All I know is God's timing is perfect...

Well' I'm not gonna lie, kind of excited to get home. They say home is where the heart is, so I guess that says where my heart's at :)
So today was a big day. Thank you all so much for your prayers! God answers prayer, that's a fact, always according to His perfect timing and in this case it looks like His timing is tomorrow. As Air France continues to be in turmoil with their flight sitch and as the airport in Paris continues to be mayhem, it appears that God is saving us from all that. So instead of going through Paris to Seattle on Air France, we're now going Air Senegal to Dakar, Senegal (I'll say hi to your folks Jules!), then Delta airlines to Atlanta then Atlanta to Ptown. We leave tomorrow, Tues, at 8pm Burkina Faso time and get home Wed. night in Ptown at 7pm Ptown time, hallelujah! This is seriously only by the grace of God that we were able to get this flight; long story, but basically there are many others who were on our same original flight that won't get out of here until Thursday at the very soonest, goo!
Also, there were two big groups, one from Pennsylvania & one from Alaska & other small groups that are supposed to be arriving here in Ouagadougou on different missions trips and they had to cancel their trips completely. It makes me wonder why I got to come and they don't, but all I know is God's timing is perfect.
So the last few days have been funny, like funny-interesting more than funny-haha. It's funny how when you have an expectation to leave at a certain time and then that doesn't happen there's such a tendancy to get anxious. Had I known the whole time that I was going to be here 2 weeks and 3 days there would of course be no issue. But when our plans change and monkey wrenches get thrown into our agendas (I think I just invented a new expression :), that's when God really gets to work on us. All I know is God's timing is perfect, and over the last couple o' days as I've been praying over Phil. 4:6-7, where it says "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer & supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus," it's totally worked! Duh, I know right? But the Lord has given me a peace about just being here & hanging out in Ouagadougou :) It's like Bonus Extended Time in a video game or something, and I've definitely been able to make the most of it.
It's been somewhat relaxing, we got to go to our pastor friend Daniel's church yesterday which was awesome. And figuring out this whole plane ticket thing, camping out at the airport & Air France office in downtown Ouagadougou has definitely been an adventure, especially since no one really speaks English :)
So what I'm reminded of is the part right after Phil. 4:6-7 in verses 12 & 13 where Paul says "I know how to be abased & I know how to abound. Everywhere & in all things I have learned both to be full & to be hungry, both to abound & to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Now I wouldn't dare to compare my current situation with anything Paul had to endure, it's certainly not prison or shipwrecking :) In fact, you shouldn't feel sorry for me at all, we've been very well taken care of with great food, company, time to read and time to reflect; it's been a cool time to just let this awesome trip sink in. But the point is, Paul says he learned to be content in ALL situations & anxious for nothing. For me, the key has been in verse 6 where he says "with thanksgiving" because as soon as I started giving thanks to God for everything I could think of, my anxious thoughts about getting home went away and I got my peace back and I got my joy back!
As I was reading this morning, I came across Phil. 2:1-4 and I had a note by that passage that I wrote in my Bible that says "J.O.Y. = Jesus Others You", in other words you'll always have true joy, the joy of Jesus if you're putting Jesus first, others second, then you. I love that and it was an awesome reminder for me today, I miss out on so much joy when I start thinking about myself over Jesus #1 and other people #2.... ahhhh good stuff!
Well, that's pretty much what God's put on my heart to share with all you, and I really really really want to say thank you SO much for all the awesome comments and prayers, they've really meant a lot to me and they've been really encouraging :)
Ahhh, God's timing is perfect, that's all I know, but I can't wait to see you when I see you and hopefully that's oh so soon! I'm hittin' the hay, the journey back starts tomorrow!
In His Perfect Timing,
RyGuy

Ready... Set.... Wait!

Well :) All packed, all set, all ready to start the 26 or so hour journey home!... er, wait, maybe not :) All I know is God's timing is perfect & there's a reason our flight leaving Ouagadougou to Paris tonight is cancelled... turns out Air France is on strike & we most likely won't know anything more till tomorrow afternoon, but it sounds like a realistic guess for departure is Tuesday night, home Wednesday afternoon...
I'm not sure how many times in the Bible God tells us to WAIT on Him, but I know it's a lot, and I also know this: (Phil. 4:6-7) "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer & supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts & minds through Christ Jesus." I love that :)
So I'm praying and I'm giving thanks. I'm thanking God for the amazing past 2 weeks, for all these amazing people here in Burkina Faso that we've met, for health & safety on our trip, for all the awesome things God has shown me on this trip, and for all you guys back home who've been praying for us, thank you SO SO much! All I know is I could write an infinity volume book on all the things I'm thankful to God for, but today as I was reading in John 14, I was reminded to keep an eternal perspective & that I'm most thankful for the promise of heaven :) Perfect Eternity. I think those 2 words pretty well sum it up & I can't wait to spend that perfect eternity with our God, with all you reading this that know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth & the Life (or in Moorè: A Jesus ya sore sida la viim :) (John 14:6). And I can't wait to see all these awesome Burkinabe people there who keep their hope in heaven too!
James 4:14 reminds us that our life is "a vapor that appears for a little time & then vanishes away." So let's make the most of it, folks. Let's not waste our time here on earth doing things that aren't going to matter in heaven, but let's store up our treasures in heaven and do what we can where God has put us (in our jobs, in school, where we live, wherever we are) to further the Kingdom of Heaven! That's exciting stuff & a daily challenge for me, to live for heaven.
As for this trip, I'm not sad that it's over. Because it's not. Ha! That's funny since I really don't know when I'll get home (but God does). But it's not over because really it's just the start of some great friendships & awesome ministry opportunity with these people & this great place here. Lord willing, I'd love to come back soon, so I guess we'll just wait & see :)... See, God gives us all kinds of opportunities to work on our waiting skills. Amen!
God bless you all & I can't wait (well, yes, I guess I'm going to have to) to see you soon!
In Him,
Ryan

P.S.
I like the way Pastor Brett puts heavenly-mindedness:
"some people say Christians are no earthly good because they're too heavenly-minded. But we knoz different. We know that unless we're heavenly-minded, we'll be no earthly good!"

School Day!

Well I'm pumped cause this afternoon we get to visit a grade school here in Ouagadougou,and I'm going to get the chance to share with a pretty big group of 'em which I'm pretty excited about! As I prayed this morning for the words to share with them today, I thought I'd share with you guys what the Lord has put on my heart to speak to the kids about:

OUR GOD IS AWESOME! He brought me all the way here to Burkina Faso from America; America, where we're from, is on the other side of the world!
BUT OUR GOD IS SO AWESOME that even though we look a little different (Nasàra, that's Moorè for 'white person':) We are all still part of the same family, God's family! At the church I go to back home, I teach the kids your age in sunday school. And I can tell you that kids are kids wherever you go; the kids I teach back home are just like you guys here.
BUT OUR GOD IS SO AWESOME! Because He made us all unique. Just like you guys here, some kids in America like to play sports, some kids like to play music & sing, some kids like to dance, some kids like art & drawing, and some kids like to learn stuff in school. But the best thing is this, this is why OUR GOD IS SO AWESOME! Because God sent His only Son, His only child to earth, to live as a man, to die on the cross for our sins, to come back to life 3 days later, and then go back to heaven where He waits for us!
GOD IS SO AWESOME because He did all that so ALL we have to do is Believe in Him & confess our sins and then we all get to go to heaven and hang out with Jesus forever!
So even though we're all different & unique, if we believe in God ten we all have something in common, we all have something to talk about with each other and we all have something to look forward to: HEAVEN!
OUR GOD IS SO AWESOME! He's shown me on this trip to Africa, that no matter where I go on this earth I will always have something in common with those who believe in Jesus, and Jesus will be with me wherever I go.
AND OUR GOD IS SO AWESOME because when you believe in Him and you live your life for God, so He's the most important thing, the same way I try and live my life everyday, life is SO exciting! It's a wild adventure & you never know what God will do next! So I just want to encourage you guys to live your life for God! Instead of worrying about what you will do with your life when you grow up, if you just live your life for God & work hard for Him, you will have a great & exciting life, and He'll give you everything you need. Just like He has in my life!
Amina?? Amina!! (that's Mooré for Amen :) Wende né Sànge!

After sharing today, Jason & I get to give the school the 6 soccer balls that Danny & Matt so graciously donated. It's gonna be great & hopefully we'll get to showcase the skills with the kids too, yeah right, we'll probably get worked :) I'll try to get lots of pictures :)
Thank you so much for all your continued prayers! I'm praying for all you guys back home too & can't wait to see you soon!
In Him,
Ryan

Let go of the rope!

Hello everybody! Today we visited the Bible College in Koubri, not too far from Ouagadougou. It's the same place Jason & I stayed when we went out to the bush to evangelize this last weekend. The Bible College is awesome, hundreds of men who've sacrificed a lot to come & study the Bible to become pastors. Most of these guys are married with kids. One guy we met today had 9 kids!! (He needs 2 more to field a futbol team :) And each family lives in a tiny 10'x10' room for 3 years, all because they they've answered their call to serve the Lord & there's no place any of them would rather be (except maybe heaven)!
For chapel today at the Bible school, Jerry Swanson taught & it was great. One story he told I want to share with you all:
So there was this mountain climber guy who wanted to climb this great big mountain, and he wanted to do it alone so he got all the glory. So he began his climb, and as he neared the top with the weather getting bad, he slipped. And as he was falling off the mountain, he knew his time was up & he was toast. But just when he was ready to die right then, his rope caught him and there he hung, off the side of the mountain. It was night time, he had no light, and he had no idea where on the mountain he was. So he prayed. He prayed Lord, if you save me, I promise to believe in you & be a good Christian man. So God answered him and asked, "do you believe that I can save you?" And the man said yes, of course I do, you're God, of course you can save me! So God said, "OK, then cut the rope and let go." But the man said no way, I'm not cutting the rope, anything but that! And the man didn't do it. So the next day, as the weather cleared, the rescue folks heard about the man missing & went to find him. After some time, they found a man hanging off the side of the mountain. Sadly, he was frozen to death, hanging just 2 feet off the ground.
I think this is such an awesome story about FAITH. God knows all, He knows what's best for us, but until we learn to depend on Him wholly and completely, and trust that He can deliver us from ANYTHING, we won't be able to fully live out the lives that God intended us to live!
Today's verse o' the day from Christina's Book of Encouragement :)
Ps. 37:4-5
"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."
Amen!
Love you all, In Him,
Ryan

The boy kills his mother's goat....

Ha ha! So I had to share this with you guys cause it's great. Our pastor friend here in Ouagadougou, Daniel Delma, is awesome. Today, Jason & I were explaining to him that we were kind of amazed that they are asking us to preach everywhere we go. We told him that we definitely don't consider ourselves true Bible teachers and this is what he told us: "Here in Burkina we have a saying: The boy kills his mother's goat so he can learn to sell the meat." I said that's awesome, what does that mean? :) And he explained that the standard practice is that you buy a goat, cut it up a special way, then sell it, but it's good for your first time that you use your mom's goat to practice on (you know, learn how to cut it up right so you can get the most profit :), then once you've got it down, you can go out & buy yor own goat! Great stuff. Basically, he was saying it's great to practice teaching the Bible in other people's churches (like yer mom's, no just joking) & that you don't have to have your own church to teach.
Daniel also shared this little golden nugget of an example. You see, here in Burkina, the staple food is this dish called Sagabo (which is this food made out of corn maize or millet or sorgum & it basically has the consistency of uncooked premade biscuits that you pop out of the container, but it's white & you put this oily kinda sauce stuff on it, mm mm, not really :(). So this is what Daniel said: "Even though the wife makes the best sagabo, sometimes you have to let the daughters cook too, so little by little their sagabo will get better." So basically for us that meant that even though there will always be better Bible teachers around, it's good for us to practice because we never know what God may ask us to do or where He may send us! That's wisdom, I love the African sayings, Daniel's full of em! :)
So I used both those sayings in my teaching tonight as I shared what God put on my heart today to a church here in Ouagadougou. I talked about how humbling it's been so far being treated like royalty, I shared the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet in perfect humility. I talked about how teaching scares me, but complete dependence on the Lord makes your faith muscles strong, how all things are possible through Jesus Christ (Phil. 4:13), how God uses the weak things to put to shame the wisdom of this world (yes, I love that verse Jo Dee!) & how complete dependence gives God all the glory (thanks Christina for being such an awesome picture of that!), and I talked about how in America we often don't depend on God like we should because we're so blessed that we don't involve God in the things we consider small, like food in our mouths or a roof over our head. We are blessed not because of who we are, but rather IN SPITE of who we are, that's God's grace!
Can't wait for tomorrow's adventures, but I miss you all very much! Thank you SO much for your prayers! Baraka Wennam (Praise God)!!
Love,
Ryan

Humbled!

Ha! Success! Everytime I'm able to get on this site to post something it feels like an accomplishment :)... funny how the smallest thing back home can feel like a pretty big deal when you're in a 3rd world country... Anywho, first I wanna say thank you huge for all your continuous prayers and comments. They are definitely working!
This trip has been pretty amazing & in a lot of ways hard to describe. The best word that comes to my mind right now though is HUMBLING. I feel like we're getting treated like royalty every place we go. And I know I've done nothing to deserve any of it. My wish really would be to simply be a fly on the wall or just an ordinary person here because I know I'm no better than anyone here, and in fact in so many ways I look up to & admire these people for so many reasons. The ones here who know the Lord are obvious. They shine the joy of Jesus Christ. They are such hard workers, yet they make hardly anything. But the fact is, I haven't heard one person complain or ask for anything (except the folks on the street). Our friend Salomon (a pastor & professor at the Bible College) put it well, he said that here in Burkina there is no lack of will or desire, just a lack of resource (money,food,supplies, etc.). But in America I think it's many times the opposite. We have all the resources to do the work, but the people with the will & desire are what's lacking. There's so much we can learn from these people & there's also so much we can do for them. It's a beautiful thing, a win-win if you will :) We can provide money to the hundreds of new churches popping up all over, praise the Lord! We can help by giving them money for the materials, such as plaster, concrete for the floors, paint, roofs, windows & doors. They are all willing to do the work themselves, they simply don't have the money for the materials. There is also a surplus of men who want to be pastors but need sponsorship to attend the Bible College as many of these men have families & need money for food, medicine & tuition. I think you get the idea, the workers are many but the resources are in short supply. We can help with that by simply sending money to the right people.
In many ways, these people are blessed to have so much faith (a muscle these people exercise daily) because they have so little. In America, I think it's harder for us to depend on the Lord because most don't have to depend on Him to feed the hungry mouths of our families. Total dependence on God brings forth that uncircumstantial joy that comes only from God. These people know that prayer works because they see it work on a daily basis in their practical lives. I'm so blessed to get to see this in action, and wein America are so blessed to be in a position to be the answer to these peoples prayers when the Lord puts it on our hearts.
I feel like there's so much I have to learn from these people, from their attitudes to their simple lives. For the ones who know the Lord, their list of priorities is short & in the right order, God first! And the ironic thing is that they keep asking us to teach :) I feel like I should be learning from them. God has a sense of humor :) I've been stretched on this trip to say the least, I definitely don't consider myself a Bible teacher, but Jesus tells us to go out into all the world & preach the Gospel, and in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says that God uses the foolish things of this world to put to shame worldly wisdom. God uses the weak things so the glory goes to Him. I couldn't do it without Him, nor would I ever want to! So thank you for your continued prayers, I'm out of time :)
In the palm of His great big right hand,
Ryan

Wend ne Sànge! (that means God bless you in Mooré)

Well, after sitting here in the internet cafe for 45 minutes waiting, it looks like I might actually get a quick post off. Praise the Lord! I just want to say thanks to everyone for all your amazing prayers and encouragement, they've meant so much to me & the prayers are definitely working! Tonight, I was asked to share at a church here in Ouagadougou, and I got to tell about 200 people the amazing story of Christina Ahmann and her perfect peace & joy which can come only from knowing Jesus Christ. Please pray that many were saved tonight as a result of hearing the Gospel! And please pray for boldness as Pastor Solomon takes Jason & I out into the bush tomorrow and Sunday to evangalize and share the Good News! I'm praying for you all back home, hope all is well & hopefully I'll get to post again soon... oh yeah, and Jason got to touch an alligator today... I just took the picture :)... He's still got all his limbs :)
Love,
Ryan

Made it!

Well, 26 hours after leaving my house on Monday, we arrived in Ouagadougou! Sorry this 1st message is SO short, there is so much Id like to say right now, but this internet is super slow and Im going to have to get used to this French keyboard :) I'm praying for all of you & thank you SO much for all your prayers, they're working! Christina, your note for today was perfect, thanks :) 2 Tim. 2:1-2! Love you all and hopefully I'll get to write more soon!
In Him,
Ryan

And we're off!

I just want to say I'm overwhelmed with all the love and support and all your prayers! Thank you thank you thank you! So we're running out the door now and driving up to Seattle, from there it's a straight flight to Paris and then a straight shot down to Ouagadougou. So tomorrow afternoon our time we should be there!

As I was sitting in church this morning and worshipping, Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion 'Your God Reigns!" My feet are happy and excited for the unexpected, to see where God is going to take them!

Thank you SO much again for all your prayers for Jason and I, and thank you SO much to all of you commenting on Christina's website (www.christinaahmann.com) the last few weeks, for all your love and support and awesome encouragement which has been incredibly uplifting and such a perfect reminder as to why we're here on this earth, to bring praise, glory and honor to our King!

OK, we're off, bye for now!
In Christ,
Ryan

Burkina Faso... Au Revoir Tomorrow! (just click on the letter to make it bigger)