110°+ in the shade, or it would be, if there was shade! That about describes where we’re at in Burkina Faso right now. We don’t know if it’s our age, being out of shape for lack of time to exercise, or living where there are absolutely no trees to shade our house from the sun, that’s doing it, but Tammy and I are being “zapped” by this hot season more than any other in the past. Even after six hours, or so, of sleep each night, we wake up in the morning feeling like someone has beaten us up with a baseball bat in the night.

In spite of the challenge the weather is presenting for all of us here in Burkina right now, the Lord is continuing to give us, and now our handful of Christian workers, souls for our labor. The large crowds that excite us all when we start a new work here in Burkina have long since disappeared at both Babo and Tinsouka, but are now being slowly replaced by real commitments to serve Christ. Pierre returns from Babo with reports of one, or two, being saved in just about every weekend, and we’re beginning to see some of the faithful at Tinsouka take responsibility for the ministry of their church. Pierre will be baptizing at least seven more new converts at Babo this coming Sunday (May 11th) and six women, including one lady in her 70’s, made professions of faith last week while we were there, so will likely be baptized in the next month, or so.

We’re still looking at creative ways to try to get people who can barely read and write, and who live in far off places, trained for ministry. We didn’t come to Burkina Faso to pastor churches, but to plant them and we can’t plant new churches if always consumed by the needs of those already started. We have resisted the idea of giving any kind of financial support to those who wish to be trained for ministry for fear of making them dependent on us, but we may need to consider it in order to speed up the process. Even the financial support would not likely be money, but food and some kind of investment (Like small farm animals, for example) that would help them to produce their own income later on when they become pastors.

Getting people trained is one thing that you can really only pray about for us right now, but there is one burden that you can help us to unload. I mentioned, a few months back, our desire to build a clinic in Tinsouka. We’ve not given up on it yet, though we’ve only received $1,300 for the project so far. The first step in establishing a clinic, however, is producing a source of water. Simple, right? I wish! Not in Burkina Faso. We’ve been informed, ever since having arrived in Burkina that the cost of installing a well with a hand pump was about $5,000US. Were we ever shocked, however, when we started making the effort to get wells built in both Babo and Tinsouka. Both desperately need new wells, but unless we get some kind of help the “water of life” at both places will be staying underground.

Soaring prices, the falling dollar, and other factors too complicated to explain in a prayer letter have changed the price tag of even a simple well to the degree that we can’t even consider the possibility of doing it ourselves. Brace yourself…The cost of a simple well; that’s a well, not a pump, lined with cement, where you lower your bucket to get water, now costs about $8,000US. I’ve gotten three written estimates on wells with hand pumps (not electric) and the lowest of the three was more than $13,000US. You might reasonably ask: “Is it really our responsibility to build wells?” It’s a legitimate question, and I’m not going to “beat you up” if you disagree with me, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it is.

Yes, reaching West Africans is incredibly difficult and they have brought the majority of the problems they’re cursed with every day upon themselves. They’re complicated, they are poor but arrogant people, the majority are dishonest, and it’s often very difficult to see any light at the end of the tunnel concerning the success of the Gospel ministry here…but we are here. We didn’t really know what we were accepting when we accepted the call to come here, but we do know to whom we made the commitment and it’s that that has convinced us that we need to dig wells, build clinics, bear with people who’ve brought AIDS upon themselves by participating in polygamy, and be generally consumed and overburdened with someone else’s problems.

How does that make any sense? In 1 John chapter 4, John said that we know what love is because God first loved us. That means that He loved us in spite of the fact that we represented nothing other than a burden to Him. We had nothing to offer, no desire to change, and His further involvement with us only complicated His own life further. God knew there was a lot of hurt ahead of Him if He was ever to do anything with us, and now here we are (you and us). Though I’m not comfortable with the terminology myself, we accepted what God had to offer us by His grace only after He “proved” Himself. What a farce! God proving Himself to us? I know, but that’s the way it works. And if we’re going to reach these people, we’ll do it by proving ourselves (our love) to them exactly the same way. If we’re going to reach the Burkinabe for Christ, we’re going to do it through a lot of hurt, disappointment, and at great personal expense. That’s the way it is.

So if building a well is what it’s going to take to prove ourselves, we’ll build one…if you’ll help us. I once thought that building a well would just be a great idea, a feather in our cap in the village, but it has now become a personal burden for me. I don’t just want to do it, I feel like we ought to do it. Imagine yourself needing to walk a mile and a half to get water twice a day and then carrying it back in a five gallon jug on your head. That’s enough to make you want to contribute to building a well…I hope!

We love you all for your faithfulness, and wish there was something other than writing a letter that we could do to tell you thank you. Thank you!

Partners,
John & Tammy Cooley