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December 23, 2004
A poem for Christmas
This is a poem by my friend Lydia, who is 11. She is a Kiwi, but was born in Burkina Faso. Great stuff.
Christmas is a time of peace,
Where happiness and laughter does not cease
God's Son, Jesus, was born that night,
And to the world he brought us light.
He died on the cross to take away our sin,
So a new life we could begin.
He rose and lives today,
And very soon he'll come back our way.
Worship him, and live always
Singing songs and giving him praise.
So be a disciple and spread the news,
You've got lots to gain and nothing to lose.
Go to church and pray every day.
Read the Bible, and don't go astray.
Eternity is better than anything you've got.
All your good deeds will not be forgot!!!
The End
Church in a multicultural society 1.
The first time I took Ibrahim to church, I realised it was a mistake.
Ibrahim is Fulani, and a Muslim. He is a tailor at the local market, and was one of my first friends in Gorom. As I began to learn the language, I would go and sit with him to drink tea and try out my new phrases. As his friends came and started chatting, I would sit precariously on the wobbly wooden bench by his old foot-powered sewing machine, frowning with concentration as I tried to make out something of the banter.
“Aan ka, a doomuru” suddenly exclaimed one guy, who had been watching me. I understood enough to know he was calling me a mouse, but didn’t know why. He imitated me sitting there silently, head switching side to side, as I followed the different speakers, and everyone cracked up laughing.
As my Fulfulde began to improve, they started to ask me about the way of Jesus, and I struggled to find words to express my faith. They would then reply with Fulfulde proverbs, at which everyone but me nodded with understanding. Or with local Muslim wisdom, which assumed so much cultural background that I had no idea where to begin to respond. The good-humoured discussions rambled on over several months.
So one day, I invited Ibrahim to church. Since there were no Fulani Christians, we went to the Mossi church. The Mossi are the main people group in Burkina, and the church has grown quite dramatically among them. They are a cheerful, colourful and friendly people, and they worship God exhuberantly, with drums, loud praying and singing, and sometimes even dancing. I don’t think they had ever seen a Fulani in church before. Ibrahim walked self-consciously into church in his long Muslim robe, and his turban, with every eye following us as we headed towards the only free spaces, right near the front.
As the service got under way, I began to realise that this was going to be a challenge. Ibrahim didn’t understand either French or Mossi, and no-one was available to translate into Fulfulde. The singing, shouting, and dancing were all so alien to Ibrahim, for whom worship is a solemn affair. Drums for the Fulani are for either worldly celebrations, or “spirit festivals.” It must have been all quite bewildering – nothing he could recognise as worship or prayer, nothing he could hear as good news, nothing he could relate to culturally, but rather an emotional and noisy Mossi jamboree. They were worshipping God well enough, but for a Fulani, it was just confusing.
I did my best to explain what was going on, and Ibrahim looked around, without judging, but without illumination. He spotted the guy from the post-office, a guy who Ibrahim respects as honest and upright. But after the service no-one came to talk to him. The Mossi Christians felt uncomfortable. They didn’t speak Ibrahim’s language, and wouldn’t know what to say to him anyway.
During the following weeks, Ibrahim’s friends criticised him, and made fun of him for going to church – did he want to become a Mossi? And for a while, he backed off. But he has remained a good friend. We have continued to talk about faith and the way of God. But I haven’t taken him back to the church. We have continued to chat at his sewing machine, or at one of our homes. But I realise that taking him to church was not going to help him spiritually, even if God was in the house. Other ways of introducing him and his friends to Jesus and his family would have to be considered.
Coming back to Britain, I see the situation is not so different. We also live in a multi-cultural society. And the culture of our church meetings is often completely foreign to those living around where we live. Britain today seems a much more spiritually open place than 15 years ago. But our church meetings are maybe not always the place where street youth, clubbers, refugees, or post-modern intellectuals will meet Jesus in a way they can relate to. Maybe they are not always places where everyone finds the expression of spirituality and community that their own hearts respond to. We may be worshipping God well enough, but it can leave others feeling like an outsider at someone else’s party.
We too need to think about how we should be church in a way that focuses not only on our own worship, but also on mission so that others can meet and celebrate God, find the blessing of his kingdom, and become part of his family, without necessarily having to become exactly like us.
Part two is here
Tags: burkina faso africa emerging church burkina church fulani mission church and culture
December 20, 2004
Update on locusts and famine relief in Burkina
Some good news: the World Bank has approved $60m to help with projects to fight against future locust invasions in seven countries of the Sahel. Burkina will receive $8.4m, $1.6m of which was given as an advance to help with the current crisis.
As I posted recently, the north of Burkina has lost 90% of its harvest this year due to the locust invasion, and we are collecting money to help with grain for famine relief. We thank God for those who have already responded. Each gift will help greatly. If you want to contribute, please contact World Horizons. Thank you.
Partying with the poor on a grand scale!
I posted recently about partying with the poor. We used to invite 40 or 50, and get about 100+ turning up to our Christmas celebration. Nelson Mandela invited 20000 to his party, and 75000 turned up! And I thought my yard was crowded…
December 16, 2004
Emerging church and the 10-40 window
There’s a lot of blogging going on about the “emerging church,” referring in particular to new ways of doing church in the post-modern western context. Of course, of more significance world-wide is the emerging church in Africa and Asia. We don’t hear a lot about it in blogworld, because of course few African village pastors have access to computers and the net to share their insights and struggles as they seek to form worshipping, discipling, mission-minded communities in the context of their culture. But that – pre-modern – situation has so much to say to us as we seek how to do church in our own cultures. Lesslie Newbigin of course is a great example of how thinking from that context can inform our own journey. Does anyone know of anyone currently blogging from this context?
I’ve also been wondering how much awareness and engagement in the “western” emerging church there is with international mission and justice issues. Looking around, there doesn’t seem to be a lot. How, for example, is the emerging church thinking about responses to Sudan? Or third world poverty? Or the 10-40 window?
I googled “10-40” and “emerging Church” and mostly just found comments on emerging church that had been posted at 10:40am…. Which suggests it’s not currently a hot topic. So, in case you think a 10-40 window is a free spot in your schedule in the middle of the morning…
The 10-40 window is a term used to represent the most needy region of the world, between 10 and 40 degrees north. In it are the poorest people in the world, and the largest concentration of people untouched by the story of Christ. Yet church investment there in terms of money and personnel is minute compared to what we spend on our Christian meetings and buildings. If the western emerging church is supposed to be missional, then I look forward to seeing mission in all its forms shaping the church of the future.
December 13, 2004
Rewriting "Do they know it’s Christmas"
Twenty years after the first release, Band Aid is at number one in the UK again with the single that started a process that raised $144 million for projects in Africa. First time around it was for the famine in Ethipia. This time the focus is on Sudan, where fighting between government-backed militia and rebels has left 70 000 dead and 2 million homeless in what has been called genocide.
Continue reading "Rewriting "Do they know it’s Christmas""
December 11, 2004
What do you want for Christmas?
Time’s running out, and Mum’s beginning to fret. I have to come up with something. Well, I’d like world peace, an end to hunger, and global revival, but I think that’s beyond her budget.
Let’s face it, most of us have more than enough, otherwise we wouldn’t have the money to buy a computer, and the time to spend surfing the net with it. Do we have to simply give and get more stuff?
Well, for those of you in my situation, help is now at hand. Send your family and friends to this site, and tell them to pick something. It is World Vision’s alternative gift catalogue. A well-targeted gift is given to a needy community instead of you, and you get a card about the gift that has been given. A fruit tree or mosquito net for £5, a sheep for £12, a school desk and supplies for £21… and loads of other excellent ideas.
So now you know, mum.
Partying with the poor
“A soodi baali di ginan naa?” Have you bought the sheep yet?
My Fulani friends always started asking the question about three weeks before Christmas. As Muslims, they know Jesus was born by the power of God, and honour him as a great prophet. So it was normal that we should celebrate his coming into the world.
Each year, Seydou and I would buy a couple of sheep, and invite as many of our Muslim friends as we could squeeze into our yard for a meal to celebrate the birth of Iisaa Almasiihu – Jesus Christ. Inevitably, everyone brought a friend, and then other passers-by would come and join us to. Year by year the yard grew more crowded.
Continue reading "Partying with the poor"
December 10, 2004
Emerging Church
It was December. The moon was up, and there was the low buzz of voices in my yard. Small groups of Fulani were scattered around, sitting or reclining on mats and chatting. I was about to leave Gorom-Gorom, after more than 10 years praying and working to see the gospel accepted among the Fulani there. There was now a small group of about 12 who identified themselves as Christians, and were struggling to find their way forward as his disciples.
During the day, we had been to the local church, filled with Christians from the neighbouring Mossi tribe. The Mossi and Fulani have a long history of mutual distrust. Culturally, the two peoples are very different, and it has not been easy for the Fulani converts to fit into the Mossi set-up. Today, one of the Fulani believers, a man trained in the Quran and regarded as a teacher by his fellow villagers, was being baptised there. Missionaries and Fulani believers from across the north of Burkina had come to join us. It was the largest gathering of Fulani Christians Gorom had ever seen – there must have been about 20 of them.
Afterwards, the Fulani came back to my yard to celebrate. We killed a sheep, and feasted. Hamadou and Buryma made the local tea. And afterwards people settled into small groups to relax.
After chatting with different ones for a while, I stood back and looked around me. On one mat, under the acacia tree in the middle of the yard, an impromptu music group had formed. One of the Fulani was playing Fulani-style music on my guitar. Another had taken a calabash, and was tapping out a rhythm on it. And a third had taken a millet stalk, which he had turned it into a makeshift flute, and was trying valiantly to keep in tune with the guitar. And they were singing worship songs to God. Some lads who had been passing my gate had come in to listen.
On another mat, not far from where my cow was tied, a second small group had the Fulani New Testament open, and were gathered around it. Those who could read were reading it to the others, and they were unselfconsciously discussing what it meant.
A third group were debating animatedly, but respectfully, with the Islamic religious teacher from across the road, who had seen that there was something going on, and had wandered in to find out what was happening. Others were just relaxing, drinking tea, and chatting.
I was overwhelmed with what I was seeing – this was church! Baptising, feasting, worshipping, witnessing, bible-centred mega church! This is what I have dreamed and worked for.
It must be said, this is not the Gorom-Gorom community of believers – some of these Fulani would return the next day to their villages, over 100 miles away. And those who are in Gorom area face many challenges – with poverty, and with their own struggles, as well as with opposition from within their community. The church among the Fulani is small and fragile, in need of prayer and nurture. But the Holy Spirit is at work among them, and this was a glimpse of what he is doing. That evening was one of the most exciting of my life.
For all its fragility, there was reality in that fellowshipping, worshipping, witnessing little community in my yard that night. This wasn’t about meetings. This was about sharing a common faith, identity and journey as Christ’s family.
And that is church.
Tags: burkina faso africa emerging church burkina church fulani
December 09, 2004
Using the internet for good
The internet is sometimes hailed as unique for its “open-source debate” and “equal access to information for all.” In fact it is mostly of course another talking-shop and plaything of the rich west. If you are reading this, you are probably white, middle-class, male, and of course, English-speaking. Like me, in fact.
Like all things, it also seems to be used more imaginatively by the evil side of human nature than the good. But there are encouragements. Medical opportunities for the third world, for example:
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Money makes the world go round...
Today is anti-corruption day!
Corruption is a huge industry. Apparently more than $1,000bn is paid out in bribes every year around the globe.
Haiti, Bangladesh, and Nigeria come out as the most corrupt countries, according to Transparency International, while Finland and New Zealand are the least corrupt. Indeed, the top ten least corrupt nations are almost all - apart from Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Singapore - Scandinavian or Antipodean. Of the 145 countries surveyed, the UK was 11th least corrupt, and the US joint 17th with Belgium and Ireland.
Continue reading "Money makes the world go round..."
December 08, 2004
Fulani fishermen
I’m increasingly aware that I need to work myself out of a job.
The task of taking the good news of Christ to the Fulani cannot remain the task of the missionaries alone. We are too few, too expensive, and too culturally removed to do the whole job at all, let alone do it properly. Even though it is early days in the birth of the Fulani church in Burkina, it is essential for the health and relevance of the church that Fulani Christians themselves increasingly take responsibility for the task. Thankfully, in some places, this is beginning to happen.
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December 07, 2004
Wanted: three stones and a personality
I bought a house this year. I didn’t mean to. It just sort of happened. I must tell you the story sometime – it seemed as though God just brought the house to me and dropped it in my lap. I struggled of course with the whole idea of spending such a huge amount of money on bricks and mortar when I know how much that sum of money can do in Burkina. Still do, actually.
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December 06, 2004
Walking by on the other side
One of the greatest frustrations I have experienced living in Burkina is that however much I do, the need never seems to get any less. No matter how many people I help, there is always a huge number of people struggling with poverty and sickness.
However, one of the greatest encouragements is being able to look at the lives of individuals and families who are alive, healthy, educated, or following Christ today in part because of the small input I was able to give. We can make a difference.
Continue reading "Walking by on the other side"
December 02, 2004
The locust swarm
You have probably heard of the locust swarm that has swept through West Africa. The latest report from Burkina is that 90% of the harvest from the north of the country has been lost – first because of bad rains, and then because of the locusts.
Here are some quotes from friends in the area:
“They came twice. Giant, colourful, swarms--clouds!-- of bugs came and ate everything off of the millet stalks. The first time they came through, I think they were in a hurry to get out east. But a couple of days later they came back through and cleaned up everything they hadn't gotten before. It was a depressing couple of days…”
“The famine this year looks like it will be about as bad as it gets. People in Djibo are already getting skinny and they have nothing to eat.”
Continue reading "The locust swarm"
Radio, Radio
For about two years now, we have had a vision for starting a community FM radio station in Djibo in the north of Burkina. Steve wrote about the original vision here.
The idea is to have a station that would combine programmes on health, education, culture, music, and the gospel message. There is nothing in that area at the moment, and radio waves have ready access to the many villages that would take us years to reach personally. Radio could be an important part of the strategy for bringing God’s blessing to the Fulani of northern Burkina.
The vision has had a couple of false starts, but last week we had a great encouragement. Steve and I met up with the leader of an organisation experienced in this field who is very enthusiastic about our vision. He gave us a lot of helpful advice and some interesting-looking contacts. There is the possibility that this may lead to practical support in various forms too. Steve and I are both greatly encouraged by this, and Steve is now planning – on his return to Burkina in January – to pursue the radio project with vim and vigour.
December 01, 2004
Out of Africa - the story so far
If you are reading this so soon after the site’s kick-off, there’s a good chance you already know me. So, as you will know I am back in the UK for an extended sabbatical after 15 years in Burkina Faso. This is primarily a time of rest and recuperation, with the goal of returning to Burkina to continue the work there.
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A bit of a blog
Well, this is it – my first excursion into blogworld. I hope you enjoy the site. Many thanks to Steve Davies, my colleague, for helping me get it up and running. I feel strangely nervous about doing the blog, and not really sure I have much to say. However, my plan is to:
· Give regular updates on my life, my work in Burkina, and on other situations there for prayer,
· Post stories and photos of life in Burkina as windows into Fulani culture,
· Highlight and think about justice issues that we can get involved in,
· Ponder the whole question of church and mission, and what contribution the missionary context, and the African perspective can have.
· Along the way, I hope there will be time for a bit of fun, too.
Please add this site to your favourites, and come back to visit regularly!
Cowboys and engines
Layya appeared early in the morning, carrying his stick and looking worried.
“Eere oole is still missing”
Eere oole is the first cow I bought at Gorom market. She was not much more than a bag of bones at the time, and very bad tempered too. She was a real “bush” cow, not used to being tied up at home. But Layya had assured me that in spite of her gauntness, she was essentially in good health, just hungry. And that’s the way it turned out. As we fed her up, she began to look better, though we still had to be wary of her long horns when trying to milk her.
It was a good move buying a cow. Suddenly I shot up in Fulani estimation. Now my friends would greet me as usual: “How are you? How is your health? How is your family?” And then they would add: “And how is Eere oole?”
