Intensest week yet... is intensest a word?
Hi friends,
This turned out really long... if you are like me and are put off by long
emails, come back to the rest when you have nothing better to do.
3 buses
3 days on a cargo boat up the Niger River
2 gondolas
1 4X4
2 days on a camel
2 4X4s
1 army truck filled with Mali and Korean military dudes
3 taxi buses
and 1 more bus later...
I have been to Timbuktu and back.
And that's just a list of my transport... no mention of a strange bug bite
that made me think I was growing a sixth toe... my many conversations in
Sprench (similar to Spanglish but with Spanish and French)... how I found
it so hard to be in a Muslim country for a long time without much spiritual
support... conversing in hand signs with Songi tribal women while stranded
next to a river... camping out with nomads in the Sahara... ah, I have never
been happier to be back in Ouaga... ever.
The day before the nuttiest trip of my life was one of the hardest days of
my life. You guys have donated money since I have been out here to relieve
some people of the worst famine Burkina has seen in over 30 years. God put
it on my heart to ask Rosalie how her village was doing. Turns out they have
not received any relief food and people are beginning to die. I told her I
wanted to buy some rice for them and she was ecstatic! She said she had been
praying for food for her family but did not know where it would come from.
See, Ouaga has only become a city in the last 10 years or so. Prior to that
it was just a big village. Most of the people of Ouaga were born in villages
and have recently started families here. Everyone is from a village and has
such a heart to help those still left in the poorest conditions you can
imagine. I told Rosalie on a Sunday that I wanted to help, that night she
got a call that a woman died giving birth in her village (without nutrition
it is almost impossible for anyone to survive pregnancy, much less a
birthing process). She was able to tell them we were coming with help and
that we wanted to pray for the sick. Monday we were on our way.
I wish I could tell you what an amazing day of miracles I witnessed.
Rosalies village has thousands of people in it and I could only afford 20
bags of rice at 50lbs each. Due to the famine, food prices are
outrageous... I had to go to 3 different places to find someone who even
had 20 bags of rice to sell. Our plan was to give the rice to about 3
families, about 50-60 people. Then we would lock up about 5 bags for the
elderly and sick who could not make it to the distribution.
Well, when people ha vent had food for several months they will do anything
to get it... I don't blame them. Within moments of my arrival hundreds of
people were running to us with hats, pockets, purses, sacks, pots and
anything that could hold what ever food they could get. Things got chaotic
fast. We quickly locked up some of the bags and began the distribution. Half
way into it all I could do was sit and cry. There were so many starving
people and I could only offer them such a little bit of food. It was gone
fast. One man and an old lady came up to me and started yelling that they
didn't get any and their families were dieing... all I could do was extend
my empty hands and cry.
Then we said that we wanted to pray for anyone who was sick in the name of
Jesus. Only about 5percent of the people there are Christian, the rest are
animist and Muslim but still dozens and dozens of people lined up for
prayer. I was under the impression someone was going to pray with me or at
least interpret... nope. I looked around and it was just me and Jesus and
more sick people than I could count. For several hours I prayed for the
lame, deaf, blind, backs, feet, babies, heads, teeth, whole bodies... people
would point to what they needed prayer for. At one point Rosalie told me I
should stand over them and pray for them as a whole to save time... but I
don't think Jesus ever did that.
I also prayed that the rice would be like the fish and loaves Jesus handed
out... multiply it God!
As usual this was a much longer email than planned... but don't worry, in
just under two weeks you will not have to worry about an update from this
trip again. But keep praying for me, I'm not home yet.
Your sister,
courtney
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