I have been so busy getting ready to leave Burkina Faso that I haven’t had much time to give an update. It isn’t because God isn’t working, because He is.
On Saturday, March 27th, we had a double marriage at Living Water Baptist Church. No I didn’t perform a polygamist marriage but two of our young pastors found good wives and got married.
If you have been reading this blog for anytime then you know about Salif.He was my Muslim night guard in the Ivory Coast, who got saved, and God changed his life. His earthly father called him to be an Imam, but His Heavenly Father called him to preach the Gospel. He has been with us since we came to Africa. He is one of our family. He came to me a few months back and said that he knew it was time to get married. I never thought this day would come. He felt it was the will of God to marry Mamata. She has been with us for about 5 years now. She has been a great blessing to our family. She was saved from a Muslim family also. Her family fought the marriage at times and many of them wouldn’t come to the marriage but we had an amazing time.
The other couple that God joined together was Talibala. He is leading the first church that we started here in Burkina Faso. He married a young lady named Pascaline. The wedding was beautiful. It is truly exciting to see two of your sons in the faith getting married.
I have been amazed at how they treat their wives. The older people refuse to change but God is changing our young married couples. Many times you don’t even know who is married. They don’t sit together. They don’t hold hands. They show no affection. I never thought this would change but God is doing a miracle. The young couples sit together, pray together at the alter, show affection one to another. It is really and amazing thing. Here are some pictures of this wonderful day.
The picture below is from the marriage before the government.
Talibala has been a member or our church since 2006.He has been training with me since 2007.He is a very good young man and is leading our church on the outskirts of town, called Tingandogo.
Marriage is a very complex thing here.There are three marriages.Custom, government, and church wedding.The people don’t count it as a marriage if you don’t do the customary thing. (A customary ceremony is usually held in the village where the bride’s family is from.) The government doesn’t accept a custom marriage or a church wedding so a legal marriage ceremony is held at the mayor’s office. After both of these steps are complete, we hold a church wedding for our members, making it a three-step process.
Last Saturday, I went with Talibala and his fiancée Pascaline to do their government marriage.It really is a neat thing.Usually the mayor or his assistant performs the wedding.They ask them to choose between a monogamous marriage or a polygamous marriage and to say whether they want to share their goods or keep everything separate. They chose a monogamous marriage and agreed to share all goods so the laws for this type of marriage were clearly explained. Then they do vows and sign papers, and they are finished.I was excited to see how Talibala was treating Pascaline.He treated her with respect and with honor, which is not normal in this culture.God is really beginning to create a new culture in our churches.It is exciting.
Talibala and Pascaline getting officially married at the Mayors office.
Monday was a national holiday in Burkina Faso.Each year on March the 8th it is Women’s Day.The former president advocated this holiday many years ago to honor the woman.Unfortunately women here have been treated very badly in the past and even though it is better there are many sad situations.The former president said that no woman can clean or work on this day.Their husbands must go to the market and prepare the food.While many husbands don’t do this, some do.
I decided that it would be good to get the husbands of the church together to do a special meal.We had 8 men come together to cook for our wives and also the widows of the church.We made fried rice and fries.The rice was a little mushy, but it tasted good.What a blessing to see God begin to change many husbands in our church.
Lately I have been seeing men be more affectionate to their wives and even sit with their wives at church.Yes, it is extremely common for husbands and wives to sit separately at church.I didn’t think we would ever win this battle but God is changing hearts.He is good.
We recently celebrated our third anniversary at Living Water Baptist Church. I was so proud of our people. They worked so hard. The ladies worked all day Saturday preparing the food, and Sunday they came early to finish it. Our young people worked on a skit about sin that was absolutely wonderful. God has given us some of the hardest working people I know, and they love serving God. I told our church people that I believe that God looked down from Heaven and smiled at the way they worked. I am a proud pastor.
God blessed our efforts. We had over 100 adults and over 150 kids. We had close to 50 first time visitors. There were 5 professions of faith with the adults, and 26 children made professions of faith. God worked in tremendous ways. It is amazing how God is bringing His church together. I am excited and thrilled about the future. He has already blessed, and I can’t wait to see what He is going to do next.
I never posted this article on our family conference. Here it is a few days late:
On Monday night, we finished up our family conference. God blessed in tremendous ways. Pastor Austin Gardner preached and did a wonderful job. He talked about men mistreating their wives. At the end of the service, we had three African couples come down and pray together. This doesn’t sound like a whole lot to most but when you have never had it happen once before this week, three in one service is a lot.
At the very end of the service, a man stood up and asked for prayer and forgiveness. He told us that he has recently hit his wife (unfortunately this happens all the time here). He said that he did wrong and that they were heading for divorce. This man told me this morning that they ate breakfast yesterday and today together. He told me they haven’t done that is a very long time. He said that they are talking again.
No it isn’t the fifth anniversary of my wife and I . We are actually heading to our tenth. In 2005, we started Fundamental Baptist Church of Tingandogo. This month is our fifth anniversary so we decided to place the tent and have a special service. Tonight we had an evangelistic campaign. We had over 400 present. People were standing outside our tent. What was really exciting is that I got to preach to many unsaved people and we had four people make professions of faith.
Pray for us tommorrow. We expect a big crowd and I really want to see more saved.
I wanted to share with you something that I developed on the different levels in a church. I guess the only bad one would be the first one.
1.The First Level – Those who do-nothing
Churches are full of these types of people. They are good people.They have been saved.They just haven’t engaged themselves in the work.Or maybe I should say they haven’t been lead to follow.They haven’t been challenged.Pastors and missionaries get frustrated because our churches are full of people who do basically nothing.I know and understand the frustration all to well.But I have realized that the problem isn’t really them, it is a reflection of leadership.Yes, it is a reflection of my leadership.I will say that 60% or higher of church members are in this category.
2.The second level – Followers
These people will make up about 25-30% of the church.Every church needs followers.They are workers.They do exactly what they are instructed to do.They don’t mind working.They just can’t see the need.They need to be told exactly what to do.
3.The third level – A solitary visionary
Most of the time churches have very few visionaries.These are people who can see a need and get the job done.These people are a great blessing to a pastor or missionary.They take a load off of the leader.Their struggle is that they normally work alone.They aren’t able to lead others to action.
4.The fourth level – A leader – A visionary that leads followers
Most of the time, unfortunately the pastor/missionary is the only one in this category.A pastor can be a success if he is a success at this level.His goal should be to train and go to the next level but many stay here.If a missionary wants to be a success he has to be a good leader but he must move on.He will not leave an indigenous church if he is only a leader with followers.
5.The fifth level – A leader of leaders – A visionary that leads other leaders
For a missionary to be a success, he must one day arrive at this level.There are a few pastors that have arrived at this level but most truly haven’t.Most missionaries, unfortunately, haven’t arrived here either.I am not saying that I have arrived here.Actually, I am striving to train true leaders and I am not sure if we have gotten there yet.I have some good followers and I have a few third level people but not many.
I know that many of you have prayed for Ernest. I was truly concerned that he might never recover from his head trauma. A few weeks ago though, I went with two brothers to see him and pray for him. When Gilbert waked into his room, immediately he said, “hey Gilbert”. Then when I stepped into the room, he said, “good morning, Pastor”. We were thrilled to see how he has advanced. He is still having difficulty walking but he is doing better. God has truly done a miracle in his life.
It is always hard to write and express the feelings and excitement in your heart. God has greatly used Pastor Austin Gardner. He is a great friend and a true man of God. Since he has come, we have had four professions of faith. God has been good. Our people have received much help. Last night, Bro. Gardner preached it straight about the strange women. Some very hard things were preached but the people responded. I truly believe that people can handle hard preaching if it is done in love. Last night, the altar was full. Oh, by the way, we had a 2nd
Burkinabé couple come to the altar and pray together. This is truly amazing and wonderful. I can’t wait till tonight.
