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July 27, 2008
Tasmakat
I am in Tasmakat for a week with Pedro and Jean-Marc from St Etienne, visiting Pastor John and his wife Elisabeth and their seven children.
We had a good rain on Friday night and Sat morning, which was desperately needed. So, on Saturday, we spent a few hours helping John with his field. While we waited in the church for it to stop raining, John told us about the series of dreams he had when he was at Bible school, that led him to Tasmakat.
John said: “When we finally got to the place they were giving us for the church, I said: ‘This looks the same as what we saw in the dreams, but it can’t be the right place, because there is supposed to be an abandoned house here.’ When they heard that, they laughed.” He paused.
“Come with me” he said. He took us outside to the middle of the church land, and scraped away the top layer of sand. A circle of bricks became clear. “This is where the abandoned house was. Only the foundation was left. But it is a witness that this is the place God has sent us to. Even when it’s hard, we remember how God has led us, and we call on him to help us, knowing that he will open people’s hearts. We know he wants to bless this village.”
God is giving John favour with local people. Each day people come for prayer. An old Fulani man brings his son, who has severe mental difficulties. The old man himself has previously been healed through prayer, but has not yet decided to follow Jesus. But he acknowledges the power of Jesus. A young girl has decided to follow Jesus, but her family want to marry her to a Muslim man. She doesn’t want to marry him, but wants to honour her parents, and she asks for prayer for a way out.
I have had to come back unexpectedly to Gorom-Gorom for a day, as we have had a spate of punctured tyres, which can’t be fixed in Tasmakat. I have left Pedro and Jean-Marc in Tasmakat with Jean. Tomorrow morning I will return, with Pierre and Seydou, and we will spend the morning at the market, telling the good news of Jesus the Messiah:
“God’s kingdom is close to you!”
July 22, 2008
Business and Mission
Is there a way to integrate mission and business...?
This is just a thought-provoker, following on from my last post about the impact of climate change and price rises on the population of the Gorom-Gorom area.
AIDS, Family, Mission... and Business
Around Gorom-Gorom, because people never get enough from their fields to feed their family for a whole year, the men will often go away after the harvest to the gold mines or down to Accra or Abidjan to look for work. Being away from their wives for extended times, many will sleeping with prostitutes, and some end up bringing HIV-Aids back home with them.
If we could start some good, church-centred, "kingdom-of-God"-shaped businesses, think of what a positive impact that could have:
- Reduce family poverty
- Support local pastor-missionaries
- Keep families together
- Fight the spread of Aids
- Bring people into contact with a church that ministers to the whole person.
- Provide funds from within Africa for the ministry of church and mission
Mammon and Mission
As missionaries, many of us see the potential for business to play an important role in mission for the coming generations, especially as the mission force moves away from the West to Africa, South America, and Asia. Yet we are not businessmen, and generally have no idea how to do it well.
I know people are beginning to look at this area of business and mission, and I wonder whether there is a way forward for us in this beyond the little bits and pieces we have already been doing. But for that, we need businessmen with a passion for mission to sacrifice something of themselves for the kingdom of God.
Now, I am the first to be cautious about mixing mammon with gospel, and also to acknowledge that money is not the answer to the world's problems. The Christian business world needs discipling through the cross of Christ and the vision for God's kingdom. A linking of business and mission would need to be two-way, where missiology shapes business, in order for business to serve mission.
Yet, (nearly) all of us all work to earn money. We use that money (hopefully) for God's purposes, acknowledging implicitly it has its role in life and in God's kingdom. What might that mean for Gorom-Gorom...?
Any ideas?
Tags: africa sahel burkina burkina faso business mission business and mission poverty
July 20, 2008
To Plough or Not To Plough
“Yimbe Saouga ndeman hikka, tilay” said the hitch-hiker as we approached the village of Saouga. “The people of Saouga will be forced to plough this year.”
Saouga is the village where the road to Gorom-Gorom gets cut off each year during rainy season, the swelling river rushing over the road, often up to chest-height.
The people of Saouga have made a killing each year by helping people through the river – at a price. They have been renowned for their lack of pity for those without the money or willingness to pay, since they know there is no alternative – (although, they sometimes have shown surprising kindness.) A number of men have discovered this to be a more profitable way of spending the rainy season than working the fields.
But this year the Burkina Faso government has built a bridge over the river at Saouga...
Everyone is happy about the bridge at Saouga – except the people of Saouga, who will be forced to plough this year...
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.
Back in Gorom-Gorom, Pierre tells me of going to town to ask for a field to work. People looked at him in amazement, and asked “Where are you from...?” Apparently people are abandoning field work more and more because they are just not getting anything from it.
After one or two years of poor harvests, you might still believe that it is just a bad patch and hope that things will get better. But when year after year you invest time and energy over three months to plough, sow, and weed a field by hand, and then the rains fail at the end, leaving you with nothing, you begin to lose that hope.
Inconvenient Truth
A minority of people will continue, in the face of increasingly overwhelming evidence, to refuse the fact of climate change and the role of human activity in it. It could be argued that the testimonies from locals that the rains have been getting worse over the last 20 years, is just a case of “it was better in the old days”. The observations of more extreme weather, including the increased frequency of drought and flood, could be a blip. But the abandonment of fields worked over generations speaks of the reluctantly-accepted, and life-changing reality of a changing climate.
The people of Saouga will be forced to plough this year. But what of next year? And the year after that? Alternative activities here are scarce. What options do they have?
"La Vie Chere"
And, all the time, food prices are increasing. At this time of year, when millet is scarce and rises in price, people have often bought rice instead. People can’t do that anymore. Last year, a sack of rice was about £16. This year it is over £20. That is a huge price rise when, for example, new teachers earn maybe £35/month.
There have been demonstrations and riots in Burkina Faso because of the struggle people are having with “la vie chere”. The government has taken tax off basic foodstuffs, but people blame the government for the price rises. They of course don’t understand the role that gambling on international markets, the rich world fling with biofuel, or the growth of the middle class in China, have on their food prices.
If people abandon their unproductive fields, to try other alternatives, they will of course have to buy all their food. But what work can they find here to earn enough to feed their families?
Life Goes On
For us, climate change is still largely a cause for academic discussion or bad jokes. Price rises may mean inconvenience. For those in Gorom-Gorom, they are massive threats.
Yet, people carry on with life, less troubled by the coming storm than we westerners are by the fact that we have to pay more to fill up our car. They have seen famine and drought and know what it is to go without, and to trust God in those times.
In this morning’s 6am prayer meeting, Seydou was encouraging us with Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:25-34. In Europe and the US, we rarely if ever have had to actually put these verses into practise in the way these guys do on a regular basis:
“Do not worry about what you will eat, drink, or wear... but first get hold of God’s reign and righteousness, and he’ll take care of these other things as well.”
Tags: africa sahel burkina burkina faso saouga travel bridge flood poverty
July 18, 2008
Meeting of the presidents
I have just seen that Burkina's president, Blaise Compaore, has been meeting this week with George Bush.
Burkina is currently on the UN Security Council. The two presidents were discussing Zimbabwe and Darfur among other things. Burkina Faso has qualified for $480 million in U.S. assistance for education and agriculture. I woder if they talked about cotton subsidies too...
July 16, 2008
Back Home in Gorom-Gorom
I got back to Gorom-Gorom on Saturday and am busy catching up with everyone and planning for the future weeks and months.
* There was rain last week, so people have been out in the fields. But there has been no rain since I got here, so it is uncomfortably hot and humid.
* Unfortunately I don’t have internet access from home for the moment, which is a hassle, but the internet cafe in town which had closed down is up and running again, so that’s where I am now. It does mean my email contact will be less regular.
* It’s good to see Seydou and Pierre and Pascal and friends again. Pastor Michel has had a motorbike accident and broken his leg, and he is down in Ouaga recovering. The Fulani believers continue to grow in Christ, and to meet together for prayer each morning.
* Seydou, Pierre, and I hope to go to Yengerento on Friday to visit some Fulani friends, and then at the weekend I head back to Ouaga to meet Peter and a friend coming in from France for a couple of weeks.
I will write more soon...
July 09, 2008
In Ouaga
Finally arrived at Ouaga 4.5 hours late, at 1.00 in the morning.
After a 3 hour delay in London, an extra hour delay in Tripoli, the most efficient part of the journey was my arrival in Ouaga - I was off the plane, through immigration, collected my bags, and out of customs in about 15 mins.
Steve and Charlie are here. It's good to be back.
... although, apparently, there are likely to be more riots tomorrow by university students. Please pray for peace.
July 08, 2008
On my way to Burkina - I hope
I am sitting at Gatwick airport two hours after my flight to Ouaga via Tripoli was supposed to leave. Another hour to wait apparently.
I am looking forward to etting back to BF and to seeing everyone again. Steve and Charlie should be in Ouaga, where we have a date for cocktails with the UK ambassador. He is apparently coming up from Ghana to meet with the Uk expats. He does this from time to time, but this is the first time in my 19 years I will actually have been able to attend - if I get there...
At this rate I could end up having an unscheduled holiday in Libya...
July 03, 2008
Nice one, Cyrille
I have just discovered that Cyrille Regis, the West Brom hero from the 1970's and 80's, was awarded an MBE last month.
Cyrille was always one of my footballing heroes. Here you can see Cyrille in action scoring against Norwich in 1982.
Together with Laurie Cunningham and Brendan Batson, he was part of the "Three Degrees" - three quality black footballers in the Albion team who, against considerable prejudice paved the way for black footballers in the English league. To see the Three Degrees in action in possibly the best football match ever... click here
Cyrille became a Christian in 1996, following the death of his close friend Cunningham in a car crash in 1989. He has been awarded the MBE for his services to the voluntary sector and football.
Nice one, Cyrille.
