“It’s the Real Thing!”

           Come and see us! That’s right, come and see us. We’ve got so much to tell you that we have to show you!
          After having taken a short break from the work over the Christmas holiday, Tammy and I were welcomed back to more “real African” ministry than I had ever hoped to experience. Though problems in ministry, including students and pastors falling into sin, is a universal problem, it’s far more common on the third world mission field than in the States. We’ve been a little spoiled in that way until now, but now God has poured the mother-lode of trouble on us all at once. Before I continue with this story, we want you to know that, though we’ve experienced, and are experiencing, some frustration, we don’t hate this. I don’t understand it either, but somehow we love what we’re doing here more than ever.
          Anyway, during our brief absence from our Ouagadougou residence (Less than 1 month), one of our students committed adultery, moved a girl into our yard with him in spite of being forbidden to do so by our other employees, purchased things on credit in our behalf without our permission or knowledge, sold the bicycle we’d helped him purchase for ministry, started a rumor at Tinsouka about another employee and church member hoping it would create a distraction sufficient to protect himself from discipline, and spoiled our good name among our Muslim neighbors by said behavior.
          As soon as Tammy and I walked in the yard after our return I told her that “something was up”, but she assured me that I was just paranoid. Once the information finally started flowing, however, it got a little ugly. Since we insisted on punishing the guilty instead of those who exposed him, Augustin has turned on us, threatening the ladies involved in carrying water for our newest building project with a machete, publicizing that those who exposed him are his enemies and that they’ve ruined his life, and done all within his power to hurt the church and its testimony. Unfortunately here in West Africa telling on someone, no matter how severe their sin, is considered a worse crime than the sin itself. It’s very difficult to deal with sin in a church because people are afraid of the consequences of confronting sin.
          By God’s grace, however, both we and the church have survived the storm and we’re now about 2/3 of the way to finishing a 40’ x 18’ building on the property, our second in 14 months. We’ll soon be adding to our children’s programs, and after completing the building project, we’ll be refocusing our attention on evangelism again and on the serious training of both kids and adults for future ministry responsibilities. We’ve also put most of the finishing touches on the new building at Babo and will be dedicating that building tomorrow (March 1).
Any church that’s ever experienced a major building project understands that getting things rolling again after the project has been completed is almost like starting the church over again, so please pray for us as we try to get the ball rolling again. We’re going to have little energy left when we’ll need it the most.
          There is also another issue we’d really appreciate your prayers about at Tinsouka. A couple of weeks ago, one our young ladies, who happens to be the second of two wives in a polygamous marriage, became very ill after having given birth to a son (David-named by the missionary!). These guys just don’t get the difference between a mild and a serious illness, so we tried to observe without involving ourselves too much in the situation, because when we get involved we pay (Missionaries will understand that even if pastors don’t.). Finally, realizing that the care she was getting at a neighboring village clinic wasn’t enough, we insisted on taking her into Ouagadougou to the doctor. He said she looked in good shape to him and sent her home having told her she just needed to start eating to get her strength back again. The very next day Justine’s fever soared and we got her back to Ouagadougou quick, and even the doctor was in a panic realizing he’d missed something. He sent us to the best African hospital in the country where we enjoyed another new African experience that we’ll have to save for another letter.
          After a three day hospital stay at our expense, Justine was released with antibiotics to continue fighting an infection she apparently contracted as a result of a poorly handled delivery at the village clinic. The doctor assured Marcel (Justine’s husband) that we had saved her life by bringing her and Marcel’s testimony in our behalf has somewhat undone the damage done by Augustin in the village. The shocker came this last week, however, when we finally got back to the hospital with Justine for a follow-up visit. The doctor had a suspicion about her condition, so decided to do an AIDS test. You got it! We’re now in the thick of real African ministry. We knew we’d face things like this, but again, we’ve been a little spoiled up until now. It seems probable that we’re about to lose a sister in Christ, and possibly a whole family, as a consequence of polygamy. Marcel had the two wives, before ever being saved, of course, but there seems to be little doubt that it was Justine, the second wife, who brought the problem with her. The doctor advised us not to tell the couple about the test results until we visit him again in two weeks so that she can recover from her current illness before we break the news to her together and discuss treatment options.
          In addition to dealing with the AIDS problem, we will be facing the added pressure of their expectations. We helped them to get this far because we couldn’t stand by and watch a 22 year old girl with a 105+ fever die without doing anything about it. The consequence will little doubt be, however, that the majority of the village will have the expectation that all of Justine’s future medical expenses will also be the missionary’s. We obviously can’t do it, it’s not our work!
          This situation may well either kill or solidify the work in Tinsouka forever. We’re not afraid, and we’re not mad at God, we just want to do the right thing in God’s behalf. We want His name to be glorified by our behavior no matter what the response of the villagers might be.
          I know how our prayer letter editor is going to get this all on one sheet of letterhead, but this isn’t nearly the half of what we’d like to share this month. Please bear with us and our prayer letter writing. We’re now a good ways away from an e-mail site and, as you can tell, our time has become extremely precious recently. We’re going to do our best to keep you posted as things progress, but things are coming at us so fast right now that it’s hard to keep up. Please keep up your praying because your prayers have no doubt been what has maintained the ministry to this point, because we’re certainly not in control.
          Know, however, that we’re tired, but not discouraged, missing home, but not hating being here. If you want to know the rest you’ll just have to come because you’ll never really get it until you really see it!

Partners,
John & Tammy Cooley