Visit to the Villages

What a week! We are back in Ouagadougou after spending six days traveling to three different villages in southern Burkina Faso.

We traveled with missionaries Tami and David W., whose assignment is to research ethnic groups in Burkina Faso and create strategies for sharing the gospel with these groups.

In the first two villages we visited with Burkinabé pastors who, along with their families, minister among the Tiéaufo (tee-oh-foh) and Senare (sehn-ahr) people.

What a blessing to visit with these missionaries who have a passion for reaching their own nation! They face discouragement from lack of responsiveness; mockery from family members who urge them to move back to the city; and the financial pressure of providing for their families, yet they endure these hardships out of obedience to the Lord.

The third village we visited is inhabited by the Vigue (vee-gay), an ethnic group of 8,000 people with no known Christians. We visited the chief, along with his three wives and thirteen children!

In this village our communication was hindered because the people spoke limited French, but we had a great time playing with the children, helping the women with chores, and learning a little of their language.

Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

--In the Senare village, Emily and I (MB) attended the baby naming ceremony of a maribou – a Muslim leader who mixes Islamic teachings with mysticism. Surprisingly, the maribou gave us permission to pray over his baby. Please join us in continuing to lift up little Abdul and his family, that they will one day know and worship the One True God.

-- While visiting among the Vigue, Deron spent much of his time helping David learn Vigue vocabulary to create a rudimentary dictionary. On a different trip, the Vigue chief told David, “If you put a church in my village, I will give you my children to teach them.”
But how can the children be taught if no Christian can yet speak the Vigues’ language? This people group is too small for the IMB to send a full-time missionary, so our prayer is that a church in the U.S. or Burkina Faso will send long-term volunteers to live among the people long enough to fluently learn the language and establish relationships that will lead the Vigue to Christ.

--We learned that most Burkinabé missionary pastors get very little financial support, so they must come up with creative ways to support their family. Pastor Dennis (pronounced Denny) raises and sells chickens and goats, and he has a rather interesting process of feeding them -- he uses a pick-axe to break open termite hills, then collects the chunks of dirt, which are teeming with termites, puts them in a big sack, and carries them home for the chicks to feast on.


Some termite hills have been abandoned, so that means they’re just waiting for someone to come along and take a swing at them…


--In our one “touristy” excursion, we visited a mountain/rock formation known as The Needles. What a beautiful spot!

Along with all the good times, there were some challenges during our village visits, such as:

--the restroom situation. Along the road side traveling from village to village it was just a matter of pick a bush, any bush. In the villages, there was usually a small thatched area for taking care of business. If we were lucky, it had a hole. Sometimes it was just dirt. Other times it was an open area, complete with bucket for bathing. So much for privacy …



--eating and drinking out of communal cups and pots. Sometimes we were given individual plates and utensils, but in other places we drank out of communal cups and reached our hands into the common pot of rice or tô (a mushy substance made out of millet or cornmeal usually served with sauce). Of course, the potential for catching parasites skyrockets, but we would never want to offend or embarrass our hosts by refusing what was offered.

(Look closely to see if you can spot the chicken leg ... and no, we're not talking about a drumstick. Fortunately we weren't served the leg so we didn't have to deal with getting it down.)

-- sweat. It was HOT. Temperatures in Burkina Faso currently range from 107 F in the daytime to the high 70s at night (and usually the high 90s indoors at night). Everyone is smart enough to stay in the shade as much as possible during the day, but at night it was miserable trying to fall asleep in the muggy stillness.

--being a spectacle. Let’s face it … our skin is a different color so we’re going to stand out. Plus, we’re Americans so we’re going to do stupid things that make people stare and laugh, like try to get mangos out of trees using a ridiculously long poles. Pretty much whatever we did we had an audience.

Fortunately, none of these challenges became too overwhelming or frustrating. We just thought of it as “new skills acquisition” and were so excited about the places we saw and the people we met that we were able to brush off the inconveniences and focus on the positives. God tells us in 2 Corinthians that “My grace is sufficient for you,” and it certainly was in this case.

This entry is already really long so we’ll save more pictures and stories for another post. For now, we are back in Ouagadougou and while we thoroughly enjoyed our trip, we admit we’re happy to be back in the land of indoor plumbing, ceiling fans, occasional air conditioning and a little privacy (in the village, you’re never by yourself).

But what a joy to visit these villages and see how God is at work there! Please join us in praying that the Tiéaufo, Senare, Vigue and other people of West Africa will soon come to know and believe the Truth of Jesus Christ. Pray also for Pastors Dennis and Alfonse and their families and congregations, that they would be shining witnesses among their communities.