$250 bucks to change a village.

           Three years ago my wife, Cathleen, and I went to Burkina Faso in West Africa with Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse.  (BTW – Burkina Faso is one of the top ten poorest nations in the world.)  You can get a personal YouTube tour by me.

            While there we met Gregoire, an energetic and God loving man from Burkina Faso who has a passion to connect his people with the life transforming message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  To see Gregoire share and sing with the hundreds of the children was inspiring.

Me, Gregoire, and Cathleen in Burkina Faso in 2009

           We did our best to communicate with Gregoire as our French and Moore (local language) was not good at all.  Gregoire’s English was not much better.  But a relationship was founded and we exchanged e-mail addresses. 

            In one of our e-mails from Gregoire about a year after we left, he shared his desire and calling for ministry training but could not afford it.  He asked me if we could help him.  Well… my “spidey sence” started tingling as anyone knows how careful you have to be when someone from a poor nation asks you for money.   However, I checked with the missionary who runs the Bible Training Institute in the capital city of Burkina Faso, (as he was our team leader when we were there with OCC), and he suggested we send the money to him a the school and he will make sure that it gets used as a scholarship.  The cost for a solid year of bible training?... $250.  Wow!  What a bargain!  So we did it.

            I continued to communicate with Gregoire during his year of training and his graduation last year.  But the best part came in an e-mail I received this week. 

Gregoire is planting a church in a remote village in Burkina Faso!

Gregoire and a worker standing in front of the future church building

           It all happened through relationship and $250 bucks.  A new church is being planted in Burkina Faso and a man has crossed his Rubicon to answer God’s call in the worst of conditions.  Best of all?  We are a part of it!  Cathleen and I crossed a Rubicon many years ago.  That Rubicon was a commitment to live modestly and give generously.  It requires a choice though, a choice of living without more “stuff”.   

What “stuff” could you live without or could you scale down so someone else could have?  Cross Your Rubicon of living generously and watch what God does!