UPDATE: The flood relief continues. The offices of the C&MA missionaries are nearly fully restored. Steve Nehlsen writes that they need prayer for: the leadership team is meeting this week. Pray
for the decisions that we need to make and for God’s will to be done. Pray for the flood relief that is continuing.
Three mothers of a couple of our Compassion International kids have come to
Christ through the relief efforts.
Transition back into the swing of things hasn’t
been all that easy for any of us. We arrived with little time to get
ready for Field Forum and school. Then we had the flood on September. Amy has been able to go out to Dorcas House regularly
on Monday afternoons and Saturday afternoons. She is encouraged by what
she is seeing and pray that the girls will learn a great deal in these last
three months. We will be starting the garden training soon.
Thanks to the generous outpouring from our church community, South Hills has been able to send $9,200 to help with the recovery programs.
In
a country where 14 inches of rain would be an annual rainfall, we
received 14 inches in less than 12 hours. This was the largest rain
since 1919. That’s going back a ways. And things weren't as devastating
since the city was so much smaller then. Now the population tops
1,000,000, with some estimates as high as 2,000,000. The canals that
normally evacuate the water run-off quite adequately, were incapable of
doing so this time. The water ripped the concrete sides off of the
canal in some places. The result was that many neighborhoods were
overcome with water. In the poorer neighborhoods of the city, many of
the mud brick homes were unable to withstand the rush of the water and,
as a result, came down! Today, it is estimated that 150,000 people are
homeless, living in schools or with family. Some lost every bit of
their personal belongings, even though they never had much to begin
with. A number of people lost their lives in the rushing water. Bridges
and dams have been destroyed. One of the main generators, that powers
electricity to the capital city, was destroyed. We were already having
significant power cuts due to the inability to provide electricity for
the whole city at one time. This will likely aggravate the situation
even further.
The relief and development organization of our church, ACCEDES, is planning to do something tangible to help meet the needs. They certainly can’t help everyone, but they can help some and we can help with them. The plan is to provide food for 500 people for 2 months, and to provide three changes of clothing for 500, as well as to provide medicine for those who may need emergency medicine. The total cost of the relief effort is estimated at about $24,000. About $10,000 has been promised from CAMA Services. We are trying to partner with ACCEDES and CAMA to find the funds to help with this need.
The relief and development organization of our church, ACCEDES, is planning to do something tangible to help meet the needs. They certainly can’t help everyone, but they can help some and we can help with them. The plan is to provide food for 500 people for 2 months, and to provide three changes of clothing for 500, as well as to provide medicine for those who may need emergency medicine. The total cost of the relief effort is estimated at about $24,000. About $10,000 has been promised from CAMA Services. We are trying to partner with ACCEDES and CAMA to find the funds to help with this need.
So If you would like to help in some way, you can send a gift to CAMA Services, P.O. Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500. Be sure to note that it is for Burkina Flood Relief.
There were dozens of kids who came to watch us at the construction site. We were blessed to be able to play with them, perform a drama, and to share the Gospel with them.
