Waken Up You Sleepy Christian!

Waken up, you sleepy Christian!

Wedding in Boba

Marina and I attended a Loron wedding in Ivory Coast over the weekend. Donald Pale, a young Loron believer who is training to be a pastor, and Marcel, the daughter of Hovare, one of the first Loron believers, were married in a little village called Boba just a few miles from Gogo. It's the first time we have ever seen a white wedding dress being used in a Loron wedding!

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There is joy...

… there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

Lu 15:10

Almost three years ago we distributed several hundred little solar-powered radios among the Loron people living in the rolling hills of southwest Burkina. Since 2008 we have heard sporadic reports of small groups of Loron folks listening to the chronological Bible lessons, recorded in their own language, that were being broadcast by the local radio station, but we were not aware of any one in particular who wanted to hear more about the gospel.

Last Saturday, Marina and I made a special trip into the region to visit three of the villages where we knew people had been listening to the evangelistic Bible lessons on the radio. We arranged for one of the Loron Bible teachers, Joel, to come from Ivory Coast to accompany us to help ‘spy out the land’, looking for openings to begin face-to-face Bible teaching or maybe even to start literacy classes.  

We visited the large Loron village of Nyolka - which means ‘Thirsty Place’ - but we were a little disappointed with the response of most of the people there. The chief of the village was quite abrupt with us, which was very unusual for a Loron village leader, and he didn’t really want to spend any time talking with us. The others in the village were clearly intimidated by him. We did, however, get some requests from a few of the young adults for more radios.

The second village was a lot more encouraging. The people in Lata seemed to be a lot more open to hearing more of the Bible teaching and were also interested in the possibility of starting literacy classes. They are going to meet together and arrange another time for us to visit them again with the goal of setting up regular visits.

At the third village, located right down near the border of Ivory Coast, we went to talk with a young semi-educated Loron man who had shown some interest in learning how to teach literacy. As it turned out, he told us that he is a travelling salesman and that he wouldn’t have the time to spend teaching others through the literacy course. As we chatted with him and the other folks in the village, we got talking to a lady who told us that she had become a Christian after hearing the gospel on the little radio we had given to her. Praise the Lord! She has been crossing the border into Ivory Coast to attend a little church there. She brings her children with her. She said that it had been very difficult for her as she is the only Christian in the village. Please pray for Mariam.