West Africa Ministry 2009 Trip

Dear Family and Friends of Crio:
     Janice and I have arrived in west Africa for two Leadership Conferences.  We are now in Burkina Faso for our first four day conference.  We had a mishap at the airport in missing our party that was to pick us up.  So we had to instantly learn the exchange rate for currency, navigate through customs for a visa, and get a taxi to our hotel.  The Lord finally sent a Christian working in the customs office to help us and sped up the process a lot as everything here is in French.  Then three porters descended on us as they thought we would be big the source of a big tip.  They were very  helpful though and we managed to get to our hotel without incident, dodging the heavy traffic (mostly motorcycles).  My great friend and national director for Crio here, Pastor Alassane, was at the airport earlier, but a security worker told him there was no one left in customs (by this time an hour had passed), so he went home and then returned to the airport for the next Paris flight at 10:45PM.  So he was as frustrated as we were and we finally connected first thing in the morning, and had a good laugh.
     Janice stayed at the hotel (very nice) to work on her presentations to the ladies while I went on to the conference to greet some early arrivals (actually 22 pastors from outlying areas) as the actual teaching does not begin until Mon.
When we arrived at Bro. Alassane's church we toured his compound that now has several buildings that Crio has assisted him with (church, Bible College, primary school, caretakers house, etc).  He is one of our finest workers in Crio as he also owns a metal welding shop and made all the tables, windows and doors and benches.  Then I met with the pastors who were waiting there after coming on buses from 40 to 160 miles away, which was quite humbling to see their hunger for God.  Since this is most of our Burkina Faso pastors we talked about how Crio is organized and the main principles we operate by to get them functioning better as a group.  I recommended they set up a Board under Alassane and how to better work together.  I was telling them how Crio operates mainly on close interpersonal relationships and not positions that I would like to talk to each one of them, but that there wasn't enough time.  Well they heard the meet with them, but not the not enough time part.  Sooooo after our over two hour group meeting (everything has to be interpreted into their national language as even few pastors know French and only one spoke English) I then met under a tree for the next six hours with each of them and taking a picture with each.
     Actually I was quite blessed as the first ones were those we had built roofs for in 2007 and they each gave glowing reports of  how their church had doubled in size since the roof and were repeatedly grateful for the support and my coming to see their nation.  So thanks to the Kanak, Lewis and Carter families I got to receive your blessings for the individual churches you  helped.  I also met the pastor of the African Church Builders Club project in "07 that I have on the Crio web site, so you will get that picture soon as well.  It is so productive to work in this nation as they can build mud bricks on their own but have no cash for tin roofing.  So for very little investment and big impact can be made for the Kingdom of God.  The nation is 50% Muslim and they readily convert to Christianity here so this is a key  nation for the Lord to take back souls from Islam!!!!
     The second group of pastors were those who had applied for roofs last year, but were put on  hold as we had many needy nations to help last year and we wanted to help Alassane finish his compound so we could hold the conference here in Ouagadougou, the capital.  So they each pleaded with me to help them this year and all predicted their churches could double in membership.  It was very touching to hear their visions and how sincere they were in serving the Lord, that I told them we would trust God and re-start the roof program later in the year as they are so deserving and fit Crio's vision so well.  We focus mainly on the local church to do the evangelism and rarely do crusades.  That way the native pastor who knows his people best can reach the lost more efficiently.  That requires a lot of training, so I spent a lot of time encouraging them to get into our Crio Bible college here.
     At 7PM one of the pastors from the neighboring nation of Togo arrived after coming on a bus for 1,000 miles and a 24hr. trip!!!!  He is Pastor Karl and is a referral from Bro. Keith Wheeler, a member of Crio's Evangelistic Board who carries a 10ft. cross to the nations.  I discovered in visiting with him he actually has ten churches under him as I had him down for only one-so Crio just added nine churches today!! (we now are over 200 and in 20 nations, PTL)  As we finished the last interview at 9PM the gas ran out in the generator (no electricity or running water yet to this area), so we packed up and went back to the hotel.  Janice greeted Bro. Karl and we visited for a few minutes before retiring at 10Pm to prepare for a four hour church service in the morning.
     Keep us in your prayers for strength but we are doing well as we have been preparing for this moment for nine months and are glad it has arrived.  Things will just get more exciting from here.
     Love, Janice and Ron