Cake Making

Elodie from Les Jeunesse (Youth Group) came over Saturday afternoon. She wanted to use my oven to make some cakes for independence day, which is today (Aug 7th). She brought a couple 10 year olds to help her. It was interesting to watch them measure, mix, and prepare batter. Africans typically don't bake or measure things the same way that Americans do.

She made banana, vanilla, and chocolate cakes. The part that I was amazed at was during the first one. She got the batter all ready and poured it into the pan, but it looked really thick... but I was unsure of what she had put in or what the recipe was, so I didn't know what she needed to add. But just before she put it in the oven, she remembered that she didn't put the eggs in.

So the little ones started cracking eggs and throwing them into the mixing bowl with the returned batter. You see here when I crack eggs I typically don't crack them directly into whatever I am making, because there is a higher chance of one of them being bad. I had gone to a different room while they started adding and mixing the eggs in... I returned to the kitchen to questions of "do you think that egg is bad? what do we do?"

Then I saw them taking the broken eggshells and scooping out the egg that they had already started to mix into the batter. I was a little taken back. In my head I was thinking there is no way that you got all the rotten eggness. You already started mixing it in... gross. But then Elo grabbed my hand and we surrounded the cake mix and prayed that God would help it not be bad.

All the cakes ended up looking beautiful. My oven gave me a little bit of trouble, but that is alright.

Elo was one the girls in my Transformation Group when I was an apprentice in 2005. I think she was 14 or 15 then. She has matured and grown in her faith a lot in the last 6 years. Praise God. She is heavily involved in the church. She is part of the choir and youth group. Pray that God will continue to develop this young lady and give her a heart to reach those in her community with the transformation that Jesus brings.

Burkina Faso is beautiful. The landscape is amazing. It has been real fun to see the variety. You have mountains, valleys, lakes, rock formations, etc. The main roads drive through tons of villages. As I have traveled around I have seen so much. It is very green right now since it is rainy season. That makes everything seems alive and moving with you. As you drive you see men and women hard at work in their fields. They are incredible. They have their hoes and know precisely what they are doing. It is fun to see their plants grow. I pray that they will have good harvests to take care of their families.

As I looked at the scenery I was reminded that God is big and the creator of it all. I have seen his creative hand here. Especially when the Hauser's, Johnson's and I visited the Peaks. It is this crazy set of rock formations. I will post pictures when I get back to the Ivory Coast. Wow!

My heart was also stirred as I looked at the toil that Burkinabes do in their fields. I have learned here in Africa more about how things are made and where they come from. With all of our development we have lost some of the realities of life.

Trip to Ouaga

I took a bus this morning to the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou (wa-ga-do-goo). The trip was pretty uneventful. There was lots of bus honking... I am unsure at what, but I know that it is frightening howl. It was interesting that the young man next to me was using a Nintendo DS as an MP3 player. He had those old-school headphones we used for our cassette and CD players. They didn't hold the sound in, so I got to hear his rap music.

I went by some venders that I bought things from the year before after lunch. They recognized me. It has been 13 months since I had seen them, but it was nice to be remembered. As we were discussing our transaction, he stopped me and said, "You speak french now, it is much better than last year. You preferred to talk in english." So I guess it is getting better, but it is hard to gauge because I have to listen to myself everyday and I know that I still have so much to learn.

Continue to pray for his glory to be spread through out the world.

So... I realized that I haven't written anything here in forever and 3 days... so I thought I would get it a go.

My first year and half of ministry hasn't gone as expected. I have lived in 3-4 countries, depending on how your defined lived in. The journey has been rough. It has been great too! I am glad that this journey isn't about me. It is about me following the creator of the world.

There are days when I feel like I haven't accomplished anything here, but I know that God has been teaching me to trust him. He has been preparing me and changing me. I have had the opportunity to get to know a variety of missionaries that I otherwise wouldn't have. It has been great getting to know the Dano folks and the Burkina Faso team better.

All my travels have also given me the chance to meet lots of different nationals. I have been in big cities, medium places, and little villages. It has been crazy to observe the differences and similarities you see in these ranges of living.

I have experience personal setbacks that have been discouraging and debilitating. But I used those times to study and push through the pain. Sciatica pain is quite the experience. Fleeing countries will teach you a lot about what is important in life. Dealing with constant transition teaches you how weak and dependent you can be.

I am looking forward to returning to the Ivory Coast this week. I pray and hope that I will get to stay there longer this time, but only time will tell. It is all for God's glory.