It was a great week in Nigeria with the DML team from West Africa. We laughed, we cried, we worshipped, we shared, we debated, and we learned. We spent most of our time in meetings and then we had one day of an outing to an organic farm with aquaponics and hydroponics. Wonderful lessons learned in farming! I'll include some shots from this past week. We are so thankful for your prayers that allowed for both equipping and encouraging of these ambassadors for God. We are also so very thankful for those who donated to make this event possible. We are recognizing how critical it is for the teams to gather together to share best practices for disseminating the message in their various contexts. They are a creative bunch and are finding innovative ways to reach the gate-keepers of the church and the marketplace.
A highlight of this past week now feeds into this week, as we head to Burkina Faso. Both men who attended our regional conference from Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso) are decision-makers for major denominations: one for the Assemblies of God Church with 6000 churches and the other for Christian Missionary Alliance with 1000 churches. Both say they want to sign an MOU with us to carry out the Discipling Marketplace Leaders ministry in their denominations. This is not the first time that they have heard the DML message, as they have attended several DML trainings in Ghana. But now they are ready to take the next step. Praise God!
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country of about 20 million people, with French as the official language. It has one of the highest population growth rates in the world, with each woman having an average of 5.7 children in 2016. The median age in Burkina Faso is 17.1 years of age and it is projected that by 2050 (just thirty years from now!) the population will more than double to 43 million. Muslims are the majority in this country, with 61.5%, Roman Catholic are 23.3%, traditional/animist are 7.8%, and Protestant Christian are only 6.5%.
We have also been told that Muslims do the majority of business in the country. Christians tend to believe that business is dirty work and that they should stay out of business. So our challenge in this next week will be to remind Christians of the Biblical call to do business, like the patriarchs before us. We will be meeting with the pastors and leaders of the fourteen evangelical denominations in Burkina Faso from Monday - Thursday. Please pray for this time together, that the Holy Spirit may move in a mighty way!
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| The West Africa Regional Team: Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Liberia |
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| The Nigerian team (only four of seven pictured here), which is blessed with pastors, missionaries, businesspeople, and two vets! |
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| Dr. Walker, Paul Soper, and myself, looking quite ready to go out and be farmers...or something like that! |
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| A beautiful time of intercessory prayer together |
A highlight of this past week now feeds into this week, as we head to Burkina Faso. Both men who attended our regional conference from Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso) are decision-makers for major denominations: one for the Assemblies of God Church with 6000 churches and the other for Christian Missionary Alliance with 1000 churches. Both say they want to sign an MOU with us to carry out the Discipling Marketplace Leaders ministry in their denominations. This is not the first time that they have heard the DML message, as they have attended several DML trainings in Ghana. But now they are ready to take the next step. Praise God!
