February 1
The Children with the Dirty Faces and Bloated Stomachs
I just returned from 3 days in the bush country of Burkina Faso. West Ridge Church has adopted an unreached people group in the bush called the Pougli. The Pougli are an amazing group of people, but extremely primitive. They are Animist – which means that they worship nature, witchcraft, and spirits. Most of these villages have witch doctors that possess some pretty crazy demonic powers. They control these villages with fear.
In the last two years, we have built 7 churches and have provided the resources to dig 26 wells in Pougli villages. We partner with the Christian Missionary Alliance in Burkina who are training church planters to be pastors in these villages. From what we can tell, our efforts have opened the door for over 500 Pougli people to put their trust in Jesus Christ to be their Savior. We spent much of our time going from village to village encouraging these new believers. Many of these Christians still live in fear of either a hostile village chief or the witch doctor.
Because this country (and most of Africa) suffers from diseases related to unclean water and malaria, much of our efforts in reaching the Pougli and others in Burkina, involve providing clean water for these people. To quote the mayor of the town of Founza (a Christian), “people cannot hear the gospel until they first have water to drink.” Not only is their water unclean, but many of their wells run dry before the rainy season.
One of things that has grabbed hold of my heart on this trip, are the amount of children that I have personally encountered who are sick because of worms, malaria, and malnutrition. (see pics) As a result, many of their stomachs are bloated. Because Burkina is such a dusty country (during the dry season), many of these children are covered from head to toe in African dust. I woke up this morning at 5 AM with an overwhelming burden to pray for and to continue to devote my life to the children with the dirty faces and bloated stomachs.
Here are a couple facts:
• Burkina is the second poorest country in the world.
• It ranks 1 or 2 (depending upon the study) for illiteracy.
• 1 out 3.4 children in Burkina will die before the age of 10.
• The cost of malaria treatment is less than $8.00.
• The cost of the worm treatment is 25 cents a pill.
• To build a hand dug well in Burkina is about $1,500.00. To build a drilled well is about $6,500.00.
• To build a church (finished) is $8,000.00.
• You can sponsor a child in Burkina Faso thru Compassion international for $38.00 a month.
Next year we have plans to build 7 more churches and to dig 20 new wells. If you would like to partner with us, you can contact Paul Richardson at paulr@westridge.com.
We leave Burkina tomorrow with sadness because we will miss these amazing people, but also with joy knowing that God is moving in a mighty way across this West African country.