Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso November 4-28, 2011

November 13


We arose at 6 am on Sunday to attend the 8 am service of the first SIM church in Ouagadougou. It was awesome. Their congregation was about 100 people, and the church has been there for 35 years. It is the only Christian church within a 3 km radius, and they have been doing much to reach out to the community. We very much enjoy the African music, singing and dancing. We heard songs from the children, teenagers, the choir and the senior ladies as well as the whole congregation. We were honoured by being called to the front for a formal introduction, and later in the service, Andrew spoke about our group and our plans during our stay. The message was given in French, and David translated it for us. The service ended at 11:30.

Before everyone arrived

Senior ladies singing

Andrew

Afterward the pastors, elder and deacon brought us into a separate room to tell us about their vision for their church as well as a training centre for young adults. The training is intended to teach different trades to those no longer attending school. They asked us to pray for their vision which we did in their presence and will continue to do so.

Pastor, Marianne

Guest speaker, elder, deacon, pastor

We had lunch and some of us rested while others went for a swim. Terry and I had a skype conversation with our Pastor Perry from Life Outreach Church. We updated him on our trip so that he could share it with our church. The team also had a skype conversation with the Calvary Church congregation during their Sunday service. It was interesting to have a live conversation with them and watch their reactions to our comments from so far away.

On any given day, the traffic is wild. You could see anything on the road!

In the evening the team took our gracious hosts Dave and Marianne out for a well-deserved supper at Paradisio.

Once we returned home we unsuccessfully attempted to download videos we have taken. We will try again in the future as we have several good ones to share.