Thanksgiving in Burkina Faso

Last Saturday, a dental team arrived from the U.S.  Con and Hien are Vietnamese.  Con is a dentist and Hien, his wife, is a doctor.  They have two wonderful daughters that came with them.  Also on the team, Mar who is from Burma and works in an E.R., Brittany who works in health care, and Matt and his wife Kara.  Kara is a secretary at her church and Matt works with computers.  On Sunday I had the incredible opportunity to travel with them to Tougan.  John and Betty Arnold, Pete, and Larry supervised the operation from the Burkina Faso end.  We arrived Sunday evening and were treated to dinner by the local church.  We started early Monday morning and Con finished the last patient for the day close to 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.  Pulling teeth began Tuesday around 8:30 a.m. and by the time we finished at noon, Con had pulled 68 teeth from 38 villagers!  Some of the teeth came out easily, while others were difficult and very painful for the patient (and all of us watching).  We packed up and headed back to Ouagadougou in time for Pete to catch his return flight back home. Early Wednesday morning the team was back at work in Sector 30.  There is no electricity or running water in Sector 30 which presents special opportunities but everything went smoothly.  With no electricity, it was necessary to end before dark and head back to the mission house.  Today, Friday, we were back at Sector 30, and at 3:30 p.m. Con had one more patient to see before closing down and packing up. 

Last night our team had a Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, dressing and stuffing.  The dental team joined us and we had such a nice evening.  Before coming, the dental team asked what each of us would like for them to bring to us.  We sent one or two items that we either were missing from home or would be useful in our ministry.  I asked for a water bottle, and scissors with white thread for Tabitha House.  They went above and beyond in bringing not only what we requested but other gifts as well.  It was like Christmas! This team is made up of very special people that I have become close to in 6 short days.  We'll all be sad to see them go.

Celebrating Thanksgiving in a country that does not celebrate the same holiday was strange.  It didn't feel like Thanksgiving.  It's hot, there are no advertisements for the holidays, and no black Friday shopping.  But it was an enjoyable day and nice to spend the evening with our team and friends.

Only through God's blessing and guidance, Tabitha House continues to be successful.  We were told today that people all around the Sector 30 area are talking about the work there.   It's amazing to watch these women who don't know how to read, write, or use a pair of scissors, beam with pride when they learn a new skill and are anxious to learn more.  I really struggled with capping the number of women that could come at 50, but we had no more room.  The goal now is to love and train these 50 women to have the ability to carry the work on by themselves, and to give them the skills to go out and teach others about Jesus and the Good News.

I missed my daughters and their families on Thanksgiving - that's for certain.  But I'm really thankful to be here and a part of this work.  

Claire, the woman who works here at our house, lost her sister this week.  She was 18 years old.  You can see the sadness on Claire's face.  Please keep her in your prayers.  And just a note about Claire -- last week after my French lesson with Daniel, she went running after him as he was leaving.  They talked for a few minutes and then Daniel came back to the house with her.  Claire wanted to know if it was o.k. for her to call me "Mammie".  In their culture they call women who they respect "Tantie"  which means auntie.  Claire wanted to know if she could take it to the next step and call me Mammie.  It was really touching.  Claire is a very gentle, kind soul.  With it being so hot here, I've fallen back into the bad habit of drinking Coca Cola.  Whenever I drink one I fix half of it for Claire.  When I offer it to her, you would think it was a gift of gold. 

Wednesday was an exciting day at Tabitha House

Wednesday was an exciting day at Tabitha House.  First, a team that was recently here from the US heard that we were in need of tables and made five of them.  They were delivered early Wednesday morning.  Here is the thank you note that was sent to them:

Dear Friends, 

You will soon be receiving some photos of the delivery of the tables you made to Tabitha House.  It will be hard for you to appreciate the feelings and emotions of the women by the pictures.  So, I thought I might share it with you with words.

The women that come to Tabitha House have a very hard existence.  They work to eke out an existence from one day to the next.  They certainly don't think of themselves as special in any way. But today you made them feel very special.  You showed them that others care about them and love them -- people that they haven't even met!  Most importantly, you helped them see the love of God working through you.  Instead of trying to cut fabric on a narrow wooden bench, they had that fantastic table to use.  Instead of designing and putting together necklaces with the beads and string on their laps, they had a table to lay out their beads.  They even used one of the tables, carefully covered with a piece of scrap material, to use an iron that had been heated in the fire to complete the ties for the jewelry sacks.  Everyone of the tables were used today, and will be for hopefully a long time.

When I first went to Tabitha House to be introduced to the women, I looked out at their faces and thought "how arrogant I am to think that I could come here and make a difference".  These women needed a miracle-maker.  It scared me so badly that all I wanted to do was get up and run as fast as I could!  But I clearly heard God's voice in my head saying "you can love them.  That's what they need. You can love them."  That's what you did by your gift - you loved them and by doing that gave them hope for a better existence.  Many who come have not heard of Jesus Christ before, so your gift shows them what life in Jesus is like - loving others because He loved us.  And that's powerful!

So, on behalf of the women at Tabitha House - THANK YOU!  Your love is and will be far reaching.

Dee Dee Sterling

Then to add to the excitement of the day, I had the incredible opportunity to distribute money that had been received for the jewelry and dolls they made. The women were paid a percentage of the funds based on the number of days they came.  Most of the women sat in stunned silence and amazement at the amount they were receiving.  (These women and their families eke out an existence on about $.50 a day.)  Some cried and some could just sit smiling from ear to ear.  From what I understand, there was a a lot of rejoicing in their homes that evening. 

Sometimes I find myself wondering how I get the privilege of working in this ministry.  What I've decided is that I can't answer that question so I'll just be extremely grateful for the opportunity.

One of the women that come to Tabitha House lost her husband in an accident on Tuesday.  If you would, please say a prayer for her and her family.  Life was hard before and now without her husband, I can't even imagine.

Sunday was the 21^st anniversary celebrating women in the church here in Burkina Faso.  The service was 3-1/2 hours long with lots of singing, dancing, and acknowledgement of women, all organized and led by women.  Each year they commission a special fabric for the event and make their skirts and dresses out of it.  They wrote special songs and did a great skit on being blessed by God but then turning around and not treating others with the same love.  It was a joyous service.  As I watched, the importance of the day for these women really hit me. 

Amnesty International did a study on women in Burkina Faso in 2010.  Here are some of their findings:

Unmarried women are seen as ill-fated and of little worth. Married women without children face discrimination and are at risk of being abandoned or rejected by their husbands and in-laws. There are heavy cultural pressures from the community on women to have many children, seen as a sign of wealth, particularly in rural areas.

Although women have equal status under the law, in practice most are subordinate to the men in their lives and are unable to make key decisions, including the timing and spacing of their pregnancies. Women are embedded in a vicious circle with little access to education or to information on sexual and reproductive rights, and are subject to early marriages, female genital mutilation and polygamy as well as being expected to work long hours while pregnant or after childbirth.

Women are well aware of the dangers of pregnancy, as nearly everyone knows a relative or friend who died or suffered complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Several women told Amnesty International that young girls in rural areas used to wish each other "not to have the misfortune of being pregnant".

Women in Burkina Faso

• Every year, more than 2,000 women die in Burkina Faso from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
• In 2007, the literacy rate for women and girls was only 21 per cent, compared to 36.7 per cent for men and boys.
• In rural areas the fertility rate is 6.9 children per woman, as compared with 3.7 in urban areas. The national average is 6.2.
• Young women in rural areas are more likely to bear children, with 157 per thousand rural adolescents becoming mothers, compared with 64 per thousand in urban areas.

Statistics taken from Giving LIfe, Risking Death - Maternal Mortality in Burkina Faso (pdf 2.34MB) a report by Amnesty International.  http://www.amnesty.org.au/poverty/comments/22437/

It is wonderful to see the church in Burkina Faso playing such a dynamic role in acknowledging and changing the status and worth of women.