Remember Sanya?

Remember Sanya? The little girl we were praying for and raising money for her surgery on her cleft palate. God answered our prayers and here she is with her new smile!!

When God Interupts Your Life...

• God's plan is a challenge!
• God's plan has adventure!
• God's plan is miraculous!

                         - Pastor David Uth

On my way home!

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My last look at the Dream!

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Its snowing!

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View from the Roy Disney Suite

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Bremerhaven from my balcony.

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Hope You Are Touched By The Images Of Our Recent Trip To West Africa

Breathtaking!

We made it!

Hohenschwangau Castle

Having lunch near the castle

Travelogue

Wind Turbine Blade!

Holly Still In The Snow

Germany is Awesome!

I Love Being Cold!

View From Our Hotel Room in Wurzburg

This is what we saw when we woke up and looked out our window this morning.

Papenburg Germany

Holly's first snowfall!

We Made It To Germany!

We are all settled in at our hotel in Papenburg and taking showers. Looking forward to having dinner with Donna and Jeff.

Pumpkin soup here we come!!!!!

Arrived in Paris

We just arrived in Paris and it is 60 degrees colder here than in Ougadougou! We leave for Dusseldorf, Germany in a couple of hours to start our mini vacation until I go back to work on the Disney Dream. I will be sending pictures and updates when I can.

Thank you all again for your prayers, the entire team made it safely to Paris. Some are on their way home and some are staying in Paris for a few days to rest before going home.

Love and prayers Jim, Holly and the team.

Current Travel Status

All checked in at the Ougadougou Airport and will be leaving for Paris in 3 hours.

Thank you again for your prayers throughout this trip!

Back in Ouagadougou

We left the village early this morning and we are back in Ouagadougou. I don't have the exact numbers yet but we treated around 700 people, 25 people gave there lives to Jesus and we cut 6 witch doctor idols off of children. 

We're shopping and then back to the mission house for showers and then to the airport at 8PM for an 11:50 flight. 

Thank you for your prayers, they were felt and heard. 

Prayer Request

Lynn Kennedy needs your prayers. Her asthma is bothering her along with a very annoying cough and cannot sleep.

Thank you for keeping her in your prayers.

Decisions for Christ

We have had almost 20 people in Tenkiedougou give their life to Jesus Christ... the most I have ever seen. Tonight we are showing the Jesus film in the village. 

Please be in prayer. 

Prayer Request

Please pray for two very sick and malnourished babies that were brought to us today. Patrice drove them to the hospital in Dano just before sunset. Not sure they will make it through the night.

Happy Thanksgiving

God has been so good to us today. We finished with the school children in the morning and opened the clinic back up to all. Vegetable stew for dinner tonight. So much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No one on the team has gotten sick. Praise His name, this has never happened before. God's love is all around us.

Wound Care

Another awesome day in West Africa! Today Holly and I cleaned wounds for the wound care specialists in the morning and in the afternoon we did malaria testing. Time for dinner and a bucket shower. Tomorrow is our last full day in the village.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Clinic Day

What a day we had today! The hardest but most rewarding I can remember. So many wounds and malaria. At lunch time we had 124 children from the village school come through the clinic with various illnesses and wounds. The kids are amazing, I want to bring every one of them home with me... If you want your reward before you get to heaven, go on a mission trip! We're all exhausted and need your prayers!

Finished First Day

We just finished our first full day in the village and treated 37 cases of malaria, various infected wounds, one broken thumb and prayed with every patient. Your prayers are being heard. The Healer is with us always! Love and prayers, Jim, Holly and the entire team.

Please pray! Today a woman brought her very dehydrated young baby to us for treatment. Prior to that, she visited a witch doctor who told her to starve the baby and then kill her as a demon sacrifice. I prayed away all curses put on this child and we are praying that she will live to glorify God all the days of her life.

Jim & Holly

We're At Tenkiendougou

We have arrived at the village of Tenkiendougou. After setting up the tents, we had dinner and are now off to bed. We start the medical clinic first thing in the morning.

Love and prayers to you all.

Jim and Holly

I had my last bowl of pumpkin soup before leaving Germany

I just finished my last bowl of pumpkin soup in Papenburg, Germany. I'm doing my final packing and then I'm going to bed. My driver will be picking me up at 3AM to take me to the Dusseldorf Airport so that I can catch my 7:25AM flight to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa. Lynn Kennedy and I will be meeting in Paris and taking the same flight to Burkina, one day ahead of Holly and the team of doctors from the United States. We'll get a good nights sleep and get up early Sunday morning for a 5 hour ride with the medical team to Tenkiedougou.

Please keep us in your prayers!

Sea Trials Today

Today we are about 200 kilometers off the coast of the Netherlands. The Disney Dream is conducting 2 days of sea trials and then we are heading back to Eemshaven, Germany. Most of the tests are no big deal but the "roll test" is exactly what you would expect. They did it in the middle of the night last night and all you can do is lay in bed and try not to barf. Our satellite connection is not very reliable but I will try to make another update before I go to bed tonight.

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Leaving Papenburg, Germany tonight.

Leaving Papenburg Germany

Netherlands today

On our way to Groningen to buy props.

This is what moves the heavy pieces of the ship

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Disney Fantasy

Disney Dream in Papenburg Germany

Its such a tourist attraction they sell cotton candy in the parking lot to people taking photos.

Need encouragement? Ask the One that created it...

A few days ago I was praying and I told God that I needed encouragement.

I also told Him that I didn't want it in the form of money but that I needed something that would encourage my heart.

Yesterday, we received a check in the mail for $860 with a note saying that it is to be used for solar power for another maternity clinic.

This morning, I deposited that check at the bank and the teller said "HE sent me, that's a great name for a business. What do you do?" I told her and as she held on to every word I said, she then told me how amazing it is to see how God is working through us.

He always knows exactly what you need at the perfect time!

Hope you all are encouraged by this...

Our Third Medical Mission Trip To West Africa

As we begin packing for our third medical mission trip to Burkina Faso, we can't help but think about all of you that have made this happen through your giving and time spent in prayer for us.

These trips are both difficult and rewarding. While enduring extreme temperatures and sleeping conditions, limited food and water sources and the risk of illness, we focus on God and our mission: helping the people in this neglected region of West Africa.

I will be traveling from Dusseldorf, Germany to join Holly and the team of doctors from the U.S. on November 19th in Burkina Faso. After a short rest we will head to the village of Tenkeindougou (about a 7 hour drive) to set up the clinic.

There is no more important team member on a mission trip than the ones that commit to meet with the Lord daily on behalf of the ones who go. Thank you for being a part of the team!

Happy Thanksgiving,
Jim Dotson
Executive Director

Click here to donate

Braces are off!

Braces are off!

We spent our fourth day at "Jacob's Ladder"

We spent the day at "Jacob's Ladder" another mentally/physically challenged orphanage.

I met this young lady named Sandy. Sandy's mother shipped her over to the orphanage from Kingston and has never visited her, ever! She held my hand almost the entire time we were there.

When I left Sandy I told her I was coming back to see her soon. She said, "when?" I told her in 3 or 4 months. She didn't say a word and did not look at me. I asked her if that was soon enough and she said, "no". Then I told her I would be back sooner and then she put her arms around my neck and hugged me. I kissed her on the cheek and said good-bye.

Visited the "Widows Mite" today,

On our third day we visited the "Widows Mite", an orphanage for mentally/physically challenged kids. I will never forget this day...

Second day at the girl's

These are the hand prints of all the girls living in the home.

The second day at the girl's home. Painting finger nails and playing basketball. We had so much fun doing praise and worship and Bible study with these amazing girls. Each girl has her own special story of incest, rape, sexual abuse and how God is working in their lives.

First day in Jamaica was

First day in Jamaica was awesome. Spent the morning at Bamboo Tabernacle playing games and telling Bible stories to the kids.

"Fear is the policemen of Satan"

"Fear is the policemen of Satan" a quote from my friend Thompson in Jamaica

The wind is amazing in

The wind is amazing in Jamaica. Exploring power needs up in the mountains tomorrow.

I think Jamaica is more

I think Jamaica is more beautiful than Hawaii! The people are AWESOME!!!

St. Ann, Jamaica

Every man has a star

Every man has a star and if the enemy can hunt down your star, you are in trouble.

Boarding in 30 minutes for Jamaica!

HEsentme Explores Jamaica!

Packing for Jamaica today! Toys we're taking to the kids in the orphanages.

My portable Pro Tools rig for the MUPPET 3D theater mix at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Me and Tinkerbell

Me & Tink

"God's Glory and Delight"

This little girl was found 8 months ago wandering around the jungle in Africa. Naked, alone, frightened and starving. Her parents were dead and no one was taking care of her.

Lynn asked if anyone knew her name and found that her name in English meant "Insult" because her mother died during her birth. Lynn went through the proper legal channels and named her "Namwin Chilo" which means "God's Glory and Delight". She was taken immediately to a malnutrition center and was not expected to live.

Lynn Kennedy found a woman that had recently lost a baby and asked if she would be willing to take care of "God's Glory and Delight" her name in Dagara (Lynn named her).

Her guardian needed to see the dentist at our temporary clinic in Nakar in June 2010. As she stood watching, she became very upset. I sat down and picked her up and put her on my lap. She sat there with me for over an hour while her guardian finished with the dentist.

I'm sure that God has a plan for her life....

Best Father's Day Ever!! (June 20, 2010)

This year I spent Father's Day in West Africa away from my entire family. Now I bet you're wondering why this would be my best Father's Day ever? The thing about these trips is that if you have any physical contact with the people in the villages, you will get sick. In the past I have avoided a lot of contact (especially with the children) because of this. I always feel so bad when I return home knowing that I deprived these amazing people of the very thing they need most in their lives. A few days before I left on my recent trip to Burkina Faso, I decided that no matter the outcome, I was going to spend a lot of time shaking hands and hugging the children. So while I was away from my family on Father's Day, I spent the entire day hugging all of the children in the village of Nakar.

Towards the end of the day I received a text message from my step-daughter Elena. It said "Happy Father's Day JD! I love you!

Shortly after that, I received another text message. It was from my son Grant. He said "Just wanted to say Happy Father's Day Dad. We are all proud of everything you are doing over there. I hope the day went well and everyone is doing great. Can't wait to hear all the stories and see the pictures. I love you and miss you! Be safe!"

I bet you're not wondering why I had such an amazing Father's Day now....

In case you're wondering, yes, I did get sick. Very sick. But it was worth it!!

Paris flight delayed. Not leaving

Paris flight delayed. Not leaving Atlanta until 4:55PM...

Arrived in Paris. On my

Arrived in Paris. On my way to Atlanta in 3 hours.

All checked in on Air

All checked in on Air France in Ouagadougou. Arrive in Paris at 6AM.

Just finished shopping. On our

Just finished shopping. On our way to the U.S. Embasy for dinner then off to the airport!

Half way to Ouagadougou!

Half way to Ouagadougou!

Back in Diebougou, leaving for

Back in Diebougou, leaving for Ouagadougou bright and early in the morning. Thank you for your prayers!!

Packed up and left Nakar.

Packed up and left Nakar. So hard to leave the kids. We will miss them. Treated over 500 people!

Patrice's aunt died this morning

Patrice's aunt died this morning in a motorcycle accident on her way to the clinic in Nakar.

The end of our last

The end of our last full day in Nakar. We treated over 400 people so far. Busy day tomorrow preparing to leave on Friday.

There's a funneral going on

There's a funneral going on near the village. 3 days of non-stop singing, dancing & mourning. This is the second day.

It's raining, FINALLY! First one

It's raining, FINALLY! First one since we left the city. Good night all...

Today an older crippled woman

Today an older crippled woman walked to the clinic using a bucket as a "walker". Heartbreaking...

Nakar is the poorest village

Nakar is the porest village I have ever visited. The children here do not have clothes to wear! I have been giving lots of hugs!

Just finished the solar install

Just finished the solar install in Bolimbar. Joined the medical team in Nakar today.

Just road motorcycles through Diebougou

Just road motorcycles through Diebougou tonight. The poverty is so discouraging. Where do we start?

Finally a cool breeze in

Finally a cool breeze in Africa...

I was talking to a

I was talking to a man near Tngero. He said "America can not fall because of the work they are doing in Africa".

Praise and worship in Tnjero

Praise and worship in Tnjero this morning was AWESOME!

The CSPS clinic in Balembar

The CSPS clinic in Balembar has lights!

Cold bucket showers with dirty

Cold bucket showers with dirty water are AWESOME! Good night all...

It's so hot tonight. First

It's so hot tonight. First night sleeping without AC. We head for the clinic at 6AM. Be thankful for what you have. God bless!

We droped off the medical

We droped off the medical supplies in Nakar. We're now in Kpakpara. On our way to Lynn's house soon.

In Dana waiting for final

In Dana waiting for final approval to do medical work in Nakar.

In Dana waiting for final

In Dana waiting for final approval to do medical work in Nakar.

On our way to Diebougou.

On our way to Diebougou. Lynn Kennedy is still very sick. Please pray!

Breakfast with Steve and Amy Nehlsen!

We had breakfast with Steve and Amy this morning. What a blessing they have been to me and HEsentme! Their work at Dorcas House in Ouagadougou is inspiring. Watching twenty "at risk" women's lives being transformed each year right before your eyes. I'll be in Balembar tomorrow to begin the solar install. Three days at the CSPS clinic then off to Nakar to join the medical team from North Dakota. Not sure how much communication I will have from here on out but you will hear from me as soon as possible. Love and prayers to you all!!!

So many GOD stories already.

So many GOD stories already. HE is not finished...!

Picking up the N. Dakota

Picking up the N. Dakota team in 3 hours then to the village in the morning. Just found out that this is a medical mission!

Lynn Kennedy is feeling much

Lynn Kennedy is feeling much better. Thank you for your prayers!

Shopping with Sanya in Ougadougou!!!

I met Sanya at the bus stop today. I was about 10 feet away from her and she was looking away from me. I called out her name and she turned around and gave me a big smile. We took her shopping and I gave her a stuffed animal that my step-daughter Elena sent her. I know that God is going to use this little girl to do great things!! We dropped her off at her uncle's house and her aunt was cooking "tot". Lynn Kennedy wouldn't eat it but I did (I can hear my wife Holly saying "there he goes again"). To my suprise it was good. It's a rice and corn mix ground into a powder and then cooked over an open fire for a very long time. Another awesome day in Ouagadougou. Blessings!

We just picked up Sanya

We just picked up Sanya and we are at the market in Ouagadougou.

We have purchased the batteries

We have purchased the batteries for the solar unit for $36 each. Air France wanted $1,500 to ship them! God was watching over me!

We have purchased the batteries

We have purchased the batteries for the solar unit for $36 each. Air France wanted $1,500 to ship them! God was watching over me!

We have purchased the batteries

We have purchased the batteries for the solar unit for $36 each. Air France wanted $1,500 to ship them! God was watching over me!

Lynn Kennedy is experiencing early

Lynn Kennedy is experiencing early signs of malaria. Please pray for her!

Sanya's surgery has been delayed

Sanya's surgery has been delayed for one month. I will have more details later today. Love and prayers to all.

Just landed in Ouagadougou. I'll

Just landed in Ouagadougou. I'll update you when i pick up my luggage.

Just landed in Ouagadougou. I'll

Just landed in Ouagadougou. I'll update you when i pick up my luggage.

Just landed in Ouagadougou. I'll

Just landed in Ouagadougou. I'll update you when i pick up my luggage.

Arrived in Paris and will

Arrived in Paris and will be on my way to West Africa in 4 hours. Good thing Ouagadougou is the new Paris :)

Just landed in Atlanta and

Just landed in Atlanta and will be on my way to Paris in an hour. All is well. Slept a little. God is good!

All bags are checked through

All bags are checked through to Ouagadougou. Next stop Atlanta. Blessings!

On my way to Africa this Sunday June 13, 2010

It takes months of preparation for these trips to West Africa but I never feel like I am really going until I pick up my malaria prescription. I did that today along with a few other things I needed for the trip.

I will be spending 4 days in Ouagadougou reconnecting with Lynn Kennedy and seeing Sanya after her surgery for her clef palate. Lynn and I will be taking her shopping for new clothes!

Once the team from North Dakota arrives we will be heading for the bush. The team will drop me off at the CSPS clinic in Balembar where I will be living for 3 days and installing a small solar power system and water purification unit.

After that, I will join the team in Nakar to work on a new church building there.

I will be traveling with about 300 pounds of luggage so please be praying for everything to arrive safely.

Thank you all so much for your financial support and more importantly your prayers.

For the most current information, if you're following me across the world, watch my blog at http://hesentme.blogspot.com/

Love and prayers to you all!!

Update from Lynn Kennedy in Burkina Faso, West Africa

Beloved and coveted partners in prayer:

Quickly,

1.) Please see below a for sure PRAISE regarding my brother-in-love

2.) The little girl, LARISSA, 4 years old we have been helping medically has been diagnosed POSITIVE for AIDS!!!  Please, please pray that we will be sensitive to all needs and how to deal with this as a church body!  This is the little tyke abandoned by her mom 3 years ago ( mother just died) and neglected by her father!  Grandma is the one who has been caring for her.   I am still a little baffled by what is happening..Patrice and I are basically the only ones going to the hospital to take food, clean bedding, etc.  Our church usually is flooding the hospital rooms.  

3.) Our sweet SANYA, 8 year old now in Ouaga waiting for cleft lip corrective surgery is doing well. Additional meds have beed prescribed to build up her health prior to the surgery. Please keep praying for her.

4.) Most current tally for our youth center is we are at 13,250 of our 20,000 goal ( and as of yesterday have a few other possibilities in the works)

5.) AQUILAS  is laughing and amusing himself and breast feeding!!

6.) Steady rains have begun.

7.) Jim Dotson of HESENTME arrives June 14 and will be installing a solar unit at the buch clinic in Balembar, our Impact Team form FBC Williston, ND arrives the 17th and will be doing medical/evangelism in Nakar. I head stateside with them all on the 27th of June.

8.) 50% of needed funds for church repair/expansion at Balembar have been received..

9.) Funds " in the mail" for the expansion at Nakar.

10.) Our "FEED HIS CHILDREN" Ministry is now feeding children in 4 of our churches each Sunday.  This will be expanded in June to include 6 churches.  This will also expand in June to include a HOT MEAL one Sunday afternoon a month!!!!  One woman. A vision. Less than a year later, nearly 300 children are being fed spiritually and nutiritionally each Sunday.  We are belieiving God that by the end of 2010 all of our 11 churches will have implemented "Feed His Children".

11.) We are continuing to financially invest in teh production of the Jesus film in Lobori and Birifor ( 2 people groups we are now evangelizing as well).  In the last 12 months Shattering Darkness General Evangelsim Budget has contributed $1500.00 toward this work-in-progress!

12.) With God's grace , Shattering Darkness Gen Evangelism funds were able to 'gift' our Ghana Pastor-Partner, Samson, with the funds to purchase a bush-bike to help him and another seminary student, continue with the Muslim, "Women at the Well" ministry as well as the street ministry.  As of this week he has contacted us stating that with the motorbike, he has added a third evangelistic outreach!

AS ALWAYS...at least for us, along with blessing and expansion..come the demonic attacks!  Please, please pray for the marriages and children of all of our key leaders!

Thank you...beyond words to express...thank you!

Hidden in the One Answering your prayers,

lynn

ISAIAH 65:24

I will be in West Africa for Sanya's surgery!

Just received this email from Lynn Kennedy:

OUR GOD HAS ONCE AGAIN RESPONDED TO THE PRAYERS OF HIS PEOPLE!

Our appointment lasted about three hours which included photos, prescriptions and x-rays, blood work, etc.

The head 'facial' surgeon in all of Burkina, Dr Ouedraogo will be preforming the corrective surgery within the month.

Sanya has been placed on meds to bolster her blood.  In addition, there is no morphine to be found in-country. The chief of Medicine in Burkina must place the order and we wait until it is received.

Sanya and her aunt are staying in Ouaga with an uncle, Alain.

The in-country reps of Foundation: A Better Life are Mr. ALexandre Tapsoba and Mr. Bylah Zoungrana. Join me in thanking our Lord for each of these people and for 'Foundation: A Better Life'.

Shattering Darkness is providing food for Sanya, her uncle and her aunt as well as taxi fare and incidentals like tooth brush and tooth paste.  When the time comes we will also pay for the bus fare from Ouaga back to the village.

Foundation For a Better Life paid for all exams, all meds and are also paying for the surgery and hospital stay!!!!  Incredible!!

When all has been regulated, we will see what designated funds still remain for Sanya.

We may be able to provide some clothing, some long-term nutritional help, school fees.

For our partners who have been captured by the strife of this little girl...thank you!  I sat by her today holding her hands and at times holding her in my lap.  She was frightened and cried often.  I kept telling her that Jesus was with us and He was going to help her and heal her. As I dropped them off, I gave her the equivalent of a dollar and told her uncle it was for her. She was a happy little girl!!

Thank you, each one, for praying!  Thank you for standing and kneeling with us through this journey.  Thank you for persevering.

Preparing for my 3rd trip to West Africa...

To prepare for my next trip to Burkina Faso, I opened my journal that I took on my first trip and found I had only one entry. This is what I wrote (unedited):

July 30, 2009

"The heat was unbearable last night as we went to bed. Fortunately, exhaustion took over and put us to sleep. Without electricity there wasn't much to do but lay in bed and ask for strength from God to help us get through our first full day of work. As the day was ending, I couldn't help but notice the look of total exhaustion in everyone's face. Sweaty faces with red blotches, sweat soaked clothes, all fighting back the complaints that you just knew were running through their minds. I looked down at my feet and noticed how swollen my own ankles were, something I had never seen before.

I will never forget the moon setting over the African horizon last night. The clouds broke and the sky was full of stars and there the moon shown bright as the sun. It was like a gift from God for only the few to enjoy that awoke that time of night.

Just after breakfast and devotion it began to rain. Although this has shut down our work for the morning it is looked upon by the villagers as a blessing from God, a sort of approval of us being here.

I see it as a way to heal us from our torturous first day of being in Africa. It's restoring all of our spirits. You can actually watch faces of our team being restored."

I truly wish I had the strength to have written more but maybe this was all I needed to say. My wife Holly always refers to this trip as "my best vacation I've ever had".

Somehow, reading this makes me miss Africa.

Remember When We Prayed For Just One?

You probably remember our story from MissionsFest 2010 when Pastor David told us to pray for just one to support our cause. As you would expect, that one came forward and donated the money for a solar power system to be installed at the CSPS clinic in Balembar. Well, we just received funding for a second system, so now there will be two clinics in the southwest region of Burkina Faso, West Africa that has lights. I will be traveling back to Burkina in June for the installations. Please keep me in your prayers.

We're Drilling Water Wells In Burkina Faso, West Africa!!

HESENTME.ORG will be drilling our first water well in November 2010!!  A doctor in North Carolina has just donated the funds we needed for well drilling equipment. I will be attending a three day class in Oklahoma to learn how to use the equipment. In November, we will be shipping the equipment to Burkina Faso, West Africa to train a group of men there. Once the training is completed, we will begin drilling our first well and I will be assisting them in starting their own well drilling business. This is a huge event for us and them. These men will have an income and be able to provide for their families as well as bring fresh drinking water to many small villages in West Africa.

All glory to God!!!

The Money Has Been Raised For Sanya's Surgery!

The money has been raised for Sanya's surgery and arrangements are being made for a doctor from Europe to perform the operation at the hospital in Ouagadougou. Sanya's uncle will be traveling with her and be present for the procedure and recovery. God is so good!! Thank you again for your prayers.

Now You Can Make A Donation To HEsentme at JustGive.org

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset

Matthew Parris

 

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.
It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.
Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.
But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.
First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.
At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.
We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.
Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.
This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.
It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man's place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.
There's long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.
I don't follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.
Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.
How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds - at the very moment of passing into the new - that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said.
To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation - that nobody else had climbed it - would stand as a second reason for passivity.
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.
Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.
And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

Answered Prayer (AGAIN!)

Yesterday I received this email from Lynn Kennedy in West Africa:

Beloved,
Greetings in the Glorious Name of our Savior!!
Once again, and more and more frequently, our phone system has been down for a week!!
I would like us to pray about purchasing a satellite system which would provide for phone and internet service for keeping in touch for important ministry issues.
The cost of system and initial service for one year is between $5000-6000.
Annual renewal will be approx $1500.
I realize this is a HUGE outlay of money but the frustration of having ministry issues unresolved because of phone service and in addition the slow working of "dial-up" when phone system is working.....
Please join with us in prayer for the Lord to give us a Yes or a NO and if YES: HOW we will pay for the system!!


Thank you...
I am going to try and send this!
Hidden in the Provider,
Lynn
PS 50:10-15

I did some research on the satellite system and found one for $3,100.00 and contacted the manufacturer.


This is the email I received from them this morning:

Dear Jim Dotson,
Thank you for your inquiry.
We sell Explorer 500 for about 2.500. Unfortunately we are not able to donate.
Matt Alp (copied) can help you. He is a true believer in the Lord also.

BR/Morten Dysseholm

Then I received another email:

Dear Mr. Dotson,
I look forward to meeting you in Orlando. I am willing to help in any way [at least financially] with the phone, I'll wait for the decision on the phone. Look forward to learning more about the wind turbines also.


In Christ, Tim Fitzgibbon

God still answers prayer!!

Life In Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is known to be one of the safest third world countries. However, there is a wall around the mission house that we stay in while working in the capital city of Ouagadougou. The guard opens the gate for us so our truck can enter the grounds and then closes it when we are inside. He also helps us with anything we may be carrying and opens the door for us to enter the house. Before we go to bed, we would give him money to purchase fresh bread for us in the morning.

Every evening after dinner we would pile the leftovers on a plate and I would take it to him. He would say thank you and then put the plate down and run over to the door, open it for me and then go back to his post and eat dinner.

One day I noticed that the man had no shoes and each day wore the same clothes. He had a large tear in the left shoulder of his shirt. Not knowing if it was appropriate, I asked Lynn Kennedy if it would be alright if I gave him one of my shirts. She said that he would appreciate it. I found a shirt that I had not worn yet and gave it to him. After putting it on, he knocked on the door to show us how it looked on him and to say thank you.

We left the house one morning in a hurry to get to a meeting and forgot to put the four fresh loaves of bread away. In December, it's very dry in West Africa, and when we returned home that evening the bread was hard as a rock and we had to throw it in the trash. Later that evening, the guard knocked on the door and said that he saw the bread in the garbage and asked if it would be OK if he took it home to his family because they had no food to eat.

I'm not sure why God reminded me of this today or why He put it on my heart to write it down. I do know that He always provides for us and we should be very thankful for what we have. We should also be reminded that there are others that we can help, no matter the size of the gift.

Even four loaves of stale bread can be a blessing to a family....

I Just Received This Message From Haiti...

Dear Team,

it is our second day in Haiti and got email up thru a generator and a tower connect.....  all the mission guys are making fun of me with Sprint service, which did not work again, even though they told me it would..... so they are all iphoning it, sending pics, talking (ATT dropped all charges until March 1 in Haiti)   .........so i am thru complaining and grateful for a home, my family being alive and all the other important things in life.....

We have toured for two days and i guess i can say that the pics we have seen has done justice...but when you are up close and personal to seeing two story buildings that are one story and hear all the stories of where people were when the quake hit....it is mind boggling.... 

our team went to NEW MISSIONS today and met with Charlie DeTellis (Tim's brother and runs to mission in country).  Their area looks like a combat zone....  collasped buildings, Marines/Navy personnel all over the place......  Marines have served 200,000 people in 13 days.......   it is amazing to watch the military bring their landing carriers from the huge ships and drop them on the beach at New Missions...  helicopters dropping supplies, etc.......

I am still looking for a way to help the people.........you see all the needs, but absolutely no infrastructure to minister....  down every street......great people trying to survive...... nothing like TV is showing,, with riots, etc....out in the countryside about 25 miles from Port au Prince everything is civil and orderly......  met with many Haitian pastors and some of their people......most are under sheets tied to poles, a few of the displace have a plastic tarp and some were fortunate to have their place still standing, but afraid to stay....traffic is very busy in outlying areas but unbelievable in PaP.......it took us 2 hours to go about 15 miles yesterday thru PaP, after a 7 hr drive from Dom Republic to PaP. ......

another full day tomorrow (Thurs) and then back to the D.R. on Friday and back in Orlando about midnight  Sat....... thanks for your prayers...

lots of great Disaster Relief folks here in country, trying to figure out how/what volunteers will do...........be praying for them and for the actions our church will take....

we will see if this gets to you.......email went down 2 times while trying to write....

Bill Mitchell

Just Pray For One...

"Just pray for one" that's what Pastor David Uth said at the start of MissionsFest 2010. That's all we need to make a difference in the world, just one!

We prayed that weekend for one person to help us fund the solar project for the CSPS Clinic in Balembar, Burkina Faso. After the event we continued to pray and trust Him for what the sick needed in West Africa.

On our way to church on February 6th, I stopped at the mailbox and picked up the mail. There was a small envelope with a card inside. The note read, "this is for the solar panel in Africa, (the first of many)! God wants you to dream 'Big'! We serve a 'big God'~This is from Him! Praise the Lord".

Along with the note was a check for the entire portable solar power system that the clinic needs in Balembar.

With His blessing, we will be installing that system this spring. The first of many...

African Saying...

If you think that you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito. - African Saying

Over 4,000 People Attened MissionsFest 2010

Over 4,000 people attended MissionsFest 2010!!

HESENTME.ORG, INC. Thank you to everyone that stopped by and visited us this weekend at MissionsFest 2010. And an extra special THANK YOU to Shane and Kristen Wheeler for their hard work getting us ready for the event and helping us at the HESENTME booth.

Visit the HESENTME booth at MissionsFest 2010

Come out and visit the HESENTME booth at First Baptist Church Orlando-MissionsFest 2010: The Church Has Left the Building will be Sunday, Jan. 31 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Faith Hall. There will also be an abbreviated version of MissionsFest on Saturday, Jan. 30 from 7:45-8:45 p.m. in Faith Hall. Photos and poster design by Kristen Wheeler at KH Photographics.

Solar Power For The CSPS Clinic In Balembar, Burkina Faso, West Africa

The portable solar power system for the CSPS Clinic in Balembar was delivered to our home yesterday!

Do We Give Enough To Help The Poor?

The total income of American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion. (That's more than five thousand billion dollars.) It would take just a little over 1 percent of the income of American Christians to lift the poorest one billion people in the world out of extreme poverty. Think of it this way, American Churchgoers, who make up about 5 percent of the Church worldwide, control about half of the global Christian wealth; a lack of money is NOT the problem.

Answered Prayer In Ouagadougou

On one of our last evenings in Ouagadougou last December, I crawled into bed after a very long day. I was in bed only about 10 minutes when the electricity went out. I stepped out of my room for a moment and asked Lynn Kennedy if everything was OK. She said that "this was a normal blackout and that the power would be out for the rest of the night."

I laid back down and as the room began to heat up from no fan or air conditioning I began to pray. I told God that He had the power to restore the electricity and again thanked Him for all that He had done for us on this trip. As I spoke the last word of the prayer, the electricity came back on.

The next morning I asked Lynn if she had prayed for the power to be restored. She said "no." I told her what had happened to me that night and she asked why I didn't come out and tell everyone what had happened. I explained to her that I just wanted to enjoy the moment with God.

About 15 minutes later our photo journalist, Kristen came out of her room and explained that when the power went out, she began to pray. She said, "just as I said the last word of the prayer the electricity came on."

Then I was reminded of Matthew 18:19-21 "For where two or more come together in My name, there am I with them."

A Parable...

One early morning, after a fierce storm had hit the coast, I strolled to the beach for my morning walk. Horrified, I saw that tens of thousands of starfish had been washed up on the beach by the winds and waves. I was saddened by the realization that all of them would die, stranded on the shore, away from the life-giving water. Despairing that there was nothing I could do, I sat down on the sand and put my head in my hands.

But then I heard a sound, and I lifted my eyes. There, in the distance, I saw a man bending down and then standing up, bending down and standing up. Curious, I rose and walked toward him. I saw that he was picking up the starfish, one at a time, and throwing them back into the sea.

"What are you doing?" I yelled.
"Saving the starfish," he replied.

"But don't you see, man, that there are tens of thousands of them?" I asked incredulous. "Nothing you can do will make a difference."

He did not answer me but instead bent down, picked up another starfish, and cast it back into the water. Then he smiled, looked at me in the eyes, and said, "It made a difference to that one!"