Greetings from Burkina Faso! The main event since I last wrote was the vision trip for Bartlett Baptist Church (Memphis). Tami and I spent several days with them among the Vigue (where I also spent much of the summer). It rained every day as rainy season is still going strong in the area. We also helped them to travel among several other unreached groups. As a result, the team indicates that the church is ready to partner with us to reach the Vigue. This is a wonderful answer to our prayer that the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers into His harvest (Luke 10:2). Pastor Michael, who came on the trip, likened their group to Joshua, Caleb, and the spies who went into the Promised Land. They are going back to the congregation saying “If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us . . . the Lord is with us, do not fear them (Numbers 14:8-9). If the church accepts this challenge (which we expect they will) this means that their church will be praying for the Vigue, strategizing about how to reach the Vigue, regularly sending teams to minister among the Vigue, and recruiting others to join them in the task. We are truly excited about this partnership and look forward to seeing how God works among the Vigue.
More exciting news: Noufou is a 16-year-old Mossi (the dominant people group in Burkina) to whom we were able to share the Gospel and give a French Bible over the summer. During this past visit to Karankasso-Vigue I learned that he has been reading the Bible a lot. He told me that his “preference” is to become a Christian. After discussing this further, I learned that he does not yet feel able to make that decision because of fear of how his Muslim father and family will react. I tried to council and encourage him as best I could before we left. Sadly, this is a common obstacle here. Yet we should not be surprised. The parable of the sower talks about those “who when they hear the word immediately receive it with joy . . . then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away” (Mark 4:16-17). Please pray with me that this is not the case with Noufou. Instead pray that he would “hear the word and accept it, and bear fruit, thirty, sixty and one hundred-fold” (Mark 4:20).
As for the coming days, we are doing some catch up on things like rest, email, paperwork, etc. I may be making a couple short excursions for follow up. In October we have two individual volunteers arriving. In late October and into November I will be taking a very intense research trip into Niger. Stay tuned for that.
Praise God for:
* Bartlett Baptist’s desire and commitment to reach the unreached, namely the Vigue.
* health and safety in recent weeks.
Please pray for:
* Noufou, that he will accept the Gospel and become a follower of Jesus despite the expected persecution.
* God to continue to work in the hearts of the Vigue and prepare them for the harvest.
* God’s guidance for us and Bartlett Baptist as we begin this partnership.
As always, thanks so much for your support and prayers. God bless!
OK. I’ll make a deal. Any church that comes over here and adopts an unreached people group gets one free picture in the Faso News. These are the “spies” from Bartlett Baptist (Memphis). Don’t worry they’re not Tennessee Volunteer fans. Oh and the dark complected couple in the middle are not part of the team. That’s Pastor Dénis and his wife Nema. He has been on a couple research trips with me. Great guy. 
This is Noufou, bicycle-parts-store-guy, from Karankasso-Vigue, who would like to become a Christian except for the worries about his Muslim family (mentioned in the last newsletter). Please continue to pray for him.
I decided no website about Burkina Faso could be complete without a picture of some tô and sauce. This is the standard meal for most everyone in the country (who’s not white). Tô is usually made of ground and boiled corn or millet. The sauce is usually made of stuff you probably aren’t familiar with and would prefer not to eat. But it’s growing on me.
My grandma recently requested a picture of Tami . . . so here it is. That’s her husband David with her. In case you haven’t been paying attention, they are my supervisors/colleagues/the ones who keep me well fed.
