It’s been quite a week. Oh wait…I’ve only been here for three days but it feels like a week.

Tonight, I am exhausted both physically and emotionally.  It’s been about 102 every day here in Burkina Faso and we have been going none stop.    Yesterday we drove for 14 hours to the bush and back and today we visited two Compassion projects in a rural area. The days have been long and it’s hard to describe the poverty I have seen in this country.  The images will haunt me for a long time.

We met a mother today with a difficult story.  Her name is Edith, and a few months ago her husband died. Two months pregnant and with an eight year old child, Edith had no way to support her family.  In Burkina Faso, children are considered orphaned even if one parent is still living, because it literally takes two parents to raise a child when you live on less than a dollar a day.

Edith lives in a rural area, and by tradition, when a wife looses her husband, his family will take everything from her, and she is to marry the brother of the deceased husband.  Edith did not want to do this, so the family burned down her house, chased her away and left her with nothing. Heart broken and despaired, she wanted to abandon her children because she felt like she had nothing to give them, no way to support them and no hope for their future. That is when Compassion and the church intervened. They registered her eight year old into the project, and built her a house right next to the church.  Today, with her sweet baby in her arms, Edith told us of the life saving impact Compassion has had on her family both physically and spiritually. Now Edith and her children are doing well and have found the incredible hope of Jesus.

Ok…one more fact about Burkina Faso and the children. I am not telling you these things so that you can pity the children, I am telling you these things so that you will help the children.

Ready for this one? Apparently Burkina Faso doesn’t have an orphan problem. Good news right?  WRONG! Burkina Faso doesn’t necessarily have an orphan problem because when one parent dies… or both parents die, often the child will be taken to an abandoned place and left to die as well because the family can’t provide, and children in this culture are often placed at the same value as a tree. I don’t know about you, but this little guy is more beautiful, valuable, precious, incredible than any tree I have ever seen.  It would be so cool to see him in a Compassion program.  Unfortunately he lives in the bush out in an area where Compassion hasn’t got a program yet, but hopes to in the future. 

The UN says that 2 million people are at risk of starvation in this country.  I am so grateful when I can step into the Compassion centers to see the incredible difference Compassion is making in the lives of children and families in this country. I am proud to work for such an amazing ministry and I am happy to know that our sponsored children have content bellies tonight.

It’s late and I need to go to bed, but I just wanted to give you a glimpse of what I am seeing so that you too would help. Thank you so much to those of you who did sponsor a child yesterday.  I was so happy to hear this news!

Tomorrow night I will head home, so I am signing off for now and I leave you with some more images and I am asking you to pray for this country.  Thank you for following along this week, I know that the words and pictures were a little harder to deal with.  I love Africa and I believe God’s grace pours down on this place, and I believe He wants us to pay attention to what is going on here!

Check out the children who need sponsors. They are so cute!

Goodnight my friends.  Here are some moments from my week I won’t forget.