Loren and Mary Ann Wright

Burkina is a very beautiful country with wonderful people! We arrived in Ouaga on Sept 2nd not knowing what to expect. We were excited to see two familiar faces in the crowd (of course! but the real treasure was asleep at the guesthouse). On Sept 3rd we traveled to Dano. Our time there was busy; we met with the church at Muturi and worshiped on Sunday with the church in Nakar (some meetings were rained out, 6" of rain in one week!). We met so many people and it was exciting to be a part of their lives and they a part of ours for a short time. They are very kind and giving people who will be near our hearts in prayer. We will always treasure the time spent here. We are sad to leave Amy, Chad, and Noah and their teammates, but we are assured that God has placed them in this place.

Loren and Mary Ann Wright

Email the Burks!

This has been a good month of seeing family and friends though not as many as we would like to have seen since the Doctor says we can't travel any more. We are based in Boerne, Texas, staying with my (Aaron's) parents until the baby (Dylan) comes. Dylan is getting increasingly bigger and more active. The latest sonogram says that he is already 5 lbs. and growing. By this time next month, on October 14th, Andrea will be having a c-section. Please keep her and Dylan in your prayers. We are so thankful to our supporting church, the Homewood Church of Christ in Birmingham, Alabama, who has helped us enormously by bringing us to the States for the delivery.
Daniel is really enjoying first grade and making lots of friends at the Boerne Church of Christ. I'm taking advantage of high speed internet to update our website. I hope it can be ready in a few weeks. There will be many new interactive features and ways that you can stay in touch with the amazing things God is doing among the Dagara.
We thank you for prayers for rain. Apparently God is answering them. The large amount of rain this month though has led to tragedy for our friend and night guard, Bayuo, whose house fell because of the rain. He has another place to sleep until the rain stops and he can rebuild his house. Please ask God for mercy for not just Bayuo, but all those who suffer.

Peace,

Aaron, Andrea and Daniel

Email the Chankins!

God has most definitely answered your prayers for rain here in Dagaraland. We have been blessed by abundant rainfall this month and as a result find ourselves unable to drive in or out of our courtyard. Having gotten the truck stuck in the mud 3 times already, we decided to park some distance from our house and walk back and forth through the swamp if we really need to go somewhere. Two of our trees fell due to the saturated earth, but it worked out well for our night guard who took the wood and will be able to use it for cooking fires after it dries. Unfortunately, the amount of rain we received in such a short period of time has caused many many mud brick homes to crumble and fall. We have many friends who have lost either part of all of their homes and we ask you to pray for them as they rebuild. Even mud homes are expensive by Dagara standards and making mud bricks isn't a simple chore. We are reminded each time we look at our neighbors' homes how blessed we are to have brick walls and a tin roof to keep us dry. We were able to make a trip to the capital this month to celebrate our 7 year anniversary which was in August. The Johnsons moved down to our house for a few days and kept Emma and Jack for us. We are so thankful to have such great friends and teammates. We are all healthy and pray that you are too.

Have a blessed day.

Archie, Mandy, Emma and Jack

Email the Johnsons!

In our last entry, we asked you to pray that God would open the floodgates, and He has responded abundantly! Provided we don't all float away, our friends expect a great harvest this year. Several problems have arisen because of the downpours (i.e., a few mud brick houses collapsing and cars getting stuck in our teammates' front yard), but we are all praising God for His provision.

Melissa returned safely from a great visit to the States to find her men getting along alright but very, very glad to see her return. She really enjoyed her time with family and friends - thanks to all of you who were so kind to her (and, through her, all three of us).

Two Dagara leaders, Severen and Rebeka, have both recently taken the initiative to ask Andy if they could teach for a while in the villages of Dano-Pari and Sorian. Consequently, Andy has had a little more time to pitch in with the Train and Multiply curriculum our team is translating. It's exciting to see young leaders gifted by the Spirit who are willing to seek out teaching opportunities, without us even having to encourage them!

Please mark October 6 on your calendars as a day to lift up our family before the Father. We have an appointment with the judge who will ultimately rule on our adoption of Elijah. It is theoretically possible that we might be able to complete the adoption that day - please ask the Lord to open the right doors and hearts that this might happen!

Thank you for all your prayers for us and for the Dagara - the Lord hears them and is faithful!

Andy and Melissa

Email the Carters!

Thank you for your prayers of rain! People have commented that Noah should feel right at home since it seems that it has been raining for 40 days and 40 nights. Within a week of the Dagara Digest 10" of rain fell on Dano. It has continued to pour almost to the point of being dangerous (homes are starting to collapse). Our family has continued to enjoy connecting churches across continents as Amy's parents visited Burkina. It was such a blessing to see their reactions to village church life, as Loren greeted and prayed over churches and Mary Ann set the model of teaching children, giving a very well received flannel board story of creation. They say that their eyes have been truly opened. We were most encouraged by the their confirmation of God's calling our family to the mission field. Distance in families is always a challenge but it gave us warm fuzzy feelings to have that specific encouragement. Today is Noah's first birthday! The terror of three boys on the loose is beginning to develop and it will not be long before all parents will be hoarse at team get-togethers. Please pray for churches as harvest approaches. As soon as dry season hits we would love to see the nine existing churches each plant another church. Please pray that this will be on their hearts and that the Holy Spirit will prepare the way even as their thoughts will be dominated by food for the next year and fieldwork. Thanks for continued prayers.

God bless you all,

Chad, Amy and Noah