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April 01, 2008

April prayer requests

Dear friends,

Here is a Fulani tongue twister for you to try:

Fulfulde na tiiDi, Fulfulde FulBe na tiiDi. Pullo biiDo o buri FulBe waawde Fulfulde na tiiDi.

Literal translation: Fulfulde is hard. The Fulfulde of the Fulani is hard. And for one Fulani to claim that his Fulfulde is better than other Fulanis, that's hard!

It's true, Fulfulde is a difficult language. Take noun classes, for example. English doesn't really have noun classes but French and Spanish have three (masculine, feminine and plural) and German has four (masculine, feminine, neuter and plural). Problem is, Fulfulde has twenty-four (humans, small animals, big animals, bovine animals, ovine animals, trees, grasses, grains, wooden things, metal things, little things, big things, long things, round things, indefinite things, noises, mats, bugs, drums and five separate plurals). So when Ali Bari, pastor of our local church, asked me to teach Fulfulde to his congregation, it was with some trepidation that I agreed.

Since coming back to Burkina Faso last year, Charlie and I have been part of a new church plant on the outskirts of Djibo. The congregation is very enthusiastic but not very Fulani - almost all of them are Mossi men and women who have been sent to Djibo to work in the public sector - Christian teachers, nurses, policemen, forestry rangers, topologists and fiscal engineers. In the past it was normal for these settlers to be disdainful of the local Fulani population and wish a swift end to their exile, but all that is changing now. Our Mossi brothers and sisters are seeing themselves more and more as Christ's ambassadors in Djibo - missionaries to an un-reached people group. And with that in mind, they want to learn Fulfulde.

We have acquired a lovely white board and some coloured markers. We will be starting with the basics (Jam waali! Jam tan!) before progressing to the problematics (such as the twenty-four noun classes), but always with an eye on how best to convey the love of God to the Fulani people of this province. I'm very much looking forward to Lesson One.

The market outreach continues weekly and I am now being helped in that by Harouna, a young Fulani believer. If you ever find yourself praying on a Wednesday morning, perhaps you could give us a mention.

A Swiss missionary on the board of Djibo FM has been meeting with a government minister who is sympathetic to our application for a broadcasting license. If you still have the stomach for it, please pray new life into this floundering project.

Charlie is preaching in French at church next Sunday morning. Her text: 'Shining like stars in the universe' (Philippians 2:15). You can read Charlie's March newsletter here.

Another prayer request: on Saturday April 19th the church is going on an evangelistic visit to Bourgeinde, a nearby village of 3000 Fulani without a single follower of Jesus. Pray that we would go in humility and that our Fulani friends there would find the message of redemption to be good news for them and their families.

Posted by sahelsteve at April 1, 2008 02:39 PM