On Friday evening twenty-two IMB missionaries to Burkina Faso and northern Ghana and their children will gather for a time of thanksgiving, worship, and good eats. Just like you, we will eat turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, apple pie, and any other traditional Thanksgiving foods that you can imagine. As we sit down to worship and offer thanks, one of our greatest blessings is your faithful prayer support. Thank you for reading this newsletter and going before the Father on behalf of the Shafto family and all of the Bissa people of West Africa.Twice a week Kathy, T.K., and Todd head into the nonzoned, shanty town of Ouagadougou to share the gospel with Bissa immigrants to the city through evangelistic literacy classes. The students arrive with babies on their backs and books on their heads. We sit in a small circle under a straw hanger and help mothers and young men learn to recognize drawings in a book so that they will learn to hold it right side up. We write on old-fashioned slates and chalk boards and hold fretful babies while mothers try to form the letter “a.” And in the midst of a reading lesson, we share truths from God’s Word. “How do you think this world came into being? The sun? The moon? The stars? Let me share a story with you.” Pray for these students and their children, most of whom are hearing the gospel message for the very first time in their lives. Pray that God’s truth will resound in their hearts above the noise in the streets and above crying babies.
You prayed for Kathy’s dear friend Solange Ouedraogo and her surgery. Praise the Father that her surgery on one hip was successful and that the doctors will monitor the other hip in the months to come. She left the hospital in Benin today and will be returning home in one week. Please continue to pray for her complete recovery and rehab and that God will bless her return to ministry among the Baptist women of Burkina Faso.It has been such a privilege and joy to have Todd Groff and T.K. Uhrich as fellow Bissa team members for this short time. They have a little less than one month left in their HandsOn term. Todd and T.K. have been faithful witnesses here in Ouagadougou and in northern Ghana as well. Pray that they will finish well as they travel out to Garango and Soumagou in Bissa land to encourage the believers there. Continue to pray especially for their friend Adam to be convicted of the truths they have shared with him and that he will make a decision to follow Christ.
Jay’s Field Strategy Leadership ministry has taken him to the Gambia for most of this month as he participates with colleagues in church planting training. He has been blessed and challenged by both the fellowship and the training. Pray that God will help him and Kathy to put these new ministry principles learned into practice in their ministry among the Bissa. You prayed for James and Robbie and Madeleine and their ministry in southern Burkina Faso. Thank the father with us for a fruitful ministry there. To see how your prayers were answered, click here.
As we approach this holiday season, the great celebration of our Lord’s birth, we are constantly reminded that the generosity of Southern Baptists makes our life and ministry here in West Africa possible. The simple truth is that we couldn’t be here without your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Those gifts are the means by which we devote ourselves to full-time ministry, providing us with a home, food, medical care — even schooling for our children. Thank you! Please know that many people around the world are truly celebrating Christmas for the first time this year because of your sacrifice for God’s Kingdom.
Jay & Kathy Shafto
James, Robbie & Madeleine
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
