Blips, blunders, and lifelines.

I just returned from a week of drilling wells near the Niger border with the team from Friends in Action. Much like all the missions here in West Africa, the crew at F.I.A. have had many of their teams cancel their short term mission trips here to Burkina due to the fear of Ebola, and the late civil unrest and ousting of our President. But all of this does not change the need. and certainly does not lessen the work to be done. So when asked to help drill some wells this week, I was excited to join in to get the job done.
I make it sound easy enough, but I knew it would be a tough week. My mind and my body are in two very different ages of life. And there is nothing like living in the bush, without bathrooms, showers, or even tents, and working up to 18 hours a day in the 100 degree weather lifting steel rods, and shoveling gravel and sand to help communicate the reality of the body, to the fantasy land that is my mind. They were in need, and with a full staff at the orphanage and school, there was no real reason I should not be there for them.
The first well was at a Bible school in the town of Fada. It had a well, but they had an agricultural project there that helped subsidies the costs of the pastors training there. They also have opened there well up to the local community making it a very busy watering hole! A second was desperately needed. All started fine, we began to dig in the afternoon. Then it happened. We tried to start the compressor, and nothing. After a new battery and new starter brought in by bus the next morning, 16 hours later, we were back in business. We hit water, we put in our pipe, and lined it with rock and started pumping the initial water out with our electric pump. This was FINALLY the last step before heading to Well #2........ until a break in the pipe allowed our gravel to fill in the first several meters of our hole burying the pump 52 meters under the earth under a few meters of gravel. 8 hours later, we were able to remove the pump and we were back where we left off. With over a hundred empty jugs waiting, they began to pump away first thing.

Then we were headed to the bush....... DEEP into the bush. To a village of 1200 people that a pastor has been visiting for 3 years. The village tried several times to ask for a government well, but were rejected each time because the village was "impossible to reach by truck". The pastor said, "God can do this!". The village prepared for months, cutting a path through miles of trees, and building a make shift bridge over a dried river bed. One leaf spring and a few scratches later, we are in a village that has never even had even a in it, let alone large trucks such as these! Back at it, Drilling through the night hours, we are up to our knees in WATER!!!!! God provided one of the most abundant wells I have witnessed to date!

Despite the difficulties of getting there, and a few small problems, the 2nd well was relatively easy, so we head to the third site where we are told is right off the road.......... guess I should have asked HOW far off the road. As we continued back farther and farther into the bush, We soon came to realize that any village this deep into the bush had it's share of challenges! Once we finally arrived we found a large gathering of excited villagers, who again has never had a vehicle in their village. This was a tough place. The nearest hand dug well where they could get dirty water was 6.5 km away. Because of the heat of the day, and their responsibilities, the women generally left the house at 10p.m. and started their journey to the well where they would walk, and then wait in line for sometimes hours, and the make the long journey back carrying 10 gallons or more of water the entire way! Yes, I was intimidated! We began drilling late morning, our hopes were to drill and finish that night. But you never know when you are drilling. After an hydraulics failure that could have been devastating, and late drilling that seemed like it would never end, we found ourselves 270 feet down into the earth without water. It's difficult when you see such need, and run into a situation like this. I was out of time, and my responsibilities at the orphanage demanded me to return, but that's part of missions. You need to know without a doubt that God is in total control, that He loves these people more than I, and that all things happen according to his will and timing. The great news is that the team of F.I.A. has commited themselves to return tomorrow, and make the necessary repairs to take another crack at bringing water to a village that man said was impossible, but we as Christians know so much better! Through all the blips, blunders and mishaps....... God is always there.

Sometimes it's hard to understand

Took one of our older girls to the hospital today because she had a headache. Did we think she needed to go to the hospital for this? No, but our staff nurse thought she should go and we wanted to be sensitive and let her make the decision. After all, although likely uneccesary it couldn't really hurt. We figured they would run the normal tests they do checking for malaria, typhoid, parasites, meningitis..regardless of the lack of syptoms. And in the end prescribe Tylenol and Vitamin B. Vitamin B seems to be the cure all here. They ended up admitting her and will probably run these tests tomorrow.

This week we had a widow get bit by a carpet viper and go to the hospital. They gave this long list of medications for us to locate and bring back to the hospital. Everything was available in town except the anti-venom couldn't be found. More than 24 hours after she got bit we finally located anti-venom. Talk about cutting it close.

The roughest thing this week was a boy with a life threatening illness was being treated in a pediatric clinic, but his mother became impatient with how long it was taking and left withh her son so she could get back to her bean field.

We are constantly shaking our head. We ask God to show favor in these situations and help us rest in the knowledge that He has it covered. It's just hard sometimes.

Feeding the Hungry Scientifically with Aquaponics

Over 80% of the population in Burkina relies on farming to provide food for their families. The growing season is about three months long and if the rains start too late or too early this can devastate crops and leave families short on food.

The main component of most people's diets is a starch and a sauce. Very little protein is eaten because it very expensive. Protein will usually come from dried fish ground up and added to sauce, beans and a peanut based sauce. Because of the lack of protein many children are malnourished and wounds have a difficult time healing.

With these facts in mind we were very excited when we caught up with a friend in the U.S. who has an aquaponics farm. We took this idea back with us in hopes that this could be something used here in Burkina to extend the growing season and to make a plentiful protein source. Aquaponics is a system where water from tanks is pumped through tubes and back into the tanks. In the tubes are plants that grow in a medium that uses no soil. In the tanks are fish. The fish fertilize the water, the plants soak up the nutrients and clean the water and the filtered water goes back into the tanks.

We knew that this was going to be an experiment and that we would be learning along the way. We had many things to take into consideration as the nearest Home Depot for us in on another continent thousands of miles away. What energy source are we going to use to pump the water? What medium are we going to use to grow our plants? How are we going to construct our tanks? What are we going to feed our fish? How are we going to keep the right balance of Ph, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites...well, you get the idea.

Checking on plant growth

Trip to catch starter fish

So every day we feel like we are in science class and every day we learn something new. We are using solar power and car batteries to pump our water. We are seeking out the man who sells coconuts so we can get the husks to try as a growing medium. We are saving egg shells to help regulate the Ph. We have started a worm farm to feed the fish. We are figuring out the best way to construct a tank for holding water. We currently have cement, but that messes with the alkaline so we have painted the inside of a tank to see how that works. In the village we are thinking of something totally different for holding water...maybe animal skins or holes lines with plastic sheeting.

Worm Bed...Fish Food!

Painted tank in front. Unpainted in back.

In the end we hope to have a system that is inexpensive, uses all materials found in a village and runs using wind power. We have a long way to get from here to there but we are driven by the fact that this could be a life changing thing for the people here.

What might we learn tomorrow?

A Place for Women

This country can be a very harsh place for women. From the time girls are young they are put to work, often not having the opportunity to go to school. If girls do enroll in school, they often do not make it past a 6th grade level. Culturally, girls here are very timid and submissive. They would never think to say "no" to a man who tries to take advantage of them. If they become pregnant they have now embarrassed the family and are very often sent away from home and are not allowed to return. When a woman marries and has children, those children become the property of the father. If the father dies, his family can come and take the children if they choose and certainly they can take all of her belongings. If the woman remarries it is likely that this new husband will not accept her children and she will be forced to leave them with relatives or abandon them completely. Many times women will choose not to remarry because of this. Without remarrying a woman can find herself in a very uncomfortable situation. The family of her husband has an obligation to at the very least give her and her children a place to stay, but they often make her life miserable and do not help her in any other way. She usually cannot go back to her parents home because they cannot afford to help her and her children. Sometimes a family member will take her in, but will not accept the children. We have seen mothers leave their children in orphanages or in foster homes or on the streets because they are desperate and cannot care for them. Then there are women banished from their village, accused of witchcraft. This happens when misfortune or deaths occur and village elders need someone to blame and banish a women to "get rid of the problem". We see this usually with older widows, but sometimes with young mothers whose husband have left for neighboring countries looking for work.

Our hearts have been touched by the many stories of the vulnerable and disadvantaged women who we have met. There have been many women who have stayed in our clinic at the orphanage for a few days to a few months while social services seeks out their families and tries to find a place for them. We saw a need for a facility to help women in these situations. A facility that could be a place of refuge and a place of learning, where they could gain skills and be empowered to care for themselves and their children. Most importantly a place that would share with these women that their strength, refuge and hope comes from God. Out of this was born the idea for the Sheltering Wings Women's Crisis Center named "Village of Hope".

While sharing women's stories and the vision for this center, God moved in miraculous ways. We received funding for building facilities, for purchasing equipment for the technical center and for monthly operating expenses. People have partnered with us to change the lives of women and rewrite their futures.

The start of the wall being constructed. Now 95% complete.

Walls going up inside old classrooms to make bedrooms.

Murals being painted at entrance.

We have put up a wall, are renovating rooms, and have equipment on order. We are putting together a team of teachers and mentors and we are excited to see how God will use this place.