The Shumaker Family's Blog

Since coming to Burkina Faso, we have had many people suffer from different types of persecution.  Most of the persecution has been verbal, but we have seen some physical(not life threatening).  Monday morning I was praying with some of our young men when four different requests came up dealing with persecution.  I suppose I never really thought about it, but a good majority of our people have suffered from it one way or another.  Here are some examples:

Abraham — His father called him on Sunday and told him if he didn’t leave our church he would no longer be his son.

Edward — His family told him he has gone too far.  They told him that he must stop coming to our church or they will send him to the village.  He is looking for another place to live.

Ada — She got saved over a year ago.  She got really faithful at first but more recently, she hasn’t been around as  much.  Lately she has come back.  She is from a Pul family.  They are 99.9% Muslim.  Her uncle told Salie (the member who brought her) that she was mean and not a nice girl.  Salie asked why.  He said that, “Don’t you know the Pul can’t be Christians, only Muslims?”  Stay to yourself.

Mamata — She is our house worker.  She got saved in 2005.  She is like one of our family.  She brought a sister to church with her the other day.  When she got home, it was war.  They told her she is already lost, a pagan, and they have given up on her but made it very clear that nobody else from the family can go.  Her brother Omar made a profession and was with us for about 1 year.  He caved into the persecution from the family and hasn’t been to church in over a year.

Mamadou — He is the young man that is leading our new work.  He told me that a lady who made a profession the other day told him, “I know that I received Jesus.  I am glad, but when my husband finds out I will be beat and won’t be allowed to come back.”

Kids — We have tons of kids that sneak to church.  We have had their parents or siblings come during service and run them off, sometimes beating them.  A brother and sister that are just wonderful kids have been coming to our kid’s club for a long time.  Both made professions.  The sister began to miss.  We checked on her and found out that her mother is happy she comes but is in deep fear of the father finding out.  She said it would be bad consequences for all of them.  Once we had a mother come with a stick after service.  She said she was looking for her child and knew that she had come to church.  Luckily service was over and the child was already gone.

I have been told hundreds of times.  You have given me the truth.  I see it, but I can’t accept it.  They are afraid they will be kicked out of their homes.  I will be preparing a message on Biblical Persecution to try to help our people.  May God help us all to stand firm in our faith and never waver.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.