Welcome!

Welcome from the 2010 Burkina Faso team! The summer seems to be whipping by as our departure date draws closer. For Dr. Vader, it is even closer since he will be leaving on June 9 to visit his son in Chad before meeting up with the team in Mahadaga. For the rest of the team, we still have a little over 2 weeks to finish up projects, pack, and complete our preparatory readings before we leave on June 22.

Between now and then, people will begin returning to Messiah's campus to wrap up the lose ends on their projects and hopefully have everything ready to go by the time we leave. The team will begin officially meeting together on June 19 to complete our last minute travel arrangements.

But taking a chance to step back and absorb the actual experience of this trip is important. On May 11 and 12 our team had the opportunity to go on a short retreat to begin to prepare ourselves for the journey ahead. This included information on what to bring, what the in-country expectations are like, and functioning together as a team, but it also was a chance to reflect on the spiritual aspect of our journey as well.

Some of the things we were encouraged to consider before we left were questions such as

• How is God already at work in the places to which we are headed?
• What are some of our own areas of weakness or vulnerability that God may work on during this trip?
• What are our individual testimonies which we can use to share God's blessing with others?
• How can we receive God's blessing from the people whom we will be serving?
  

This list isn't exhaustive and in no way will we be able to prepare ourselves completely for the experiences we are going to have. But we can begin the process of allowing God to soften our hearts to receive His guidance as we embark on this trip. We value your prayers as our supporters and greatly appreciate the care and encouragement that you will be able to offer us through them.

Some specific prayer requests at this point would be for smooth preparations, both with travel and projects as the deadline approaches. Another is for encouragement leading up to the trip. For some this is our first time traveling to Burkina while others may have been there on several occasions. So prayer for peace of any jittery nerves is another request. Finally, we ask for God's hand to be present in our work and relationships so that we can be testimonies of His hope to the world and can be prepared to share our own stories of His love with those we meet.

Your team's blog coordinator,
Jon Martin