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Ministry

Holistic discipleship community in Boukouma

In response to the need and struggles of new Fulani Christians came a vision for a temporary community where Fulani converts could be established in the new life of the kingdom of God.

It would have three main goals:

  • Personal Discipleship, helping believers to grow in Christ, and develop a lifestyle of faith worship and service within Fulani culture.
  • Community, where Fulani believers could bond together and get a new sense of identity, belonging, and support as the family of God.
  • Economic Liberation, enabling the believers to learn new skills through rice growing, to enable them to provide for their families.

We gathered a small number of Fulani believers from the north of Burkina to live together during the rainy season for four months as an experimental holistic discipling community. This is discipleship that is much more than just Bible Study. Community life is central to this approach. We share not only the word, but also our whole lives together. We live together, eat together, sleep, work, pray, study and play together 24 hours/day.

We would start each day with a communal time of prayer, study, and worship. Then, when there was work to do, we would be out in the fields for the whole day. When there was less work, we would spend more time in study, or in social activities together. But learning happened as much through working in the fields together as through study. The object was a whole-life discipleship that would be practical as well as devotional.

At the end of the four months, the believers returned to their villages, stronger in their faith, and with a clearer sense of identity within the community that is the family of God. But they also went with food for their families, and with new skills for the future.

This is a model that I believe can become significant for the future of the Fulani church. Please pray that it can become effective for God's purposes.

For the latest news on the Boukouma Discipling Community, click here.