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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

AFRICA REPORT - POURED OUT FOR AFRICA

Philippians 2:17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

Hello Followers of Jesus Christ our Great God and Savior ! It is with great pleasure I am introducing in this update a great ministry partner amongst the Muslims in W. Africa. We call him Lassina and he is precious to the Lord. Here is his introduction in his own words :

Lassina and Ina, working among dogosse people in Burkina Faso, West Africa:

Dear ones,

My wife Ina and I Balagassina (short name : Lassina), are grateful to God for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as well. We are presently doing the ministry of Bible translation with our National Bible Translation Organisation ANTBA. We coordinate 16 Bible translation projects. Thus we share our time between two locations, Ouagadougou and Dogosse area. Moreover we share gospel with dogosse people in the villages.

The dogosse people are about 45000 persons and most of them are moslems and animists. However there are some young churches with about 150 christians. As we use to share gospel with dogosse people, the problem which confrontes us is how to deal with the new believers who are forced to flee as their parents persecute them. In the dogosse area also, the young girls are forced to marriage so they flee and come to church for finding a shelter.

Facing these problems, I prayed the Lord for help and He put in my heart the burden to welcome people in difficulties in a shelter where they can stay, hear the Word of God, give themselves to Jesus, become mature in faith, learn craft like carpentry, sewing, breeding animals, weaving, masonry, how to make soap and so on. Thus I built a small house and when I finished the house, the mayor of the village told me that it is a good project but It must be better if I had built it to an appropriated area. For the mayor the place I built the house will not be put in plot as it is reserved to become a communal forest. I was discouraged but with prayer I understood that satan is against my project. Here is the first house I built.

Recently I went to my village and looked for an appropriated place about 7 hectares. I am praying to God to be able to buy the place and start my project. It costes 1500 000 FCFA about 3000$. I already have 1/3 of the cost (500 000 FCFA or 1000$). My first step for accomplishing my project is to buy the land, the second step is to build houses, the third is to equip the houses and the last is to do the work by receiving people. It will be an evangelical training school with dorcas home inside. If it is God’s will I am planning to receive orphans and widows in it in the future.

Pray for me as I am planning to finish the New Testament in my mother tongue in 3 years and thus be free to do this ministry among dogosse people. Before the beginning of this ministry, I have to build houses and equip them.

I don’t want to do my will but God’s will. I am confident to the Scriptures which said in Psalm 127 : 1 that "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain…"

Pray for us and for pastor Don who came twice in our area to train dogosse christians, strenghten them for sharing gospel among dogosse people. We are praying to God for a such opportunity this year.

Pray also for my family, as we are waiting for a baby at the end of February. Pray also for the checking of the gospel of Matthew we will have in February with a Bible consultant.

Pray for dogosse churches and for dogosse ethnic group for salvation.

May the Lord bless you in the new year! Balagassina (Lassina) and Ina.

As I close this update I pray you have been blessed by hearing from this dear brother in Christ ! If you are interested in learning more about him go to the African Partners page of our website www.pouredoutforafrica.com.

Praise King Jesus!

Don Schwarz

Missions Pastor/Executive Director

Poured Out For Africa

Friday, January 14, 2011

Africa Report - Poured Out For Africa

BAPTISM


CHRISTMAS DAY AT HEKIMA BAPTIST CHURCH, DR CONGO

-PASTOR HABIMANA PICTURED IN GREY SUIT-


BLANKET DISTRIBUTION



CHRISTMAS SERVICE AT HEKIMA BAPTIST CHURCH


NEW PLANTED CHURCH


DR CONGO - ORPHAN GIRL

Philippians 2: 17

"Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. "

Greetings in our great Savior Jesus’ glorious Name!

I have just received this great report with pictures from Pastor Habimana in DR Congo. See the fruit of work of our Savior Jesus and be blessed!
Pastor Don Schwarz

UNION OF BAPTIST CHURCHES OF CONGO REPORT
It is with great joy to have this opportunity to share with you this short report from our local churches.

The Union has 134 planted churches. The Union is committed in evangelism and church planting according to the great commission in Matthew 28: 19-20, and it is working in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Maniema Provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Union of Baptist churches is located in eastern of the DR Congo, a difficult place where war and insecurity destroyed everything. The consequences of it is that many orphans, widows, and maimed persons are seen everywhere without any assistance, and they do not have hope to live.

The union with its little means tried to help widows and orphans but it is insignificant, only 24 orphans are supported by Don Schwarz and they are attending schools, while others are crying for help.

After resembling reports from local churches, the following is the statistics:
· Local churches: 134 (adding 9 new planted in 2010)
· Pastors: 78
· Total members: 12,731 (not including students in primary and secondary schools)
· Primary schools: 14 (Christian school)
· Secondary schools: 4 (Christian school)
· Theological school: 01
· Health centre : 02
· Number of orphans: 800
· Number of widows: 350
· Crippled and maimed persons: 55
· Raped women: 78
· Adult school: 4
· Evangelism team choir: 01

PRAYER REQUESTS:
1.Pray for orphans and widows in their difficulties to have means to survive.

2. Pray for the Union to have supporters to help to rehabilitate schools, to build orphanages home, build health centers, and Goma Baptist seminary…

3. Pray for pastors to have sponsorship, and tools (bibles) for the ministry.

4. Pray for peace in this part of the DR Congo.

5. Pray for believers to be faithful and prayerful for those who are not yet believe in Jesus Christ.

6. Pray for pastors and laymen school fees.

7. Pray for discipleship training program.

Sincerely and Best Wishes,
Pastor Habimana Athanase

To see all the pictures from this report and to learn more about Poured Out For Africa see our blog and website at
www.pouredoutforafrica.blogspot.com
www.pouredoutforafrica.com

Friday, January 7, 2011

Africa Report - Poured Out For Africa





Philippians 2:17 Yea, and if I be offered (poured out) upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

Poured Out For Africa
Why are we called Poured Out For Africa?

When the Apostle Paul was incarcerated in Rome he did not want the fledgling Philippian church to be discouraged by his situation. He even told them that he was not Rome’s prisoner, but the Lord’s. And that it was an honor to pour out his life for the faith of those in Philippi.

That is the reason for the name of our ministry. When I and others with me go to Africa we often don’t know from where the Lord will bring the money or how He will give us the time, but we hear His voice and pray and plan to go. We leave our families to the Lord and praying partners and go. We get on planes and fly for 22-40 hours (one way) and just go. Who will the Lord seat us next to, will they be open to the gospel or even speak English, but we just go. Will we be able to not weep when we see the orphan children who often are taking care of other children, or as in some cases, the dogs, pigs, and people picking through the same garbage for food, but we just go. Will our jet lag knock us down for the first few days or will we be up and running fast, but we just go. Will the plans we have be the right ones or another zip code away from what the Holy Spirit has in mind, or will we be called to do something that we would have never considered like the ladies who went with us that manicured the toe and finger nails of the ladies who had been brutalized in the genocide in Rwanda (many of whom had HIV and rarely shower and often do not wear shoes) but what-----you got it-----we just go! Will the Lord ask me to stand in the street and draw a crowd to preach the gospel, and like in Northern Ethiopia, will they threaten to stone me, but HALLELUJAH WE JUST GO!!!

Why do we go? BECAUSE WE LOVE BEING POURED OUT UPON THE SACRIFICE AND SERVICE OF THEIR FAITH IN AFRICA!
If you want to learn more about this exciting adventure called Poured Out For Africa see our blog and website: www.pouredoutforafrica.blogspot.com www.pouredoutforafrica.com

Please pray for us as we are going to Rwanda and the DR Congo March 12-26, 2011.

Glory to the name of King Messiah Jesus!

Don Schwarz

Mission Pastor, Executive Director
832-878-0756
pofa@earthlink.net