Missionaries say all the time that they are called to a certain country. Normally, our vision gets cornered to a small area of a town and that is it. I have met a few missionaries that have had a major impact on just one city and even fewer who have impacted a country.
I have been taught to think like a general. Find a way to attack the country with the Gospel. Don’t think small but think big. So that is what I have tried to do the last few years. It takes a little while to get the train started, but by the grace of God we are rolling.
It will take literally thousands of churches to be able to get close to reaching the 16 million people of Burkina Faso. Just think about it. Georgia has a little less than 10 million people. In 2005, there was an estimated 8,190 Baptist churches in GA. Membership is around 2,100,000. To reach Burkina Faso effectively we don’t need just 10 churches nor 100 churches nor 1000 churches but thousands. People have asked me, “how are you going to do that”? I think sometimes, “how can I do that”? The truth is I can’t possibly do that, but He can. I have watched as God has worked miracles and done way more than Keith Shumaker can do.
We have many projects coming up totaling an estimated $85,000. God has blessed in the past few weeks. We received a check from an individual for $1,500. Even his kids sent some money to help. A church sent in $3000 this week. With these and other gifts, we currently have over $5,000 for the roof at Living Water Baptist Church leaving us with around $80,000 needed to cover upcoming projects. We have been contacted this week by a church that would possibly like to help with the building at Tingandogo.
Below is a sample of some of our current needs and near future projects:
Living Water Baptist Church – roof – $15,000-$20,000 –This is our main work. – We will do Bible college here for many years – need the second floor for Bible college and also for Sunday school rooms/childrens church.
Tingandogo – In need of a new church building — $5000 – Church was started in 2005 – The current building is small – maxed out with 30-35 adults –need something bigger.
Bread of Life Baptist Church – worked started in 2009 — latrine — $1000 and pastors house (future) $3000
Roungou – (future) bigger church building – started in 2005 – remote village – lots of women, children and teenagers – current church building is too small
Pissila – don’t have a work there yet – will build church and moore Bible College — $15,000 – $20,000
Basséko – new church being started – finished what we need to for now.
Land and taxes – on-going process of getting new land around the city Ouagadougou — goal is to have around 40 churches in Ouagadougou – must obtain land for the future
Mali – Paid $2000 on some land – have $1000 left – this is for a national who is doing a great job. I would love to build him a decent church building, walls, latrine, classrooms — $20,000
Ivory Coast – I built a church for a pastor in 2003 – it would be great to help build a house on the land — $4000
Leave a Reply