Loron Bible Conference

Last Friday night, under the brightness of a full moon, around 300 Loron Christians from at least ten different villages gathered for a 3-day believers’ conference.

The organizers did an excellent job in preparing an appropriate location for the meetings and hosting the many visitors who came. The believers had a feast of good Bible teaching and also great fellowship with other Loron Christians. About two dozen folks walked from a village 25 miles away to attend the conference.

Pastor Matthew (left) from Burkina Faso teaching on the origins, purpose, problems and blessings of marriage. Joel translated from French into Loron.

Yours truly with Hovare

The church was too small to hold all those who attended the conference, so the believers erected a large grass shelter specifically for the occasion. This is the ladies section.

Pastor Roger (right) from Ivory Coast teaching on giving. He spoke for two solid hours on the subject! An excellent Bible teacher.

Portions of Scripture and other Bible teaching material sold like hotcakes!

It was a thrill to see so many booklets being sold. This was the first opportunity for some of the believers to purchase the book of Acts and other materials we have recently printed.

Some of the Loron Bible teachers who attended the conference

Komono Literacy Teachers

The Banfora region is one of the main tourist areas in Burkina Faso. It has some unique rock formations and a number of small waterfalls.A couple of weeks ago Marina and I travelled to Banfora where Marina spent five days training nine men and women from the Komono tribe how to teach literacy in their villages in Ivory Coast. The NTM missionaries working with these folks had arranged for the Komono folks to come up to Banfora for the course.
A number of the students who took the training have the makings of good literacy teachers. The missionaries are hoping to get literacy schools started in one of the main Komono villages in Ivory Coast over the next few weeks.
Last weekend, Marina and I visited a couple more Loron villages in Ivory Coast to see how the literacy schools there were going. Over the next few weeks we are hoping to be able to visit all ten locations where adult literacy classes are being held in the Loron language. It is a thrill to see so many Loron young people and adults learning how to read and write.

Go, Elephants!

Ivory Coast supporter

The Ivory Coast football (soccer) team, Les Elephants, did well to get to the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations. They easily won their group, and the quarter final, but they couldn't match the pace and skill of Egypt. Egypt won last night's game 4-1 to progress to the final. Ivory Coast will play Ghana to decide third and fourth places.

Despite the tensions in recent years between the people of Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, it was encouraging to see people in Burkina strongly supporting the Ivory Coast team in the competition. There were many Ivory Coast flags flying in Burkina, which was really good to see.