The young dancing team.

These were the expert dancers at the wedding. They could really get going.

Not done yet.

Are they tired yet after 3 hours of wedding dancing? Nope.

Bus Trouble - I think the goat must have tipped the scale.

Our bus had two flat tires and after putting on the spares, the driver noticed that at least one of the spares had been cut in half and sewn back together at one point. This resulted in a 7 hour delay on the side of the road while we waited for a solution. But this picture will always remind me of how the bus-hand let down the spare tire from the roof, where you see the goat. Instead of dropping it parallel to the side of the bus, or waiting for help, the bus hand dropped it perpendicular to the bus. The huge tire promptly hit a rut and shot straight out towards me. I took one step sideways and watched the think streak past at another young man who wasn’t paying attention. It caught him so off guard, all he could think to do was to start running with the path of the tire, instead of side-stepping it. So he tried to outrun the tire for a good 3 seconds before diving out of the way. The tire continued another good 20 metres after that.

Watch me now, hey!

I think dancing is as natural as walking for a Burkinabe kid.

January Prayer Letter

January 2009

Warkentin Prayer Letter

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine, your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is perfume poured out. – Song of Solomon 1:2

I had had a preview of the trip – the road had been awful that first time so I was prepared. This time promised to be longer and more rewarding. My two short, recent village experiences were like book-end glimpses into two of the most significant markers of African life: first, a funeral, then, a wedding.

The road had dramatically improved from the funeral visit 3 weeks earlier. After an hour of paved road and 4 hours of unpaved, the first great challenge this time came when the police officer stopped the bus some 100 km from our final destination asking everyone to get off. I was relieved to see my passport still had at least a month left on the visa. I chuckled nervously when Othniel showed me his identification card: a 10 year old boy smiled back at me…Othniel is 28. His card had expired years ago. I looked up. The 28 year old was now smiling at me. I was glad he was so confident. The police man did not seem in good humour.

We were separated into two groups – those with valid identification, and those without. I found myself wondering if this was how calm it was in places like Rwanda where similar grouping had occurred in more dire times. Othniel was not in my group. My group was told to get on the bus and take off. I started praying. The bus driver was nowhere to be found. I heard someone say that he was "negotiating" with the police. Moments later, Othniel ran gleefully back onto the bus and sat down beside me, smiling even bigger. "On peut aller!" We can go. I was greatly relieved.

I am screaming down a dirt road on the back of a motorcycle. Cold. This was as cold as I'd been since being in Burkina. My jacket was zipped up over my head to protect me, now a headless horseman, from the cold and dust. We drove for almost an hour. I was blindly balancing myself on the back of the bike as we seemed to swerve and hit every hole along the way, my bag in my arms preventing me from holding on effectively. What if I fell? I was a hundred miles away from…anywhere.

We arrived in the village of Doumbala – a village of the Bwaba people, 10 km from the Mali border. The Mali border literally cut right through some of the Bwaba villages. What was the white man thinking? We arrived at night, under a multitude of celestial Christmas lights – enough to give you a neck ache, or worse if you tried to walk and look at the sky at the same time.

For the next 2 days, I was the King of the Sahel – at least, my hosts treated me as such. What was most remarkable was that Othniel, who hadn't been back to his home for over a year, never left my side. I was his priority, even before his childhood friends who he hadn't seen in so long. I thought about western hospitality. I thought about stories of missionaries leaving African guests outside while they go in to eat. I learned and thought about a lot of things those 2 days.

The wedding itself revealed the high points of Bwaba culture: music and dance. In fact, most Burkinabé love to celebrate. While the married couple traditionally must look reserved and almost bored (see blog and web pictures), the rest of the congregation is alive and lively. Even at 5 am the morning after the wedding, there were still dancers regenerating the eternal dust cloud of the courtyard by the church. The same balaphone player (see pictures) had played from 8 pm to 5 am with very few breaks!

We left at 5 am to catch our bus back to Ouagadougou. Othniel had an exam the next day – yet one more frustration with the university system: because of all of the striking, some students only had Christmas Day off before they had to continue their exams. This messed up Othniel's entire Christmas and New Years plans – a much needed and well-deserved week in the village with his family was cut down to 2 days.

Our bus broke down 30 minutes into the trip. We waited almost 7 hours on the side of the road for a fix (see blog for more info). These various challenges made me think of the effort "incarnational ministry" takes and how much it is worth. I could have dreaded such a trip – why not stay home and read a book? It is Boxing Day! When I have a busy week – a sermon to write, a Bible study to prepare, I often find myself torn between two paths: the known (books, commentaries, a laptop, efficiency) and the unknown and unpredictable (visits with strangers, conversations, a stroll through the neighbourhood, taking the time to get to know what people in our church need).

The 7 superfluous hours turned into great conversation time. I learned valuable insights into the culture I live in. My travel companions and I talked about what marriage and weddings mean in the Burkinabé context. This is such a crucial topic for the students with whom we work. We talked about what being a servant-spouse looks like. Burkinabé young adults are struggling with the ideologies of marriage: Do you have to follow the traditions of your culture when getting married? Do you need to be completely financially autonomous before taking the step? Do you marry a woman you know will be hard-working and serving, or does romance play a bigger role? Young adult Christians in Burkina are pushing some of these boundaries and asking important questions while discerning what the Bible says about these themes. And we are listening and praying for ways to treat these issues respectfully in our young church context.

We praise God for…

• A wonderful holiday season of fellowshipping with church members and mission team members alike.

• Astonishingly good health throughout our years in Burkina and especially during the Christmas season.

• Significant "bonding" between Jeff and some of the students at the wedding in Doumbala

We request your prayer support for…

• Knowing how to progress in our ministry in the ambiguity of the coming school year. Will there be a school year? When will it start?

• Students who are still finishing up exams, now even in the midst of a professor strike

• Attentiveness to God's calling as doors shut for some because of failed exams or a yet-again postponed school year.

*************

For elaboration on any of the above, please visit our blog and website.

http://foothills.mennonitechurch.ab.ca/warkentin.html

Why the wall?

One solution to student uprising on campus: put up a really big, really long wall (the campus must be some 16 km in circumference) to prevent students from easily escaping should there be another uprising. Exits are now easily patrolled by the new "campus police task force".

Taxi Justice

Our friend Moussa has managed to get all of his papers in order for his new taxi – all, that is except two, which he needs to wait until January for, unless he wants to pay for the whole year. Should he drive without those papers knowing that he may be asked for a bribe by a policeman if he gets pulled over? Moussa struggles with such questions as he learns more and more what being a follower of Jesus really means. Pray for Moussa, that he might find a 3rd way to the injustices he faces on the road.

Nov 2008 - Prayer Update

What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? – Eccl. 1:3

Many Burkinabé university students are asking this question this year. Thus far, the exam season has not been good to the students of the Foyer Evangélique Mennonite de Ouagadougou. In the Burkina/French system, students have 2 chances to pass exams. In most cases, to pass the year you must average a score of at least a 10 out of 20 on all your exams. A good mark is really anything above a 12 out of 20. As of today, only 2 out of the 20 some students who are connected to our community have made it without having to go through the second try. It is a very stressful time for everyone.

This has also made our normal ministry routine somewhat awkward since some students have free time to visit while others are studying so hard that they aren’t even emerging for Bible studies and prayer times. Most are reluctant to get too involved in the everyday church tasks. This requires us to fill in the gaps, which is partly why we are here. We are looking forward to the New Year when we can officially start the school year and begin holding more organized community, worship, and Bible study meetings.

*************

We are all relatively healthy and enjoying an early cool season here. We are thankful for safe travels to and from the southwestern part of the country. Jeff made two such voyages in the span of 3 weeks, and the whole family was in Orodara last week for the African Inter-Mennonite Mission Partnership Council meetings.

We ask for your continued prayers for the university students as well as for the many people suffering from the global food and gas price increases. Also pray for those who lost loved ones in the horrific bus accident last week. See link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7731261.stm

**************

If you haven’t been regularly checking the website you are missing out. Specifically, it would be neat to have some interaction on the Blog. If you don’t know what that is or how to use it, please contact us. It is accessible from our main page. We sometimes post comments, insights and pictures there that you wouldn’t otherwise receive from us. You can also post your own questions or thoughts there.

http://foothills.mennonitechurch.ab.ca/warkentin.html

Picture update

1. Back in worship mode - Burkinabe style. Elisabeth teaches us a new song.

2. Our kids with Mama at the Ramadan celebrations. Ramadan is the time of 30 day fasting. Many Muslims neither eat nor drink during the day. After the sun goes down, they can then eat and drink. After 30 days, everyone celebrates. Even the Christians visit their Muslim neighbours. A great deal of food is usually exchanged. That day, we ate rice, toh, and then fonio, a traditional cereal grain. Of course, we drank Bissap as well - a sweet local drink made out of hibisscus flowers.

Prayer Update

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. – Amos 5:24

How does one work for justice?

Listening to stories of the university conflict that erupted this past June, it was striking just how quickly a situation can turn from calm to panic. An organized group of university students (the science and technology faculty) had repeatedly tried to hold a peaceful protest on campus, walking to the university president's office to deliver a petition lamenting the many injustices on the university level. After several repeated and squashed attempts (the president announced that protest walks were no longer allowed, despite being a constitutional right of students at the university), this group tried one last time. What most of them did not realize was that a small sub-group within them had pulled back as they approached the presidential building. This group took off their shirts and wet them, covering their faces from the tear gas they knew would come. Then, from behind the main group, they began throwing rocks at the few police and military who were stationed outside of the presidential office. After this, many students figured they had no choice but to pick up rocks and fight in order to get past authorities who had sealed off the exits of the campus. Unfortunately, at least one student from our community was involved in the rock throwing.

Recently, I (Jeff) preached on Amos 5:24, exhorting those in our congregation to consider their calling as prophets who renounce injustice. It occurred to me that this is exactly what the students have been doing – standing up for their rights, and it ultimately led to violence. How can God hate injustice but let it get to a point that even Christians see violence as the only solution? How can Christians work for justice peacefully alongside other Christians, equally fervent to renounce injustice, but who do not share the same perspective on Jesus' life and teachings?

Despite all of this, the university is attempting to finish up the 2007-08 school year. Most of the students in our community are in the last week of exams. Still, there is a dark cloud hanging over the campus. A campus police force has been assigned to maintain order on campus. Recently, a student was stopped by the police who asked him for the receipt for his bicycle, to prove that he had not stolen it. When the student could not produce the receipt, he was arrested. These random power reminders pushed some to post signs around campus calling on students to re-mobilize. The need for discipleship in Jesus' way has never been clearer for our ministry.

*****************

We have quickly resettled into life here. Check our blog for our travel and arrival experiences. We're all more or less healthy, except for some colds. Danika is full-swing into school, with daily homework assignments.

We're growing. With every new school year we add new students to our community as older ones find their wings and leave the nest. We are fortunate to have the possibility for students to move into a courtyard that is just a five minute walk away from us. This could be important in maintaining past relationships and allowing older students to support new ones, while remaining in our church.

We praise God for:

• Safe travels and God's evident intervention in our return to Burkina.
• Clearer vision for our ministry.

We request your prayer support for:

• University students as they study and write exams as well as cope with the results.
• People in Burkina who are still adjusting to increased food prices.