Thanks for your prayers over these last months. I am now back in the UK after 2 months in Burkina. It has been an excellent and tiring time, with lots going on.

“Good news of great joy that is for all peoples...”
We are finding increasing responsiveness to the gospel around Gorom-Gorom:

* Baptism. We had an interdenominational baptism service in a rainy-season pool three weeks ago, where we baptised 7 local converts, including people from the Fulani, Songhai, and Gourma peoples. It was an amazing time of joy.

“I have decided to follow Jesus...” Several people have decided to follow Christ lately, including “H”, a young Fulani man, and “M”, an elderly Tamacheq lady who has been visiting us for years. She would come to ask for prayer because she saw that, when we prayed for her, she always received help. Now she confesses Christ as Lord, and has begun coming to church. ”A”, who used to give the call to prayer in one of the local mosques, now goes down the market to preach the good news of Jesus each week.

* Good News. In village “B”, whenever we visit, the men gather at the imam’s home, and he invites us to preach the gospel, and afterwards we always have interesting times of discussion. The last time we turned up unannounced, we found him reading the New Testament.
Please continue to pray that God speaks into people’s hearts to draw them to the new life in Christ.

School
We plan to open the Christian primary school in Gorom-Gorom in about 3 weeks! The school is not yet built, so we will open it in a rented house for the first year. This will serve as a classroom for year one, plus accommodation for the teacher. Please pray for:
* Repairs to the house, recruiting the schoolchildren, and making the benches, all before the school opens.

* Finances to come in for us to be able to sponsor the year 1 class, and provide them with a school lunch each day.

* Wisdom and money for the right design to build the school.

* The best strategy to make the school sustainable long-term. We want the school to help the poorest, who are not able to pay fees to cover the teachers’ salaries.

Church Partnerships
This last couple of months, we have received two teams from French churches. The teams spent time in Tasmakat, a Fulani village where pastor Jean is working. They built good relationships with Jean and his family, and joined them in working in the fields, praying for the town, visiting local people, preaching the gospel, running a children’s event, etc.

Both churches have decided to partner with the Tasmakat church. They want to support Jean’s vision to see the area transformed by the grace and power of the kingdom of God. But also, both teams spoke of how they themselves were touched by God as they experienced for themselves the commitment of Jean and the believers there.

Water is Life
I get annoyed when I see adverts implying that water is boring. Water is life! And in the north of Burkina, on the edge of the desert, the lack of clean water is a major problem. In November, we will be drilling 6 new wells, and also repairing 5 other pumps, in villages around Gorom-Gorom.

In November, we will have teams coming out from Glenwood Church in Cardiff, and from Hatteras Island in the US, to join with Friends in Action, a Christian well-drilling outfit. This will give us the opportunity to show the love of Christ in practical ways, and bring much-needed help to the people of our area, as well as build the church partnerships.

Back in the UK
I am back for 2 months, before I return to Burkina for the well-drilling.
Speaking. I will be speaking at churches around the country, so if you can come and join us at any time, it would be great to see you - click here for my itinerary.

* Acacia Partnership Trust. “Partnering churches to transform communities.”
I need to spend time setting up APT, the charity I am starting to facilitate all the work we are doing in Burkina Faso. We are partnering churches from around the world with churches in Burkina. Not only is this resourcing the churches in Burkina as agents of transformation in their communities, but it is also stimulating transformation in western churches as they are challenged by the example of Burkinabe Christians.

We already have five church partnerships, which have enabled us to help provide mopeds and set up small businesses to help local pastors, rebuild homes after a flood, run a children’s camp, start a Christian school, get well-drilling teams, and many other things. Please pray for:
* Rapid approval of our papers, currently with the Charity Commission,
* Getting bank accounts, websites, structures, and an admin assistant in place.
* Finance to equip our Ministry Centre in Gorom-Gorom with all we need to continue to resource our work in the area. We want to build more, and equip the centre with evangelism equipment, a library, and more...

Other
* Our home, the Ministry Centre, with Seydou and Monique, and Pierre and Asetu and families, is still a place of joy and blessing, for which I thank God. Monique’s health has also stabilised.
* Please pray for Steve’s health- he has been ill with typhoid recently
* My truck is a great blessing, working hard carrying me and others through rivers, across sand dunes etc. It is with the “car doctor” at the moment – he said “underneath it is falling apart...”

Thank you again for all your support and prayers in all these areas.

Keith

To support the school or wells, or any other aspect of our work, please send a cheque to World Horizons. You can also give online by clicking below, but in this case, please send them an email stating the gift is for the work in Gorom-Gorom.
World Horizons (UK): North Dock, Llanelli, Carms SA15 2LF, UK
World Horizons (US): PO Box 17721, Richmond, VA 23226, USA