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The beginning is finished! The first school in the village of Gobila, a Christian elementary school named "Eben Ezer" was celebrated and blessed on Wednesday January 6th. In the words of the Chief of the village, "We are now a real village".  Gobila is a small village just about 3 miles outside of our town of Yako. The few children who were attending school walked to and from Yako, or the next closest school in the village of Lilboure. Because of the afternoon sieste schedule followed in most schools, this meant the children walked a total of 12 miles a day. Now the furthest any of them will walk is 2 miles a day! 
This Christian school was named Eben Ezer inspired by 1 Samuel 7:12, "Thus far the Lord has helped us". If you haven't read the full account in chapter 7, it's a wonderful story. 
I learned so much about Burkina custom and tradition in planning and carrying out this event. For example, you don't use the word "inauguration" unless you intend to invite several of the leaders from the capital city and have thousands of dollars to spend on the celebration. Fortunately, the Inspector of schools for the Dept of Education and a couple local Pastors have been very supportive and were a tremendous help in planning the details. We were thrilled to have the King of the province of Passore attend the ceremony! I learned as the King arrives, everyone must stand and once the King has been invited to sit, everyone can sit. The women all bowed down to greet him. The chatter throughout the day was, "The King never laughs - today he laughed and smiled a lot. We also had our school Inspectors visit, the Director and other missionaries from the SIM mission, other school Directors, Pastors, and of course the Chief of Gobila. In fact, this chief speaks acceptable French but does not read or write French - and yet, he gave a heartfelt speech that clearly conveyed how thrilled they are to be blessed with their very own school. I was near tears as I thought about what a HUGE thing this is for them. The children did such a great job. Olivia and the teachers have been working hard preparing them to show off a bit of what they know about Creation through song and recitation. The crowd laughed with joy and all were so impressed with their ability to read, recite the alphabet, and recognize their colors. An interesting tidbit: for some reason, Burkina only teaches the colors red, blue, yellow and green in the schools; so even the Inspectors teased, "I don't even know those colors - your students have surpassed us." 
Other highlights were the traditional dance team arranged by the people of Gobila. You'll have to watch the video (as soon as we get it posted). We planted 2 trees together, just the start of many. Olivia's Dad shared a greeting from the United States. We shared a meal of rice with goat meat. We danced! That also started some chatter, "the white ladies danced!" They loved it.  
All in all, it was an incredible day and as I shared in my talk, "The bible tells us, 'the Son of Man himself came not to be served, but to serve and gave his life as a ransom for many.' This project is working because so many people are serving instead of waiting to be served. I am certain it will serve as a model for others; so if we keep our eyes on the Lord, this will be just the beginning of a great vision for the people of Burkina." 
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