A STRONG TESTIMONY
I wrote a few weeks back about the village of Temetemeso and how the pastor’s house/church was being built not only by the church believers, but also by other members of the village. It was a joint effort of many people coming together, and a lot of that was due to the village chief, who has been encouraging other people in his village to talk with the believers and become part of the church. The ironic element in this is that he himself will not accept Christ, saying that he is too old to make such a change in his life. Please PRAY for this man, who we believe knows the truth in his heart, that he would surrender his life to Christ and find salvation and freedom. (see picture)
Neighboring the village of Temetemeso is Katana, which you’ve also heard about over the past years. The believers in Katana wanted to get started on a pastor’s house, which would be used as their church until the time a pastor came. However, the believers in Katana are not the heads of their households, which means that they didn’t have the freedom to use the donkey carts owned by their families for building the church. Kevin helped out by sending a donkey cart to Katana, and the believers planned on just using it by hand, since they didn’t have a donkey. Well, this caused quite the ruckus! The village became upset at the believers, because they had heard about what had happened in Temetemeso, how the “whole village” was turning out to help build the church. They demanded to know why the Katana believers hadn’t asked them for help. The believers responded with, “How could we? You’ve been persecuting us, ridiculing us, and mocking us for following Christ. We were afraid to even ask for any help in building our church!” The village was very ashamed at this, and said that if the village of Temetemeso could help out to build a church, than they could help out as well. The last we heard, they were gathering all of their donkey carts and working together on the building. PRAY that many lives would be touched as a result of this work of God on the hearts of these people. PRAISE Him for the testimony of Temetemeso—the Holy Spirit is at work, and we stand amazed to see all that He accomplishes!
PRAY FOR COMPLETE HEALING
Pastor Marcel told us that he went to Temetemeso one day, and a woman came to him and asked for prayer. She had an “illness” where she couldn’t see during the day, but she could see at night. She had gone to the clinic, gone to the local religious leader, gone to the witch doctor, and none of them could help her. So, now she was turning to the pastor. He spoke with her and prayed for her, and she was miraculously healed. Although choosing not to accept Christ herself at the time, her son saw this miracle take place, and he gave his life to Christ. However, when it came time to go to church on Sunday, his mother began persecuting him for his new faith because she wanted him out working in the fields instead of attending church. Pastor Marcel met with her later and said, “What do you want? Do you want God to take away what He has done for you? Can’t you see that this is the truth and that your son needs to have the freedom to follow it?” She relented, and Pastor Marcel believes that she will also make a decision to follow Christ soon. Please PRAY for her, that whatever is causing her to hold back would be broken and she would find complete freedom and spiritual healing.
A WOMAN STANDS STRONG IN HER NEW FAITH
Friday night’s evangelism campaign was in Tuntun, which is a village steeped in the majority religion here. Even in spite of this, 5 people came forward and chose to accept Christ in front of a crowd of over 500. When Pastor Francois was leading these people in prayer, a man came forward from the audience, yelling and screaming at his wife, who was one of the people making a decision to follow Christ. Her husband was livid and tried several times to physically pull her away from the front. She just held tightly to a bench she was sitting on and refused to move. Later she shared that she had heard this same message in Cote d’Ivoire, and since that time had thought about what she had heard, and vowed that the very next time she heard the message, that she was going to make a decision to follow Jesus. Please PRAY for her protection and for the salvation of her husband. Please also PRAY that God would grant her with a child, as she has been unable to get pregnant.
A VILLAGE CHIEF COMES TO CHRIST, ALONG WITH MANY OTHERS!
Saturday night’s campaign was in another village—I can’t remember the name exactly, but it stands for “village of the sorceress”. This was the first time that evangelism had ever been done here, and Kevin said that during the film, the people were very engaged, even clapping and cheering when good things were happening and the power of God was showing itself loud and clear! When Pastor Francois was giving the message, he would ask a question like “The Bible tells us that we’re all sinners. Don’t you know this to be true?”, and the village chief would answer out loud, “Yes, we are all sinners, aren’t we?” as he looked at those all around him and included them in his answers. When Pastor Francois gave an invitation to make a decision to follow Christ, 54 people responded, and the first one who came forward was the village chief! The Holy Spirit was obviously at work in his heart, and he was READY to make a decision. That very night he invited Kevin, Pastor Francois, and the evangelism team to his house for dinner—they ate at 12:30 in the morning! He has asked Kevin for three benches so that he can start holding church services in his courtyard. The good news is that there is a large family (about 6 adults and their children) who are believers in this village, who can help out with church services. Pastor Francois has talked with his church in Banzon to set up a schedule when they can go out as well to disciple these new believers.
With the village chief making this decision, who is an older and respected man in his village, there is huge potential of others continuing to follow Christ. Please PRAY that God would work in the hearts of these new believers, that they would be discipled and grow in their faith. PRAY for this village chief—he is going to have to face some very tough decisions about his responsibilities in fetish activities. PRAY that he will take a strong stand in his new faith, even if it means having to give up the position of chief in order to not serve two masters. PRAY for Pastor Francois, as he is overseeing the work in several villages surrounding his own—he’s getting pulled in a lot of different directions and has much work to do.
PRAY FOR PASTORS!!!
We just found out that out of three new pastors who we thought would be coming to work in the Kenedougou region in the next few months, we are only going to be sent one. This has been quite the blow to us—there is SO much work to be done and we desperately need pastors to help us with what is taking place out here. Please PRAY for this need.
Thank you for praying! Stories like the above take place because of your prayers and the power of God working in people’s lives!
Kevin, Bonnie, Daniel, Jacob, Abby, and Emma Oberg
kevinoberg@cmaburkina.com
Check out our field website!!
http://burkinaalliance.org You’ll see new pictures, read new stories, and find all the facts you need about Burkina Faso.
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