The Lord provided water!
February 14, 2010
Well I’m back in Ouagadougou after a long 2 week trip. Well drilling is no easy task, and with the hot sun beating down it tires you out even quicker. The guys from Northern Ireland were an awesome group. We got along great and shared many good times around The Bible, the dinner table, the wells, and nighttime fires. The first 4 wells produced a great amount of water, but sadly the 5th was dry. The thing that matters more than water is that over 1500 people saw The Jesus film(a movie about the life of Jesus) and heard it in their own language. A local pastor went with us and would spend the night and show the film using a generator and a projector. It was so awesome to partner with the churches in the villages and help spread God’s love. I’m worn out, but knowing that over 70 adults made decisions to follow Jesus, fills me up with excitement!
Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength, my shield from every danger. I trust in Him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.
This is the end product, a hand pump well.
A cute baby!
Matt, and some water/rock being drilled.
Our set up…huge air compressor, the drill rig, and the supply truck.
That is not a tatoo on my arm, just grease 🙂
Questions?
I’ll be home and at church next sunday! 🙂
Water!
January 30, 2010
Hey everyone!
What if you had to walk 4 miles each day, just to get water for your family…and the water isn’t even clean. Then you put it in a bucket, place it on your head and walk back to your village.
Just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow (1/31) I will be heading to Sebba with my house mate, Matt, and a team of 6 from Ireland. There is a guesthouse in Sebba that will be our main hub and from there we will go visit villages. We are going to be drilling 9 water wells in 9 different villages. This area of Burkina Faso is very dry, but God is amazing and placed water beneath the surface! We will use a well drilling truck to drill and get the water so lives will be saved. I have no experience with wells, but I will learn.
We will be returning to Ouaga on the 14th. So I will be without internet for 2 weeks.
Pray for health and stamina as the work will be very hard.
Pray that the people will realize Jesus loves them!
God bless!
I’m “in the bush”
January 24, 2010
I went into the bush on thursday and joined a team from Franklin, NC that was roofing two big churches in some villages. This was taken at the 1st church. Sorry it’s so short, but I was really wanting to get a video up here!
And here are some pictures!
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- Little Boy
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- Check out the size of the church too
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- Girl with pretty head wrap
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- Cute kids
Nazinga!
January 17, 2010
Click on a picture to enlarge it. There are no borders to this game park, so the animals are just doing their natural thing. It’s taken 4 hours just to upload these 9, so that’s all for now!
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- The first Elephants of the day
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- a Coba i think
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- Baboon just sitting
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- Coba, kind of like a deer
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- big elephant!
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- 2 crazy Crocs
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- Cool lookin’ bird
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- elephant with trunk up
Back to school, back to school
January 14, 2010
Well this week I’ve helped Amy (my mom while here) in her classroom 3 days. She teaches 3rd grade and only has 8 students, which makes it easy to memorize names. Each student is from a different country, how cool is that! I was able to help with some science experiments, math, spelling, and read a story as well. It’s been fun being in a classroom again. One girl said I should become a teacher there cause she likes “guy teachers”.
On monday I got a djembe(african hand drum) lesson from a guy who plays professionally. It was very intense and tiring, but so fun. He doesn’t speak much English and I don’t know any French, but we were able to laugh, smile, and have fun through drum beats! He’s also having a djembe made for me to bring back. I’m very excited about that! 🙂
Tomorrow afternoon the Nehlsen’s and I are heading 3 hours away to Nazinga. It’s a game(animal) park that is very popular. We’ll spend the night in huts there and explore saturday. I’ve heard from others that elephants are all over the place, so it should be a really cool time! I’ll have some up close pics to post. 🙂
God has been so good! I’m not sure why God is choosing to use me, this world is so huge and God is in control of it all. I’m in awe of His love! 🙂
some pics
January 11, 2010
The sunrise coming into Casablanca on the plane
My bed at Matt's house.
My mom for a few weeks outside her home.
The Nehlsen's christmas tree is still up 🙂
So busy!
January 7, 2010
Wow, I’ve been doing quite a bit since I got here! I’m behind on my journaling, but figured I needed to update this 🙂 Jet lag wasn’t a problem at all, I feel like I never left home…except that it’s 77 degrees out right now at 11:25 at night. The Nehlsen family is awesome, very awesome. Some highlights of my trip so far…
1. Driving 4 hours away into the bush and playing “follow the leader” with the kids!
2. Going to an outdoor market(not food) to do some shopping for people back home!
3. Great conversations with Matt, the guy I’m living with for the first few weeks.
4. The friendliness and hospitality of natives here.
5. Eating pan fried flog legs with garlic, very yummy.
Well there are many doors opening right now, but I need discernment from God. I will update as He reveals things to me. It’s very exciting to be open to God leading and not have plans of my own! 🙂
Love and hugs from Ouaga!
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso is the place to be!
January 3, 2010
Hello friends!
I arrived safely to my final destination. It was a long long journey here, but I learned a lot! The weather here is wonderful, about 80’s. The Nehlsen family has been so welcoming to me! I’m very excited to learn from them over the next weeks that I’m here. A little side note, on all 3 plane rides I had no one sitting beside me…how cool of God to allow me space to relax! I’m ready for bed as it’s 9pm and my eye lids are closing often. Trying to soak everything in today so I didn’t take any pics. I’ll get some up soon. Thank you all for your prayers!
Be thankful for your wealth…you are far better off than so many people in the world.
Andrew
Andrew Simms' Blog 