On Christmas morning, I leaned over and said
to Madeleine, “Never forget that this
is what Christmas is all about.”
We were sitting under a tent in the village of Nana among the Marka
people of Burkina Faso. Good
Shepherd Baptist Church of Ouagadougou has adopted the Marka and in 2004, sent
their own missionary to live among them, one of many unreached people groups of
Burkina. The tent was the site of
exuberant worship as 3 other village churches gathered together with Nana to
celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. They were also celebrating a Christmas day baptism of 95 new believers. Jay had the privilege of sharing this
task with the young Burkinabé missionary and 2 other pastors.
As the baptism progressed and the singing and dancing continued, from time to time a donkey cart loaded with freshly hand-picked cotton would pass directly in front of the tent. The young laborers dumped the cotton on the ground near the church, where trucks would eventually come to get it to take it to the gin. The previous day, on our way to Nana, we had passed many cotton fields with pickers diligently working to gather the cotton by hand. I was reminded of my own childhood and the snow-white fields of cotton ready to be picked.
Most certainly as my sisters read this, they
are saying, “Now Kass, we picked
cotton by hand, but you never did a day in your life.” :) It’s true, but I did ride
that cotton picker with daddy and had a lot of fun playing in that white fluffy
stuff, tromping it down to get the trailer ready for the next hopper full. The donkey carts and the fields of
cotton not only reminded me of my childhood; they also reminded me of the words
of Jesus in John 4, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that
they are white for harvest.” And
again in Matthew 9, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers
are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
In the world’s fields which
are white and ready for harvest, there is no magic machine which will reap what
has been sown. Our heavenly Father
has lovingly placed into our hands the task of gathering souls. That, my friends, is what Christmas is
really about.
- What happens next and how can you pray? Since Christmas, a Brazilian Baptist missionary colleague has returned to Marka land to train women how to make soap as a way to help support their families. There has been much local persecution of all of these new Christians including the posting of sacrificed animal skins around the church. Pray that they will stand firm in their new faith and continue to share boldly what God has done in their lives.
[Christmas dinner]
[Pastor Henri & Solange Ye from Good Shepherd Baptist and
Cristiane, Brazilian Baptist missionary]
Cristiane, Brazilian Baptist missionary]
No comments:
Post a Comment