West Africa Ministry 2009 Trip

Final day of Conference/Trip Home

Dear Family and Friends of Crio: Aug. 10, 2009

Our last day of ministry in West Africa was spent at Pastor Harrison’s church. Many of the graduates were there and the church was packed with over 200 adults. I preached on the book of Philemon about the "sharing of your faith, and bringing people into the presence of God." Janice finally had time to teach children in the partially finished Bible College building. She had 63 children and taught them several Bible stories using colorful wooden symbols from a Bible Box. Later they performed a song she taught them for the main service. After the main service dismissed, she was able to teach the women and pray for each one individually.

We had many group and individual pictures made again (I believe we found a people group that exceeds the Japanese’ love for photos!) After many goodbyes we left for the market again to get some more gift items and cash for the trip home.

Later we had dinner with Pastor Harrison and his wife Irene and their three boys in our hotel restaurant. His wife works as secretary so her husband can do the ministry full-time. They shared how their youngest son nearly died of malaria in Feb. when he was just six months old. His middle son was very animated, and Janice said she wanted to take him home. Later she took him along with her to our hotel room for an errand thinking it would be fun, but once they entered the room he burst out in tears as he thought we really were taking him with us, ha.

This was the first time Bro. Harrison and I were able to talk about church planting in Ghana, a nation of 75% Christians and only 10% Muslim. Kumasi is a city of 2 million, is more developed economically than Ouagadougou, and there are Christian references and symbols everywhere. He has three of the recent graduates ready to start new churches and by Jan. should be ready for land. He also wants to get land for an outlying Crio Bible College that had eighteen of the 69 graduates for this year’s graduation ceremony. Our Bible College is the second largest in the city and he has received 100 applicants for next year. After getting all the priorities lined out for Ghana for the coming year, we dealt with some of the guest pastors’ travel snags. We also finalized plans for our chartered van to the Burkina Faso border, retiring to the room around 11 PM only to wake up at 4:30 AM.

While getting packed I discovered my Burkina Faso visa was lost. After searching all our items and the room it could not be located. So now we faced a possible hold up at the border again. There were seven of us in the van to go back to Ouagadougou, but it was a nice van with A/C and no African movies, PTL ! At the border Bro. Alassane talked the customs agent out of holding us up due to my lost visa, but then the only taxi vehicle we could find was a small four door Opel. Janice and I did not see any way that it would be physically possible for us to all get in with our luggage, but they assured us that it would be "no problem", which is the typical answer Africans give to foreigners (the old standby –"acuna matata", from the Lion King movie). Well we had to sit sideways to get in the back seat and hold our carry on luggage while they roped the trunk shut with a rope! They were right about us getting in, but the comfort was far from ideal!

Half way through the trip of 2 ½ hrs. to Ouagadougou I had to stop for a stretch break. When we stopped, there was a nice church beside the road. One of the other Burkina Faso pastors with us that had attended the graduation ceremony, said this was the church he got saved in and started his ministry under! By coincidence the pastor was nearby and I had him pray for our ministry and he requested likewise for his (we later found out he has planted 20 other churches, PTL). So even our rest stop turned into a God moment..

I asked Bro. Alassane what a typical day of his was like in Ouagadougou, a city of 4 million people and a nation of 70% Muslims. He said he gets up at 5AM and first prays for one hour. He then has coffee and a slice of bread and arrives at either the church or his welding shop by seven via motorcycle. If time allows he may come home at noon, but does not eat lunch. He arrives home in the evening at 7PM and has his main meal, consisting of beans, rice, millet or maize. About once a month they have chicken and only once a week eggs. Life in Africa is very hard, but the people love Jesus so much and do all they can to get an education, which is their only hope to escape poverty. He studied theology in the U.S. for 3 ½ years, during which time he never saw his wife, nor his only daughter be born (she was three before he ever saw her in person!!). We are so blessed in the U.S., but in some ways I envy the simplicity of their lives with such a focus on the Lord.

Using private vehicles to return to Ouagadougou made the trip only 11 ½ hours instead of the 14 on commercial bus, and not much more expensive. We also were able to leave Kumasi at 6AM making our arrival at 5:30PM, plenty of time ahead of our 10:30 PM flight to Paris.

After repairing one of Janice’s bags that the handle fell off of with packing tape and a tearful goodbye to my very close friend, Alassane, we got on the plane to Paris where we are now. We go non-stop to Dallas and then arrive in Ft. Smith at 6PM on Tues., making our journey home 42 hours!!!! But it is highly worth the effort as God has made a way for every obstacle we faced, our health is good and we have memories that will only be topped with going to Heaven some day.

Thank you for all your prayer support as it was evident each and every day.

Because of Him, Ron and Janice

P.S. We just arrived home and the only issue we had was not arriving in Dallas in time to catch our 5PM flight to Ft. Smith. Fortunately they had a second flight later at 8 PM. So after 46 hrs. of traveling , we are finally home and safe!