On Saturday, October 17, over 100 Baptist youth from across Ouagadougou joined forces in Secteur 16 to make a difference for 20 families devastated by the flood of Sept 1. Gathering at 7am at l’Eglise Baptiste Wendbenedo, prayer, singing and worship set the tone for the day before dividing into 7 teams and spreading out across the neighborhood. A mason from a sister church, along with a mason from the neighborhood had been to each site the day before to trace out the dimensions for the foundation, so the teams got straight to work digging out the trench while others began making mud bricks. Working under an unforgiving sun, the work moved forward as the day got long. Several pastors came to encourage their members, joining a refreshment team delivering drinks, food, and words of encouragement from site to site. The planning committee was also in action, arranging the delivery of rocks, sand, and gravel as needed. One team, while waiting for a delivery, struck up a conversation with a passerby which led to spiritual questions. Before long, he and another had prayed to receive Christ! One stayed to join the team! A team of 20 something girls, at first minimized for their inferior strength, set to making mud bricks, finishing 600 at one site and 200 at another. This acted to motivate the guys, who worked into the night to finish at their second site, where the late delivery of materials slowed the team down, but would not stop them.
By the time the exhausted but tireless Baptist youth sang their way back to their respective homes, 15 foundations had been laid, 1000 mud bricks had been made, 5 people were led to the Lord, and a whole neighborhood was inspired. Yaya, a young volunteer from Grace Baptist summed up the event saying, “Since I have been a Christian I have never participated in anything like this. We came from different churches, but everyone came together as one. When we got tired, someone would start singing and our spirits would be revived. People stopped to ask what we were doing and why, so we told them about the love of Christ. I never dreamed of being part of something this fantastic.”
