Email the Johnsons!

We'll start off this month with some great adoption news: we are officially 'on the list' here in Burkina Faso! All of our papers are miraculously in order, and we are now just waiting for the Burkinabe government to propose us a child. As we've been told we're the only ones on the list right now, we could become parents any day. Please pray that we would soon be given the child God has in store for us.

The last six weeks have been very exciting work-wise. Melissa's lessons for the women of Dano-Pari have been tremendously well received. The women are thrilled to hear in their own language how God has worked through faithful women to accomplish His will throughout time. Along with her teammate Amy, Melissa has consistently been having groups of women larger than the crowds Andy can usually draw of men and women! We've also been blessed to see many new brothers and sisters come to believe: 24 have been baptized in recent weeks in Sorian, and 8 out in Nyi-Kpier.

We recently returned from a time of wonderful retreat and spiritual renewal. This year's West African Missionary Retreat was particularly special for three reasons. First, it was a unified retreat for the missionaries of the Christian churches and the churches of Christ. Second, it was the last WAMR for several of our good friends; the Parkers and the Hollands, missionaries in southern Togo, and the Chownings, missionaries in Benin, are all heading back to the States in the months to come. Third, we made the road trip with our friends the Duecks, a couple ministering in the nearby town of Leo; you'd think we'd have gotten tired of each other after 40+ hours of driving together, but we really had a great time.

Thanks for your prayers!
Andy and Melissa

Email the Burks!

This has been a bit of a crazy month. We really enjoyed our trip down to the coast to see our fellow missionaries and have some spiritual renewal. However, it was also an exhausting trip. We're glad to be back in Dano. We also had some surprising and difficult news this week. We went to the doctor for our 12th week checkup and found that one of the twins was reabsorbed back into Andrea's system. The doctor had said that it is common to lose one of them when you find out early on in the pregnancy. However, we knew that we had to go ahead and make plans for two just in case. This meant that this news has hit us pretty hard. We are saddened, and yet we are grateful for and excited about the one that is still on the way. Daniel is also sad, but he is still excited to be a big brother.

Just before we went to Ghana we had 5 new baptisms in Nakar-bagawn, and we're only on the second lesson. We have up to 30 folks going together from Nakar to Nakar-bagawn each week to help with the evangelism effort. It is exciting to see God growing this church.

We are also excited about the upcoming Agricultural seminar. We hope that God will use this to teach the Dagara to make improvements in their practices and thus provide more nourishment for their families (even when it doesn't rain).

May the LORD Bless You and Keep You,
Aaron, Andrea, and Daniel

Email the Chankins!

Thank you Oak Hills Church! The past two months have been such a blessing to our family that “thank you” seems so small. We have been overwhelmed by the love and generosity of our supporting congregation and we are so sad to be saying goodbye, but we will return to Burkina with refreshed spirits. We have enjoyed meals, meals and more meals, but more importantly we have enjoyed great times of worship and fellowship. A special thanks goes out to our life group – we have loved being with you and know the Lord will bless you because of your faithfulness to Him!

In family news, Emma has enjoyed trips to the zoo, the fire station, the park and, of course, Wal-mart. She has enjoyed a birthday party, Easter egg hunt, and play dates with new friends. Jack has also experienced all of these events, although I am not sure it would be fair to say that he enjoyed them all. He does like bath time and chow time, though. He has even been sleeping through the night (We like that ALOT). They both have grown and changed so much even in the last month. These two kids have taught us so much about God’s love...our cup runs over.

Please pray for our flights back to Burkina (May 1) and our adjustment to life there. We know we will be faced with water shortages and a/c problems as soon as we get there. Pray that we can all stay healthy, keep good attitudes and get things running smoothly. AND PLEASE PRAY FOR RAIN. Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

God Bless You – The Chankins

Email the Carters!

Greetings from the Carters! We are thankful this month that most of the things that have broken are now fixed or on the road to being fixed. Among the mild disasters where a long list of semi-broken items at our teammates house the Chankins. Luckily we found these things before they returned from furlough and everything should be in place for their return. Our truck blew off it's oil cap earlier and after a long struggle we found a replacement. It will such a blessing to change out for a more reliable vehicle(depending on the funds raised at Richardson East's Harvest Sunday on April 30th). It's problems reached a point where we did not feel comfortable taking it on the long trip to Ghana for the Missionary Spiritual Renewal Retreat. The great news is that villages continue to go wonderfully. Yo is maturing nicely and a touchy rebuking situation of a leader out there went very well. Muturi continues to hear the evangelism curriculum for the first time and Dagore continues to reach out to their neighbors. Please pray for the blessing of the upcoming agriculture seminar for Christians. We are very excited to see how this seminar will change the Christians handling of food during the dry season. We look forward to seeing an impact in this rural villages with water and food shortages.

Thanks for your faithfulness in prayer.
Chad and Amy Carter