women and about as many children.
29 September
This afternoon the Howards
had tea with a muslim friend of ours named Mr. Barry. This was a new experience for the Howards
for, although they are experts in tea by their own rights, coming from Alabama, they had never had
tea like this - in West Africa, tea is served hot and very very strong and sweet. They pour it in
little shot glasses so it's a bit of an art learning to hold a shotglass filled to the brim with
piping hot tea and not get your fingers burnt.
Anyway, that evening, Bill and I went over to the
Johnson's house where Mr. Barry works as a night guard and we studied Mark together. Please pray
that Mr. Barry will come to put all his faith in Jesus Christ and his grace and not in the ways of
islamic tradition that relies heavily on legalism with no sacrifice.
30 September
The Howards and I headed out to a new village with leaders from Nyikpier who had been planting a church in Wa-jele. They were scheduled today for baptisms. It was the first time any
American from our mission has even been out to Wa-jele. Kpe-zuo had gone through with a machete that morning and cleared
the 6 foot tall grass in order to widen the bike path about a couple of miles long for our truck . . .
his generosity is humbling. When we got to the end of that trail, there was an unpassable river and
someone who had been waiting for us. This person showed us a "bridge" about 2 feet wide with no railings
made of a few logs about 3 inches in diameter. You also had to climb up a Dagara step ladder (groves
cut into a log for steps and a 'y' at the top of the log to keep it from rolling). Needless to say,
the Howards decided they would just wait on this side of the river to view the baptisms. I went over and
it was just about another 1/4 mile to where they were meeting. We talked about what they were doing (baptisms)
and I tried to answer any questions they had, then we went down to the river and saw 29 people baptised
into the 18th Dagara church, Wa-jele! There were also two new folks from Nyi-kpier who got baptized as well.
Today was a good day!
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