Please pray for Basearo- I hope to post a picture of him soon!

I have continued to ponder and study “sufferings” in the Word. Just to reinforce my post yesterday, I see the Lord use sufferings to draw many to Himself.

Well, Basearo- (base-ear-o) is our night guard who is here to protect our family.  (We are not in danger, he is here just as a protection against theft.) This is pretty funny because he is normally asleep by 11:00pm. Despite his lack of alertness, his presence is still important. He does not speak French so it is interesting to try and communicate with him. He is 25, single, and comes from a mvsilm family. One thing that we love about him is that he has such a sweet countenance. We long to see him come to know the Lord and have been praying for His salvation as a family.


Last night he told Chris that his mother was sick and he may need to leave. Chris told him, please go and do not worry about it. Thinking he had gone, Chris was up through the night just making sure that our family was safe and each time he was up Basearo was still here. Chris assumed that things were fine. We feed basearo possibly the only meal he gets a day. Our children take turns taking this meal out to him.  He especially likes pancakes with nutella! Tonight was Noah’s night. When Noah returned, he said, “Mom what does mama papa morea mean?” In French mort means dead so my heart sank… did he really just tell Noah his mom died? Did both parents die? If this is true, why is he here?

Chris went out to speak with him and for this conversation found someone at the school to translate. In a broken voice he explained that his mother did die. She was very old and sick. Chris encouraged him to go and be with his family and he said he wanted to stay.  Everything has been taken care of and they will have a cermony in 100 days.  We still need much educating on customes and traditions here.

Chris returned inside to share this news with our family. I have only known this man for a couple weeks; yet, I felt instant pain in my spirit for him.  Our children as well were very sad and hurt for him. The very thought of losing my mother is unbearable. This is the woman who birthed him, cared for him, taught him, raised him, loved him, etc. She is gone forever.

The much more intense pain came when I dwelt on the fact that she did not know the Lord. She will have not another chance to call upon the Lord for salvation.  To think about hell is enough to scare anyone to death, but to think about the eternal separation from Christ is a weight more than I want to bear. Truly, my chest began to physically hurt.

Please begin praying… Pray that through the suffering of losing a mom, Basearo will come to know the Lord. Pray about how you can be part of the ministry here in Burkina which will in turn provide more opportunities for people to hear the news of Christ and come to know Him personally. Pray for us… pray that we will best know how to minister and shine the love of Jesus to Basearo and his family during this very hard time.