Niger pics

Our guide to the desert (Sali) is doing his part to fight desertification.
This was the one time we got seriously stuck in the sand. After about 30 minutes of digging we were free and on our way. The gentleman with the automatic weapon was a military guy hitching a ride. It's hard to say no to a guy with a firearm.
Some say Niger has the last herd of giraffes in West Africa. Here's evidence.
Sali again posing
So Sam told Nehemiah (our guide/interpreter) that he'd like to ride a camel sometime. Next time we saw a guy on a camel, Nehemiah flagged him down. Up Sam went.

Buduma people

This is a group of Buduma men (known as tall people - compare to Sam [white guy] and Nehemiah just in front of him) who we had a good long visit with. They gave us a lot of information and were very open. They say they realize they are an unknown people and need help. They pleaded for us to get out the word about them. Despite to pressing needs of daily life, what they need most is the Gospel. We know of no Buduma Christians.
These are some Buduma houses. They are made of millet or sorghum stalks. This village, according to the GPS, is about 20 miles into Lake Chad. Obviously, since it's not underwater, Lake Chad is no longer there. It's shrunk drastically in recent years.
Some of the same Buduma men with Nehemiah (a Nigerien missionary and our guide/interpreter) on the far right.
Apparently all Buduma women wear nose-rings. The Buduma also do a lot of facial scarring as you can somewhat see on these two ladies.

Tal dessert

Who knew sand could be so beautiful and interesting? What a wonderful Creator!

Burkina newsletter #15

Greetings from Burkina Faso! I’ve been to the desert and back! It was a great African road trip (over 3000 miles roundtrip)! I really enjoyed Niger despite it being ranked (on the HDI) as the least developed nation in the world (a few spots below Burkina). Our trip was not without incident yet it was blessed and well planned by the Lord. In Ouagadougou and Niamey (the capitals of Burkina and Niger), the truck underwent some maintenance work causing us to be delayed a couple days in each country. However the delay was not a waste because we got to hang out with many in our mission family. Sam was also able to recover from a slight illness. From that point on we had no health problems and had almost perfectly uneventful travel (aside from getting stuck in the sand for half and hour, being taken to the police station after refusing to pay a bribe, and the A/C going out a few hours from our return to Ouaga – so maybe that’s a big “almost”).

One theme of the trip would be fellowship with, and hospitality from, our Christian family. Nearly everywhere we went on the trip we were met with open doors and delightful dinner tables. We were hardly roughing it as expected (we were well stocked with granola bars, tuna packs, and peanut butter). As best as I can count, we stayed the night with six different families (some multiple nights) and were fed 24 meals over about three and a half weeks. Still, I didn’t feel like a bum but more like a member of a large, generous family. I think I can now better relate to the instructions Jesus gave his 12 disciples as he sent them out as the first missionaries. He told them “that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt.” (Mark 6:8) In that situation I believe they were expected to rely on the hospitality of non-Christians. How much more should we expect Christian hospitality? In fact it was commanded: “Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:1-2). Sam has commented that it seems wherever we go we seem to find great folks in the missionary community. It’s true. I’m very blessed to have the relationships I have here. I thank God for them and their hospitality.

As for the research portion of the trip, we investigated seven groups, but the three furthest east were the most striking. It was not terribly surprising to find that the people around Lake Chad are almost completely untouched by the Gospel. We learned of only 6 believers among the two Kanuri groups and 0 believers among the Buduma. The difficulties in taking the Gospel to this area are obvious. Just getting there much less living there is an enormous challenge. It is a 23-hour drive from the capital (with some stretches of terrible road) and the landscape is very dry and barren. Yet these people need the Gospel so desperately. I know God can equip His ministers even for such a difficult task as this. Let us pray that He will do just that.

The coming weeks will be fairly busy. First I’ve got to write up the reports on our research. Next week we plan to attend a Thanksgiving celebration for the whole missionary community in Bobo. Two days after that I will fly to Lomé, Togo for a 3-day conference. Soon after arriving back we expect to receive two volunteers on December 10th and then a couple more on the 20th. I thank God that it’s a good busy.

Praise God for:

* the heath, safety, and good information that God provided on our trip through Niger.
* the many hospitable families who took care of us and encouraged us on the trip.
* Sam (a fine traveling mate) and the other volunteers coming in December.

Please pray for:

* God to make a way for the Gospel to reach the peoples of the Lake Chad Basin.
* the conference in Togo to be beneficial and refreshing (the name of the conference is “Re-new”).
* our preparations for, and the coming of, the volunteers in December.

As always, thanks so much for you thoughts and prayers. I am encouraged by you despite the distance between us. Note: Amazingly we now have high-speed internet access in Bobo (Praise the Lord!). This means you will benefit by getting to see more pictures on the blog.

work and play

Rarely do I have anyone with me on research trips who is interested in taking my picture. Fortunately I had IMB journalist Jesse on the last trip. Here's a great pic of my back. In this pic I'm chatting with a pastor (in white) who we had to track down in his field.
You may wonder what I do for fun. Besides wrestling crocodiles and juggling farming tools, sometimes I try backflips off waterfalls. OK so I only tried it once, but when you get it right the first time, why show off. Unfortunately the Nigerian judged docked me half a point for too much spash.
Here was another guy we were taking research from. This time we're in a more traditional setting: a church. The guy nearest me is Abdoulaye, a frequent traveling buddy.

Burkina newsletter #14

Greetings from Burkina Faso! The 17th was a big day. We said goodbye to volunteer Ashley Jackson and welcomed Sam Gowin. These are a couple of interesting folks. Ashley is a 23-year-old banker/university student/pastor’s wife from Seattle who’s had a growing interest in missions. Sam is a 29-year-old former nuclear engineer and current lawyer who’s taking a few months off before seeking a new practice. They are an encouragement to me because they are further evidence that God is drawing individuals from all areas and walks of life into his service. I recently read that “God’s business is our vocation. Everything else is our avocation.” I wasn’t smart enough to know what an “avocation” was, so I looked it up. Turns out it’s basically a hobby. I like that thought. It actually came from James Brown (not the fancy dancer and entertainer) the sports talk show guy. I thank God for Ashley’s and Sam’s interest in spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom to all the nations (Matthew 24:14). I thank God for their willingness to sacrifice (time/money/comfort/relationships) to join us in the task He has given us.

Among other adventures, Ashley joined us for a research trip to the Pana people, another micro-people of only about 7,500 people. The Pana are located on the border with Mali, about a 6-hour drive northeast from Bobo. We had an enjoyable visit among them and even found an entertaining English-speaking university student in the village of Oué (pronounced “way”). Sadly, there is almost no evangelical work among the Pana and we heard of fewer than a handful of believers among them. Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to the Pana.

Sam will be broken into the research task by a little trip to the far side of Niger. We will leave Monday and will travel well over 2,000 miles round-trip. On our way we will research two groups in the east of Burkina (Zerma and Hausa), then two groups in the west of Niger (Mossi and Gourmantche), and we’ll finish with three groups around Lake Chad (Buduma and two kinds of Kanuri peoples). I’m told to expect sand dunes as we go further east toward Lake Chad. Sounds fun huh? Due to the distance we will travel it’s hard to estimate how long we will be gone but we expect the trip to take weeks instead of days (we definitely plan to be back by Thanksgiving). I look forward to the adventure. Though I’ve only recently met Sam I can tell we will do well together.

Sunday is the last day of Ramadan. Monday, the 24th, is one of the most important Muslim holidays of the year. There will be much feasting and celebration among the Muslims of Burkina Faso (more than half the population) and the world. Pray that even at this time God would bring doubts into the minds of many Muslims. Pray that He will draw many into a relationship with Him so they will truly have reason to celebrate.

Praise God for:

* the blessing that Ashley was, and Sam will be, to our team and our ministry.
* continued health, safety, and all around blessed times on our research trips.

Please pray for:

* the God’s guidance and protection on our research trip through Niger.
* God to send more laborers to the Pana and other unengaged people groups in Burkina and around the world.
* Muslims to be able to see the Way the Truth and the Life as their holy month comes to a close.

As always, thanks so much for you prayers and support. God bless!

Burkina newsletter #13

Greetings from Burkina Faso! First some business. If you are used to receiving these newsletter by email and didn’t, please let me know. I’ve recently remodeled my hard drive and lost my email list. If you didn’t know you could get these newsletters by email, and think that would be cool, just let me know. Thanks.

I recently had another successful research trip. This time we took a look at the Natioro and Blé peoples. They are two tiny ethnic groups (know as “micro-peoples”) of only about 4,000 and 1,500 people respectively. The Blé are only found in one village, conveniently named Blédougou (“dougou” means town or village in Jula and “Blé” means wheat in French, which is trivial because “Blé” means Blé in Jula). First of all, how amazing is it that there are such small groups of people distinct from all others with their own language and everything. That’s God for you. Anyway, Pastor Alphonse, a new traveling partner, and I were trying to find Blédougou. We stopped, as is our custom, and asked some locals on the side of the road (as Blédougou is not on a map, nor are there signs on the road). One fellow said he was a Blé from Blédougou and he could use a ride (as is often the case since approximately nobody in the village owns a vehicle unless you count bicycles). So we take Salia (Blé guy) with us down the typical terrible road. We had already spoken to the two pastors who had, just this year, started the first church in Blédougou. In chatting with Salia we find out that he is a Christian. In fact he was the first Blé to convert to Christianity (most other Blé are Muslims and Animists) and is now the “president” of the Blé Christians. What are the odds that we stop to ask directions at a random spot on the side of the road, still miles away from Blédougou, and we find the first of the Blé Christians (perhaps in all of history)? Normally, I’d say not too good. But knowing God to be the amusing and amazing God He is, I wasn’t too surprised, but I was amused. Since the Blé chief wasn’t home we just took some more info from Salia and had a good visit with his family. He listed off how many believers there were (about 40). He told us of the verbal abuse they take and how they just don’t listen to it. He pulled out his notebook where he had noted the first church service taking place on March 26th of this year. He showed us the wooden cross he’d made and stuck in the ground beside his hut so that “whoever comes by will know that there are Christians here.” We prayed for them and made our way home.

This was a touching visit for me. To our knowledge there were no Blé Christians until this man converted earlier this year. I was encouraged by the two pastors who have made numerous treks from their villages to come to Blédougou and share the Gospel with these people. I’m glad they beat us to it. I’m glad some of the Blé have accepted the Gospel and are excited about it. I’m glad that God is still working to gather the great multitude from every nation, tribe, peoples, and tongue (Revelation 7:9). I’m glad to know this fascinating God. I praise Him for all this.

Here’s what’s going on in the coming days. Ashley Jackson, short-term volunteer, arrived on Friday. She will be accompanying us on a research trip to the Pana people. The same day she leaves, October 17th, Sam Gowin arrives. Sam will be with us several months. He is coming primarily to travel with me on research trips. After some orientation and getting settled in Burkina, we will be leaving for Niger on a very long trip. I hope to write again before we leave and will explain more then.

Praise God for:

* divine appointments such as the one with Salia – the first Blé Christian.
* the work He is doing among the Blé, Natioro, and other “micro-peoples.”
* sending Ashley and Sam to serve with us.

Please pray for:

* God to raise up more pastors/churches, Burkinabé and others, to take the Gospel to the “micro-peoples” of West Africa.
* these Blé Christians to grow in their faith and for more Blé and Natioro to come to know Him.
* God to continue to bless us with successful research trips: health, safety, the acquisition of good information, etc.


As always, thanks so much for your prayers for me and the peoples of West Africa. God bless!

Sundry photos

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.

Burkina newsletter #12

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!

She's a beaut!

First of all, don’t worry mom, I still have all my appendages. Second, yes it’s real. Third, yes it’s alive. Fourth, yes that is me saving a poor African’s life from a deadly crocodile.

This is me and the croc after I had established my dominance. That’s our “bait” in it’s mouth: chicken on a rope (sorry animal rights folks-they've gotta eat right?). Actually these are “sacred” crocs at a little tourist site. I know these are technically crocs and not gators, but could this be a prophecy of how the Wildcats will handle the Gators this football season.

Burkina newsletter #11

Greetings from Burkina Faso! The theme of the past few weeks has been, “Wow, nice road!” (much sarcasm intended) I’ve been on a few more research trips: to the Sambla, Southern Toussian, and Turka people groups. Each one has seemed to have at least one “road” that could vie for the “worst-road-I’ve-ever-been-on award.” Again I hesitate to call these passageways “roads” because much of what we’ve been doing is typically called “off-roading.” Nonetheless, these trips have been adventurous and successful. Part of the difficulty is that we are roughly at the peak of rainy season and since the majority of roads are dirt/mud/rock/sand they are ever-changing, almost always for the worse. Then there’s the fact that we’ve had to drive up a couple small, rocky mountains. We’ve also traversed a couple problematic bridges and even had to create one bridge. All this may sound fun, hazardous, or foolish to you. Yet this just illustrates the point that there are still many places in this world that are very difficult to get to. That means there are many people in this world who are still quite isolated from the outside world. And that means there are still many souls who have not heard the “Gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24), because so many have chosen to go down the easier path. If you are up for taking some tough, grueling roads for the sake of the Kingdom. We’ve got a job for you.

What has our research found? The Sambla people are only about 17,000, but most of their villages are within an hour of the big city, Bobo. Still we only found two small Sambla churches and a total of about 100 believers. The Turka number about 37,000 and are located around some of southwestern Burkina’s tourist sights. Many people, undoubtedly including many Christians, pass through Turka territory to visit these sights. Yet few have gone to take the Gospel to the Turka. We found only one Turka-speaking church and about 150 total believers. For time’s sake I will simply say that the Southern Toussian are in only slightly better condition. Unfortunately this is pretty much the norm for our findings. Will you pray? Will you send? Will you go? We’d love for you to partner with us.

Soon I will be on another research trip to the southeast of the country, this time among the Yanna. Soon after that we will welcome a team from Bartlett Baptist in Tennessee. They will be looking into partnering with us to reach one of these unreached groups such as the Vigue, Sambla, or Turka. This is an exciting possibility for our team and for the unreached peoples of Burkina Faso.

Praise God for:

*safe and successful travels despite the challenging conditions.
* churches like Bartlett Baptist that are seeking to reach the unreached in the difficult places.

Please pray for:

* God’s guidance for Bartlett Baptist concerning what they can do for His kingdom.
* God to send more workers among these unreached people groups.

As always, thanks so much for your interest in and prayers for God’s work here in West Africa. God bless!

Farming and stars

So this is me trying my hand at farming . . . oh wait, that's the next picture. I just wanted to show the folks there was more than one use for these hoes.
Now I can tell my kids (Lord willing), "When I was young, we used to have to break up the ground with a plow pulled by cows!" Yea, this is really how they work, if they are fortunate enough to have cows or able to rent them out. Otherwise, they use the little hoes seen above.
This is just a fun night picture taken thanks to the clever photography skills of Donald Page - master photographer and ultimate fighter.

Burkina newsletter #10

Greetings from Burkina Faso! Since I last wrote I’ve been on another research trip, attended our regional meeting in Togo – “Advance”, visited among the Marense and Sininkere, where the Woods served last term, and spent some time in Bobo recovering from the events of the summer. All has gone very well. “Advance” was a wonderful time of fellowship, relaxation, worship, and teaching. On both ends of the conference, I got to go to the beach, the second time because our flight home was delayed 24 hours – Praise the Lord! While in Togo the Lord also continued to drive home some lessons He’s been teaching me all summer. I would like to share some of that with you.

In summary I’ve been learning that participating in missions is not so much about what we can do for God but about what God can do through us. Thus our service is not so much dependent on our abilities but on our openness to God’s working through us. This means any of our excuses about our inadequacies and weaknesses are null and void. In fact, our shortcomings make us even more likely candidates for God’s work. The Bible tells us “consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1:26-27). In this way, we cannot boast and God gets the glory He deserves.

Even still, many of us ask the question “who am I to serve God in this way or that?” That’s not necessarily a bad question because it has been asked by some fairly reputable folks: Moses, David and Solomon among others. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” (Moses – Exodus 3:11) “Who am I, O Lord God and what is my house that You have brought me this far?” (David – 1 Samuel 18:18) “Who am I that I should build a house for Him?” (Solomon – 2 Chronicles 2:6) We know of these men’s faults (Moses was a murderer. David had a man killed. Solomon allowed foreign women to lead him to worship foreign Gods.), yet we also know how God used them mightily in His master plan. He can work mightily through us as well.

I think another issue besides the “who am I” question is our belief that we need some miraculous, unmistakable “call” in order to attempt great things for God. I am convinced that He accepts volunteers. Isaiah 6:8 says, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” This was a general call and Isaiah stepped up and volunteered. I see the Great Commission as our general call today. Who will volunteer? Another story of volunteerism is in 1 Samuel 14. Verse six says, “Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, ‘Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the LORD will work for us, for the LORD is not restrained to save by many or by few.’” We do not read that the Lord called Jonathan to fight this battle. Nor do we read that Jonathan decided he would go defeat the Philistines in his own strength. Instead we see that Jonathan put himself in a position where the Lord would have to fight for him or else he would be squashed. He trusted in the Lord’s strength to work for him. The two of them went up to the Philistines and in the rest of the story we see that the Lord won a great victory for Israel.

Now even if I understand that God can use even me, and that I can volunteer to serve Him, it is still wise to count the cost. Yet what cost can be too great when we consider what Jesus has done for us. And have we not been called to take up our cross just as Jesus did? Consider this quote by missionary pioneer David Livingstone: “Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? . . . Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these things are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.” May we all have this perspective.

This is a summary of what the Lord’s been feeding me with. I rejoice that we have God’s promise that He will always be with us (Matt. 28:20; Heb. 13:5), but even more He will help us and fight for us (2 Chronicles 32:7-8). He will give us the words to say. He will give us strength (1 Peter 4:11). This is my story. This is why I can be here. I pray that you are allowing God to fight for you.

Here’s what’s coming up. Monday I will be taking another research trip, this time to the Sambla people (“Seeku” on the Burkina peoples map on the website if you’re keeping track at home). I will be joined by Abdoulaye Pafadnam, one of our translators during our summer ministry, and Jenny White, the summer volunteer who has stayed an extra month. After that we plan to make a couple more short excursions, one being a day trip to Karankasso-Vigue to warn them that we have will be bringing more volunteers. On the 14th we will welcome two two-week volunteers who are coming for a vision trip. A vision trip is a visit to see firsthand the country, the people, and the ministry possibilities to know how a person or a church can join in God’s work here. We have another group or two doing this in September. We are always open to more.

Praise God for:

* a wonderful time of refreshment at “Advance” in Togo.
* volunteers who continue to come serve with us.
* the fact that the Lord will work and fight for us in the ministry.

Please pray for:

* the upcoming research trip: safe travel, health, good info to be gathered.
* the upcoming volunteer teams to learn how they can be involved in God’s work here.
* God to continue to send laborers into the harvest (maybe you will pray about whether God would use you as His laborer here).

Faces

These are just some of the faces of Burkina Faso that we encountered this summer.

Two Chiefs and a Son

On the right is the chief of Dakoro (a Senufo Senara village) who I go to share with during my short stay there. On your left, is his right hand man, I believe he was an uncle. [Photo courtesy of Donald Page, master photographer, janitor, and ultimate fighter.]
Here is a little language lesson with the chief of Karankasso-Vigue. The chief loves to share his language. He's a jolly, kind old man. Please continue to pray for him and his people. [Photo courtesy of Kelly Womack - I'll mess with Texas if I want to!]
This is Karim, one of the above chief's sons, who runs the little "convenient store" in the background. Here we are discussing something from the Jula New Testament in his hand. I know the picture looks posed, with the thumbs up and all, but it's not. [Photo courtesy of Emily Yoran - Go Wolfpack! Beat Duke and UNC!]

Burkina newsletter #9

Greetings from Burkina Faso! Our summer of ministry with volunteers is over. We thank God for their coming to this random country and serving with us. The second half of the summer, I accompanied a new team to Karankasso-Vigue. It was good to go back having already built some rapport with many people in the village. I told you earlier of three men we were able to share the Gospel with. We got to continue that process with one of them, Karim. This time out we also were strengthened by God to share with about four other individuals: Zinadine Zidane (a nickname some of you might be familiar with if you watched the World Cup), Noufou, Karim (another one), and the local pharmacist (who’s name I can neither spell nor pronounce). Back to Karim (the first one), we came to learn this time that he had once been the local Jula literacy instructor. Therefore, we asked if he would be interested in a Jula New Testament. He said he would so we gave him one. He read portions nearly every day we were there (his wife read some as well). Sometimes he would point out things and we would discuss them. Other times I would point out things to discuss (such as the “Romans Road”). He was and remains very interested and open to the Word. I thank God that His Word does not return to Him void, without accomplishing what He desires (Isaiah 55:11). Please continue to pray for Karim and these others that have heard the Gospel.

Another exciting development came on a visit to another Vigue village, Dogochoro. We only went there because a Baptist pastor who we know was born there and when he heard we were ministering in the area, he wanted to go visit (for the first time since he was 7 years old). He is not Vigue, but Lyele, one of the groups of outsiders who have settled on Vigue land. Nonetheless we got to visit with the Vigue chief of Dogochoro. There we were told that the village has no church or mosque, therefore the people know nothing. They said if we would come share with them they would gather the people to listen. They even considered arranging a meeting the next day or the following week, but decided it would be better to wait for another time. Therefore, we have an open door in this village, an answer to your prayers (Col. 4:3). Other good news: we have a church that is coming for a vision trip in September and one of the groups they will be looking into ministering among are the Vigue. While ministering to the Vigue our team quickly realized that more workers were needed among them. Therefore we started praying for that, as the Scripture instructs us to “beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2). We see this church coming as an answer to that prayer. I also expect to have opportunities to return and follow up on the work we have begun there.

I wish I could explain all that went on during the summer, but with the exception of four days, I spent all of my time with only two of the seven teams we sent out and was among one of the four people groups we worked with. Therefore, I have chosen to share only what I saw and experienced first hand. Know that God also worked through the other teams among the Tiefo, Lyele, and Senufo Senara. I feel we had a wonderful summer of ministry. The volunteers provided much refreshment and encouragement for me. I thank God for them and their service.

What now? Monday-Wednesday I have a short research trip planned to the Turka and Cerma people groups. I will be accompanied by Pastor Denis, who is a Burkinabe missionary to the Tiefo and has traveled with David and I once before. On Thursday I will leave for Togo (that’s a tiny country to our southeast) for our yearly West Africa missionary gathering called “Advance” (because retreats are for losers and wimps). Immediately after that trip, which will be about a week, the Woods and I will go up north for a few days to visit among the people groups they worked with before joining the Engagement team: the Sinikere and Marense. After that we will settle back into research mode while also hosting a few more volunteer teams throughout the fall.

Praise God for:

* the summer volunteers He sent and the ministry He empowered them to do.
* open doors for the Gospel and the ability and privilege to share His Word.
* the other laborers He is raising up to work in His harvest.

Please pray for:

* the Vigue who we have shared the Gospel with and ministered to (particularly Zinadine Zidane, Noufou (actually a Mossi guy), the pharmacist, and the two Karims).
* us to be able to walk through the open door in Dogochoro and to share the Gospel there.
* the volunteers as they reacclimate to their American culture, tell their stories, and consider their future ministry.
* “Advance” to be a refreshing and beneficial time for all the missionaries of West Africa.
* God to continue sending more laborers into His harvest.

As always thanks so much for your prayers and support. Coming soon to kerryspencer.blogspot.com: new summer pictures! God bless!

Burkina newsletter #8.5

Greetings from Burkina Faso! Here’s another quick update on our summer ministry. I mentioned last time that I was going to Dakoro to spend about four days with our team there. Easily the most significant happening during my time there (from my point of view anyway) was a meeting we had with the chief. He was very welcoming and gracious with us. He tried to encourage us by explaining how Islam and Christianity lead to the same place. Of course, I disagreed, but I was a bit hesitant about whether I should tell him what I thought, with him being the chief and all. I pondered and said a quick prayer. Then I had the opportunity to explain to him some of the differences between Christianity and Islam: namely, Jesus Christ being God rather than a mere prophet and salvation by grace and faith rather than works. I feel like he received the words well. He must not have been terribly offended since he showed up at church the next Sunday. The chief sitting through a church service is a very significant event. I thank God for this opportunity and the words He gave me. Please pray with me for the chief of Dakoro. Romans 10:1 – “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”

We are at the midpoint of our summer ministry. Last night we said goodbye to a group of seven volunteers and said hello to a group of four new volunteers. We are now orienting these newcomers and will be going out to villages again on Saturday. Two groups will continue to work with the Tiefo and Lyele people groups while I will take a new team to the Vigue people for another two weeks and a couple days. Please continue to pray for us and these unreached peoples.

Praise God for:

* the openness of the Dakoro chief and the opportunity to share with him.
* opening doors for the Word and giving us the opportunities to share.
* the volunteers God has sent to serve with us.

Please pray for:

* God to continue to open doors for the Word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ (Col. 4:3).
* God to work in the hearts of Seydou, Kareem, and Vali.
* patience, endurance, wisdom, guidance, and health for us and the volunteers.
* the volunteers who return to the States to be able to communicate what God has done in their lives and among these unreached people groups.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. God bless!

Burkina newsletter #8

Greetings from Burkina Faso! I just came in yesterday from the village of Karankasso-Vigue with the ISF sports ministry team and wanted to give you a quick update. They were a fine group and we had a very positive stay in the village. Although they were technically a sports ministry team, we did very little of that. Since it is the planting season, most of the young people (who are the ones we would play sports with) spent their days in the fields. However, the team was very flexible and joined the Vigue people in what they were doing: planting, plowing, cooking, pounding grain, drawing water from the well, watching the World Cup, etc. It was certainly a learning experience for all of us. We learned that the Vigue people are unbelievably hard workers as well as gracious and generous hosts. However, we also learned, as we had been told, that they are a people completely without the Gospel. We still know of no Christians among this group.

Last newsletter I requested you to pray that God would open a door for the Word so that we might speak forth the mystery of Christ (from Colossians 4:3). Thanks be to God, He answered that prayer and we were able to share the Gospel with a few men: Seydou, Kareem, and Vali. Each of them, along with all the Vigue, are Muslim. We were frequently reminded of this fact by the call to prayer which we heard throughout the day as we were staying with the chief’s family, a stone’s throw from the local mosque. Nonetheless, God used us to plant these seeds of the Gospel as well as others. We trust the Lord to cause these seeds to grow (1 Corinthians 3:6). Please pray for these men, two of whom I expect to meet again when I return to Karankasso-Vigue on June 24th for two more weeks of ministry. The third, Seydou was from another village, Diosso, but we first spoke to him while he was in our village. One day we took a short road trip to visit Diosso on their weekly market day. While there, we ran into Seydou who was just coming from his field as we were just turning around to head out of town. I was able to discuss things with him further as the others prayerwalked. We definitely saw this as a divine appointment. Thank God for these encounters and please continue to pray for God to open new doors for the Gospel.

I also want you to know of how good God was to us during our time in the village. There are so many things that can go wrong: sickness, interpersonal conflict, cultural mistakes, etc. To my knowledge, we were spared all of these. I give credit and thanks to God for that. Thanks for your prayers along those lines. 2 Corinthians 1:10-11 says “On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” Please continue to help us by your prayers and give thanks for God’s gracious favor.

My upcoming schedule: Tomorrow I’m going to join one of our other teams in a village called Dakoro, near the border with Mali and Cote D’Ivoire. There we are working among the Senufo Senara people. They are a group of roughly 40,000 people with about 50 known believers. We will be there only until the 19th. On that day, our remaining three teams will come in from their villages. Some will be leaving on the 21st, the same day that four new volunteers arrive. On the 24th, I will return with a new team to Karankasso-Vigue for about two more weeks. Please press on in praying for us.

Praise God for:

* bringing these volunteers to join us in the task of the Great Commission.
* a blessed week in Karankasso-Vigue with the ISF team.
* opening doors for the Word and giving us the opportunities to share.

Please pray for:

* God to continue to open doors for the Word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ (Col. 4:3).
* God to work in the hearts of Seydou, Kareem, and Vali.
* patience, endurance, wisdom, guidance, and health for us and the volunteers.
* the volunteers who return to the States to be able to communicate what God has done in their lives and among these unreached people groups.

Thanks again for helping us with your prayers. God bless!

Burkina newsletter #7

Greetings from Burkina Faso! Exciting times are coming! We are down to our last day of Jula study (Monday)! I am very pleased with how the class has gone and am happy with the level of Jula language we have attained. It has come much quicker and easier than the first African language I attempted to learn (Bisa). Thanks for your prayers concerning that.

Even more exciting news: Our summer ministry begins this coming week. On Tuesday and Wednesday (May 30th and 31st) we will receive our first batch of summer volunteers (14 of them). Then on June 2nd, a team of six more arrive. It would be fairly difficult and time consuming to tell you all that we will be doing with these volunteers this summer. I would, however, like to tell you what I’ll be up to for the next six weeks or so. Once the first group arrives I will be assisting in their orientation and will help get them to their villages. The second group (the group of six) is the first group I will be working alongside. That team is a sports ministry team from the International Sports Federation. I will be accompanying them to the village of Karankasso-Vigue. There we will be working with the Vigue (Vee-gay) people group for just over a week. The Vigue are an ethnic group of only about 8,000 people, and there are no known Christians among them. They are strongly Islamic and animistic. Ministering among them will be a challenge. However, David and Tami have visited this village and found the chief to be very welcoming. He even mentioned that if we built a church he would send his children. Please pray that God would build not merely a building but a community of believers among the Vigue. After the ISF team leaves (on June 14th), I will travel around to visit some of our other teams in their various villages. On June 21st, we say goodbye to another group of volunteers just before yet another group arrives. I will then take a few member of this new group (college students) back to Karankasso-Vigue. Thus, I will have an extended period of ministry among the Vigue people with two different groups this summer. I would appreciate your prayers for me, these two teams, and the Vigue people.

And as I mentioned, this is only a small part of our teams’ summer ministry. Other groups will be in other villages ministering among four other people groups: Northern Toussian, Northern Lyele, Senufo Senara, and Tiefo. All this requires a lot of planning and preparation which has been on-going for a while and will not stop until the end of the summer (actually around July 12th for us). We and the volunteers will need patience, endurance, wisdom, guidance, and health, all of which God can supply. Besides engaging these unengaged people groups with the Gospel, we hope that their ministry in Burkina will have a lasting effect of the lives of these volunteers.

Praise God for:

* the completion of a very productive month of Jula language learning.
* bringing so many volunteers to aid us in the task of the Great Commission.

Please pray for:

* God to open up a door for the Word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ (Col. 4:3).
* the Word of the Lord to spread rapidly and be glorified (2 Thess. 3:1) among these people groups.
* patience, endurance, wisdom, guidance, and health for us and the volunteers.
* our understanding of Jula to continue to grow as we use it in life and ministry.

Thanks again for your support of our ministry through prayer. God bless!

Burkina newsletter #6

Greetings from Bobo, B.F.! The past few weeks have been devoted mostly to Jula language study. We are studying six days per week with an average of five or six hours of class per day. That does not include the daily homework and tasks the teachers give us to complete. And I thought I had finally finished with school in December! Nonetheless, we are blessed to have two excellent teachers. The endeavor is somewhat grueling, but I feel we are learning very quickly. That’s good since we only have a couple weeks of class left. We will by no means be fluent in the language, but we will know a whole lot more than the average white person (“tubabu” is what they call us in Jula). All that to say I am very happy with how our language study is going. Just to let yet know we are indeed learning something, my favorite word: “belebeleba” (meaning: very fat). My favorite phrase learned in class (altering the letters we don’t have in English): “Mogo doow bi tagama i na fo tonkono” (meaning: some people walk like a duck).

In between class and homework, we are also planning for the big summer ahead. We have approximately 30 summer volunteers coming in five different groups (they begin arriving at the end of this month). Among these groups we have a sports ministry team, a church group, and a lot of individual college students who will comprise the other teams. It looks like we will send the teams out to work with seven different people groups. The four of us (David, Tami, Jessica, and I) are responsible for planning the meals, transportation, “housing” (maybe the word is “huting” or “camping accommodations”), orientation, and much more while the volunteers are here. This is obviously a large task and one that needs to be strengthened by prayer.

Lastly, I have not spent a great deal of time at my house in Bobo, but in the time I have been there, there are two young men who have visited me regularly. Bouba is 15 and lives next door. Souleyman (Muslim version of Solomon) is 21 and lives around the corner. They are both Muslims from Muslim families. God has given me the opportunity and ability (despite my weak French skills) to discuss the differences in our religions, and thus I have shared the Gospel with each of them. They each have read some of the Gideon New Testaments they were given at school (Thank God for the Gideons!), and each admit to finding the Scriptures intriguing. I hope you will join me in praying for them and their families. Pray that God will give me the opportunities, boldness, and ability to share the Gospel with them and others.

Praise God for:
* wonderful language teachers and our ability to learn at a good pace.
* opportunities and the ability to share the Gospel in another culture and language.
* so many people willing to give of their summer vacation to come serve God in Burkina Faso.

Please pray for:
* the last two weeks of formal Jula study (as well as the informal study that will continue as long as we are here).
* our planning and preparation for the summer of ministry with volunteers.
* opportunities, boldness, and the ability to share the Gospel.
* Bouba and Souleyman, that God would work in their hearts and draw them to Himself, using whatever means necessary (even if that means me).

Thanks so much for your support and prayers. I would love to hear what’s going on in your lives (particularly before the busy summer comes when I will be on the internet much less frequently). Take care and God bless!