T plus 7 mois, 13 jours

greetings to all back home in the u s of a, and all other readers, "wonderful to have you online with me today, our topic today is ..."

easter held some interesting revelations, fabé asked me "where" i was going to celebrate easter, of course i thought he said "why" and so it got me thinking on what easter means for a believer in christ, it's really amazing what things we pass by until we make a mistake and realize the significance of the bunny and chocolate eggs and all, i've also been reading a book on islam and realizing that their faith and mine/ours is really quite similar, in it's original form, except for a few particulars about God and then the death and resurrection of Jesus, that single event (okay, combined double) is what makes us so radically different from the rest of the world, it's the absolute example of the love he kept talking about and the absolute proof of the hope we have in this life despite the basis of farce and obliviousness so readily at hand

the times are getting busier and busier for felix and family, trying to fill out paperwork for passports and visas and everything else they need to go to canada, felix was able to get the 2 years and 2 months leave from the government from his teaching instead of the formula exact 2 or 3 years, however some complications have arisen with getting passports for the children and thus visas and so on, pray that all this may be resolved soon, they may be settled and ready to go when the departure date arrives, and that the time in canada would help to open their eyes to a different culture, giving them new experiences and wider view of our world

this past saturday, the last in april, the championship for the inter-prmary school soccer tournament was played between the école d of orodara and the école benkadi also of orodara, the école benkadi is right next to the mission and earlier this year, the mission had given new jerseys to the team, so tom and kay and i had fun taking pictures and watching our team take the game, 3 to 2, it was quite an interesting game for the elementary school level, benkadi had two really fast forwards (these guys could really move, and they were the smallest ones out there, they were also the "cool" ones with the headbands and the knee high socks) who gave some exciting scores and intense action throughout the game, the game was officially sponsored by "JUMBO," some of the unhealthiest food additive around (the stuff the made me sick twice this year) and sitting on the sidelines, we got to touch the ball a fair amount of times ourselves as our sideline seemed to be a popular destination for out-of-bounds thrown-ins, of course, it was also the sideline with all the shade, but you never can tell what causes the ball to be attracted to one side or the other

the "lo," a fetish-worshipping ceremony is taking place in orodara this weekend, starting thursday night, women aren't supposed to be outside their courtyards, the group of people doing the "lo" don't like it, however, men may go about their business, etc., felix said that five years ago, anybody, period, would have had a hard time going from our house to the main road, only about 50 meters away, the event has a rather large amount of "secrecy" surrounding it, so we respect their beliefs but pray that they may some day see the light

so instead of staying around for the whole weekend, we're in bobo, having some r&r and getting some errands run for life back in orodara

the studio work is coming together wonderfully, i finally figured out how to properly work the main noise removal program and so files are starting to really sound nice and come together in order, however, i do have a bit to do in the two months i have left

loren and donna are starting to get excited about the samogho work and bible stories, songs, etc. that they can take around to courtyards to listen to with people, He's truly working alongside their ministry, not that He wasn't before, but it undoubtedly starting to get exciting

when you look at the stars, you start counting, and think, that's a heck of a lot of stars, and then you get moving and wonder, wow, does it ever really end, is there a finite number, how far can i really see in to all this space, will we ever figure it all out, and then it hits you, you're nothing

God is real
God is true
God is one
God is life

Allāhu akbar

this is kari and i at kari and fabe's fete in samoghohiri as a celebration of them passing their bac exam, the academic system equivalent of getting the high school diploma and being able to move on to university, yet much harder to pass

T plus 6 mois, 9 jours

we got our first rain on the 22nd of march, according to kay, exactly 5 months after the last rain, since then we've had another small one and some cooler days with some nice clouds, of course the heat is still here and the humidity too, i don't think i'll escape either of those two until i get to boston in late august

even though it's cooling down a bit, i'll still go swimming in bobo when i'm there with tom and kay this weekend, this past week, felix's nephew was hear from bobo and felix, justine, and quetsia were in doumbala to greet after the death of justine's grandfather, so i'll be absent for some more time this weekend

the work on the samogho project is progressing steadily, once the rainy season comes, loren and donna will be around for longer periods of time and will be checking some of the final order and juxtaposition of different pieces

the youth seminar was great, jeff warkentin and i had a translator for wednesday and thursday since those two days were only in jula, i had lots of fun going to morning speaker sessions, playing basketball and football, and eating meals with friends from quite a few different villages, the first day, jeff talked about resisting temptation and methods for remaining close to God, the second day, pastor abdias talked about media and how to avoid it's bad influence was capitalizing on it's good influence, the third day, pastor siaka talked about conflict resolution and the methods and importance of reconciliation, the fourth and final day, jeff talked about mennonite history and ethics, it was quite a presentation, at the end of the session there were questions from the youth, i was sitting with our translator from the other two days and so got to elaborate on some of the questions and answers presented, it was awesome, especially since it was all in french

approaching easter i've been doing some extended journaling, looking more at ideas in depth makes you fall more and more back on the example of jesus and scripture for answers, i had started reading a bit of isaiah each night and started slacking off not too long ago, it came to me a couple days later, that i had become attached to regularly being able to read the words of God, it's amazing that it's right there in front of you, ever since who knows when, and it takes a trip to west africa and six months of church in a foreign language to realize how life giving it really is, it's not just the normal feeling of having a habit and missing the usual order of things, it's the absolute hunger and empty feeling when you don't read, it's absolutely marvelous, jesus is so cool, he blows my top off every time i think about him and the example he gave, oh man, i love him

when a man talks of love
we call him a romantic,
when God talks of love
we call him an idealist

when you think of love
you think of relationship
you think of connection
you think of truth

when God thinks of lovehe thinks of you

T plus 5 mois, 16 jours

to think, i will have left burkina exactly four months from two days ago and arrived in paris exactly four months from yesterday, oh, doth it loom so near that i wanteth not but to see this world and beggeth of thee that thee wouldst grant yet a day or two upon this great island, for shame that thee shouldst squander such a life such that it blocketh the God that loveth thee truly

three weeks ago i spent the weekend with mamadou, fabé's youngest brother, in samoghohiri, we biked out on saturday morning, arriving just after noon, following lunch we hightailed it to the nearby river for an afternoon of swimming and cool temperatures (in the water atleast), a refreshing change from the high 90's we continue to have, that night we walked around town a little, seeing a part of the jesus film in french orally translated to samogho by a visiting evangelical group and sharing a snack with some of mamadou's friends, sunday morning i attended the samoghohiri church for the second time and afterwards got a djembé lesson and hung around with church people, that afternoon we went to the river again shortly before we left for orodara, both river trips getting some good pictures of the river itself and all the local boys in it, on the way back from the river my left pedal broke off my bike, it was a sunday, but we found a mechanic, got it fixed, and were on our way shortly, though before leaving samoghohiri we did go on quite a hunt for a pump to add some air to my back tire (north american valve stems are rather uncommon around here), though the tire held air for a little while, i soon gave up as pedaling with a flat back tire was too difficult and walked the last 3 or 4 km to dieri, the village halfway between orodara and samoghohiri, after replacing the tube in dieri, the rest of the ride home was much more fun and uneventful, especially since the road is paved between dieri and orodara, all breakdowns aside, quite a fun and entertaining weekend

the following week was punctuated by felix's absence in bobo for a school conference and the women's conference here in the orodara mennonite church, there was quite a gathering for the women's conference, a speaker and many of the female missionaries along with christians from nearby villages, i heard the week went quite well, the final session on friday night included men and had some activities and discussion between the two genders, all having a good time with much laughing

after skipping a week we come to last week and the conference for the oral presentation of the bible, especially concerning evangelism, this conference had two speakers come from mali, converted christians from islam, they worked with missionaries and area pastors in learning how to use and tell bible stories in church and evangelism, a system somewhat like loren and donna have developed in their years here in burkina

skip another week and we have the conference for the young people, starting next monday, a week from tomorrow, kari is part of the planning committee and jeff warkentin, siaka traoré, and abdias coulibaly are the speakers for this event, i will be attending some if not all of it, hopefully most will be in french rather than jula and i can follow along, the theme is something about faith and action and jeff is adding a part about the mennonites, should be quite a week

last weekend was rather more eventful than normal, we had a lunar eclipse on saturday night, the usual first-sunday-of-the-month day of fasting, and tom preaching the sermon on sunday morning

on saturday night, justine sent me downtown on the moto just before 9:00, as i was returning i had to do a double take when i saw the start of a circle being taken out of the moon, when i got home i called everybody outside and then telephoned tom and kay and loren and donna at the mission, the following few hours we intermittently sat and watched the earth shade the moon, all the while listening to everyone around us and in all the other sectors of orodara banging on wood and tin and buckets and whatnot for the whole time the moon was being eclipsed, this banging was, according to felix, to ward off the cat that was trying to eat the moon, in other words, to keep the moon from disappearing forever, i got a few pictures and sat continually amazed at how the blacked out moon looked so much closer, similar to a hot air balloon floating a very short distance away, the moon did come back, when i got up at 1:00, it was about 3/4 of the way lit

on sunday morning tom preached the sermon since pastor abdias had been gone the day before and was planning to be gone that sunday too (however, he was there on sunday morning), he preached in french on how God wants to heal us, using his recovery from polio at an early age as an example and the story of the cripple and his four friends lowering him to Jesus for the bible passage, he also finished the worship time with small group praying (groups of five, one in the center), praying for each other in life and/or healing from sickness, distress, praying for each other in love and faith, it was the first sermon this year that i followed absolutely everything that was said, besides the jula translation, this most likely a result of tom's familiar accent, slower speech, and the franglais thrown in here and there

this past thursday i went to bobo, sent a few more samples to israel and walked around the market for some afternoon entertainment, i also had lunch with blaine warner and got to hear a few stories about mission aviation fellowship (MAF), an option i've considered for future volunteer time, some good stories and a good lunch, all part of time in burkina, all the while discovering where God will lead next

we fear
thus we cannot let go
but God reveals
and we see His light
but we still fear
thus we cannot let go
then God loves
and we drop in to His arms

T plus 5 mois, 16 jours

to think, i will have left burkina exactly four months from two days ago and arrived in paris exactly four months from yesterday, oh, doth it loom so near that i wanteth not but to see this world and beggeth of thee that thee wouldst grant yet a day or two upon this great island, for shame that thee shouldst squander such a life such that it blocketh the God that loveth thee truly

three weeks ago i spent the weekend with mamadou, fabé's youngest brother, in samoghohiri, we biked out on saturday morning, arriving just after noon, following lunch we hightailed it to the nearby river for an afternoon of swimming and cool temperatures (in the water atleast), a refreshing change from the high 90's we continue to have, that night we walked around town a little, seeing a part of the jesus film in french orally translated to samogho by a visiting evangelical group and sharing a snack with some of mamadou's friends, sunday morning i attended the samoghohiri church for the second time and afterwards got a djembé lesson and hung around with church people, that afternoon we went to the river again shortly before we left for orodara, both river trips getting some good pictures of the river itself and all the local boys in it, on the way back from the river my left pedal broke off my bike, it was a sunday, but we found a mechanic, got it fixed, and were on our way shortly, though before leaving samoghohiri we did go on quite a hunt for a pump to add some air to my back tire (north american valve stems are rather uncommon around here), though the tire held air for a little while, i soon gave up as pedaling with a flat back tire was too difficult and walked the last 3 or 4 km to dieri, the village halfway between orodara and samoghohiri, after replacing the tube in dieri, the rest of the ride home was much more fun and uneventful, especially since the road is paved between dieri and orodara, all breakdowns aside, quite a fun and entertaining weekend

the following week was punctuated by felix's absence in bobo for a school conference and the women's conference here in the orodara mennonite church, there was quite a gathering for the women's conference, a speaker and many of the female missionaries along with christians from nearby villages, i heard the week went quite well, the final session on friday night included men and had some activities and discussion between the two genders, all having a good time with much laughing

after skipping a week we come to last week and the conference for the oral presentation of the bible, especially concerning evangelism, this conference had two speakers come from mali, converted christians from islam, they worked with missionaries and area pastors in learning how to use and tell bible stories in church and evangelism, a system somewhat like loren and donna have developed in their years here in burkina

skip another week and we have the conference for the young people, starting next monday, a week from tomorrow, kari is part of the planning committee and jeff warkentin, siaka traoré, and abdias coulibaly are the speakers for this event, i will be attending some if not all of it, hopefully most will be in french rather than jula and i can follow along, the theme is something about faith and action and jeff is adding a part about the mennonites, should be quite a week

last weekend was rather more eventful than normal, we had a lunar eclipse on saturday night, the usual first-sunday-of-the-month day of fasting, and tom preaching the sermon on sunday morning

on saturday night, justine sent me downtown on the moto just before 9:00, as i was returning i had to do a double take when i saw the start of a circle being taken out of the moon, when i got home i called everybody outside and then telephoned tom and kay and loren and donna at the mission, the following few hours we intermittently sat and watched the earth shade the moon, all the while listening to everyone around us and in all the other sectors of orodara banging on wood and tin and buckets and whatnot for the whole time the moon was being eclipsed, this banging was, according to felix, to ward off the cat that was trying to eat the moon, in other words, to keep the moon from disappearing forever, i got a few pictures and sat continually amazed at how the blacked out moon looked so much closer, similar to a hot air balloon floating a very short distance away, the moon did come back, when i got up at 1:00, it was about 3/4 of the way lit

on sunday morning tom preached the sermon since pastor abdias had been gone the day before and was planning to be gone that sunday too (however, he was there on sunday morning), he preached in french on how God wants to heal us, using his recovery from polio at an early age as an example and the story of the cripple and his four friends lowering him to Jesus for the bible passage, he also finished the worship time with small group praying (groups of five, one in the center), praying for each other in life and/or healing from sickness, distress, praying for each other in love and faith, it was the first sermon this year that i followed absolutely everything that was said, besides the jula translation, this most likely a result of tom's familiar accent, slower speech, and the franglais thrown in here and there

this past thursday i went to bobo, sent a few more samples to israel and walked around the market for some afternoon entertainment, i also had lunch with blaine warner and got to hear a few stories about mission aviation fellowship (MAF), an option i've considered for future volunteer time, some good stories and a good lunch, all part of time in burkina, all the while discovering where God will lead next

we fear
thus we cannot let go
but God reveals
and we see His light
but we still fear
thus we cannot let go
then God loves
and we drop in to His arms

T plus 4 mois, 25 days

since it's been a little while since i wrote, about a month, hopefully i haven't forgotten too much, but you never know with me, ha ha ha

there have only been a couple big events of late, the first of which was the wedding of nicodem and grace on the 27th of january, it was a wonderful wedding, with tom and kay doing the reflection/message for the service, kay delivered a small message on God's transforming power which tom used in his model with water and wine to signify the marriage being transformed by God in the coming years, tom got nicodem and grace to answer a few questions and drink some water and besop (the available "wine") for his interactive model bit, it was an excellent reference to Jesus' first miracle

the second of two big events was my trip to ouaga on the first weekend in february, it was quite a stay with a scottish/irish dance one night, a movie another, and third, the super bowl, and all three ending with me getting to bed well after midnight, i would tell the stories all in one paragraph, but that would violate maximum rather than the minimum of the 5-to-7-sentences-in-a-paragraph rule

the first night was the dance followed by a few hours of cards at mary hendershott's place, games like nerts and oshaw kept us entertained until 3 in the morning, the second night i stopped to visit jeff and tany warkentin and stayed to watch walk the line after a day of swimming at the american embassy and walking around downtown ouaga, the third night, of course, was the super bowl, jeff and i went to the american embassy and were the only ones watching the american forces network (afn) broadcast of the game, unfortunately, we didn't get to vote on the best commercial since all we saw were the ridiculous afn commercials, and, since we're 5 hours behind normal starting time, the game ended around 3 in the morning, followed by me getting up the next morning to catch the bus to bobo at 10 o'clock

the big story/adventure of the weekend was on the return trip to bobo, we stopped in boromo as usual for lunch and i went off to buy some bread, taking only my camera and change with me, since my camera bag was attached to the top of my backpack, i simply took the camera and ended up getting asked about it because one of the locals, a photographer, say it across my back, we talked a little bit, me all the while knowing that i had a bus to catch, and finally gave him my email address and told him to look around on the internet for a camera and send me an email if he found anything, as i returned to the bus station, i saw that my bus had left without me, fortunately, another bus from the same company pulled in shortly after, i talked to the driver and showed my ticket from the other bus and so was able to get a ride to bobo with this second bus, all in all, only arriving in bobo about an hour later than i would have had i caught the right bus

i was able to stay with blaine and michelle in bobo for monday night, monday evening i went to watch the super bowl again that a friend had taped and so got to see the kick off return by evan hester, since jeff and i arrived late for the live event, though again, no commercials, since this was a broadcast on espn out of south africa, i was able to borrow this tape, giving tom the opportunity to watch the big game here in orodara, all inclusive, an eventful, yet gladly repeatable weekend

the last set of stories that i find blog-worthy, chronologically place, would be at the very beginning of the entry, but since i found a satisfactory intro in putting the previous stories first, i figured it would work, these two events happened here in orodara and even within a couple days of each other, both somewhat frightening, yet quite funny in retrospect

first, i went to the tailor's and gave him some material for some pants and also had him fix the big rip in the back of my jeans, he was able to fix the jeans in about 5 minutes, but he took the rip, folded it over and sewed it on the inside, taking about a three-quarters or full inch out of the back side, when i saw it i was somewhat taken aback, but decided to try it, then i put them on at home and found that they were a bit smaller than before and so fit rather snugly around my hips, i took them back and got a proper patch sewn in and now they work wonderfully, though the material i gave him for the new pants was too short and so chose to have him make a shirt from that and go get another length for a different color of pants, all is in good working order now, i think i have finally found a way to get pants with long enough legs and small enough waist

second, and more horrifying, last night felix and i stopped at his tailor's to pick up his new pair of pants, when he looked at them he decided he wanted a different cuff at the bottom, so, to my horror, the tailor took a pair of scissors and cut off the old cuff, aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, thus taking about an inch off of the length of the legs, maybe it's just me and my excessive tallness always being worried about finding sufficiently lengthy pants, but felix didn't flinch, anyway, now with the cut edge, the tailor sewed another cuff, as far as i knew, not like the type that felix wanted and almost identical to the one before but shorter in length, in other words, another half an inch gone, when i came out of my room this morning i met felix and saw he was wearing his new pants, i didn't get a look at how short or long they were, i'm sure just fine, but i have a feeling he doesn't give to big a hoot

i did finally get a response from ed in israel about my last set of samples i sent him, the feedback was generally positive along with some helpful comments, after the meeting in samoghohiri for the order and content of the mv player, this last gate has been opened and so the work and progress on the project should flow relatively quickly and smoothly to the end, or quite near it

i continue to learn more and more about burkina life and local perspectives on the world, seeing new windows of knowledge and opportunity, i'm currently reading shane claiborne's the irresistible revolution and starting to ask some of the same questions he does, there are quite a few books that are starting to add various types of light to life and making it rather interesting, so much to read and so little time to do it

when we see God
we are afraid
when we don't see God
we ask why not

for as walk away from God
He calls and waits patiently
for it is not a perfection
but a work in progress

T plus 3 mois, 22 jours

passing in to the new year was a slightly different experience, as again, the weather doesn't remind me of january in kansas

the new year's eve "party" was a service at the church from 10 to just before 1 of the new year 2007, there was singing and a message, very similar to any other service held at the church for any occasion, this lasted for the first hour and was followed by testimonies and prayer for the last hour before midnight, testimony to many blessings of the past year and prayer for them as well as current prayer requests and future ones for the new year, at midnight we all got up and greeted one another with the african new year's meeting of heads back and forth (similar to the french greeting each other with kisses on the cheek except touching temples with the person you are greeting) followed by much wishing of health, wealth, etc. and then song and dance, the service was closed with more prayer for the new year and for the projects planned for the church, of course, after all this i decided to call the states and say hi as well as mentioning the phenomenon (or maybe not) of my already being an hour and a half into 2007 while the festivities for the changing of the year were just getting started in the states; new year's day was held in greeting friends and relaxing, enjoying the break from work and school

this year (in africa that is) i will be seeing three different weddings, unless more are planned for later, the first in doumbala, the second just before new year's here in orodara and the third at the end of january, also here in orodara; the one before new year's was that of pastor benjamin of the djigbera church, unlike in doumbala where the whole service was outside in the churchyard, the overflow crowd was outside the church building while family and such were inside, there wasn't the dancing and singing before the service began, though there were a few numbers during the service, afterwards, there pictures with the happy couple and family and many various church groups followed by a meal and the giving of gifts, all in all a nice big party

there are always a few peculiarities with songs or service content, but that always happens in the states too, however there are a few consistent differences; during the service, the bride and groom sit on some nice comfy chairs at the center of attention up front, sitting with them are their witnesses, one for the bride and one for the groom, similar to the best man and maid of honor, but not followed by any groomsmen or bridesmaids

the wedding to come is at the end of january, though i haven't heard of weddings occurring at other times, i would guess that now during the "cool" months in dry season when everyone isn't out in their fields is the time to have your wedding, nicodem and grace, two people from the orodara church will be the honored ones, nicodem is the older brother of josua, one of my friends in the church "youth group," and grace is at the older end of the "youth group," so each wedding i know more and more of the honored ones

besides weddings and parties at the church, there isn't the largest amount of raucous fun going on around orodara, tom, kay, and myself went to bobo for two days, one night, instead of going to ouaga over new year's, there was some unrest in ouaga, unsanctioned military actions and some recommendations from the canadian embassy to stay at home or not travel to ouaga if possible, plus, tom and kay weren't feeling at the peak of their game, were down because of sickness after christmas, thus we got to watch a couple bowl taped bowl games at the cma, christian missionary alliance, guesthouse, with a cheap decently quick internet connection we were able to check email and call some family/friends on skype (a cheap internet telephone service), a good break after having two weeks off for christmas and new year's

kari, fabé, and the entzes are getting together here soon to begin working and deciding on an order for the mv player, eventually giving me some more work to do, i'm also waiting for a response from israel on my latest set of samples, in the mean time, i'm putting mini disk source material on the computer, unfortunately the long way (playing it and recording it on the computer), so i have a little time to read or work on my french by watching subtitled movies and stopping every five minutes to look up the new word, making each one take a time and a half of normal, all included in the price of education

when we are silent
we serve,
when we love
we pray,
and when God talks,
we are silent