Email the Chankins!

This past month began with a quick trip down to Togo to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with our friends who live and work in Kabiyeland. Our family really enjoyed being hosted by Bryan and Traci Reis and their three boys. We had a great time, with tons of food and fellowship. We then had the opportunity to have another Thanksgiving celebration here in Dano with our friends, the Hausers, who recently moved from Ivory Coast to Burkina Faso. Since turkeys are hard to come by, we decided on an Asian menu complete with spring rolls and fortune cookies. We have so much for which to be thankful!

We are now in full Christmas mode with the tree up, stockings hung, and the first round of cookies made. While we aren't expecting a white Christmas this year, we are enjoying the cooler temperatures that come this time of year with the Harmattan.

In ministry news, we welcome the Richter family to the Dagara team. Their hope is to arrive on the feild in the fall of 2008. Please be in prayer for them as they hit the fundraising road and as they prepare spiritually, mentally and emotionally for the transition ahead. We look forward to seeing how God will use them to minister to the Dagara people.

Finally, we ask continued prayers for the health of our family. This month we had a bit of a scare when Emma came down with Bell's palsy. She is recovering well and we thank all of you who lifted her up in your prayers. Please pray that we could enjoy an illness free final stretch here in Burkina. There is still so much we would like to do before our departure.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
The Chankins

Email the Carters!

The Carter family is still on furlough this month. You may still reach us at 214-578-2714 until January 6th. We have been blessed to reconnect with Southern Crescent in Atlanta, Georgia. Also, we finished our visit with the church in Ulysses. Several of the folks in Ulysses have formed a great Dagara choir. They will be ready to sing several songs at church when they visit! Thank you for your prayers as we travel with two children. We look forward to returning to Burkina, resting in our own home and visiting all of our friends.

A Merry Christmas to you all and a great New Year.

In Christ
The Carters

Email the Johnsons!

Happy holiday greetings from the Johnson family! We kicked off the season with a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving with the Kara team in northern Togo. We then made it back to Dano just in time for a non-traditional Asian food celebration on Thanksgiving Day with our teammates and our good friends the Hausers. We now have the Christmas decorations up, the appropriate music on the stereo, and plenty of presents to wrap for our first Christmas with two kids!

Our visits to all the Dagara churches have continued to be a blessing for us. More often than not, we've been pleasantly surprised with how healthy these churches seem to be. While we know that God is working all the time, being away from the work for a while and coming back to see the leaps in progress is exciting!

It was a thrill at last to lay eyes on the book of Acts in the Dagara language, the second installment of the Dagara New Testament. Having seen what God has done through the gospel of Mark, we're excited to see what He has in store for this book!

These are topsy-turvy times for our team. With the Chankins scheduled to leave and the Richters hopefully arriving, 2008 promises to be a year unlike any our team has faced so far. Please be praying that we would adapt to these changes well, that we honor God in everything, and that God would continue to do more than we could ask or imagine among the Dagara.

Blessings.
The Johnsons

Email the Burks!

Well the sicknesses kept coming. Last month it was Aaron, but this month it was much worse, our little Dylan. He had fever induced seizures for the second time. We knew what to do this time and through lots of prayer and going to Ouaga to see the pediatrician we tested for many really bad things that could have been causing the seizures and we know that none of those have caused them. We've read that there are just some infants that are sensitive to spikes in fever. We are going to get Dylan a brain scan as soon as we can get an appointment with the guy. We're sure he won't find anything wrong since Dylan is behaving normally, but we just ask for your prayers just in case.

With the work things are going well. So far we are getting nothing but good feedback on Aaron's teaching seminars to church leaders, but the current process will not work to reach all of our leaders with follow up in a timely manner. So we ask that you join Aaron in praying about how he can tweak the process to reach everyone and give some continuity and follow-up at the same time.

Aaron, Andrea, Daniel, and Dylan wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year