Our Baptist co-laborers have been at it again!  The weekend of Nov. 15, 16, and 17 was the first edition of the “72 hours of UOBC” in Ouagadougou.  What a tremendous weekend filled with worship, fellowship, ministry, and fun!  We started on Friday night with the opening worship service, followed by a medical outreach on Saturday morning.  38 Baptist women and some neighborhood friends who are not believers came to our center on Saturday morning to experience a gynecological screening for cancer at a greatly reduced rate.  For all but one of these women, this was a first time experience, and many were terrified.  Having faced the unknown and found it to be not as scary as they anticipated, these brave women will now be able to go and encourage their friends to participate in this very important check-up. 

Saturday evening we showed a film, followed by an evangelistic service.  There were several young people who showed a keen interest in following Christ, and two of them came for a follow-up interview the following Monday morning.  Sunday morning saw each church’s Sunday morning service being led by the women.  On Sunday afternoon we were blessed with a closing ceremony which included a concert of our Ouagadougou Baptist women’s choirs!  How I wish you could’ve been here to see the choreographed presentations.  We were also blessed to hear a humble and pertinent message about our theme, “Love Your Neighbor,” from a presidential cabinet minister who is an evangelical Christian.  It was a remarkable weekend organized by some remarkable Baptist women on mission with God. 

Jay and I are incredibly blessed by our wonderful God.  Serving Him here in Burkina is a joy in so many ways.  This joyful life that we have is made possible by your participation in our ministry.  Thank you for praying for us.  For those of you who are our Southern Baptist friends, thank you for your sacrificial giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions.  It’s your faithful generosity that allows us to live here in Burkina and do what we love to do – helping Burkina Baptists to be on mission with God to reach the unreached peoples of the world.   It’s your faithful generosity that allows our 4,854 colleagues and their 4,000 children to reach out to peoples all around the world who have had little or no opportunity to hear the truth of God’s love in ways that they can understand.   Please give generously this year and in so doing, know that He is being lifted up and will draw men, women, boys, and girls to Himself. 

So that ALL may know and worship Him, Kathy and Jay

Solange Ouedraogo, UOBC National Prayer Chairman

Beatrice Zoma, National President UOBC

Midwives in pink teaching about medical screening

Neighborhood friend at medical outreach

September 2013 news from the Shaftos

The summer rains came in full force, keeping everything cool and green across the region.  It is a nice change from the heat we experience in March, April, and May.

We’ve said some goodbyes and an equal number of hellos since our last post.  While that is a regular part of missionary life, we have been especially blessed this year with long term volunteers.  Zac Calvert, a student at Union University, spent 3 months in Burkina as a community development intern with Jay.  He got his hands in quite a few projects, including well drilling, community needs assessments, partnership development for secondary schools, and youth ministry.  He also worked on the early stages of a micro-business project to provide pure water and organized a conference on community development practices.  The fruit of his ministry continues to show in the lives of those he helped train.

We also had a volunteer couple come to run the Guest House in our office complex.  Richard and Sharon Brummitt lived and worked for 3 months at the Guest House, welcoming guests and overhauling the place during down times.  We have 5 apartments with 22 beds that have needed remodeling for several years.  Through their steady work Richard and Sharon scraped, spackled, and repainted all but one room!  Lift up a prayer of thanks and encouragement for them.  After a few weeks in the US, they got on another plane for Europe, where they have been again volunteering!

We went a month without a Guest House Director, but in August Elsie McCall returned to Burkina to replace the Brummitts.  You may remember that Elsie taught our children when we lived in Garango, and then continued in Burkina teaching in several different capacities for a total of 10 years.  After some years in the US, Elsie got the itch to serve again and will be at least through the end of the school year and perhaps longer!  Pray for Elsie as she has the opportunity to share with those who come through our Guest House the vision to reach the Unreached People Groups in Burkina and beyond.

Kathy

good news from the Women's Conference!

Well, dear friends and family, I had promised an update soon after the Baptist women’s conference.  But with lots of fatigue from an overwhelmingly fabulous week, Jay and I left immediately the next day for a vacation at the beach!  It was our first practice run as empty nesters as Madeleine was in Turkey for a Model United Nations Conference.  Our vacation was heavenly!  We returned to Ouaga on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning, I left with Madeleine for Washington D. C. where she received an award from the Gulen Institute Youth Platform for an international essay contest.  With over 500 submitted essays from students from 40 countries and 30 states within the U.S., Madeleine was chosen as one of the top 30 winners -- number 16 to be exact.  We are certainly proud of our girl!

Equally as exciting is the news about the women’s conference.  THANK YOU FOR PRAYING!  So many good things happened; it’s hard to know where to begin.  Remember that our theme was Women on Mission:  The Role of Women in the Advancement of God’s Kingdom.  After the opening teaching by my friend Cristiane, I challenged the ladies through the parable of the talents to prayerfully consider their personal mission and how they use the gifts that God has given them. This teaching was so well received, and I’ve already had requests from some regions to come and teach it again; from others to teach it themselves.  YES, YES!  I don’t think anything is more humbling, yet more rewarding and valuable to me as a missionary than to hear that someone was so inspired by God’s Word that she would want to repeat what she’s learned.

[Brazilian Baptist Missionary, Cristiane]

[Kathy teaching the women]

During the week we heard moving testimonies and teaching from sister missionaries from the U. S., Brazil, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ghana.  An Assembly of God sister who came to Christ from another religion in neighboring Niger shared her experiences and reminded us of the power of our God to save and protect in the midst of terrible persecution and the absolute necessity to share in spite of it.   In addition we received the most incredible challenge from a Burkinabé mother in the faith, Mama Rebecca of the Christian and Missionary Alliance church.  This seventy year old saint is a church planter who reminded us all of the need to be Godly wives in our homes if we want to be on mission with Him to the nations.

[Baptist Missionaries from Cote d'Ivoire and the US] 

[Baptist Missionaries from Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire] 

[Baptist Missionaries from Nigeria, Ghana and Brazil]

[Mama Rebecca]

Jay also challenged us with a thought-provoking message from the Great Commission in the official opening ceremony.  Did you know that Jesus’ supreme order to go to all the nations in the world was given in the context of some of the disciples’ doubt?  Yet, He still called them to go – with their doubts and in spite of their doubts.

 

[Jay speaking] 

In another great part of the week, our Burkina co-laborers practiced missions in partnership with my home church in Kilbourne, Louisiana.  Women on Mission there in Kilbourne sent dresses and shorts that they made for the children of widows among us.  The Burkina ladies brought used clothing as well, and we distributed all to a thankful group of widows.

 

As the week came to a close we had the joy of honoring a special Baptist woman who has labored faithfully on behalf of all Burkina Baptist women throughout many years.  My dear friend, Solange Ouédraogo, was presented with a moto, her first ever to own.  Our national president, Beatrice Zoma, called everyone into the courtyard outside the church for a surprise, where we sang and listened to a special song presented by the regional women’s choir of Ouaga.  Solange played the drum for their song, unaware that she was the honoree.  When Beatrice announced that Solange was the recipient, she very emotionally and tearfully received her gift, and immediately promised to use it in the advance of God’s kingdom. 

Precious family and friends, thank you for your faithful prayers.  God is ever at work in response to them, and during this conference, Baptist co-laborers of Christ took up the challenge to be personally involved in taking the gospel to the nations.  May His name be praised forever and ever! May His Word go forth!

Kathy

prayer for the 2013 Women's Conference...

Hello praying friends!  The annual Burkina Faso Baptist women’s conference is just around the corner and the excitement is building.  Remember our theme?   Women on Mission:  The Role of Women in the Advancement of God’s Kingdom.  The women arrive on Monday from all corners of the country for a week of learning together, praying together, playing together, dancing together, and challenging one another to be WOMEN ON MISSION WITH GOD.  With the generosity of WMU, we will have some ladies who will be with us for their very first annual camp. 

As we gather, we are partnering with the women from my home church in Kilbourne, Louisiana.  These women, accompanied by some of the men from the church, have already been on mission -- reaching out to the uttermost parts of the earth.  They have been busily sewing children’s clothes – dresses for girls and shorts for boys – which we will distribute to our young widows with children and to the children of Bible school students who are training to be pastors. They’ve made quite a few, so what is left will go to a local orphanage that is run by an American missionary friend. 

To all ladies, I wish that you could be here with us during this incredible week!  You wouldn’t even be bothered by sleeping on the floor, using a squatty potty, or temperatures of 105 degrees.  We are going to have the time of our lives!  Stay tuned for an update at the end of the week and the opportunity to give praise to the Most High God for what He will have done. 

Thank you so much for praying with us for this all important time.  Please lift up to the Father:

• Inspired teaching times focused on the challenge of missions and the call to obedience to the Great Commission for every single woman present.  Pray for clarity in the translation process as women who attend will speak at least 5 different languages.
• Unity and organization for the leadership team and the host association of churches.
• Safety in travel – some women will travel two full days by bus to arrive at the conference.

a day in the life... // chapter 4: we've a story to tell the nations

You’ve heard much from Jay about telling God’s story.  Read, enjoy, and praise the Father for these summarized excerpts from the newsletters of our precious friend and colleague, Kathy Daniel, as she shares about an influential training that she and Jay were recently involved in:

 I received news from Togo this week.  Their main market in the capital city burned.  The fire trucks from Togo arrived, and they had no water to fight the fire.  The fire trucks from the neighboring country of Ghana were trying to come, but the border guards would not allow them to enter the country because of formalities.  Seems unbelievable, I know.

In the days in which I find myself, I feel like the fire is burning stronger and spreading way past control, and I’m praying that the fire trucks will never arrive.  We are in the midst of training 24 people from 4 language groups about how to craft stories from the Bible in ways that are accurate, understandable, and reproducible.  Most all of the participants have been trained in how to use the stories for evangelism and have been doing that for a year or longer.  That track record was their admission ticket to this training.  Now we want them to be able to have an arsenal of well-crafted stories, continue to fill this arsenal with stories, and now expand into discipleship with these stories.

Today, some of the embers of this fire were spread between language groups and countries as they shared testimonies of how they have been using the stories up until this point.  Let me spread some of the fire your way;  one people group has started 6 churches using stories, another people group started 8 churches, and for the trucker stories, they are now being broadcast on the radio in Togo, and the director of the radio station and her husband have accepted Christ.  And by the way, he has felt called by God to be a pastor and has enrolled in school.

The training continued through Feb 1^st.  Many folks were involved from the trainers to the participants.  The Lord orchestrated so many things logistically in the lives of almost 30 people for these two weeks to take place.

• What happens next and how can you pray? The “long haul” is beginning now as the trained teams return to their towns and villages with assignments to craft, test, and record 4 stories before we come together again in March.  Please keep praying that they will be faithful to complete the task.  Pray that they will accurately handle God’s Word as they craft these stories and that they will “shine like stars in the universe as they hold out the Word of Life.”

a day in the life... // chapter 3: women on mission

The Baptist women of Burkina Faso are so much fun to work with.  They love to laugh and are some of the most thoughtful friends one could have.  On my birthday in December, a delegation came by our house to have a short time of worship and prayer.  Isn’t that a wonderful tradition of celebrating birthdays with friends?  During the first week of January, I met with these “co-laborers with Christ” at our girls’ center (which is still renovation).  We prayed and planned for the year 2013.

 

What a tremendous blessing to hear them choose their theme for the year:  “Women on Mission: The Role of Women in the Advance of God’s Kingdom.”  We will be studying from God’s Word about what it means to be on mission with God.  We will hear testimonies from Nigerian Baptist women missionaries, Ivorian Baptist women missionaries, Brazilian Baptist women missionaries, American IMB women missionaries, and of course, Burkinabé Baptist women missionaries.  We will learn together about how to do missions work locally and how to be involved in missions work that goes to the ends of the earth. For this grown-up GA whose life owes so much to the legacy of WMU, this conference promises to be one of the most exciting of my missionary life.

• What happens next and how can you pray?  This very important conference takes place from March 25-29.  My dear friend, Brazilian Baptist missionary, Cristiane Oliveira, and I will be team teaching for the opening session on what the Bible teaches us about being on mission with God.  As the week unfolds there will be ample opportunity for the women to respond to the call to missions by giving, going and praying.  Please pray that God will raise up an army of Burkinabé Baptist women who will confidently and boldly respond to what is called in French the “supreme order.”  “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” I can’t wait!

a day in the life... // chapter 2: cotton country Christmas

On Christmas morning, I leaned over and said to Madeleine, “Never forget that this is what Christmas is all about.”  We were sitting under a tent in the village of Nana among the Marka people of Burkina Faso.  Good Shepherd Baptist Church of Ouagadougou has adopted the Marka and in 2004, sent their own missionary to live among them, one of many unreached people groups of Burkina.  The tent was the site of exuberant worship as 3 other village churches gathered together with Nana to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.  They were also celebrating a Christmas day baptism of 95 new believers.  Jay had the privilege of sharing this task with the young Burkinabé missionary and 2 other pastors.

 

As the baptism progressed and the singing and dancing continued, from time to time a donkey cart loaded with freshly hand-picked cotton would pass directly in front of the tent.  The young laborers dumped the cotton on the ground near the church, where trucks would eventually come to get it to take it to the gin.  The previous day, on our way to Nana, we had passed many cotton fields with pickers diligently working to gather the cotton by hand.  I was reminded of my own childhood and the snow-white fields of cotton ready to be picked.

Most certainly as my sisters read this, they are saying, “Now Kass, we picked cotton by hand, but you never did a day in your life.”  :)  It’s true, but I did ride that cotton picker with daddy and had a lot of fun playing in that white fluffy stuff, tromping it down to get the trailer ready for the next hopper full.  The donkey carts and the fields of cotton not only reminded me of my childhood; they also reminded me of the words of Jesus in John 4, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.”  And again in Matthew 9, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

In the world’s fields which are white and ready for harvest, there is no magic machine which will reap what has been sown.  Our heavenly Father has lovingly placed into our hands the task of gathering souls.  That, my friends, is what Christmas is really about.

• What happens next and how can you pray?  Since Christmas, a Brazilian Baptist missionary colleague has returned to Marka land to train women how to make soap as a way to help support their families. There has been much local persecution of all of these new Christians including the posting of sacrificed animal skins around the church.  Pray that they will stand firm in their new faith and continue to share boldly what God has done in their lives.

[Christmas dinner]

[Pastor Henri & Solange Ye from Good Shepherd Baptist and
Cristiane, Brazilian Baptist missionary]

a day in the life... // chapter 1: a lady takes the prize!

A day in the life of the Shaftos (or several days maybe)…

It’s been a while since we’ve written, and life has brought so many wonderful things our way in the meantime.  By “wonderful,” I mean those things that only God can do, those kingdom gifts that He sends our way to remind us of His love for us and for the world.  They’re so much better than the material gifts, aren’t they?  I hope you enjoy this little set of “chapters” from our life over the past 6 weeks.  God, as usual, is up to tremendous things.  Isn’t it a joy and a privilege to serve Him?!

Chapter 1 “A Lady Takes the Prize!”

Two Saturdays before Christmas, Jay and I set out for a small Lyele (lay-lay) village northwest of Ouaga.  On a  three hour drive we trekked in our 4x4 over some paved roads, some dirt roads and some country paths that led us to a familiar sight:  a small mud-block church with a tin roof, next door to the pastor’s courtyard.  We were invited by a pastor who had reproduced the training which he had received from Jay and others about how to use Bible stories to lead people to Christ.  In this particular village, he had trained 10 story-telling evangelists, 6 men and 4 women, and charged each of them to lead 10 people to salvation in the next year.  They began in May 2012.  It was now December.  Jay and I sat before these Story-tellers and listened as the pastor trainer called each person’s name and stated the number of new children in God’s kingdom because of his/her witness through Bible stories.  A total of 61 new Christians with each person leading at least 3 others to follow Jesus!  A woman was at the forefront with 8 spiritual children to her credit.  Yay for the ladies!!  I recently saw this pastor and he told me that she has now led 5 more people to faith in Christ.

  

During this first hour, the pastor asked us to give a word of encouragement to these faithful witnesses.  Perhaps they should’ve been the ones giving the words of encouragement and challenge to us!  During the second hour, ALL 61 one of these new believers came to the church, and both Jay and I had the privilege of sharing some encouraging words with them as well.  Sorry Apple, but no electronic gadget as a Christmas gift can ever compare with that! It was the continuation of a joyous Christmas season filled with the most amazing gifts imaginable from the One who always does immeasurably more than we can ask or think!

The next day was the Lord’s Day.  That little church, which before had about 60 regular attendees, was bursting at the seams with their 61 new believers.  Some were standing outside the back door eagerly listening to the sermon.  Never underestimate the power of a story, especially one that communicates the Truth of the Most High God.

• What happens next and how can you pray?  We’ve been invited back in May by the expectant pastor who hopes to be baptizing 100 new Christians.  Pray that these Story-tellers will be faithful to the task and that the Holy Spirit will continue to use God’s Word to draw people to Himself in this village.