We visited a farm.

This is Pastor Jaque. He runs a farm way out on the outskirts of town. A farm I had the pleasure of visiting with Marvelly and a few other families on Friday.

My friend Heidi with Go To Nations works with Pastor Jaque to help train Christian Burkinabe men in children's ministry. And together they set up a field trip for a few kids at his farm for the afternoon.

But this is not just a farm. It is also a school of sorts where men come to learn about Jesus and are discipled in God's word. And they learn to farm. The course runs for a length of time and after which they are sent out to start a church and start a small farm to help sustain the needs of them and the congregation. The Burkinabe men in the back of the classroom are three out of the twenty two students who learn here.

The buildings on this farm are not what you would see in the states, but the animals are no different.

They have a large building to house the chickens.

Cows. There isn't much grass so they just graze in the dirt. :~)

There were goats. And that little guy was the life of the party right there! He didn't like us much at first but after a while of being manhandled by a bunch of kids he warmed up.

There were a few very cute, but very smelly pigs. 100 degree weather has a way of making everything smell that much worse.

That little baby was adorable.

Speaking of little baby.... :~) This guy followed us around quite a bit. He sure is gorgeous.

His mom works on the farm (she's the gal pushing the wheel-barrel) so he just hangs out and meanders while she works. In my watching I'm finding that this is very typical. In the states we would have child welfare services bangin' down our door if we left our kids to fend for themselves while we worked. But most people, especially women here, have no other options. They can't afford school, and this little guy is too young to attend anyways, and the mothers have to work somehow to earn a living, so the kids are often left unattended.

The little guy wrapped to his mothers back is still too young to walk so she carries him with her all day long while she works. You see this everywhere. Babies swaddled to their mother's backs....while they work, or zoom down the road on a moto. It fascinates me how strong these women are. You've got to be pretty hard core to do manual labor on a farm all day in 100 degrees with a baby swaddled to your back.

They waste absolutely nothing here. We learned that every piece of poo from the animals is collected and put in this cylinder hole where it sits for two weeks or so and ( I think) water, or something, is put on top of it and the gases from the poop are slowly released and fed through a tube that goes into this device in the ground where they collect it and use it for electricity for the farm, cooking, all sorts of stuff. I'm not poo power savy so I don't know all the technicalities around this, but it's still so cool.

We went for a hike in the bush to see their beehives. They have bee houses all over the property in trees and around them where the bees come to make the honey. This is one of them. They have to be careful to always leave some honey behind because if they removed it all the bees would not come back.

And this is some of the honey from the beehive that they sent us home with!

 

Honored to have been able to meet Pastor Jaque and see all that he is doing for the Lord. He is very passionate about serving Christ and raising up other men to do the same. It's men like him and those four awesome gals below who are helping to bring Jesus to this nation. I love seeing and learning about all the ways God is using people here, a country I didn't even know existed 13 months ago. I love how God sees and desires to bring His life to all His people and there is not a single corner of this earth that has escaped His attention.  Even way over here in a little land locked country that most people have never even heard of....God is busy spreading His light. It's very inspiring. Great day. :~)

(Ruby, Heidi, me, Nicole, Anne )