Southern Exposure

I got back from our children outreach a few days ago, and after some much needed downtime and processing I figured I'd let all you know how it went. I'll start off by saying it was amazing! The other youth leaders and I have been planning this trip for quite some time now, really since the end of August and for the past month and a half we'd been meeting every Saturday morning for prep meetings with the team of students. It was a lot of work, a lot of time, but it was all worth it. The kids did a great job with the program we put together both a morning and evening program for the African kids. Besides sharing the gospel and doing a great skit about the Exodus I think as a group we broke down a lot of preconceived notions the Burkinabe had about Americans/Westerners. They were amazed that we were willing to get on the ground, to get dirty, to be real I guess. And for the village we were in, talking with one of the Burkinabe down there, he said he'd never seen that many white people before! There were 20 of us.

Along with our time sharing about God with the Africans, I believe God moved mightily in the lives of our youth group students. I saw many students experience, feel, and rejoice in God's presence. I was blessed to see them moved by the Lord so powerfully. As a group they became closer, I became closer to many of them, and they had a powerful encounter with God. All the people involved I believe were blessed and had encounters with the living God. And another special treat for me was that Sunday morning I gave a short message in the local church. It is quite often typical for a guest pastor/missionary to give a message, and that fell to me. Actually I didn't know I was doing it until Saturday night, so I scrambled to prepare something that night and early Sunday morning. Obviously more prep time would have been great, but given the time I had to work with I think it went very well. I even got a few comments from some of the church leaders after the service saying that my message was practical and something the congregation needed to hear. So I was glad that God guided me in that. Overall, the students came back excited and worn out which usually means they had a great time and the trip was well worth it.
Thank you to those who were praying for this trip, it was much needed and appreciated.
I will be uploading pictures in the days to come so stay tuned!