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Okay, Doctor (that's you), I'm going to explain my signs and symptoms and see what you think.  I've been having this strange feeling lately. It feels like a very mild cold, the type that makes you want to stay in bed all day but that is not actually bad enough to make you. The kind that could give you an excuse to cancel all your plans for the day if you were desperate, but you don't want to be, so you press on and power through.   There is no fever, no stomach pain, no headache, no dizziness, no nothing else. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I would say it's less physical and more emotional. It feels like I just don't want to get up and face the day. Oh, and strangely, it happens every single morning.  But I get up anyway, and you know what? As soon as I step out the door and start my day, great things start happening and I forget all about my bizarre fatigue. When the end of the day arrives, I can't go to sleep because I keep pondering all the go...

I love how the word of God transcends cultures, meaning that as it is inspired by God who transcends time, speaks all languages, and created all cultures, it also applies to different cultures in different ways. Since I live in a different culture, I am just now learning what this looks like, and it's a beautiful thing.  Let me encourage you with one quick example, found in  Psalm 139:13. "You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."  The French Bible (Louis Segond) uses the word "tissé" for "knit" or "woven". I heard a speaker this week explain that the most high-quality fabric here in Burkina is "tissé" or woven. And it's true. A "pagne tissé" has a superior quality, a make about it that makes you notice immediately it's difference in standard. A pagne tissé is beautiful, exceptional, high-price, and superior quality. It is worn with pride and complimented by all. And the Bible teac...

"Lord, show me the reason why I have come," I prayed silently as we bounced down the dirt road headed towards the village.  "Bounced" is not really the right word. A better description would be that my hands gripped the steering wheel and I'm not sure my back touched the seat throughout the entire trip because the road was so treacherously destroyed by rainy season flooding. I knew from the start that this camp experience would be like none other I had ever experienced. Just the trip out there was like a Disney World four-wheeler ride that kids in the United States would probably pay for.  Of course as soon as I had heard the word "camp", I was already rip-roaring ready to go. Summer camp was an exciting and influential part of my childhood, so much so that I became a counselor during college because I couldn't stay away. To see what kid's summer camp is like in Burkina Faso, now that's something that I wasn't about to miss.  As we drov...

I'm not a huge fan of the way that some people put missionaries on a pedestal - as if we have some special calling or some super power. I've always been an advocate of this simple truth: we are all invited to be missionaries. A missionary is simply a carrier of the live and message of Jesus, and according to that definition and the call of the great commission on every believer's life, then we are all exactly that - missionaries. Our geographical location might be different (as God certainly wants it to be! How uninteresting would it be if all Christians were cooped up in the same place? Like a candle hidden under a bowl...) but out "call", or invitation as I'd rather call it, is fundamentally the same. We are all given a mission to carry the name of Jesus wherever we and go and with whomever we meet.  So I make it my aim to encourage people to embrace their invitation to missions, and I like to help people see how that's possible in even your every day li...

She speaks as much French as I speak Dagara, which told me that our morning together was going to be interesting and full of hand gestures, awkward moments, and laughter. I also wanted it to be full of love, and thankfully love is not limited by language or any other cultural difference.  She came knocking on my door early that morning just like I had invited her to, and I promptly used all the Dagara I know in the first thirty seconds as we did greetings and such. When I fell back on French to explain what we were going to do today, she gave me a blank stare and we had our first awkward moment followed by some shy laughter, so I went inside to grab her CT scan results and motioned for us to get in the car.  I took her follow up appointment with her doctor and through the help of a translator, she received the good news that she doesn't need surgery. She can be treated right here in our city with medicine found right here at our local pharmacy. Relief and joy swept across her ...

I love just about everything about living in my new house, especially having my own little kitchen and being able to cook for myself and my guests. It's the first time I've had to make my own meals since moving to Burkina (I know, tough life), and I have to say I've really enjoyed it. I've also learned some lessons the hard way.  For example, that one time I bought a dozen eggs but didn't really need them, and when I finally used them a week later they were all rotten except for two. Seeing that I actually needed them on this day, I ran to the market to buy a dozen more, only to realize when I got home that I had bought hard boiled eggs. That wouldn't do, so I made a final run to a boutique to buys one more dozen eggs, and the man behind the counter probably wondered why I had so many questions about his eggs. "Are these eggs good? They aren't boiled, right? So that means they are raw? When did they arrive? So they are fresh today? Are you sure?"  ...

Just a little while after the sun had set, I heard a little tap-tap at the door, which was exactly the sound I had been waiting for since 6:00pm. They were here! I stirred the pot on the stove real quick to make sure it was still hot. Everything was ready except the electricity was out, but who needs electricity to have fun anyway?  I  skipped to the door to welcome them in.  It's not easy to transport a family of nine with only a moto, but Rebeca did it. She had a baby strapped to her back and three little ones on the moto with her (one in front and two hanging on for dear life behind), and she made the oldest four walk.  My house was soon completely full of kiddos. The four oldest girls colored pictures of Noah's ark and the rainbow using the floor as a hard surface and a flashlight as a lamp. The younger four bopped balloons around the living room and laughed hysterically every time Rebeca bounced the balloon off the innocent baby's head. Poor little baby had no i...

At the beginning of 2016, we made a list. We, our missionary team and team of nationals, call it our "Big Prayer List" and it is a combination of prayer requests for each aspect of our ministry that we believe God can answer in this year. It's called "big" for a reason; we are asking big things of God that only he can do, but that we believe he can do for his glory.  We pray over this list individually and as a team on a regular basis, but this week we looked at it in a different way. Item by item, we went down the list and talked about ways God has answered our prayers, and we found that he has acted on our behalf according to each thi we mentioned.  I don't know why I was shocked, but I was. Why we are amazing when our great God does great things, I don't know. We know he answers prayers, yet we are joyfully surprised when he does it. It's a really good thing, though, this awe at God's greatness and power to answer prayer. May we never lose the...