“Do I Pray In French Or Moore?”

Life is full of “firsts”, and this was a first for me. Tuesday afternoon I had the opportunity to talk with a young Muslim man. He has been attending our services for about 6 weeks now. He started coming because he was invited by a friend to our volleyball outreach. However, during the invitation this past Sunday we finally had a breakthrough with him. Ibriam raised his hand admitting his need for salvation. Unfortunately, he didn’t respond after the service.

Sunday evening, I had the opportunity to talk with him after volleyball. I invited Ibriam to the house to talk about the church and answer any questions he might have for me. My major goal, however, was to present the Good News of Jesus Christ. After about a 45 minute discussion of the Gospel, he told us he wanted to be saved. Praise the Lord! After explaining a few more things, it was time for him to pray. That is when this young Muslim who speaks limited French popped the question, “do I need to pray in French or Moore.” I found myself chuckling on the inside. I explained that God can hear any language and He also sees the heart.

What I loved about this question was Ibriam’s sincere desire to get it right, and he did. On February 26, 2008, this young man abandoned his ancient beliefs, repented, and accepted Christ as his personal Savior. Praise the Lord for one more who inherited the “vie éternelle” (everlasting life).

“That’s Why I Came…To Be Saved”

Sunday morning, February 17th, we had our largest number of adults in attendance to date. Thirty people came to hear the first part of Mike’s vision casting message for 2008. We were thrilled to have so many adults come. In Mike’s message, he was able to incorporate the Gospel. At the end of services, a young lady, who had visited a few times, raised her hand that she needed salvation. Her name is Franceline. We invited her to come to our house Tuesday evening to get to know her and to share our beliefs, specifically about salvation.

The following Tuesday evening, she and a friend, another young lady in our church who accepted Christ three months ago, came with Douninoma and Benoit, the two students of the Bible Institute who help us in our church. In talking with Franceline, we learned that she has not been attending any church for some time and made the decision to visit our church without having been invited by someone from our church. Soon, we turned the topic to our beliefs and salvation. She listened intently as Mike spoke of how one is saved and Douninoma read from Scripture those verses. After Mike finished discussing salvation and how it is a free gift that each of us has the opportunity to accept or reject, he explained to her that it is her choice. We did not want her to feel as if we were forcing her into making a decision and said as much. She commented, “That’s why I came tonight, to be saved.” Oh, we were so excited! After we spent a few more minutes discussing the importance of sincerity in one’s heart, Franceline knelt down in our living room and prayed to accept Jesus Christ as her Savior. What a great night for all of us! She is now our sister in Christ!

This same week, we had the opportunity to invite another visitor to our house. Ousman, a young man who started attending our church as a result of our volleyball outreach, came on Thursday afternoon to discuss our beliefs. That afternoon, he too accepted Christ as his Savior. What a great week! Two new siblings in Christ! They are both eager to grow spiritually. We ask that you keep them in your prayers on this new journey.

A Special Thank you

Over the Christmas season, we received so many wonderful packages - filled with goodies for us and other items like crayons to be used as a part of our ministry. To all of you we wish to say a special thank you. You were a huge blessing to us! On December 23, we were able to share part of that blessing with the children in our ministry at L'Eglise Baptiste de la Bonne Nouvelle. We handed out packages of crayons, candy, and stickers to each child in attendance. We wanted to share with you just how happy you made these kids. God bless you all for your love for us and your sacrifice for our ministry here in Burkina Faso.

Into the Swing of Things

This Christmas season was a real treat for us. Mike's
parents, Ermen and Melvey, had the opportunity to come
visit us here in Burkina. This was their first trip
here and we were all so very excited to see them. They
were able to spend just over two weeks with us, and we
got to show them all around Ouagadougou and even took
them to the game park at Nazinga. We had a wonderful
Christmas spending time with family. The kids were
spoiled, of course, and received so many fun new toys
for Christmas. But they spoiled us too. They brought
over Doritos and Oreos and several other goodies we
can't find here. Needless to say, we had to make a few
new years resolutions.

January was busy as well, getting back into the swing
of things. Mike started teaching again the second week
of January at the Institute, and life kicked back into
full swing here at the house as well. We started a new
ministry at church the first week of January –
volleyball. Each Sunday night at 5:00, we have
volleyball at our church. It's proven to be a great
tool to reach out to our neighbors, and already 4
people have come to visit our church as a result of
this ministry. Two of these young men have started
coming pretty faithfully now. These volleyball nights
have given our people more opportunities of fellowship
as well. They are developing friendships with each
other and with us. This has proven to be an exciting
ministry for our church!
At the end of January, we had another visitor – a
friend from our Internship church in Rock Island, IL.
We got to show him around, too, and involved him in
the ministry as well. The last Sunday he was here, he
taught the children's church. He taught in English, I
translated into French, and Benoit translated that
into Moore. The kids did so well listening to him. I
was pleasantly surprised how well they did,
considering we had 112 kids in attendance!

Now we're into February, and we are busy planning and
implementing new ministries in our young church. In
December we baptized 8 new believers, so now we're
eager to see them grow and get involved. Some of our
new ministries that we will implement this year are
Bible studies for men and ladies, teacher's meetings
and a second Sunday school class (much needed), more
outreach activities (film nights), more fellowship
activities (game nights)….just to name a few. We're
looking forward to see what God is going to do this
year in this church.

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