2 replies to this topic

[L.W.]

OH WHAT A DAY IT HAS BEEN!
We would like to thank our daughter, Abby, for asking you all to pray for us during our time of need. Let me recap for you the events of the recent past. New had broken of a young man who died in police custody. The people believed that he was the victim of police brutality, but the police said that he died from meningitis. Some scattered protests began all over and police stations were burned. As we heard of all these protests, we wondered when they would hit Ouagadougou. Friday was the scheduled day for a March in Ouagadougou. At 10:30 a.m. I heard the students at school saying that they could see things burning in the near distance and that they heard gunshots. We have some pretty high ranking official’s children at the school, so our security was increased, but we did not know how long the school would remain open. At the end of the school day , I drove a car to school, but Micah was on his moto, and I did not see him when he left the school. I hurried home and as I drove along the canal toward the Charles de Gaulle blvd, I could see smoke and people all along my path were coming out and looking ahead. The Charles De Gaulle is about 100 yards from the house so I continue. When I arrived home I was very happy to see Micah there waiting for me. The protestors continued to burn tires and battle the police by throwing rocks at them. The police retaliated with tear gas. This went on for about and hour and a half. Larry was on the road from Bobo with a work team form the States. We were in constant communication as they traveled and we watched the activity in front of our house. Suddenly we saw the military police arrive and then jumped off of their trucks and scattered chasing protestors. Larry and the team had just arrived at the house and closed the carport gate, when our guard quickly entered pushing protestors out. Seconds later the military police arrived and searched for protestors. They captured two of them in front of our house and then continued looking in other properties on the road. They seemed determined to find someone, then we looked and a protestor was hiding in the old mission office property! We quickly closed the gates again and remain in the house until we were sure that the activity had come to an end. The protests continued further down on the Charles de Gaulle until dark. We are not sure what today holds. We talked to some students last night and they felt that the protestors were going to be out in force again today. Please pray for this solution to be resolved. Some officials have stepped down and demands are being made for others to do the same. Thank you all for writing and for praying for us.

Karen

[RuthAnn Nicholls]

I'll keep you all in my prayers. Thanks so much for the update. I was wondering how Friday went.

[Josh Whiteman]

Have things settled down?