Our time here...

It is already midterm here in Kona for this last quarter of the year. Time has flown by very quickly and we are amazed as we look on the calender as Thanksgiving is only three weeks away. Ezekiel has flourished here in this tropical weather, growing an inch each month and putting on the pounds even faster. We have seen God do some great and mighty things among us here on campus. Week after week, we have seen God challenge us as a campus as well as the entire body of believers, to live a life of purity and righteousness before him. We are so excited about being apart of this base, just this last week, there has been great things happening. To mention a few, there was a team who went out into the community to prayer for some locals and one of them ended up requesting to come back here to our coffee shop on campus with a friend of his to learn more about God, and that night they both gave the hearts to God. Its awesome to see that we aren't just sending people out to other places to do this work but we are being apart of reaching out to this community here in Kona. Another amazing testimony is that Monday morning during a prayer time for one of the classes, they were praying for an older gentleman who was so hard of hearing he had to wear hearing aids, and during that prayer time, God completely restored his hearing after 18 years of being hard of hearing! We do serve a God that heals us!!! So these are just some of the stories we are apart of by serving and working here and you are apart of them too as our friends and supports. So thank you and rejoice in the work of the Lord.

Confessions of the Soul

Recently, I read in a book that there is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction. This statement hit my heart with a sledgehammer, see I have always prided myself in the idea that I am not an addictive person. Yes, I have my habits but I do not become addicted. But when I read this statement, God convicted me so strong, it became tangible. I felt it surround my heart and mind, suddenly realizing that I am an addict; I am addicted to myself. Philippians 2:3,4 has become my prayer, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." I have found the grace of God and have been encouraged to change. Daily I work to lose a part of this selfish addiction. I lay down my rights to myself, and everytime I want to complain or have a selfish thought, I stop and thank God for something I have. I have found that cultivating a heart of gratefulness in all that I have, looses the grip of selfishness in my heart. Everyday, I let go of spending time the way I want to spend it and instead let God chose the best use of my time. Here is another thing God has told me, in order to truly love others, you have to be willing to sacrifce your time. In America, we have a saying that time is money, which is true, it is the strongest currency we have, so my challenge to myself is where have I have been spending that currency. For Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, "Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be." Time is a treasure so where am I spending that treasure, on things that matter, which for me I have come to know that all that matters are people. This is my confession and I hope that it challenges and encourages you today.

Safely in Hawaii

I am sitting here amid half-empty suitcases and half-full cupboards, yes, we made it to Hawaii and it has been an interesting ride. We left Colorado a week ago today and traveled to Sin City which we left quickly and made our way towards the ocean, California to be exact, where we spent several days with my Grandfather who is not only aged but also been afflicted by numerous illnesses which could claim him at any moment. It was wonderful to spend a few days with him, acquainting him with Ezekiel who took very kindly towards him. We then travelled back to Sin City where we once again made our escape this time our destination would be this Island Paradise. Our travel time from getting on the airplane in Las Vegas until we landed in Kona was nine and a half hours. Despite the many hours, Ezekiel did wonderful and was the lest tried. We did have some of an adventure after landing, as it seemed that we landed in a third world nation instead of the famous paradise island. See there was some miscommunication and we did not have a room to stay in when we first arrived so the first empty room found became our temporary home. Additionally, there have been electricity problems on base since the day of our arrival with multiple power outages and therefore a lack of hot water. Needless to say, it has been a test of our patience and expectations. However, we have since been moved to our semi-permanent room, which I will say was worth waiting for as it has a small tub perfect size for Ezekiel's baths as well as a walk in closet, (nothing like what most of you are imagining but great for YWAM standards). So there is nothing to complain about and we are excited to be apart of the campus here as there are great things happening. The Greek School is expecting five students for sure with one student wanting to come but uncertain due to visa issues, so you can keep him in your prayers.
God was amazingly gracious to us and provide us with enough for our immediate needs here and we are trusting him for the coming months.
Ezekiel is already eating us out of everything we have, his appetite surprises me every meal. He is already the talk of the campus as we have many strangers telling us how adorable he is and how they have told their friends about him, already Mr. Popular.
Thank you all for the great support you have given to us and for all of the prayers you have prayed on our behalf, they have been answered in might ways.
As you continue to pray for us, please would you consider these needs? We are still without any form of transportation and that has become quite difficult when trying to keep up on diapers and formula for an actively growing boy. So if you could please pray that God would provide us with a vehicle that is easy to maintain and cheap. Also we are hoping to find a church here that we will be able to be active in and enjoy and so will you pray with us that God leads us to the Church he desires for us to be at. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and for us continued relationship with us. We would love to hear from you all, we will place our new address at the end of this update and our cell phone numbers have not changed so please feel free to call us anytime.
Thanks for taking time to read this and staying updated on our life!

Joseph and Meleah Ouedraogo
University of the Nations
75-5851 Kuakini Hwy #15
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740-2199

Once again, it has been a long time since I updated this blog but I wanted to let you who are faithful to check up on us, know how we are doing and what we are up to. The summer has been busy but great so far. We have stayed busy enjoying family and friends as well as doing many activities with the youth group at church. Ezekiel celebrated his first 4th of July in two exciting fashions. First off, we started the celebration by going to a local concert that included some of our favorite bands like Super(c)hick and Grits than after most of the fun was over we traveled up to the mountains and went camping with some good friends of ours. Ezekiel greatly enjoyed his camping trip, as he loves to be outside and caught up on sleep with the river being his lullaby. He did great and we really enjoyed that time with our friends.
The most exciting event we have yet to look forward to and that is our return to Hawaii. Yep it's true we are moving back to Kona, Hawaii and we have set up the tentative dates for the 12th of September. We are excited about this new adventure as we both have been in Hawaii before but it was a new experience with a baby along for the ride. We are looking at this as a long-term move as we are planning to be on staff with the campus there and are looking forward to at least a year of service. Joseph will be apart of the staff for the Greek School which starts September 25 and than will be apart of two other schools those being the Old Testament Hebrew, and the school of Humanities and Science. Meleah will be spending most of her time with Ezekiel as well as returning to her studies online.
We do have some pray requests that if you remember us, would you please lift these up for us? We are currently in need of monthly support for our finances, which is looking to be about $2000 a month, as well as about $1000 to travel to Hawaii.
We also would love your prayers for our travel as we venture with a seven month old, and we are praying that he does well during the many flights and layovers we are expecting.
Being on staff can also be very challenging and Joseph needs your prayers, as he will be taking this time to the next level as he figures out a way to take this school back to Africa one day.
We want to thank you for all of your prayers and the time that you have invested into our lives, we greatly appreciate all that you have given to us during our many adventures with God. We look forward to sharing with you the many ways that God answers our prayers.

Future plans

Many of you may be wondering what our future holds now that we are no longer just two but three. Well, we are still passionate about missions and feel God has called us to return to Youth With A Mission, and we are just seeking his face for the right timing to go. We desire to serve back in Hawaii at the University of the Nations campus specifically with Joseph being apart of the Humanities and Science school, in addition to the Hebrew and Greek schools. Meleah's first priority obviously is Ezekiel but still desires to be apart of the campus in anyway that she can while bringing Ezekiel with her. It will be hard to leave Colorado once again as we have put down many roots and built many great relationships since coming here last summer, however we look forward to what the future holds and how God can continue to enrich our lives with many more relationships throughout the world.
We would love for you to come aside us in prayer for these plans that we have. If you could just pray that God would confirm his timing for us to return to YWAM and also that he would give us the provision to do so. We desire to serve God in every area of our lives and would you just pray that in everything that we do we would glorify his name alone. Thank you once again for your commitment to us and for your friendship. May God bless you greatly!

Ezekiel is getting to be so big already; it is so true that they grow so quickly. He has already doubled his birth weight in only two months and is the best child I have ever seen. He is learning so much everyday, smiling and even starting to laugh. I know that I am biased when I say that he is a beautiful child but I can't help to believe it when whenever we leave the house we are stopped by a stranger and told that he is a beautiful baby. Here is some recent pictures to show you just how true it is.

This is one of my favorites with Joseph showing off how closely they look alike.

Ezekiel's first bath. He loves to take baths and had never cryed during one.

And of course you have to have a picture of the sleeping boy. He loves his swing and we are ever so grateful for it.

Long over due

First off, I would like to apologize to everyone for such a tardy update. When people say life is very busy with a newborn they are correct but personally I find the bigger obstacle to be sleep deprivation. Being awake 80 percent of the day and night taking care of the baby and then in the few hours of his sleep during the day trying to take care of the daily necessities of running a household is the life of every parent especially us new ones. However, I have thought of sharing much with you for a great amount of time. First off, I want to thank all of you for your sweet words and gifts to us since Ezekiel was born. We appreciate everyone and treasure your words and thoughts towards us in this precious gift of parenthood. We feel like Ezekiel could not have come at a better time in our lives and is so much more than a precious gift to us for he has been used by God already to teach us so much about God's heart for us and has been instrumental in healing our hearts and minds in many areas. For Meleah, she struggled with her identity as a woman for much of her life and God used this pregnancy and thenceforth the birth of Ezekiel to minister to her heart, affirming her femininity in ways that only becoming a mother could. For both of us, God showed us that it is not us who is the provider for Ezekiel despite what we have been taught, that is still God's job and he alone can give us what we need to provide a loving and safe home for our son.
Since Joseph has returned from Africa, his job situation has been much like a roller coaster ride in that it has had many ups and downs and many unexpected turns. However, God has been so faithful to us in providing everything we have needed. Never once has a single bill gone unpaid nor have we lacked food or any other necessity. In getting everything ready for Ezekiel's birth we were just amazed by God's provision, the only thing we spent our own money on was Ezekiel's baby book, every thing else was given to us by a great deal of different people and trust me we have everything that we could possibly need for him. From crib to swing to baby monitor to clothing, everything was provided by God to show us that he wants the best for us and will provide in whatever way he desires. We have learned to rely on nothing outside of God himself. Nothing is reliable but God.
So thank you to all of you who were apart of this work of God, your obedience to God has made a lasting impact on our lives and has been used by God to teach us a great deal. We pray that whatever you have need of, that God will provide in greater ways than you can imagine. A life serving God is truly the only a life worth living. We are forever grateful for his provision and grace in our lives.

Pregnancy Update

I am sure that many of you are wondering about Meleah and the soon arrival of our little boy, and I will admit that an update is shamefully over due.

Meleah has been doing great and having a wonderful pregnancy, having no complications and relatively few complaints.

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks to update you on the growth of her belly, as we near the end of this exciting time.

I realize that we have not posted any pictures of Meleah's belly during this pregnancy up until now so we will start with this one, which as at only 13 weeks.

This next picture below is from our time in Africa when Meleah was about 18 weeks.

This one on the right was taken at 22 weeks along. Slowly getting bigger...

This picture is from Christmas Day with Meleah being 31 weeks.

This picture is from two weeks later, a last minute picture in front of the Christmas tree before we said goodbye to Christmas decorations until next year. Meleah is 33 weeks along in this picture and is greatly looking forward to the end.

A White Christmas and a New Year

A late Happy Holidays to all of you!

Life has been very busy since Joseph's arrival home from Africa in the beginning of December. We managed to make our new house a home and decorate for Christmas before the even actually happened, something Meleah was suspicious about happening.

We woke up Christmas morning to a snow storm that piled more snow on us in one storm than I had ever seen in Montrose, it was truly a white Christmas to remember.

Christmas was another wonderful event for us as we spent some time with Meleah's family, it was especially wonderful to be able to spend sometime with Meleah's sister, Melodie and her family who lives in Missouri. Joseph celebrated another year of his birth in tradition of a Christmas breakfast made only once a year by Meleah just for the event of his birthday. This is a picture of him showing off his new Birthday outfit, in front of our beautiful Christmas tree.

It was a great time for us as a family and are thankful for all that God has given us during 2007.

We celebrated New Years by spending time with family, old friends and new ones at our house. It was a small get together but very fun with lots of laughter and games. A wonderful way to spend the last moments of 2007 and an even better way to start out this new year.

We hope and pray that you all had a wonderful holiday season and that you are able to see all of the many blessings that God gave you during this past year and for the new year to come. We pray that you all are able to find joy and hope for the upcoming year as well.