Greetings from
Burkina Faso!
Sam and I had a good 10 days in
Ghana to wrap up his time in
West Africa.
There we found some areas which were extremely evangelized: about 20 denominations in one town.
We found other areas with only one denomination ministering among an entire people group: the Sisaala.
The Sisaala are largely unreached by the Gospel.
Pray that God will send more laborers into the harvest among them.
The past couple weeks I’ve been writing reports on the eight people groups we’ve recently researched, writing evaluations of our volunteers, paying bills, making arrangements in villages for our future volunteers, catching up on email and college basketball, and cleaning the dust out of my house – none of which make for a very thrilling newsletter. However it might be good information for those of you who might think my life is all waterfalls, road trips, and safaris. Now back to the good stuff.
On Monday we will welcome back Bartlett Baptist Church (Tenn.). They are our first “Engaging Church” and have adopted the Vigue people. You may remember that I spent several weeks among the Vigue from June-September with 3 different teams (the last being the first Bartlett team). This team will spend Feb. 21-28 with the Vigue. Besides continuing to build relationships and share the Gospel with individuals, we also hope to show the Jesus Film this time. We still know of no Christians among the Vigue, but we hope you will pray with us that that changes soon.
On March 2nd the Bartlett team leaves and the next day a team from Compassion Church (Raleigh) arrives. They are coming on a vision trip to look into adopting a people group like Bartlett has done. We plan to expose them to several unreached groups in southwestern Burkina. One of the groups we are hoping to introduce them to is the Western Karaboro, who, like the Vigue, have no known Christians. I recently went to their main village called Tengrela to explain to their leaders that we have some strangers/volunteers who want to come spend some time in their village learning their language and sharing with them about God. This is usually simply a formality to give them a heads up. We are regularly welcomed with open arms. However on this occasion I was told by an elder that we can only come on one condition. It is their custom to make sacrifices whenever visitors are coming so that all will go well with them. On top of this he expected that we would provide the sheep and chicken for the sacrifices. I made it known that our beliefs would not allow us to contribute to their sacrifices. Even after another conversation with him, he did not back down from his condition. Still we plan to at least stop in to greet these people. Please pray “that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ.” (Colossians 4:3)
Praise God for:
* Sam and his willingness to spend such a large chunk of time helping us with our research and ministry.
* the vision and willingness of Bartlett Baptist and Compassion Church to be a part of the Great Commission.
Please pray for:
* the Lord to send laborers into the harvest among the Sisaala people of Ghana.
* the Bartlett team’s time among the Vigue – that God will help us “to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19) and that He would bring salvation to the Vigue (Romans 10:1).
* God to guide Compassion Church in finding their place of service in West Africa.
* the Western Karaboro people – “that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ.” (Colossians 4:3)
Thanks so much for your prayers for me and more importantly the unreached peoples of West Africa. The Lord is sending laborers and He will reap the harvest in due time. God bless!
