APT is the charity that Lynne and I have set up to facilitate all the work we are doing with the church in Burkina Faso, and at the new site you can find out more about everything we do, including:

• evangelism and church planting
  
• the gorom-gorom school
  
• the Oudalan Ministry Centre and our plans to develop it
  
• mobile dental clinic
  
• church partnerships

... and much much more!

Online Donations
You can also now Donate Online to support the work of APT or one of our Current Projects.

There are still some minor adjustments to make, and we hope later to add other bits, such as a shop where you will be able to buy "alternative gifts" through the website. In the meantime, do let us know what you think.

Many thanks to David Nelson from Mossvale Community Church for his wonderful work on the website design!

"Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."(Is 1)

"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness..." (Matt 6)

Christ calls us to leave the sin and emptiness of destructive self-gratification that shapes so much of our life, and to start living for something greater. His call is not just to believe in him so that you can go to heaven - his call is to leave self-centredness and to live a costly life of discipleship to bring freedom, healing, and salvation to others. He calls us to stand with the poor, weak, and vulnerable, to stand for justice and truth, to live passionately, purely, and sacrificially to bring God's kingdom of peace and justice to a needy world.

We have only to look at the news to see the suffering and injustice that break the heart of God, whether it is a billion people living in poverty, girls trapped in sex slavery, children taken as soldiers, racism, aids, corruption in high places, homelessness... and you can name many other issues. The God of love and justice cares about the poor and suffering, and calls us to join him in standing up for them.

These are all battles that are worth fighting, but at times it is overwhelming - you cannot fight every battle... But you can do something.

Don't reduce the life-changing gospel to just one aspect of its outworking in social action. But if your life is truly changed by the gospel, if your life is ruled and shaped by the suffering servant, you will find somewhere you can make a difference in the world. Pick a fight - find an injustice that wounds the heart of God, a people suffering, or beaten down by the sin of others, and get involved. Fight for something that is worth giving your life for, and not just for your own comforts and concerns. There are so many fights to be fought. Somehow, somewhere, give yourself to bring God's justice, peace, healing, and freedom to others.

Go on... pick a fight!

"Evil prospers when good men do nothing."

More Than Conquerors
The impetus for this post came from my friend Simon Guillebaud, who has been working in Burundi since 1998, and set up Great Lakes Outreach in 2003 to work for the spiritual and physical development of the country. He has been living for Christ in a war zone alongside radically committed Christians bringing the life-changing grace of Christ to a needy nation.

Simon has now written a book and has just produced a dvd with 13 short films, called "More Than Conquerors". The book and dvd are to "stir up, envision, and challenge followers of Jesus to embrace a costly authentic discipleship." You can buy the book or dvd at the More Than Conquerors website. I will be buying copies, and will review it here in due course. In the meantime, you can see a preview of one of the films here: http://www.more-than-conquerors.com/preview.html

In the province of Oudalan where we work, there are three main people groups: the Fulani, the Tamacheq, and the Songhai. All are Muslim peoples, with a respect for the Jesus of the Quran, but with little understanding of his power to change lives today. Over the last couple of years, we have begun to reach out to a number of Songhai villages, and are now beginning to see people getting hold of the truth of Christ, and deciding to follow him for themselves.

Pastor Matthias has moved into one of the villages, and now has two Songhai men in his church. Pierre and Seydou (right) and Pascal have been visiting four other villages at least every two weeks, and a few individuals have now been baptised. Potentially there is another pastor getting ready to move into one of these villages after the millet harvest is in.

This week, Pierre, Pascal, and Seydou have had a team of Brazilian, Nigerien, and Americans working with them, going into all five villages to teach about Christ. They have found a lot of openness, and in one village three men made the decision to follow Christ.

Please joining us in giving thanks, and pray for

• Pierre, Pascal, Seydou, and Matthias as they continue to bring God's love to the Songhai
  
• The Songhai Christians, that they may grow in the love and grace of Christ
  
• The new pastor hoping to move into the region, that God opens the door for him

Thank you

New Class Starts
I spoke to the headmaster, Nicodeme, by phone this week, and he says that the new teacher has arrived, and they have built another temporary classroom next to the first one, and they are starting classes.

We had hoped to have started building the school proper by now, but unfortunately, the start has been unavoidably delayed. This has been frustrating, but it is encouraging to see Nicodeme, Pastor Daniel, and the church in Gorom-Gorom pushing on so enthusiastically regardless. The essential thing is that the children, who never before had the possibility of going to school, are now getting access to a quality education in a loving Christian environment. Please pray for the teachers and children, that they may know God's blessing this year.

Building Project
The reasons for the delay in the construction project have been various, and partly a result of trying to do everything as well as possible, and of keeping the church in Burkina and partners in Europe walking together in the way forward. Our desire has been to offer an approach to the school construction which is innovative, but without imposing western ideas. Some of the ideas that we have been suggesting have been very new for Burkina, and it may be that some are not appropriate. We hope though that the end result will be not only a quality school, but one that reflects the heart of God's love for the marginalised and dispossesed. Please pray that we may together make swift progress now on the construction project.

Class Sponsorship
We have been hoping to find sponsorship for this second intake, and it looks like we may have found it. Please pray that this will work out - we know it is difficult for people to make such commitments at this time of worldwide financial difficulties.

To find out more about the school sponsorship project and the construction project, please go to the Gorom-Gorom School page.

It is the story of Danny Temple, a computer-hacker and parkour enthusiast, in his pursuit of hidden gold, stolen from the ancient Malian city of Timbuktu in "the most daring heist in African history". Danny and his friend Omar have to use their hacking and parkour skills to find the gold and escape the attentions of a fiendish Facebook-based group that is after them.

As with his previous novel, The Yellowcake Conspiracy, Steve's combination of cool contemporary technology with historical West African cultures provides the catalyst for a thrilling adventure. Leaping and racing from roof-top London to cliff-top Africa, the book - again like "Yellowcake" - begs to be made into a film.

Steve uses remarkable economy of words, not only to maintain the pace and excitement of the story, but also to imbibe you with the worlds to which he introduces you. There are no long boring descriptive paragraphs, yet you find yourself caught up in the Malian scenery and culture as the story runs and vaults past riverside villages and mud-brick mosques. Steve's familiarity with, and love for West Africa gives a respect and authenticity to this Malian context that is lacking in so many other books and films. And the fascination of western teenage boys with the world of computers and free-running will make this an adventure into which many will be able to imagine themselves caught up.

If you are looking for good books for teenage boys, try this. You can buy it on Amazon here.
See more of Steve's writing here

Over the last couple of months, Burkina Faso lost their chance to seize the group's World Cup place through their two defeats by the group's heavyweights, Ivory Coast, including a 5-0 thumping in Abijan in September. Ivory Coast are reckoned by many to be Africa's best chance at the World Cup in South Africa 2010.

Burkina Faso have improved over recent years and dominated the match against Guinea. They are second in the group having won all their other matches, but they still seem to have a way to go to break into Africa's top tier. The game was played in Ghana due to political problems and turmoil in Conakry.

Allez les Etalons!

Actually, the HDI, based upon statistics of Life Expectancy, Education, and Income, seeks to look at development, going "beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being". Such criteria do have some value, and on this front, it is encouraging to see that Burkina Faso has made progress. Ever since I can remember, Burkina has been in the bottom three. But this year, it has leaped ahead of CAR, Mali, and others to be 177th of 182. I know, it still has a way to go, but in these terms Burkina is making strides, which I think reflects well upon its stability, peace, and people.

But, beyond their use to measure "development", it is absurd to use such criteria to qualify somewhere as the best or worst place to live. It is the company that gives a place its quality. Who would rather live isolated, but surrounded by clever, rich jerks, than embraced in a simple, loving community? Many so-called "developed" countries are under-developed socially and spiritually, with huge problems of loneliness, isolation, depression, family and social breakdown, drug abuse, and self-centred consumerism.

At the same time, many poor societies have maintained a strong sense of community and spirituality that bring you closer to the heart of God than the sterility of consumerism. Life does not consist in the amount of stuff you have. In fact, James said that God has "chosen those poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom..."

Life for the inhabitants of Burkina Faso is hard, and I work and pray to see them enjoy better health, education, and well-being. But, for all its poverty and challenges, Burkina Faso is one of the friendliest places you could hope to live. The people are warm and welcoming, generous, hospitable, and spiritual.

Burkina Faso is a wonderful country.

Together we estimate they raised about £1,000 towards helping us start a Mobile Dental Clinic for Burkina Faso:

Getting ready for the big race...

And they're off...

Donna, Lynne, and ...er, wait a minute... he's not one of ours...!

Victory!

I'm so proud of my wife.

Well done and thank you to Stacey, Corinne, Donna, Ruth, Michelle, and Lynne!

Here is a small selection:

Lynne has worked in Mozambique and Thailand, running this kind of mobile dental clinic in remote villages and refugee camps, and training locals to provide dental health education, pain relief and dental extractions. She now wants to use this experience to help the people of northern Burkina Faso.

"Getting Our Teeth Stuck In..."
In the whole of our province of Oudalan, there is no dental care provision. People suffer with tooth pain, often with no opportunity for relief, without making a long and costly journey to one of the larger towns many miles away. We want to start and equip a Mobile Dental Clinic, taking dental care, education, and training into remote Fulani, Tamacheq, and Songhai villages in this province, working alongside local pastors. The clinic would have three main goals:

• Relief of Pain. Visiting villages, to treat dental problems and pull teeth.
  
• Education. Teaching people about basic dental hygiene.
  
• Training. Equipping local people with basic skills for dental extractions.

We would also combine the dental clinic with the preaching of the gospel. Pierre has already worked with an American dental nurse, doing similar projects a bit further south, and he is keen on the whole vision.

While in Burkina Faso this time, we met with the Regional Director for Health for the north of Burkina Faso, and he was very welcoming and enthusiastic about what we want to do.

Where From Here...?
To start the Clinic, we will need to buy equipment and drugs. In Ghana, there are people who have developed solar-powered dental units specifically for working in the African bush. We are particularly interested in visiting their work, seeing the equipment in action there, and learning from them.

Please pray for us as we seek to develop this over the next year.

If you want to support this project, please click here.

This time the floods were in the capital city, Ouagadougou, and we were not affected up north (apart from the fact that bottled water for our Soccer School visitors ran out as the residents of Ouaga had bought it all!). As our internet was down at the time, I was not able to find out much, but have since had a few emails from friends with news.

(Photo by SIM, see more photos here)

Ouaga received 30cm (12 inches) of rain in 10 hours - the equivalent of a whole year of rain for Gorom-Gorom. The resulting flooding causing the collapse of houses, the evacuation of the national hospital, and the loss of electricity to the capital for a day or two. Apparently 8 people have died, and over 150,000 people lost their homes. Most of these are being housed temporarily in churches and schools - temporary because the schools are due to restart in a week's time... Attempts are now starting - as the rainy season draws to a close - to get people moved out of the schools to temporary tented camps.

The government appears to have taken swift action in helping those affected, and aid is now pouring in from the World Food Programme, the UN, Red Cross etc. As we were leaving Burkina, a transporter plane of aid was being unloaded, with accompanying TV crew. Alan Dixon of SIM reports: "Efforts are being made to improve sanitary conditions and bring medical treatment. In one centre we visited last week, nurses were making regular visits to treat malaria and diarrhea. In another center portable latrines were being built that would later be moved to other locations. Local governments now have 88 official sites with about 115,000 people currently receiving food, lodging, basic necessities and some medial care."

On the ground among local communities, many churches and missions are also getting involved in helping their neighbours, and you can contact SIM (you can make a secure online donation here - in the box titled 'Missionary or Project Name', please type BF General 93918 Ouagadougou Flood Relief) or Tear Fund if you want to send support.

Please pray for those affected, and for the churches to be agents of God's help in the situation. Thank you.

Following our original wedding in Scotland, we had another one in Gorom-Gorom, to celebrate with our family and friends there.

Many of our close friends were involved: Seydou was my best man. Grace was Lynne's bridesmaid. Pastor Pascal preached. Pastor Adama married us. Pastor Pierre translated into Fulfulde. These guys are our close friends and co-workers, real men and women of God. It was such a joy to have them share in that day with us.

It was all arranged very much at the last minute, since there was so much else going on with the soccer school and everything else. Nevertheless, all the pastors from the province were there to pray for us, and people came from around the country to join us.

Sadly, many of our Muslim friends could not join us as they had prayers and commitments for the month of Ramadan - the Islamic month of fasting. But there was still a good crowd for the wedding and the feast afterwards.

So here it is - but, just to warn you - they married us, using our Fulani names: Adama (Adam) Diallo and Hawwa (Eve) Diallo... Enjoy!

It was an inter-church baptism, out in a waterhole that had developed during the rainy season. The baptism candidates were mostly recent converts from around Gorom-Gorom, including several Fulani, and also one Tamacheq.

They were from Pierre’s church and Pascal’s church, and they asked me to join them in baptising these new believers as a small group of Christians, family members, and passers-by came to watch. Each candidate was asked about their faith in Christ as Saviour, and their commitment to follow him as Lord. The video shows some of them going through the waters of baptism.

I love these baptisms. It was also great seeing others we have baptised over the last couple of years coming along to encourage them, and to sing joyfully at the event. Often here, the step of baptism is seen as more significant than the moment of “praying the prayer of repentance” – it is a moment when the believer is daring to stand up and identify him or herself very publicly as a follower of Jesus. Often this comes at a cost, but it is a cost that they have counted and consider worthwhile. And little by little the church is coming to birth and the new-born are finding themselves not entirely alone, but enfolded in a family that loves and supports them. I love it.

Please pray for Seydou, Monique, Pierre, Asetu and the rest of our family.
Thank you.

And Finally...
We also have one new member of the family, recently "saved":

Winston the goat was destined to be eaten with four others for our "wedding feast" in Gorom-Gorom. But he turned out to be so friendly, that his life was spared, and he was presented instead to Lynne as a pet.

Pierre's observation was that Winston is a spiritual lesson for us all: his gentleness not only drew people to love him but also saved him from death...

Asetu will be looking after him until we return sometime next year.