Update from Kathy...

It is truly a joy to and a source of great contentment when you have the opportunity to serve Christ as you work alongside Him in the fields that are white unto harvest.  Being a part of the birth and development of Les Ouvrières Baptistes du Christ last year was a personal high mark of my ministry in Africa.  Having been so greatly encouraged and challenged by Women’s Missionary Union in my own life, I look forward to helping the leadership team of UOBC to extend that same encouragement and challenge to the life of every Burkinabé young girl.

The word “ouvrière” in French is the feminine form of the word for worker.  Inspired by 1 Corinthians 3:9, these ladies have such a desire to be co-laborers with Christ in seeing His kingdom come here in Burkina Faso and throughout the entire earth.  Please pray that as this organization grows, that they will always keep Christ and the sharing of His gospel at the center of all that they do.  Pray for the upcoming national women’s conference March 28- April 2 to be held in Bobo, the second largest city in Burkina.  Pray that women will be motivated and creative in getting the money they need for their transportation.  Pray for safety as they travel.  Pray for an outpouring of God’s spirit which will unify us, will give us the same heart and vision for the future, and will create incredible joy in the heart of every woman present. 

Kathy 

Using Orality in Evangelism

Orality has been especially effective in evangelism.  We like to use the story of the Gadarene Demoniac found in Mark 5:1-20.  In that story a man is controlled by demons and living a tormented life.  When he meets Jesus he is set free and restored to normalcy.  People love this story and quickly see the power of God and His love for mankind.  

After discussing the story (using the questions in the last post), we take 2-3 minutes to tell our personal testimony, make this statement and ask this question: Jesus changed the life of the demon possessed man.  He changed MY life.  Would you like him to change your life, too?  

We are overwhelmed by the number who say, “Yes!”

What is orality training?

Jesus’ method of teaching, using stories and parables, is well adapted to African culture, where storytelling is part of family life and literacy rates are low. In Orality Training we take advantage of this by asking participants to close their Bibles and notebooks. The trainer simply tells the Bible story, which the students master through repetition. Once everyone has had a chance to repeat the story accurately, the following questions are asked:

What do you like in this story?

What don’t you like in this story?

What strikes you from this story?

What do you learn from this story?

To whom will you tell this story?

These inductive questions can be used with any story or Bible passage, and are easily mastered by everyone, regardless of their ability to read. Of greater importance, when people share what they see in God’s Word, it is not the leader, but the Holy Spirit doing the teaching, with deep, longer lasting effects.

Greetings from Kenya!

Greetings from Kenya, where I am in a conference, freezing to death at 63 degrees!

I have a series of blog updates I will be sending you over the next few days as I have time to write. The past few months have seen the answer to some of our deepest prayers. In March I invited 60 men and women, 4 from each Association of Baptist churches in Burkina Faso, to come to Ouagadougou for a training conference. Starting with the story of the Gadarene demoniac, they were taught simple inductive Bible study methods for evangelism, Bible study and leadership training. Each team of 4 was given the responsibility of going back to their association to train as many as possible at every level: youth, women’s ministry, SS teachers and church leaders.

The response to this training has been phenomenal. Here are some highlights:

Tiebele: 60 church members gathered for a 1 day session on evangelism using the Gadarene demoniac. They were trained Saturday morning and went out in the afternoon door-to-door. The following Sunday so many people came to church they had to borrow benches from the neighbors to seat the overflow crowd!

Godyr: Four weeks ago the youth in the association were trained in evangelism and sent out door-to-door in the village of Delba. 74 decisions were made for Christ and a new church was started with consistently 70 in attendance.

Reo: The church in Sandié has been using Orality for several months now in Bible studies and outreach. During that time attendance has gone from 40 to 120!

Pray for training conferences scheduled in Ouagadougou, Bobo, and Boré this summer. God is doing something special.

Flood Relief, November 2009

The Baptist youth of Ouagadougou once again rallied their force to bring relief to those who were worst hit by the flood on Sept 1. After our first construction effort several sites still needed to be completed. We did not expect the same level of participation as our first outing, but were overwhelmed with both the number of participants (60+) and their hard work. With only two volunteer masons, the teams split up by task, with the masons finishing up two old sites while three teams dug foundations at three new sites. A sixth team went to the home of a young widow to make mud bricks. When we ran into a snag and had to repair one foundation, a third mason was hired from the neighborhood and within a few hours the foundations were dug and the work progressing. As one site was completed, that team joined forces with another team to accelerate the work on their site. By 4:30 three old foundations were completed, 1 foundation repaired, and 3 new foundations dug from scratch. In addition, the brickmakers made over 1100 bricks for the widow and 650 for Autone, who was both a mason and one of those being helped.

It is always encouraging to see believers helping and serving others. Still, it was especially touching to arrive where they were making bricks to see 8-10 children from the church joining in. Their feet and hands were caked with mud, but the smiles on their faces were priceless. Working side by side with their parents and deacons and older brothers and sisters in the Lord, they gave their strength and joy to their neighbors for the glory of God!

Thank you for your prayers and support of this effort, funded through personal gifts, the Lottie Moon offering, and Disaster Relief Funds. In John 13:1 we read, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he (Jesus) now showed them the full extent of his love.” Jesus then proceeds to wash the disciples’ feet. It is through this act of service that Jesus was able to show them the full extent of his love. Likewise, through these days of service to a suffering community, we have been able to show a different level of love to our neighbors; one that is more complete. It is a level of love that cannot be expressed or experienced in any other way but through sacrificially serving others, and it was a privilege to both express it and experience it together alongside so many.

Flood Relief, October 2009

On Saturday, October 17, over 100 Baptist youth from across Ouagadougou joined forces in Secteur 16 to make a difference for 20 families devastated by the flood of Sept 1. Gathering at 7am at l’Eglise Baptiste Wendbenedo, prayer, singing and worship set the tone for the day before dividing into 7 teams and spreading out across the neighborhood. A mason from a sister church, along with a mason from the neighborhood had been to each site the day before to trace out the dimensions for the foundation, so the teams got straight to work digging out the trench while others began making mud bricks. Working under an unforgiving sun, the work moved forward as the day got long. Several pastors came to encourage their members, joining a refreshment team delivering drinks, food, and words of encouragement from site to site. The planning committee was also in action, arranging the delivery of rocks, sand, and gravel as needed. One team, while waiting for a delivery, struck up a conversation with a passerby which led to spiritual questions. Before long, he and another had prayed to receive Christ! One stayed to join the team! A team of 20 something girls, at first minimized for their inferior strength, set to making mud bricks, finishing 600 at one site and 200 at another. This acted to motivate the guys, who worked into the night to finish at their second site, where the late delivery of materials slowed the team down, but would not stop them.

By the time the exhausted but tireless Baptist youth sang their way back to their respective homes, 15 foundations had been laid, 1000 mud bricks had been made, 5 people were led to the Lord, and a whole neighborhood was inspired. Yaya, a young volunteer from Grace Baptist summed up the event saying, “Since I have been a Christian I have never participated in anything like this. We came from different churches, but everyone came together as one. When we got tired, someone would start singing and our spirits would be revived. People stopped to ask what we were doing and why, so we told them about the love of Christ. I never dreamed of being part of something this fantastic.”

Newsletter, Summer 2009

Hello to all our praying friends! It has been a long, long, time since I’ve written with an update. I apologize and am grateful to those who have continued to lift us up to the Father, even in the absence of news.

The spring and the summer saw many changes come to the International Mission Board. We are now “imb connecting,” with the continued mission of assisting Southern Baptists to fulfill their obedience to the call of Christ to take the gospel to all nations. We see God’s hand at work and are grateful for the tapestry of faith that He is weaving in our lives.

Jay has begun a new ministry as a result of these changes – a calling that he is excited about and privileged to do. He will be the liaison between the mission and the Baptist Union of Burkina Faso. This union has the same purpose as our own convention in the US, and its leaders have tremendous vision to see Burkinabé Baptists do their part in going to the ends of the earth. We anticipate great joy in serving them and serving alongside them. Thank Him for speaking to our hearts and sharing a new vision and direction for our lives and ministry. Thank God with us for the renewal of our passion for ministry here in Burkina.

These past months of ministry have certainly not been without excitement. With a praise-filled heart, go back with me to May and the Bissa language conference.

In scorching temperatures surpassing 100 degrees, we met in a small Assembly of God church. With not even a fan to move the air, representatives gathered from local churches who all have a desire to see the Barka dialect of their language gain a government approved orthography. These faithful servants worked long hours to hammer out some agreed upon basics about how to write their language. The next step is mine (Kathy). Using a program which includes the extended alphabet of Bissa and other languages, I will be publishing a preliminary rough draft text to present to officials. Once we have an approved orthography, Sylvie and Natasha, dedicated Baptist believers who have for years been sharing God’s love as they teach people to read, will be able to apply for compensation for their many weeks of committed service. Thank God for these, His disciples who want to see literacy used as a means to share His love and to help young believers grow in the knowledge of His Word. Pray that I will finish the tedious work of editing and publishing the rough draft of the orthography.

June saw the arrival of our six student missionaries. It’s impossible to describe the joy and the inspiration that comes from working with college students. Their zeal always encourages us and challenges us. These six were no different. Our first two weeks, we ministered to children at Bengaleezay nutrition center, which is associated with one of our Baptist churches. At least 100 children daily heard the gospel truth with their ears, saw God’s story acted out by our summer team, and felt His love through the hugs and care of the students. We sang songs and played games and as many children as possible scrambled to hold the hands of the summer missionaries. In the afternoons, we visited families of the children. The guys played soccer in the neighborhood near the church and several young men with whom they shared made decisions to follow Christ.

After tearful good-byes, we headed to northern Ghana where the team stayed with 4 different Bissa believing families. The goals of this part of the summer term included discipleship and mentoring of local Christian youth and neighborhood evangelism. What a joy to see both American and Ghanaian students be mutually challenged and encouraged through this relationship. Pray for these young Ghanaian believers to continue to bold witnesses in their community.

September 1 brought a huge rain storm to Ouagadougou. It dumped more rain on this city than has been recorded since 1919. Around 150,000 people lost their homes and food supplies, a staggering 10% of the city’s population. Jay began immediately to work with the Ouaga association of Baptist churches to give some relief to both church members and communities surrounding our churches who were affected. Thank God for the faithful and generous giving of Southern Baptists which allowed us to apply emergency funds to this relief effort. Pray that He will continue to give Jay wisdom as he and local pastors continue their efforts to minister to those in need. Pray for the churches to be faithful witnesses of the gospel of Christ as they help their neighbors.

Blessings,

Jay & Kathy Shafto

James, Robbie & Madeleine

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso