An Incredible Sunday!

'When you are trying to figure out everything, you are exalting your reasoning above God's thoughts and plans for your life' (Joyce Meyer)

Today was a day that started with one plan, but in a moment, a comment was made, a question was raised and the answer was unanimous...we would jump on the bus and drive an hour from Carpenter on a rough road and worship with a brand new church in the remote village of Babatok. David's brother Peter has been sharing with this village over the past weeks, and today, 20 new believers were being baptized in the Black Volta river. The villagers were very surprised to see us, and the kids came running. I'll never forget seeing one little guy playing with rubber bicycle tire as he rolled it through the village ahead of him :).

We started with the custom of meeting the village chief and his elders. We shook hands, sat and listened while he and David spoke to each other through their 'translators'. We then walked with the new church members and many children for at least 10 minutes down a path to the river avoiding stepping on cow poop all the way. The path opened up to a little beach area where young children were playing in the water while the older children 6-12 years old were washing clothes and watching over them with no adults around.

The sun was shining as we watched Rans, Jacob and Peter baptize the men and women while everyone on the bank was singing. David would annoint them with oil when they came out onto the bank, and then he would call one of us or one of the pastors with us to lay a hand on their shoulder and we would pray for them. What an incredible privilege to be a part of the new birth of not only these individuals, but also of a new church for the area. David mentioned to the village chief that this might not be the last time the chief would see some of us there. (Sounded like he was implying this might be another build project option for next year?). As we learned the last time we were here, the children are not shy and they really pursue the opportunity to hold your hand, touch your clothes or try to help us carry or do something. In these communities, it really is the town that raises the children...not individual families like we are used to. You would see the same baby carried on the back of several women or children, and one can only guess that the one that you would later see nursing it was the actual mother!?!

David shared once again with all of us up the bank of the river before we walked back to the village. He shared again the story of when he was quite sure all three of his daughters were going to drown as they fell out of their canoe years ago, but he called out on God's promises in Psalm 91, and a stranger 'just happened' to head out in his motor boat when he saw how quickly the waves rose in order to check that no one was caught in it, and their lives were saved. He shared that now that these new believers had chosen to follow God and not the idols of their village that is highly ruled by whichcraft, Satan would be sure to try to get them to fail, and they would need to stay strong...leaning on the promises God had written for them thousands of years before their village even existed, and before this day when the whites from Canada and the blacks from West Africa would be standing together on the banks of their river. He also shared about his own baptism and how no matter how bad he had been, and all the evil he had done that would most likely have killed him or put him in jail, it was all washed away that day. We sang and prayed some more, said goodbye to the chief and his elders, prayed for a sick man who wasn't well enough to come to the river with us, and made our way home to Carpenter for a late lunch that we finished at about 3.

We came back to our compound to start to sort the clothes, school supplies, gifts and finish up the tools, and then At 4:30 most of us joined up with David to tour the NEA project ground here at Carpenter. Starting with watching an ostrich hatching from it's egg in an incubator, to seeing shea nut trees and hearing about fact that they are the exclusive suppliers of the Shea nut oil to L'Oreal for their moisturizing products, to the certified 90%+ yielding corn seed they process, the fruit trees they eat from, the organic gardens they plant and water with the water from the tanks of the fish growing operations and the piggery whose pigs eat all the peelings of their cassava and yam processing, we were all so amazed to here of the self-sustaining programs developed that have touched the lives of 350 000 people so far in this region, employs 101 staff, supplies the needs of 6000 widows though their peanut farming co-op program and is now approved with funding from CIDA (the Canadian government) together with other funds to start a medical program to support birthing mothers and babies for the first 2 months after birth...a new project born of necessity as 30000 young moms and babies have died in the past couple of years due to birthing and recovery complications. Just last week, 50 nurses/caregivers were here in Carpenter for training in this new program, and a new staff member, Timothy, was hired to oversee the program. To hear more about what is happening here, and about the program you are all doing a part in supporting, visit www.grid-nea.org !!! David reminded us that all of this is not all about one man making this happen, but how each of us doing and being what God has created for us to do to do our part (sending over trucks, labour, money, helmets, clothing, medical care, etc...) has created much that God could work with to care for these people.

Dinner was fabulous once again, and we finished the night sitting chatting too late into the evening after sorting more of the things we brought. I'm certain that everyone will be turning in earlier tomorrow night after a hard days work.

Inspired,
Kim

Inspired,
Kim



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