“Missionaries are very human folks, just doing what they are asked. Simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.” – Jim Elliot
Why Niger?
Our home church, Lake City Community Church (LC3), adopted an unreached people group in Niger. We like to say that we didn’t pick Niger – God did.
What are we doing?
We serve the African church in the area of Marriage and Family Ministry.
What is Marriage and Family Life Ministry?
Serving the church through marriage and family discipleship. We share Biblical teaching on Marriage, meet with couples for marriage and pre-marriage counseling, and provide resources for Christians to strengthen their marriages and family relationships.
Life in the desert 
Andrew, I finally have you zeroed in.
lon
Hi Gray Family,
We are Joel and Heidi Hayslip (sons Jakob -10 and Silas-4) living in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. My sister, Erika Ames, is friends with Nikki’s parents in Washington. Erika told us about you. We have many SIM friends, including Joel and Karen Gray who are here in Ouaga in charge of the Institute Missiologique du Sahel (a missionary training school for national missionaries and senders). They plan on sending their son to your school next year I think. And we know Josh and Milly Gibson who also go there.
Have you met Neal and Danette Childs? They work in both Maradi (sp?) and Niamey. Great great couple. They are doing an amazing work with church planting, running Christian schools and Christian kids camps in the summer. If you have the chance to meet them, make friends with them. They’re awesome.
We have been out here in Burkina for 8 years now doing children’s ministry. We train church volunteers to become children’s pastors and childrens evangelists. Our teams also work alongside Operation Christmas Child and do evangelism using puppets and skits at each of their gift distributions.
We have a great expat community here in Ouaga. There is a Bible study for women here that uses Beth Moore Bible studies, and its about 50 expat women strong, English-speaking women from every continent. We’ve decided to put on a women’s retreat on May 18-19 here in Ouaga (Fri afternoon to Sat afternoon) and there is a team of American women who will be hosting it. I think it will be very fun and refreshing and God is going to use it to really set us all on fire for Him again! 🙂 Anyway, you and all your English-speaking friends are invited. I can get you more details later. Please email me with any questions you might have.
God bless you! Welcome to the community of West African missionaries!
Heidi and Joel Hayslip