As I said in a previous post, the sponsors commit to $25 per month which pays for the child’s school fees, some clothes and distributions of food and other necessary items throughout the year. The children will often write letters to their sponsors, as well as if the sponsors want to correspond. We of course do the translating from French to English :) There is more information on the website about the program, as well as letters that children have written and stories of some of our sponsored kids.
This really is a great program that can help so many of the children in need in Burkina Faso. We currently have about 150 children being sponsored, but every day we get requests for more sponsors. Even today, we had a grandmother bring her granddaughter (orphan of both parents) to the gate of the orphanage to ask for aid.
We’d love if you’d prayerfully consider being a part of our sponsorship team!
A servant for Him,
~Liz
~Liz
This month’s featured child:
Issouf was born in 1999. He lives in Yako, Burkina Faso. Issouf’s father died when he was 6 years old. His father had two wives and 15 children. Eleven of the children are children of Issouf's mother. Seven of them have died due to illness.
Issouf’s mother does not work and does not have the money to care for her children. Issouf is the second youngest child of his mother. He has two older brothers, one younger brother, and one half brother (of the second wife) that live with him. They all try to find odd jobs around Yako as well as beg for money to help support the family. The home that the family of six inhabits is a mud-brick, one room house. It is no bigger than 10 feet by 10 feet. There is no electricity or running water and he has to walk to a nearby community water pump to fetch water for the family.
Issouf attends the school at the orphanage and is in CE 1 (comparable to 3rd grade). He likes to read and this past trimester, got a 4/10 average (3/10 is needed to pass). He walks to school every day, and it is approximately a 20 minute walk. For fun, Issouf enjoys playing soccer with his friends. At this time, Issouf is in good health. 
Thank you to Mrs. Hunter at Manistee Middle School for the globe for our primary school here at Sheltering Wings, as well as the generous donation from the Adventure Learning at MMS!!
Thank you to the Smith family and the Nyitray family for your donation of pens for our school! 
On Tengrela Lake! 
Other very exciting news! A group from the States came for a very short overnight visit while working in another area of Burkina, and participated in our Tuesday night family prayer at the orphanage. They asked to help and give the message at the prayer night and of course the kids said yes. They shared a little bit about our need for Christ and what it means to have a relationship with him. They asked if anyone was interested in doing this at the end (praise God, almost ALL of our children are Christians!) and Ascension, an 18 year old at our orphanage accepted Christ in his life! Ruth has been praying for him for a number of years, and God has been working on his heart. About one week later, we had a party for our sponsorship program and orphanage, and our 8 year old, Thérèse, accepted Christ as well! As Ruth has said, we are rejoicing with the angels in Heaven!! Please keep these children in your prayers though, as we have already seen some very real spiritual attacks against their new Christian hearts. Pray that we can support them and help lead them in their new walk of faith.
