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February 10, 2006

Ouagadougou: In memory and anticipation

On 17 Feb, I will fly back into Ouagadougou for a 3 week visit to Burkina Faso. My first three years in Burkina, I was based in Ouaga, and I have many good memories from there.

My first years in Burkina
When I first moved to Burkina Faso with World Horizons, I lived in Ouaga with a Mossi friend called Dieudonné. The church in Ouaga was dynamic and growing - one church I sometimes attended had a Sunday morning service that lasted about 8 hours on average. But although I lived in Ouaga, I didn't spend all that much time there.

I worked for those first years with a team of Mossi pastors in a campaign called Project Javelin. As a team, we would go from Ouaga to the north-west of Burkina, around Ouahigouya, to bring the message of Christ in Mossi villages there, where there were very few Christians. One such village, unforgettably, was called Rambo. We would turn up in an old English Beford army truck, and move in at a local church or school. After a drink of "zom-kom", we would go and greet the village elders.

During the day, we would be pray, study, and visit local people. In the afternoon, some would cook, and some would set up the equipment for the evening meeting. As night fell, we would turn on the lights and sound system, and play Mossi praise songs. Soon, lights could be seen bobbing in the darkness across the fields as people made their way with lamps or torches to come and see what was happening. The team of pastors would sing, preach, and then we would show the Jesus film. Often, over the course of just a few days in a village, many people would decide to follow Christ, and sometimes a church would start over the course of those few days. They were very exciting times.

And yet, increasingly I felt restless - I knew the Mossi pastors didn't really need me there - they were far better at what they were doing than I could ever be. I wasn't really sure what I was doing there... Finally, it was through Project Javelin that I met the Fulani and was led to move on to work in Gorom-Gorom, where the cultural and language differences prevented the Mossi from reaching the local people, and where there were no local Christians. We gave the evangelism equipment to the pastors and they have carried on with the ministry without us!

It is easy to do missions badly. We can give ourselves an ego boost by going where God is already at work, and see "results" quickly. But usually the church is already doing a good job there. We need to examine our attitudes and motivation about why we are doing mission, and how we are doing it. Are we there to serve, or to feed our own ego? It is easy still to have a "colonialist" attitude towards Africa, whereas we are often actually the ones in need of input from the church in Africa to speak prophetically to challenge our materialism and compromise.

Possibly the western church has two main roles in mission today. Either to work with - and under - local churches to support them in their own ministry. Or to go where the church still does not yet exist - to the hard places, where there is no quick result. Mission must be cross-shaped. A true work of God will involve self-denial, service, and sacrifice. If instead it panders to our ego and feeds spiritual pride, there is something seriously wrong.

Friends
On my arrival in Ouaga this time, I will not have the opportunity to see many people - I arrive one night and leave the following day for Djibo. But on my return I hope to catch up with people - I still have many friends there. There are many pastors who have helped us and worked with us and put up with our white man's ignorance and arrogance and who somehow continue to love us. Pastors like Philippe and his wife Josephine. Philippe was one of the founders of Project Javelin, and now runs a large church and also an evangelical development agency called AEAD, a partner of Tear Fund. I also hope to catch up with some of the young Christians we used to work with, many of whom are now themselves pastors and evangelists. And of course there are some very good missionary friends.

Pray for the church in Ouaga
The church still has a lot of dynamism. But there are dangers too. Unfortunately, with our wealth and influence, we in the west have sometimes exported seminars, books, ministries, and values that reflect our own culture of individualism and materialism rather than the cross-shaped gospel message of Christ. There are some wonderful churches and committed men of God in Ouaga, the sort of men who we need to hear speak prophetically into our own compromised Christianity. There are pockets where the church is, with its limited resources, reaching out it mission to other peoples and nations.

The church among the Mossi has a missionary call. Pray that she will rise increasingly to this calling to send out servants to the peoples and nations around in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The easy life of the city is a pull that stops many from taking up their cross to follow Christ to the difficult places - just as our own comfort holds us back in the same way. There are churches in Ouaga with 10 or more pastors, yet there are also towns and villages in Burkina without church or pastor. Pray that the Ouaga church presses forward to fulfil her own missionary calling to bless the nations, and that the Lord continues to anoint and equip church leaders there - men like Philippe - to lead the church into the fulness of his purposes.

Tags: africa burkina burkina faso ouagadougou mossi church mission siao

Posted by Keith at February 10, 2006 09:45 PM

Comments

Posted by: Christine at February 11, 2006 01:00 AM

Posted by: Amanda at February 12, 2006 08:49 AM