As I'm sure all of you are aware back to school is the in thing at the moment. And while I'm not technically in class, I am excited for the start of another school year. With the beginning of the school year comes the kickoff for my increased involvement with the youth group and other school activities with many of the international students. We have already had our first youth group with some new faces which is exciting to see. I'll be starting up a 3 week series on the Prodigal Son for the students. I'm basing much of my material off of Henri Nouwen's brilliant book in which he talks about the prodigal son and Rembrandt's depiction of this radical parable told by Jesus. I highly recommend reading the book if you have a chance. It's simply titled "The Return of the Prodigal Son".
Backtracking for a moment, during the summer (shortly after my return from Benin) I was able along with the help of 5 capable young women from Canada to plant Moranga trees out at Sekoula, a village near my house that I've helped in the past. These trees are great because of the amount of different vitiamins and nutriants that are within the leaves. The other great thing about the plant is that it grows well here in Burkina so that tending these trees won't be a large hassle. The hope is, that as the trees grow the community will use the leaves in their suaces for their meals in order to get some more and much needed nutrition. So, while the trees are still seedlings at this point I do feel good about that project.
The above pictures are me on a donkey at the village site, because I thought it'd be cool to get a picture on the donkey. And then me on the outside of the fence that we built to hopefully protect the trees from goats and other animals.
I am also looking forward to the upcoming softball tournament in Niamey, Niger. Last Feb. missionaries and students came down here to Ouaga, and now it's our turn to head up there and defend our tournament championship crown. That will be happening at the beginning of next month.
Until next time... Same Burkina Time... Same Burkina Channel!
