If you see nothing else, watch this…

Give a Kid a Christmas - Day 2 from Joel Hayslip on Vimeo.

Read more about Day 2’s outreaches and see the pictures on the previous post.

What an exciting day of ministry!
5:45 - Time to wake up… After a long day of outreaches yesterday, we were all pretty groggy - luckily Lis made coffee.

6:30 - Everyone’s here and we started singing and praying. Our favorite song this year is “J’ai la j-o-i-e joie” in fitting with our theme this year : “Keeping our joy”.

7:00 - We head to Joseph’s house to load the truck with presents and “Book of Hope” booklets.

8:00 - We just arrived in Hamdalaye, a Fulani, muslim neighborhood where a missionary is running a school for Fulani kids. There, we did the “chair skit” - a fun skit that shows how sin enslaves and how Jesus alone can save. We also performed the Jesus skit. What really made this outreach special was that we did the outreach out on the street, and over 100 neighbors came out to watch.
As we handed out the 120 gifts to the kids, there was quite a bit of confusion as all the moms crowded in to see what their kids received. It was very exciting!! (more after the slideshow)

11:00 - Back home for a quick lunch: rice with peanut sauce.

MORE PICTURES, MORE STORIES -
Read more…

We did it! We wrapped 3000 (Three THOUSAND) gifts in less than a week.

How?

We had a ton of help: Our african theatre group (about 15 people), the missionary youth group (about 30 people), Heidi’s Bible study ladies (about 5 ladies), and Joseph’s neighbors. We accumulated over 300 man hours (an average of 6 minutes per gift), and we finished just in time for the outreaches. Here is a quick video of the process:

Preparing the Gifts from Joel Hayslip on Vimeo.

Our Trip to Dori (and Piela) from Joel Hayslip on Vimeo.

For the details about this trip, read the previous post.

Well, as missionaries in training, we were always told that the most important thing to remember is to “stay flexible”, that no plans should become sacred, that in the blink of an eye, everything can change.

And so it has!

WEEK 1 OUTREACH:
Planned: Gampela - no gifts
Actual: Ouagadougou - 1000 gifts/?? schools

We had planned to go to a small suburb of Ouagadougou (capital) called Gampela, a place where Joseph had done some summer camps and been involved in training children’s pastors. However, once we started getting all the details situated, we are meeting with a lot of resistance from the regional director for the public schools. The school principals are excited, the pastors are beside themselves, but we decided to honor the regional director and not try to force anything: we always want to leave a pleasant aroma of Christ in the community. God’s time will come there.

Read more…

Heidi was diagnosed with Typhoid Fever, and feels HORRIBLE!  She came down with something on Saturday, and we thought it might be malaria since there has been a ton of cases this year here in Burkina, and she was running a high fever (103 degrees).  But since it was the weekend, we waited until monday to get a blood test done.  When the result came in on Tuesday - Typhoid Fever!

She is still running fevers, has a very nauseous stomach,  has muscle aches, and generally just feels terrible!  And our outreaches start in just a few days!  What will I do without her?

Please pray for a VERY quick recovery.