Burkina Blog

The last post. Definitely.

2008-04-07T20:37:00.004Z

Check out our new blog. Pictures of the grandkids!

To find out what is happening among the Loron people: click here

The Last Post?

2008-04-06T21:33:00.005Z

It has been a busy three months…

- in January we had a retreat and seminar for Loron Bible teachers here in Burkina Faso;
- In February Marina and I travelled to Banfora, Burkina Faso and Marina trained a group of literate Komono folks how to teach Komono people how to read and write;
- also in February we had a Bible conference with 300 Loron believers in Gogo, Ivory Coast;
- during February and March we visited all 9 locations where 160 students are learning how to read and write in Loron;
- over the past couple of weeks we distributed little solar-powered radios which are fixed-tuned to the local Christian radio station to around 300 Loron families in 9 villages in Burkina.
- and in between all that, we made numerous weekend trips into Ivory Coast to visit most of the Loron churches

We want to say a huge thank you to all who have prayed, given and helped in so many ways so that we could continue the ministry among the Loron people from Burkina Faso.

We are so grateful to the Lord for all that has been accomplished over the past two years or so among the Loron: for more printed Scriptures; for the new literacy schools; for the evangelism opportunities among the Loron in Burkina; and for the growth in numbers and maturity of the Loron believers in Ivory Coast.

This may be our last post from Burkina Faso. We have closed up our house in Gaoua, and we have returned to Northern Ireland for the rest of the year.

In January 2009, we are hoping to be able to go back to Ivory Coast to continue the work among the Loron people in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso from there.

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Meningitis Epidemic in Ivory Coast and Burkina

2008-03-18T16:31:00.000Z

During 2007 around 1,500 people died from meningitis in Burkina Faso.

So far this year, 441 people have died out of 4,061 cases reported.

The meningitis outbreak this year is centred along the Ivory Coast/Burkina Faso border where the majority of the Loron people live. Of 16 affected districts in Burkina Faso, the outbreak had reached epidemic proportions in seven of them. Across the border in Ivory Coast, local health authorities said that there is an epidemic in the Zanzan border region.

Both Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso are on the sub-Saharan "meningitis belt" that stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, and outbreaks of meningitis occur annually during the dry season between November and April.

In an encouraging (and, I think, unprecedented) display of coordination and cooperation between the Ivorian and Burkinabé health authorities, a joint strategy has been developed and is being effectively implemented to deal with the outbreak.

We witnessed the vaccination campaign first-hand as it was being unrolled in the Gogo area of Ivory Coast about two weeks ago. In fact we got a meningitis booster along with all the other villagers.

We were impressed with the efficiency and dedication of the health professionals as they worked long hours and travelled to some almost inaccessible locations. The Freewill Baptist hospital in Doropo had overall responsibility for the operation in the Gogo region.

A number of the Loron believers who help run the Gogo health clinic accompanied and worked along with the folks from the Baptist hospital as they visited each village in the area. Together with a couple of Ivorian medical employees, they administered around 6,000 vaccinations in the region.

We are hoping that the vaccination campaign will help to stem the tide of the epidemic in Burkina and Ivory Coast.

Loron Bible Conference

2008-02-26T22:09:00.014Z

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

2008-02-19T19:28:00.007Z

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!

2008-02-08T11:02:00.000Z

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.

Turn your radio on!

2008-01-26T22:16:00.000Z

We received great news this week concerning the radio ministry that we have been involved in here in Burkina. For over a year now Southwest Gospel Radio has been broadcasting Bible lessons and health programmes each week in the Loron language.

Galcom International, a North American organization which provides technical equipment for the communication of the Gospel worldwide, has donated 1,000 solar-powered, fixed-frequency radios for use among the Loron people here in Burkina. The radios have cleared customs and are now sitting in our kitchen, ready to be distributed among the Loron!

The radios are robust little things with a good quality speaker, rechargeable batteries and a solar panel. They are fixed to receive just one station, FM 99.7, the frequency of the local Christian radio, Southwest Gospel Radio (RESO), so the radios cannot be abused.

We will probably not be able to use all the radios among the Loron here in Burkina - there are maybe only 400 or so Loron homesteads - so 500 radios have been given to the folks at the Christian radio for them to use in their work among the other tribal groups in the area.

What started out as a small missionary project among the children at the Sunday school of our home church in Northern Ireland, has mushroomed into something that could have a huge impact on bringing the gospel to many thousands of people from different tribes living in isolated villages and homesteads all over southwest Burkina.

Factoids: fact or fiction?

2008-01-18T22:17:00.000Z

Winston Churchill once said that the British and American peoples were ‘separated by a common language’. North Americans and people who live on the British Isles speak English, but many times we use different words for specific actions or items, or use the same word with different meanings.

In 1983 Marina and I went to the United States to complete our missionary training. A few weeks after we arrived we bought a car from a local farmer for $125. It was a huge, 1967 Pontiac Catalina with a 400 inch/????cc engine. Gas-guzzler/petrol drinker, I think, is the right term! As we were returning to the missionary training centre/center, a State trooper patrol car came up behind us with flashing lights and instructed us to pull in to the side of the road.

The reason the patrol car had pulled us over was because the inspection ticket on the windscreen/windshield was out of date. But I thought he had pulled us over because the car was making so much noise.

As a trooper got out of his car and made his way along the driver’s side of our car I opened my window, and as he came level I started to hastily explain to him, in a thick Northern Irish brogue, ‘I’ve just bought the car, and the exhaust fell off and I put it in the boot.’

With a mystified look the trooper glanced at Marina, and then into the back seat, where Peter and Laura were sitting, and then looked back at me and said, ‘Are you French?’

I should, of course, have said, in American English, ‘the muffler fell off and I put it in the trunk.’

Today I discovered another word that illustrates how North Americans and Brits are still separated by a common language - it was the word ‘factoid’. To a North American it means: a brief or trivial item of information, but for someone from the United Kingdom it means: an item of unreliable information that is repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact, (Oxford English Dictionary).

I came across the word in a World Bank report that I had downloaded from the internet. There was a link to a web page entitled, ‘50 Factoids on Africa’. I immediately thought that it was a list of 50 myths or fabrications about Africa, but, as it turned out, it was actually a list of statistics and generally reliable information, so the author definitely had to be a North American.

It was a good reminder that when writing, or translating, it is paramount to be always thinking about your audience and what people are going to understand from what they are reading. We cannot just assume that because we know what a particular word or phrase means that everyone else is going to take the same meaning from it.

Anyway, I have listed a few interesting ‘factoids’ (accurate, just in case you are confused) for your perusal. Dozens more here.

* Crude oil comprises more than half of total Africa’s exports.

* Niger has the highest proportion of men in its labor force (95.1%); Namibia has the lowest (62.7%).

* In Swaziland more than one in every three 15-49 year olds has contracted HIV (33.4%); the rate is six in every thousand in Mauritania.

* Mauritius has the highest life expectancy (73 years); Botswana has the lowest (35 years).

* The Seychelles have the highest adult literacy rate (92%); Mali and Burkina Faso have the lowest (24%).

* In Sierra Leone two women die for every 100 live births; in Mauritius 24 die per 100,000 live births.

* In Niger 2 persons in 1,000 are Internet users.

* Liberia has three phone lines per 1,000 people; the Seychelles has 93 per 100 people.

A matter of perspective

2007-12-27T15:41:00.000Z

Every year or so a UN agency produces a report which details progress, or otherwise, in 177 countries around the world. The Human Development Index (HDI) ranks countries in terms of health, education and standard of living.

The 2007/2008 report has some good news, but also some bad news concerning Burkina Faso. Although Burkina continues to develop in many areas, and generally things are somewhat improved from previous years, it appears that other countries are improving at a faster rate, and Burkina is now classified as the second least developed country in the world, down from fourth last year.

The bottom 24 countries on the HDI are in Africa.

The key problem in Burkina, and which helped to bring the country down to its lower position, is the very poor adult literacy rate. Secondary and tertiary education is also a very weak area in the country’s infrastructure.

Burkina, however is gradually getting better. Even in the two years that we have lived here we have noticed a lot of progress.

New Loron Literacy Teachers

2007-11-06T20:57:00.000Z

Eight more Loron men and women have completed the literacy teacher training course. We spent six days in Ivory Coast with a group of Loron folks from five different villages going through some basic adult-literacy teaching principles.

While Marina was teaching the literacy course, I taught two of last year's graduates some basic computer skills. We concentrated mainly on word processing with Word. We also covered some fundamental Bible translation principles such as accuracy, clarity and naturalness in translation.

We didn’t have quite as many attend the courses as we had anticipated, but those who did attend worked very hard and learned a lot of new skills.

All being well, literacy teaching centres will be established in 4 new villages over the coming months.

Ancient Monuments

2007-10-21T22:35:00.000Z

Much to our children’s frustration (especially when they were growing up), Marina and I have always had a certain curiosity about historic sites and old buildings. When we were first married we used to travel for miles up and down narrow country roads around Northern Ireland following signs which indicated the locations of some ancient Celtic or Druid ruin.

A couple of months ago the World Monuments Fund announced its 2008 World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. One of the threatened sites in Africa is the ruin of a stone structure in a village called Loropeni, about 25 miles from where we are currently living in Burkina.

Today, Marina and I went for a Sunday drive and decided to visit the site. We had been aware of the ruins, but never had the time to go see them, and to be honest, because no one had ever talked about them, we were not expecting to see very much.

After travelling along the dirt road between Gaoua and Loropeni for about 40 minutes, we came to a rusty old sign which indicated that we were near the ruins. We turned unto a narrow rocky road and just a few yards along we came to a control point with a huge log blocking the way.

After chatting for a few minutes with the attendant we parked the car and started walking along a dirt path into the bush. Half a mile or so later we came around a bend and were confronted by huge twenty foot high stone wall with trees growing out of it, and with large holes along the top where parts of the wall had fallen. The south face of the wall ran for at least 100 metres.

The guide gave us a brief tour around what can only be described as a fortress. The interior has an area covering 11,130 square metre (118,000sq ft). The guide explained that it had been built by the ninth king of the Gan people a couple of centuries ago. The Gan is a small ethnic group which is part of the Lobi group of tribes and has its own culture and language. The Loron is also a tribe within the Lobi family.

Inside the fortress, which had it own well, the men slept in square stone houses, while the women and children slept in round houses. Food and animals were also kept within the structure, and it would seem that they could have withstood a long siege. All of the interior buildings are now just piles of rocks.

The fortress had been occupied by hundreds of people, but when the king died, his body was buried within the structure, which made it a sacred, forbidden place, so it was abandoned and the people scattered around the local area and created new villages. Maybe by that time the need for high security had passed.

We were quite surprised at the scale and sophistication of the structure. The high walls were obviously there for protection, and very well built. It is basically square in shape with the walls thick on the bottom and narrowing slightly on the top. The mortar which held the stones together was made from a mixture of a certain type of mud and bones to give it strength and durability. In Ivory Coast we have seen the foundations of some small stone compounds, but nothing to compare with the size or complexity of this construction.

The Burkina Faso authorities are in the process of trying to get UNESCO to become involved in the protection and maintenance of the site, although the Burkinabé ministry of tourism seem to be doing a pretty good job up to this point. The main problem is the gradual degradation of the exterior walls, which have to contend with the extreme elements of Burkina Faso weather, especially during rainy season.

There is animated discussion among the various ethnic groups in the region about who exactly constructed and lived in the fortress, but I’m sure a careful excavation would reveal many interesting secrets of former times among the Gan and Lobi, and maybe even the Koulango peoples.

Don’t tell anyone! (It’s only good news)

2007-09-15T21:31:00.000Z

When you hear or read the news, do you feel sometimes like you are only getting one side of the story? …not getting the whole picture? I know I frequently do.

Take the North Pole for example. Over recent months I have read numerous articles about ice melting at the North Pole, and the impact that that could have on polar bears. In fact, just this morning, Google News had a series of 216 news articles with the main headline: ‘Northwest Passage Ice Shrinks to New Low’.

So, where is the good news? Well, I find it amazing that, before today, I had never heard that the exact opposite to what is happening at the North Pole is happening at the South Pole. Apparently the ice cap there is expanding! Yes, that’s right, expanding, getting bigger, increasing in size! In fact, it has reached its largest extent since measurements began in 1979. Isn’t it remarkable that it was only through an obscure blog that this information has become available to the public? But, so far, only to internet users. No one in the media seems to be interested.

This kind of fits in with another news item that was quickly buried this week. According to the 2007 State of the Future report published by the American Council for the Tokyo-based United Nations University, the world faces a brighter future with fewer wars, higher life expectancy and improved literacy.

Thousands of policy-makers, academics, futurists and creative thinkers from around the world contribute to these State of the Future reports.

Other positive or encouraging facts and figures were:

* African conflicts fell from a peak of 16 in 2002 to five in 2005
* the number of refugees around the world is falling
* HIV/AIDS in Africa has begun to level off and could begin to actually decrease
* there is higher life expectancy worldwide
* there is lower infant mortality worldwide
* increased literacy
* increases in gross domestic products per capita
* vast majority of the world living in peace, conflicts decreased over the past decade

So, getting back to the melting ice, maybe there is nothing to worry about concerning polar bears after all. If need be, we can ship them all down south if the going gets too tough in the north. Somehow, I don’t think it will be necessary.

Acts Ready to Print

2007-09-11T20:02:00.000Z

Between August 29 and September 5 we checked through the whole book of Acts with New Tribes Mission translation consultant, Paul Cheshire. After making a few final adjustments to the text we hope to be able to get the book printed before the end of the year.
Loron Bible teacher Hovare and his son, Dawuda, came from Ivory Coast to help with the check. Dawuda is one of very few Loron people who have had an opportunity to get an education. He can speak French, so he was able to translate the Loron back into French for Paul.
Working, earlier in the year, with Jacob on the draft of Acts.

Baptism in Boba

2007-08-27T21:12:00.000Z

Twenty seven more Loron believers were baptised yesterday (Sunday) in a village a few miles from Gogo. The church service started at 6.30am, although we didn’t get to the village until around 8 o’clock.

After the morning service was over, around 9.15, we went outside and sang choruses, and enjoyed listening to balaphone and tam-tam music for an hour or so.

Shortly after 11am we all went down to the nearby swamp, which was flooded, and baptised the 27 new believers. We had a great time.

Summer '07 Update

2007-08-17T18:10:00.001Z

During July, Kyle and Leanne came to Burkina Faso for a 3-week visit. We travelled together into Ivory Coast and spent several days fixing up our village house, which in the early years of the war had been used by the New Forces soldiers as a barracks and prison. After a good scrub and a couple of coats of paint on some of the rooms, things have already started to look a lot better!

We had a super time with Kyle and Leanne. We also did some ‘touristy’ things with them here in Burkina like visiting waterfalls, and checking out the cuisine and swimming pools in Ouagadougou. They are now both back in Scotland.

Before and after!

This past week, for the first time since the war broke out in 2002, we were able to sleep for a couple of nights in our village home. It was great to be able to spend quality time, late into the evening, with the believers and the village folks. In future we hope to be able to travel more regularly from Burkina Faso to the village to help and encourage the believers, and to spend time with the villagers.

Last weekend we attended a baptism at a little church away out in the bush, near the village of Nyamway (see April post - Twenty Years Later). Seventeen Loron believers were baptised in the local crocodile-infested (well, maybe one or two) swamp. Next Sunday, August 26, we will be going to a baptism in another Loron village where they are planning to baptise about twenty new believers. (…and there are definitely crocs in the swamp in this village!)

We will be doing a final check on the book of Acts at the end of this month. A New Tribes Mission translation consultant will be with us from Aug 28-Sept 6. He will be checking every verse of Acts, all 1000+, so altogether, it should take about 7-8 days. If we get the go-head to print Acts, it will mean that over 40% of the New Testament has been completed in the Loron language. It is slow, but very rewarding work.

Enthusiasm for the literacy classes in the various villages remains high. A few people have dropped out of the course, but the majority who have continued with the lessons are encouraged and generally very positive about their progress. Most have completed about one third of the course, and some are almost half way through. Another couple of villages have shown interest in starting literacy classes, so we have been preparing new materials for them.

HIV/AIDS, is there any hope?

2007-05-27T21:15:00.000Z

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), colour-enhanced electron microscope image, 24,000× magnification. Oliver Meckes and Gelderblom/Art Resource, New York

Over the past decade or so, Marina and I have witnessed quite a number of Loron people dying from AIDS. It is a horrific disease which strikes fear and despair into the hearts of all those who come in close contact with it.

A couple of weeks ago, a young man came from Ivory Coast and was admitted to the hospital here in Gaoua, Burkina Faso. We have known him for almost twenty years, and we were shocked to see this tall, strong man reduced to a shadow of his former self.

After a week or so of treatment, the hospital released him and let him go home. They couldn’t do anything more for him, although they did manage to stop a severe bout of hiccups which had afflicted him for about 6 days. We brought him back to his village where he will spend the last few weeks of his life.

There are three stages with HIV/AIDS.
1 - The first is when the person becomes infected with the virus, HIV.

Over the first couple of weeks the virus multiplies rapidly, and the infected person usually has flu-like symptoms which may include fever, enlarged lymph nodes, sore throat, muscle and joint pain, rash, and malaise.

An uninfected adult has typically between 500 and 1,000 CD4 white cells per micro-litre of blood. Once a person contracts HIV, the CD4 count starts to drop.

2 - The second stage is when the virus slowly develops in the person.

This can last between 5-10 years, without any obvious symptoms of illness.

The CD4 cell count gradually continues to fall until it reaches around 200 cells per micro-litre of blood.

3 - The final stage of HIV infection is called AIDS, during which time fatal infections and cancers frequently arise.

At this stage the CD4 cell count has dropped below 200, and the person no longer has any protection from or resistance to a wide variety of illnesses.

The young man from Gogo had a cell count of just 50 when we brought him home last week.

There wouldn’t appear to be much hope for him, but what about his two young wives?

There are medicines now available for those infected with HIV which can help to dramatically slow down the unset of full-blown AIDS. But, among the Loron people, discussion of the illness is almost taboo.

Pray that we will have the wisdom and courage we need as we try to get these two ladies tested for HIV, and if need be, started on the medication that can help them live a lot longer.

Nyamway, Twenty Years Later

2007-04-08T16:33:00.000Z

Loron Christians near Nyamway, 2007
Almost twenty years ago, in the summer of 1987, Marina and I moved to the northeast corner of Ivory Coast to work among the unevangelised Loron tribal people.

On our first journey north we had the use of a Peugeot 504 estate car/station wagon. I wish I had a photograph of the trip, because the car was a sight to behold! It was absolutely packed. The roof rack and rear section were loaded with suitcases and four months supply of food, the floor space behind the front seats was full of books, bags, and odds and ends, and three children and a seven month old baby, Leanne, were squeezed into the back seat.

Altogether the trip took over 16 hours to complete. The first twelve hours went great, but when it started to get dark, and as the condition of the dirt roads gradually deteriorated, Marina and I began to exchange anxious glances.

Rainy season was in full swing, and the road, which had been quite passable in June when another missionary and I had made a short visit to the area, was now transformed into an unpredictable obstacle course. Water holes and deep furrows in the road were appearing with increasing regularity. A section of the main road was washed away, so we had to make a detour on to a much narrower road in order to continue our journey.

One by one we successfully negotiated each of the water holes and gullies. That is, until we arrived at a long stretch of water near the village of Nyamway. By now it was pitch black, and it was very difficult to see the way ahead.

As we went through the water we heard a loud thump as we hit something solid underneath. Our hearts skipped a beat, but we kept going and we were able to get out the other side. We stopped and had a look underneath. There was no oil dripping and we could see no obvious damage, so we decided to continue on.

We moved off in first, slipped the gear stick into second, but when I tried to go into third, it just wouldn’t go. I stopped the car and tried all the gears. The only ones that were working were first and second. We had no third, fourth or fifth gears, or reverse!

Having no reverse gear kind of unnerved us because, earlier on, we had backed up a couple of times to avoid deep holes and large rocks. So, from now on, we had to make the right decision about which direction to go, first time, every time!

Thankfully, after anxiously crawling along the remaining 30 miles in first and second gears we eventually arrived at our destination, several hours behind schedule, but safe and sound nonetheless.

Loron Christians near Nyamway in 1999
On Sunday, for the first time in almost 20 years, we travelled along that same stretch of road near the village of Nyamway where we had knocked the gears out of action.

We went to visit a group of Loron believers in the area. Coming from Burkina, it was nearer for us to use this road section of the road to reach them.

The road hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years. What has changed, though, is the church. Back in 2000, when we last visited the believers here, there were basically only children and teenagers attending the church. Their parents and the older Loron folks had no interest in hearing the Word of God, but the Loron Bible teachers from Gogo continued to work with those who did want to hear the Gospel.

There are now some older folks attending, and the teenagers are in their twenties, have married and have children of their own. In the past seven years the numbers have doubled to around 80, and there are three Bible teachers from the village itself bringing messages from the Word of God. About twenty people have recently become Christians and want to be baptised.

Tired of hearing about Global Warming?

2007-04-06T19:47:00.000Z

This just in from the Wall Street Journal:

...Don't be alarmed, but the planet is getting hotter. According to the latest computer models, surface air temperatures rose by 1.17 degrees Fahrenheit just between the 1970s and the '90s. Earlier estimates had the Earth warming by 1.33 degrees over an entire century.

Hey, we told you not to be alarmed. It's Mars that's warming--"four times faster than Earth," according to Agence France-Presse:

The explanation is in the dirt.

Glistening Martian dust lying on the ground reflects the Sun's light--and its heat--back into space, a phenomenon called albedo.

But when this reddish dust is churned up by violent winds, the storm-ravaged surface loses its reflective qualities and more of the Sun's heat is absorbed into the atmosphere, causing temperatures to rise. . . .

Exactly what triggers the planet's so-called "global dust storms" remains a mystery.

Maybe it’s little green men driving around in 4 wheel drive trucks built from the litter of the European Space Agency’s crashed probe Beagle 2!

What a Difference a Day Makes

2007-03-28T20:35:00.000Z

Within 24 hours, two very significant yet completely unrelated events occurred which will have an impact on our lives. One event took place in Northern Ireland, and the other in Ivory Coast.

In Northern Ireland, British unionists, who want NI to remain part of the United Kingdom, and Irish republicans, who want NI to unite with the Republic of Ireland, have agreed to share power in the day-to-day governing of Northern Ireland.

This is, undoubtedly, a seminal event in the history of the province.

For about 30 years, starting in 1969, the terrorist organisation, the Irish Republican Army (IRA), conducted a campaign of murder and destruction in Northern Ireland which left about 3,500 people dead, and tens of thousands injured. (Percentage wise, in US terms, that would be around 700,000 people dead)

It took the Irish republican movement, consisting of the IRA and the political faction, Sinn Fein, almost twenty years to come to the realisation that their terror tactics were being counter productive to their aim of a united Ireland. The more they made the unionist people in Ulster suffer, the more steadfast and unyielding the unionists became.

My first recollection of ‘The Troubles’, as the IRA terror campaign is euphemistically referred to, is as an 11 year boy having to flee the Republic of Ireland, where we had been holidaying as a family, and returning to Northern Ireland because serious rioting had broken out between Protestants and Catholics in major cities in N. Ireland, and there was a real fear that a civil war was about to start on the island.

The IRA, which had originally been formed in the early 1900’s, used these civil disturbances in 1969 as a pretext for reorganising and launching a renewed terror campaign against the British ‘occupiers’ of the six counties that made up Northern Ireland. These ‘occupiers’ were the protestants and unionists of British extraction, as well as descendants of French Huguenots, who had lived there since the beginning of the 1600’s, and had made the north of Ireland their home. The IRA’s war against the civilian population of Northern Ireland gathered momentum with indiscriminate murders, and bombings of restaurants, hotels, pubs and bus stations.

Over the next couple of decades the IRA’s armoury was continually replenished by, among others, Libya, eastern European countries and the PLO. These weapons were purchased with finances from well-meaning, I’m sure, but rather gullible Irish-Americans who ensured that the IRA bombers and gunmen never lacked the military hardware they needed as they attempted to restore an Irish Utopia which, believe it or not, has never existed.
So, the meeting last Monday between the Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of Northern Ireland’s unionists, and Jerry Adams, the leader of Irish republicanism, reflects a definite watershed in the affairs of the province. Hopefully, this agreement marks the beginning of the end of political and religious violence on the island of Ireland. We’ll have to wait and see if that indeed is the case.

The second important event occurred in Ivory Coast. Guillaume Soro, the leader of the armed rebellion which attempted to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo in 2002, but which instead led to the division of Ivory Coast, has been named as the new Prime Minister of the country.

A few weeks ago the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, helped to broker a deal between President Gbagbo and Mr. Soro, and as a result a new government is in the process of being formed, and elections are being planned.

It is very heartening to see the progress being made, although, it is good to keep in mind that in the past, quite a number of UN sponsored agreements have been signed, but have all failed to break the deadlock.
What makes this agreement different and more promising is the fact that the two main personalities in the conflict, President Gbagbo and Mr Soro, have voluntarily agreed to the mediation efforts led by the president of Burkina Faso, and both men seem to have a genuine desire to bring an end to the political, military and economic stalemate that currently exists in Ivory Coast, especially in the north. A new joint military command centre has already been created, as a first step towards unifying the government and rebel forces in the country.

It will take a few months before we see if this new agreement is really going to work, but the signs are encouraging. Please continue to pray for peace in Ivory Coast, and that life in the country will soon return to some semblance of normality.

Prospective Literacy Student

2007-03-24T16:44:00.000Z

We visited another Loron village yesterday to check up on progress in the literacy classes.

We had never been to this particular village before, located along the Burkina/Ivory Coast border, so it was exciting to find over 30 enthusiastic students struggling to master this new skill of reading and writing.

There are twenty adults and ten children taking the course. Ten of the more capable students are racing ahead and have completed almost half the lessons. The three teachers, Jacques, Katherine and Honoré are doing an excellent job.

We brought a new blackboard for them and we also left some money with them to get a couple of tables made.

We have now visited all 6 Loron villages where literacy classes have started over the past couple of months. In total there are about 85 students currently working through the course, with over 60 more waiting their turn to start.

Patrick

2007-03-17T22:38:00.000Z

A couple of years ago, when Marina was helping out at Portadown Independent Christian School, she did a project with her class about Saint Patrick. On a school trip, Marina and her class (I drove the bus) visited a church graveyard, located on a hilltop in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland where Patrick is supposed to be buried.

I have no idea if he is buried there or not, but there is little dispute that he died on March 17. There is less agreement, however, on the year that he died, but evangelicals prefer the earlier date, 465 AD. Not matter when he died, his 60 years of ministry had a tremendous impact on the island.

So, who was Patrick, and what is his legacy?

It’s sometimes difficult to decipher fact from fiction when it comes to the origins of Christianity and the role of Patrick in Ireland. The Irish love their myths and fairy tales, and Patrick is surrounded by them.

But one thing is certain; Patrick was a Christian, in the biblical sense. His writings and a hymn attributed to him, but which was probably written by someone else at a later date, clearly show that the early Irish church reflected more the beliefs and practices of Christianity as found in the New Testament than that of the rest of Christendom on the island of Britain and the European continent, especially as it came more and more under the influence and control of the Bishop of Rome.

Much of Patrick’s message, and that of the early Celtic church in Ireland, was in fact at odds with the extravagances and extra-biblical teachings that were beginning to characterise the Christian religion elsewhere. His belief in the Atonement, sovereign grace and salvation by faith comes out clearly in the extant writings.

Patrick left behind two documents that are accepted by all as genuine: the ‘Confession of Patrick’; and his ‘Letter’.

In these documents he writes in plain language. He describes, among other things, his life in a Roman home in Britain, his capture by Irish raiders, his years of slavery in Ireland and his escape. He recounts that his eventual call to Ireland was from God, and he makes no mention of any human agency. His understanding of Christianity was a lot different from that which came to hold sway on the island in the 12th century when pope Adrian gave the Emerald Isle to the Catholic king of England.

One of the most common myths about Patrick is that he drove all the snakes from Ireland. Not true, although, he did do tremendous damage to the greatest snake of them all!

Another ‘myth’ may very well be true. They say he used a shamrock to explain the Trinity. His writings mention the Trinity a number of times, so there is every possibility that he used this common plant to illuminate the truth of the triune God.

There is little doubt that Christianity had reached Ireland before the appearance of Patrick, through traders and the like, but it is Patrick who is credited with the widespread dissemination of the message of Christ and His love. Praise the Lord for Patrick.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

…

If you would be interested in hearing a nonconformist view on Patrick, and not just the one-sided official stuff that you find in most history books and encyclopaedias, drop me a line, and I’ll send you an informative article. (briggsntm at yahoo dot com)

...

Extract from Encyclopædia Britannica

…He was born in Britain of a Romanized family. At the age of 16 he was torn by Irish raiders from the villa of his father, Calpurnius, a deacon and minor local official, and carried into slavery in Ireland, where, during six bleak years spent as a herdsman, he turned with fervour to his faith. Hearing at last in a dream that the ship in which he was to escape was ready, he fled his master and found passage to Britain. There he came near to starvation and suffered a second brief captivity before he was reunited with his family. Thereafter, he may have paid a short visit to the Continent.

The best known passage in the Confessio, his spiritual autobiography, tells of a dream, after his return to Britain, in which one Victoricus delivered him a letter headed “The Voice of the Irish.” As he read it he seemed to hear a certain company of Irish beseeching him to walk once more among them. “Deeply moved,” he says, “I could read no more.” Nevertheless, because of the shortcomings of his education he was reluctant for a long time to respond to the call. Even on the eve of reembarkation for Ireland he was beset by doubts of his fitness for the task. Once in the field, however, his hesitations vanished. Utterly confident in the Lord, he journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal. In diplomatic fashion he brought gifts to a kinglet here and a lawgiver there but accepted none from any. On at least one occasion he was cast into chains. On another, he addressed with lyrical pathos a last farewell to his converts who had been slain or kidnapped by the soldiers of Coroticus.

Careful to deal fairly with the heathen, he nevertheless lived in constant danger of martyrdom. The evocation of such incidents of what he called his “laborious episcopate” was his reply to a charge, to his great grief endorsed by his ecclesiastical superiors in Britain, that he had originally sought office for the sake of office. In point of fact, he was a most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped “idols and unclean things” had become “the people of God.”
(Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite.)

Living Dangerously

2007-03-10T15:12:00.000Z

Literacy Schools in Ivory Coast

2007-03-09T22:16:00.000Z

After a break of almost four and a half years we have at last been able to spend a few days, and nights, in Loron territory in northeast Ivory Coast. Up until now we have made only day trips to the village, leaving our home in Burkina at dawn, and returning again before nightfall.

The main purpose of this trip was to see how the new literacy schools were functioning in 5 Loron villages. We were very encouraged with what we found.

Saturday, March 3, 2007
We left Gaoua shortly after 10am and as usual we enjoyed the scenery along 40 miles of hard top road surface down to the Burkina /Ivory Coast border. We registered at the last Gendarmerie and Police posts in Burkina before leaving the hardtop and going unto the dirt roads of Ivory Coast. The officer at the Gendarmes checkpoint was reading a book in English by Michael Crichton, the creator of the ER series. We got into an interesting conversation about English and he asked for an English Bible and other books in English that we could give him. We are constantly amazed at the opportunities the Lord gives to bring the word of God to people here in Burkina.

After lurching around for about an hour on rutted and sandy roads, and crossing over some very precarious looking bridges, we arrived in the town of Doropo just shortly after noon. We went to the Freewill Baptist hospital, where we stayed during our trip. The hospital is now being run by Ivorians. There are no doctors, but there are a few nurses. In its heyday, in the mid 90’s, there were three ex-pat doctors and any number of nurses.

We stayed in a house once occupied by an American doctor and his family. Dr Kenneth Eagleton and his Brazilian wife, Hejane, spent many years serving the population of northeast Ivory Coast. In 1999, Dr. Eagleton came to Gogo and held a week-long seminar on basic medical issues. From the transcripts of the seminar we developed a series of health manuals which have been very helpful to the Loron people ever since.

We brought our mobile phones with us to Ivory Coast because we had been told that, in Doropo, in certain places, and at certain times, it was possible to get coverage from Burkina for our cell phone. After asking around we discovered that if we went to a particular mango tree, preferably after dark, we would be able to get a good signal.

So, 30 minutes after the sun had gone down, we got our torches (flashlights) and made our way to a strategically placed concrete block about half way between a gate and the mango tree. Once we arrived at the block, the indicator on the phone showed 3 bars, not the best reception, but, as it proved, quite adequate for the task. We successfully transmitted a couple of text messages to let folks in Gaoua and Northern Ireland know that we had arrived safely in Doropo.

About 50 yards from the house we are staying in, there are two headstones. One is the grave of a Freewill Baptist nurse, Glennda Kay Leatherbury, who died in 1994; the other, the grave of a little girl called Stephanie whose parents were missionaries. Stephanie died in 1977, just four months old.

Sunday
We were awake bright and early on Sunday morning after a so-so night’s sleep. A flock (?) of noisy turkeys wandering around outside ensured that we didn’t get any sleep from dawn. We left Doropo around 9am and travelled 15 miles to Gogo for church. It took about an hour. After speaking from James 4 at the morning service, we went around the village and greeted a few folks, and then at noon we went to see how things were progressing in the literacy classes.

At present there are 34 students in Gogo and Gogo 2, who are learning how to read and write. There are also quite a number of younger ones anxiously waiting until the first group of older students finishes the course. The ages of the current group of students range from 18 to 40. Marina was able to give the teachers, Joel and Joseph, some useful tips on how to teach more effectively, and she was very encouraged that the teachers have been sticking closely to the lesson plans and are doing a good job in their teaching.

While Marina was helping in the literacy classes, I took a walk around the other two missionary houses to survey the effects of four and a half years of neglect. It was sad to see the condition of the houses. One had most of the screening ripped off the windows and front porch. With exterior doors missing, and the straw ceiling hanging down in many places, it had basically been taken over by the village goats and a colony of bats. The other house was missing quite a number of plywood sheets from the ceiling, and some interior doors, but was still quite secure.

When classes finished we went to Joel’s house for rice and okra sauce, and some strong sweet tea, and then made our way back to Doropo.

Monday
Today we went to a Loron village located along a little creek a few miles northwest of Gogo. We left our pickup truck in Gogo and made our way out to the village on a motorcycle. It had been over four years since we last visited there, so we didn’t have any idea how the road would be. As it turned out we could have taken our vehicle right in to the village because the dirt track was wide enough almost everywhere to get through without any problem.

The church here is thriving. Many of the folks have already learned how to read, but there is an obvious weakness in writing skills. Only four children are currently going through the literacy course, but there are others who are showing some interest.

Tuesday
After a good night’s sleep (which we really needed) we left Doropo, and again passed through Gogo on our way to the next two Loron villages that we needed to visit. The teacher in the first village had struggled quite a bit at the literacy seminar we held last year, but he seems to be developing into quite an effective teacher. His procedures and techniques were good, but he was unsure about what to do with some half-hearted students who were obviously holding the rest of the class back. Marina helped him divide the class up so that the more enthusiastic and capable students could move ahead.

The next village was way out in the sticks! After leaving the main dirt road, we drove on the motorcycle along a deeply rutted track for 40 minutes or so. We had to carefully negotiate our way up and down the sides of two large gorges, which fill with water during rainy season, making them impassable.

We took a wrong fork in the track at one point, but quickly discovered our mistake and got going again in the right direction, and finally arrived at our destination. The smaller children had never seen white people before, so they were keeping their distance, but we got a warm welcome from the rest of the villagers. We had never been to this particular village before, so it was a delight to visit these folks.

The literacy class here is going very well, and after eight weeks they are already up to lesson 30. (There are 115 lessons altogether in the literacy course.) Donald and Michel are doing an excellent job in team-teaching. There are five students rapidly moving through the course. All of these young men have had some exposure to reading and writing and they are keen to complete the course. When they are finished there are another 38 new students waiting to start. Hopefully, some of these original five students will become student teachers. There is a pressing need for us to develop another complete set of materials for these folks, as well as help them get some adequate tables and a good blackboard.

Today’s was the most exhausting trip so far. Two hours bouncing over bumpy roads in the pickup, about two hours on the motorcycle avoiding ruts and exposed to the sun, four hours working with the literacy teachers and students, and an hour or so greeting folks in the different villages all take their toll. But it was well worth the effort!

We are really encouraged with the progress being made in all of the villages. There are currently 54 students taking the literacy course in these five villages, with between 60 and 70 people waiting their turn to start. In a couple of weeks we hope to visit a sixth Loron village in a different area where literacy has also started.

Global Warming Dissenter Strikes Back

2007-02-17T15:11:00.000Z

Seven Boeing 747’s crashing into Kilimanjaro every day!?!

2007-02-17T15:07:00.000Z

In an age when opinion is routinely presented in the media as fact, it is wise to be careful about what one is willing to accept as truth. We need to learn to discern between hard facts and partisan journalism.

For example, in recent years, sensational and exaggerated claims by The Lancet medical journal have tended to undermine the magazine’s credibility to the point where it is difficult to determine what is politically motivated and what remains objective.

Hopefully, they have got it right on the following story:

Apparently, a new vaccine has been developed which could help to eliminate malaria!

A Timesonline article, covering a Lancet report says:

…the [malaria] vaccine, developed by a British company, is safe and has few side-effects. In real-world trials in Mozambique it prevented nearly 60 per cent of cases of severe disease in children.

… “It is a breakthrough,” Dr Melinda Moree, director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which collaborated with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, said. “These findings provide convincing evidence that a vaccine could become part of the world’s efforts to spare children and their families from the devastating effects of this disease.”

Malaria is a huge problem in poor countries. Dr Wen Kilama, of the African Malaria Network, said that its impact on Africa “is like loading seven Boeing 747 airliners with people every day, then crashing them into Mount Kilimanjaro”.

Each year, 500 million new cases are recorded, 90 per cent in Africa. The great majority of victims recover, but the disease can damage the nervous system, kidney and liver. As many as three million people die from it each year, one million of them children under five.

In the trial, involving 2,022 children in southern Mozambique — in which half were given the vaccine and half a placebo — malaria attacks were cut by 30 per cent.

The results, …show that new infections were cut by 45 per cent, and severe disease that causes death fell by 58 per cent. In the youngest children, there was a 77 per cent reduction in severe malaria among those vaccinated before their first birthday.

Good news indeed. Hope it’s true.

Click link below for the full (London) Times report:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1310970,00.html

Another interesting malaria report from the LA Times:
Using humans to infect mosquitoes

Christmas Collage

2007-01-25T19:52:00.000Z

Click on picture for larger image

We had a really nice time in Northern Ireland over Christmas with our family and friends. We got to celebrate our granddaughter Stephanie’s third birthday on Dec. 30, and our daughter Leanne’s twentieth birthday on Jan. 8.

We have now returned to Burkina and we are currently gearing up for another year of Bible translation, literacy, evangelism and Bible teaching among the Loron people in Burkina and Ivory Coast.

We’d appreciate your prayers.

The African Bush

2006-12-15T18:25:00.000Z

The dreaded mosquito

Even though it didn’t quite match the matrix to qualify for a front page appearance in a Google ‘Top Story’ or ‘World News’ search, something very important happened on December 14 in relation to malaria in Africa: George W Bush has proposed that the US expand its malaria aid to another 6 African countries. 90% of all cases of malaria occur in Africa.

Last year, Bush pledged one billion American dollars to 17 countries to fight malaria through newer medicines, insecticide treated mosquito nets and spraying of breeding places for mosquitoes. This year he has increased the programme to 23 countries and plans to add more money.

In one country which received American aid last year the number of malaria cases dropped by 90%.

Oddly enough, the New York Times (link below) has a balanced and objective report on Bush’s actions in helping Africa.

One paragraph in the NYT report that particularly caught my attention was: A Gallup poll that was done for Malaria No More in recent days found that while 96 percent of Americans counted AIDS as a very serious problem in Africa, only two-thirds knew that malaria was also a grave threat.

Malaria is a largely preventable disease which kills 3,000 children every day and claims almost a million lives a year in Africa.

We have seen quite a number of people in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso die from this disease and I, for one, am so thankful that someone as important and influential as President Bush has such a practical interest in Africa. In the past he has also shown concern for alleviating the hardships and distress caused by AIDS and famine in Africa.

Bob Geldof once said: [The French] refuse to accept, because of their political ideology, that [Bush] has actually done more than any American president for Africa, but it's empirically so.

Blogger News
White House Malaria Initiative
New York Times

Eight Qualify as Literacy Teachers

2006-11-10T22:40:00.000Z

Some of the literacy materials which were given to the new Loron literacy teachers

We have just had an exhausting, but very rewarding two weeks here in Burkina.
The Loron trainee teachers attending the literacy course worked so hard that they were able to complete their studies a couple of days early. Marina was thrilled at the effort put in by all the students.

During nine days of intensive study and practical exercises the students covered various aspects of literacy including grammar, punctuation, reading, writing and teaching skills.

Eight students, six men and two women, qualified as literacy teachers, and in January they are planning to start schools in six different Loron villages in Ivory Coast. We gave each village a complete set of booklets, a teacher’s manual and hundreds of flashcards to help them get started.

Altogether, there are around 100 adults and young people in these villages who want to learn how to read and write.

The political crisis in Ivory Coast has led to the collapse of the school system in the area where most of the Loron live, so we are hoping that these new schools will be a help to the Loron people.

Marina with her 10 students

Honore and Zaaki, two enthusiastic Loron men who cycled 90 miles to attend the literacy training course. Both of them qualified as teachers.

Literacy Workshop in Progress

2006-10-30T20:54:00.000Z

A literacy training course for Loron teachers is currently taking place here in Gaoua, Burkina Faso.

The course will run from Monday, October 30 until Friday, November 10.

Eight men and two women have come from 6 Loron villages in Ivory Coast to be trained on how to start schools in their villages and how to effectively use the literacy materials we have produced.

Over the past couple of months we have been busy developing, printing and laminating hundreds of literacy booklets and word cards, and finalising lesson plans, and it’s so encouraging to see these materials being put into the hands of a group of enthusiastic and energetic Loron people.

We feel it is extremely important that the Loron learn how to read and write in their own language. Because of the ongoing crisis in Ivory Coast very few schools are operating in the parts of the country outside government control, and we feel we should do all we can to help increase the level of literacy among the Loron in northern Ivory Coast.

The pastors of the local Evangelical Protestant churches (WEC) have been helping us organise food and accommodation for all the folks who have come for the workshop. These pastors (and also the WEC missionaries) have been a real blessing and encouragement ever since we arrived in Burkina in February.

Bee Attack

2006-09-24T21:13:00.000Z

Postings have been scarce over the past few weeks.

We have been really busy, but here is an update on some of our activities, and a golden oldie – Bee Attack – for those of you who missed it the first time around! It still gives me the itch!

The first of September saw the completion of a draft of the book of Acts, just over 1,000 verses, into the Loron language. We have printed up some copies, and the Loron Bible teachers in Ivory Coast are reading them to check for clarity and naturalness. We also need to do extensive comprehension checks with different individuals.

For the next month or so Marina and I will be focusing all our attention on printing and producing booklets and teaching aids in preparation for a literacy workshop we are planning to have here in Burkina Faso for new Loron literacy teachers.

Eight or nine men and women are planning to come from 4 villages to be trained on how to start schools in their villages, and how to effectively use the literacy materials. The workshop will run from Monday, October 30 to Friday, November 10.

Bee attack!

It was like something taken straight out of a 'Drama in Real Life' article in the Reader's Digest.

There, in my rear-view mirror, less than fifty yards behind our vehicle, I could see an African man writhing on the ground, frantically trying to fend off a swarm of bees.

Hundreds of bees were homing in on him. He had no protection, and the bees seemed to be focusing their attention on his head. He was twisting and turning and rolling in the dirt, wildly flailing his arms in a desperate attempt to get some relief from the hordes of bees making their suicidal stinging attacks on his body.

School Break
A couple of hours earlier, just after midday on Saturday, September 25, 1999, Marina and I had started our journey from Ferké, in north-central Ivory Coast, to return to the village with two of our children, Kyle and Leanne, who were on a two-week school break.

Just over two hours into the anticipated six hour trip back to the village, we began to make a gradual descent down a wet and bumpy dirt road towards a narrow concrete bridge which would bring us across the stream that flowed through the valley.

The grass was high on each side of the road. As we negotiated the rocks and ruts on the approach to the little bridge, we noticed that there were a couple of vehicles stopped near it. We could see a woman with a baby in her arms, and two or three small children following close behind her, running up the hill towards us.

Warning
As the mother ran past the car she waved excitedly, as if she was trying to warn us about something. Marina noticed what she initially thought were flies around the lady and the children, but then she realised that they were, in fact, bees. Marina called out for everyone in the car to close their windows.

Kyle was listening to his Walkman, and didn't hear Marina's first call, and within seconds some bees had entered the car. When Kyle saw what was happening, he quickly closed his window, and we then proceeded to dispose of the bees. Kyle got stung by one of them on his chest.

We continued slowly down the hill towards the bridge, through an ever increasing number of bees. We felt somewhat secure in our closed-up car. We inched our way forward to see if we could find a way past the stationary vehicles, and continue our journey back to the village.

No way through
When we came to the first vehicle, a 22-seater open-sided bush taxi, we saw a swarm of bees beginning to make a nest inside the vehicle, right on the window by the driver's seat. The other vehicle, a large truck, was stuck, its back wheels embedded in a collapsed culvert, and its front wheels sitting on the bridge, completely blocking the way across.

The noise from the vehicles, and the presence of people around the bridge had disturbed a bee's nest high up in the huge tree which overshadowed the bridge, causing the bees to attack. The bees were now swarming all over the area, up to at least a one hundred yard radius around the tree.

Just a baseball cap
As we sat for a few moments wondering what to do next, out of the blue a man came racing around the side of the truck, and almost ran into the front of our vehicle. He was wearing a baseball cap, and was holding a small piece of material over his face in an effort to protect himself from the bees.

Scores of bees were buzzing around his head. The man ran on past our car, and continued to run up the hill behind us, attracting more bees as he went.

As we assessed the situation, we quickly realised that there was no way for us to get across the bridge. We could see a large pool of water on the left hand side of the bridge, and we knew that the right hand side would also have either water or would be too swampy to get across. We decided to reverse back up the hill, and get away from the bees.

It was at that moment that I saw the man who had raced past us just a few seconds earlier in my rear-view mirror. He was lying on the ground, fighting the bees. He was still quite a long way from safety. Others who had been running away from the bees had made it to the top of the hill, and to relative safety, but it was apparent that the bees had got the better of this one man.

Helpless
We knew immediately that we had to try to do something to save him. It would be impossible for us to open the door of the car and let him in, otherwise we would have all been exposed to danger, nevertheless, we had to try something.

The others who had escaped were watching helplessly from the top of the hill. The only chance was to somehow get him on top of the car, and hopefully, that way, we could get him away from the bees, and out of danger.

We rapidly reversed the car to where he was squirming on the ground. As we made our way towards him, we saw the baseball ca, and the small piece of material that he had been using to protect himself lying on the side of the road, smothered with bees. When we got beside him, we saw hundreds of bees swarming around him.

We yelled at him through the closed windows of the car, and told him to climb up unto the roof rack the car. He got off the ground, and staggered towards us. He wanted to get inside, but we continued to yell at him and pointed for him to get on top of the car.

His face was covered with bees. They were in his hair, on his neck and on his eyelids. He was in a desperate predicament. Terror was evident in his eyes as his face pressed against the outside of the car window. He seemed to be losing consciousness, but somehow he managed to focus his efforts and struggle up onto the roof rack.

As soon as he was secure, I jammed the gear stick in reverse and sped off as fast as I could, back up the narrow, bumpy road.

Others in the danger zone
After going for about 150 yards I reckoned that we were well out of the main concentration of bees. I stopped the car, and jumped out.

I glanced down the road and noticed three more men coming running up the hill through the bees. They, too, were frantically beating against these miniature menaces. By this time the bees were even madder than they had been before, and the men seemed to be struggling to get out of the danger zone.

I ran around to the back of our Nissan Patrol, climbed up the steps and helped the first man off the roof rack. Despite our rapid escape attempt there were still several dozen bees attacking him.

I somehow managed to get him off the car, and as I dragged him over to a pool of water by the roadside, I was stung a couple of times, once on the forehead and once on the cheek. I shouted for Marina and the kids to get out of the car, and move back out of the range of the bees.

After splashing some water over the man, to get the remaining bees off him, I left him, ran back to the car and raced down the road towards the other three men.

One of the men was lagging behind the other two. When I arrived at the first two men, they too wanted to get into the car. I had to persuade them to get unto the roof. By the time they had climbed onto the roof rack, the third man had been able to get to the car, and so we made another hasty retreat.

Out of danger
The first man we had rescued was now lying semi-conscious by the side of the road, behind another bush taxi which had just arrived on the scene. No one was going near him. The people seemed to have given up hope on him.

We went over to check on him, and we started pulling some of the stingers from his body. He had been stung dozens, maybe hundreds of times, and was in a lot of pain. Marina gave him some antihistamine tables to help control the swelling.

We realised there was no way that we could make it home to Gogo that day, so, after spending a little while considering our options, and making sure that the men were all being cared for, we turned the vehicle and started the two hour journey back to Ferké.

We arrived in back Ferké just before dark, and we were able to find a place to stay at the Conservative Baptist Hospital. We remained there for a couple of days, until the swelling around my eyes had gone down.

We later heard that all the people who had been attacked by the bees had survived, and were recovering well.

We made it back to Gogo on Monday afternoon, this time without any mishaps.

We praise the Lord for His protection and mercy.

Flowergirl Stephanie

2006-08-17T14:42:00.000Z

Peter, Claire and Stephanie at a recent wedding where Stephanie was Flowergirl for the bride.

Kidz Trip '06

2006-08-15T18:09:00.000Z

Click photos to enlarge

Laura, Leanne, Kyle, Naomi and Andrew

High Tea with Gado

Wanton Destruction

2006-07-10T18:42:00.000Z

Marina and I made a trip into Ivory Coast yesterday to visit the Loron believers in the village of Gogo.

At the various military checkpoints we gave away Northern Ireland calendars and also quite a number of Every Home Crusade gospel booklets in French. The soldiers seemed to appreciate having something to read.

We arrived in Gogo in time to catch the last 30 minutes of the morning service and then we spent a couple of hours talking through some issues with the church leaders in Gogo.

On our first trip to Gogo a couple of months ago we didn’t have time to go to our house. Yesterday we went to have a look. The basic structures, the house and office building, are still there, and it wouldn’t take a whole lot of work to fix the house up again and make it habitable.

The most distressing thing was seeing what had been done to the office building. The doors were hanging off, the windows left open, and hundreds of books, and boxes and files of Loron-language and other materials had been dumped onto the ground.

Most of the books and other paper items had been taken outside and burned. Of the books that were left inside, what the elements did not destroy, the termites did. Everything in the office was either Bible or language related and it is hard to understand why anyone would be so callous.

We did salvage a couple of Bibles and a song book, but the remainder was a sorry mess.

I suppose lawlessness and war brings out the worst in humanity.

Loron-language Radio Broadcasts

2006-07-01T08:18:00.000Z

Lord willing, the first Loron-language gospel radio broadcast will be going out this Thursday, (July 6). The broadcasts will continue each Thursday at 7.30pm GMT on Southwest Gospel Radio (99.7FM).

Hovare, a Loron Bible teacher from Boba, Ivory Coast, spent four days this past week at the radio station and has recorded a series of Bible lessons which will be broadcast over the next few months. He plans to come back again in a month or so to record more lessons. (see Stranger at the Door, below)

Please be praying that through these weekly broadcasts ‘the word of the Lord will have free course and be glorified’, and that many of the Loron people scattered through the hills of southwest Burkina Faso will come to an understanding of their need of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gorée Island

2006-06-25T21:57:00.000Z

April, 2005 …My blood ran cold as I stared down the dark stone-floored corridor, and out of the tiny exit at the end that led to the sea. A small sign read: Point of no return.

Through this doorway, on the tiny island of Gorée, located just off the coast of Senegal, West Africa, tens of thousands of people were forced into a life of slavery. Ships from here brought them across the stormy Atlantic to, among other places, Brazil, Cuba, and the Caribbean, and for around 5 percent of the slaves, the United States of America.

For many decades Africans sold other Africans to the European slave traders. Slavery is, of course, no longer tolerated in America or Europe, but, sadly, it is still a problem in some parts of Africa.

Slavery – Some little-known Facts

2006-06-25T21:55:00.000Z

A few weeks ago I read a National Geographic piece about slavery in the Americas. The article was written by a Jamaican-born historian called Colin Palmer, himself the descendent of Africans who were brought to the New World as slaves.

It was so refreshing to read an honest and objective account of slavery, one which was not laced with the usual hand-wringing self-loathing that usually afflicts many western authors when they write or talk about slavery.

Slavery, of course, was around a long time before ‘The West’ even existed. What distinguishes the west from the rest of the world is the fact that the elimination of slavery is a European and American achievement, and enduring objective. An enduring objective, because sadly, in many parts of the world, including Africa, forms of slavery are still practiced.

But getting back to Palmer’s account, apparently, the first person of African descent to arrive in the Americas was a freeman working as a member of the crew of the ship captained by Christopher Columbus. That was in 1492.

Two more Africans arrived in 1494 on Columbus’s second expedition, and then in 1501, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain granted permission for the import of black slaves to the Americas. And so began the horrific trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Of an estimated 10-12 million slaves, transported mainly by Europeans (Portuguese French, English, Dutch) across the Atlantic, around 95% of them were taken to the Caribbean and Latin America.

Only 500,000 slaves, less than 5% of the total, went to the American mainland north of Spanish Florida. Approximately 5 million slaves were brought to Brazil; 2 million to Spanish colonies; and more than 3 million to the British, French, Dutch and Danish colonies in the Caribbean.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects of Colin Palmer’s report was the description of how the slaves were actually acquired in order to be transported from Africa.

Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle, situated on the coast of modern-day Ghana, were two infamous departure points. In April 2005, while attending a seminar in Senegal, I was able to visit the island of Gorée, just off the coast of the capital city, Dakar. This island is another well-known location from where many slaves were shipped across the Atlantic. It was a harrowing, yet enlightening experience. Since then I had been wondering how it had been possible to assemble so many slaves together in one place. Palmer shed some light on my query.

Apparently the European traders paid rent to local leaders for the castles and forts along the West African coast, and there they waited while those with slaves to sell made their way from all over West Africa with their human merchandise.

According to Palmer, 80% of all slaves were captives taken in wars between rival tribes and states. One trader recorded “most of the slaves that are offered to us are prisoners of war who are being sold as booty.” Other slaves were debtors and criminals, and some were abducted.

Only a small percentage of slaves were actually abducted, and going by what Marina and I learned on a visit to Liverpool’s maritime museum in 2004, most of those slaves who were abducted, were seized by other Africans, Arab and Black, and then sold to the European traders along the coast. Muslim traders and African chiefs gained as much from the slave trade as the European traders.

When the facts about slavery are clearly presented they dispel many of the misconceptions and false impressions perpetuated by many school textbooks, articles on the subject and Hollywood productions like Alex Haley’s controversial and oftentimes imaginary ‘Roots’ series.

With the current tendency within many western educational establishments to blame all the world’s problems on ‘colonial’ westerners, I doubt if many people will ever get an accurate picture of what really happened during this sad period of African history.

Bible translation: Fact and Fiction

2006-06-18T23:13:00.000Z

Dibone reading Exodus

Fiction: Bible translators merely translate.

Fact: Bible translators are:

Evangelists, making known the greatest story ever told.
Church planters, laying a sure foundation for the church.
Journalists, giving access to vital information.
Revolutionaries, overthrowing falsehoods.
Soldiers, protecting the defenceless and invading Satan's territory.
Economists, helping people manage life's real resources.
Farmers, making "food" for the world.
Transporters, moving people from one kingdom to another.

(From "Bible, Babel and Babble: The Foundations of Bible Translation," Scott Munger – slightly modified)

Going Ape

2006-06-18T23:10:00.000Z

Apparently, Spain could be the first country in the world to grant human rights to apes!*

What a bizarre world we live in. Unborn babies in the majority of so-called ‘civilised’ societies do not automatically qualify for the most basic human right, the right to life, yet campaigners are fighting to enable apes to have human rights.

I wonder if they want to teach apes how to read and write?

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) says that, “illiteracy is a violation of the fundamental human right to education.” David Archer of GCE said that, “Literacy is the fertilizer needed for development and democracy to take root and grow.”

Any volunteers for literacy workers to the apes so that they can develop and create the world’s newest democracy?

Seriously though, apes aside, illiteracy is a huge problem in the world.

The United Nations education agency, UNESCO, says in a report that the regions with the lowest levels of literacy are sub-Saharan Africa, south and west Asia and the Arab states, where only 60% of the population are able to read and write.

High levels of illiteracy are hindering attempts to erase world poverty, the report warns. It also points to links between better literacy and improved health, political, social and economic life.

Literacy, of course, can also have a tremendous spiritual impact on communities. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free!

Pray for us as we upgrade Loron literacy materials in preparation for new literacy campaigns in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso later this year, and early next year.

*Report in The Daily Telegraph, June 10, 2006.

Car Paperwork Completed

2006-06-11T22:15:00.000Z

During May we finally got all the paperwork completed for our vehicle. The amount of red-tape was incredible. We spent two full weeks running back and forth to numerous government departments and agencies making sure that everything was done properly, and in order. We thank the Lord that we have such a nice vehicle to use in our ministry.

Pastor Philip

2006-06-11T22:07:00.000Z

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Marina and I, and one of the WEC missionaries, Alice Bosch, have just returned from a trip to a little village called Djigbe [jee-gbay]. Djigbe is away off ‘in the sticks’, near the Ivory Coast border.

We left Gaoua this morning at 7am and arrived at our destination around 9am. I spoke at the Evangelical Protestant church (WEC) in the village, and then afterwards we had a great time with Pastor Philip and his wife, Josephine, over lunch.

Pastor Philip wants to help us make contact with some Loron folk in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso who are interested in literacy. We showed him some of the materials we have developed to teach the Loron people how to read and write in their own language. He was enthusiastic about the prospect of helping us organise a seminar for prospective Loron literacy teachers later in the year.

There is a far greater awareness and interest in Burkina Faso, than in Ivory Coast, for the need for people to learn how to read their own language. We view literacy as an essential part of our ministry here in Burkina because it means that the Loron people will get the full benefit of the Scripture and Bible lessons we are producing for them.

Pray for Pastor Philip as he settles into his new ministry in Djigbe. He just recently completed Bible school here in Burkina.

Opportunity Knocks

2006-05-27T22:26:00.000Z

Literally a stone’s throw from our home in Gaoua there is a Christian radio station. The station broadcasts Bible teaching and Christian music in French and a number of local African languages. A couple of weeks ago we were given a tour around the facilities, and we were very impressed with the equipment and the work being done by the folks at the station.

The FM coverage of Radio ESO (Southwest Gospel Radio) reaches all the Loron villages located in Burkina Faso, as well as a number of Loron villages in Ivory Coast. Unfortunately, the high hills along part of the Ivory Coast/Burkina Faso border hinder a clear signal from reaching some of the villages south of the border. Nevertheless, we reckon that at least 60% of all Loron people live within range of the radio broadcasts.

The folks at the station have offered us a slot -30 minutes a week- on the radio for the Loron language. We have contacted Hovare (ho-va-ray), one of the more expressive and gifted Loron Bible teachers, and he is thrilled at the possibility of reaching out to so many people with the word of God. We are planning to use the chronological Bible lessons as broadcast material. We plan to bring Hovare to Gaoua in a couple of weeks time to go over the Bible lessons with him, and then, Lord willing, recording will start around the third week in June.

We believe there is real potential in this unexpected opportunity to spread the Gospel among the Loron people. Little radios from China have become widely available in local markets, selling for as little as three dollars/two pounds each, and more and more people have access to, and are using this medium.

We want to maintain our focus on the translation of the New Testament into the Loron language, and be careful with our time and resources, but as well, we want to use whatever opportunities arise to bring the message of Christ to the Loron people.

Stranger at the Door

2006-05-09T19:26:00.000Z

By midday the stifling humidity inside the tiny African mud hut was becoming unbearable. Beads of perspiration gathered on my forehead, and my clothes were sticking to me. It was hard getting used to living without electricity!

Despite the prickly heat, these were exciting days for us. We had moved to this isolated area in northeast Ivory Coast, West Africa with our four young children just six weeks previously. Marina and I were anxious to be a blessing and help to the Loron tribal people, and also to the missionaries who had been living among the Loron people for the past months and years. It was October, 1987.

I had spent the best part of the morning trying to analyse some of the verb structures of the Loron language, and it was encouraging to feel like I was, at last, beginning to make some progress in recognising and understanding some of the complicated patterns in the language.

A line of sweat trickled down the side of my face as I pored over pronoun charts spread out before me on the little plywood desk. My concentration was interrupted by footsteps approaching the screened door of the mud hut. Two men appeared at the entrance. One of them I already knew. His name was Chavaray. Over the previous few weeks he had helped us a lot in getting settled into village life. That morning he had been drawing water from the well so that he could hand-wash some clothes for us. The other man was a stranger. I had never seen him before.

I invited the men into the hut and Chavaray introduced me to the newcomer. His name was Hovaray. As we greeted each other and shook hands I could feel the roughness of his skin. He had obviously been working hard in his fields, growing food for his family. As I looked into his eyes I sensed an unusual intensity and alertness. He was one of those people who make a lasting impression the first time you meet them. Hovaray had some important questions that he really wanted answered.

As we had been living in the village for only a few weeks, I was not yet able to communicate very much in the Loron language. We had learned some basic greetings and practical phrases, but it would take years of concentrated language study before we would be able to effectively communicate in the Loron language. Hovaray could only speak his native tongue, Loron. He didn’t speak any French. However, Chavaray, who for a time had lived among French-speaking people in southern Ivory Coast, explained to me in French why Hovaray had come.

Hovaray was on a quest for truth. He was disillusioned with the fetish worship that permeated every aspect of Loron society. On one occasion he moved to a town far away from his people, and had tried to find ‘the truth’ by following Islam, but found no peace or satisfaction there. Having returned to his village he was now having a recurring dream. When he heard that there were white people living close to his village, he felt that ‘the whites’ could help him discover the meaning of his dream.

Hovaray told us that in his dreams he had seen a book. There were certain words on the cover of the book, but as he could not read, he wasn’t sure what the words were. He said that if he saw the book, he would recognise it. In his dream he had also seen a walled enclosure, and it was within that enclosure he had discovered the book. He had also seen people being put into a swamp and being completely covered with water. He didn’t know the meaning of the dream, but as it kept coming back to him he was desperate to find out.

As Hovaray repeated again and again the words that he thought he had seen on the book, I struggled to understand what he was saying. The words didn’t seem to be from his own language. I took out my Bible and showed it to him, and asked him if this was what he had seen in his dream. He replied, no, that wasn’t the book in his dream. I showed him a French Bible. That wasn’t it either. I couldn’t think of anything else to show him and didn’t know what I could do to help him.

Hovaray was sure that he was at the right place because when he had arrived at our home for the first time that morning, and had seen the wall of mud bricks and stone surrounding the house, put there to keep out the village cows and goats, it was just like the enclosure he had seen in his dream, and he knew that this was where he would find the book. So he kept repeating the words that he thought he had seen in his dream.

Then I remembered about the Gospel of John that had been translated into the Loron language by a Swiss translator. This portion of Scripture was the first ever to be printed in Loron just a year or two earlier, but as there were so few Loron people who could read, hardly anyone had ever seen it. There were a couple of these booklets sitting high up on a shelf inside the little mud hut. I reached up and took one of the booklets from the shelf. As I turned around with the book in my hand and asked Hovaray if this was what he was looking for, I heard a gasp, and an excited response. Yes, that’s the book! I reached it to him and he grasped it with both hands, he stared at it with wide-open eyes and slowly repeated, Yes, this is it!

That day, we had no idea what the Lord was going to do in and through Hovaray, or indeed, in and through many other Loron men and women as the Gospel was preached among the Loron people of Ivory Coast. A number of months after our first encounter with Hovaray, he put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Hovaray, we believe, became the first Loron person to come to a clear understanding of the grace of God. He had no more dreams about books or enclosures or waters of baptism. He had found the truth. No longer a stranger, he had found the word of God, and the Word of God: the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church in Gogo

2006-04-17T18:29:00.000Z

Click image to enlarge.

Gogo, Easter Sunday, 2006

Easter in Ivory Coast

2006-04-16T22:09:00.000Z

(Click on image to enlarge)

Baptising Loron believers.

What a great day!

As millions of Christians worldwide celebrated the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, Marina and I travelled from Burkina Faso into northeast Ivory Coast to spend the day with the Loron tribal believers. This was our first trip back to the village since the outbreak of the civil war in September, 2002. We had a great day.

We left our home in Gaoua shortly after sunrise, and 45 minutes later we arrived at the Burkina Faso/Ivory Coast border. After getting our passports checked and logged, a process which took another 45 minutes, we left behind the hardtop roads of Burkina and crossed the border into Ivory Coast.

The dirt roads in Ivory Coast have really deteriorated. They never were very good, even at the best of times, but now, in places, they are virtually none-existent. As we cautiously followed the winding bicycle tracks on our little motorcycle, avoiding potholes, ruts and sand holes, we quickly realised that it was going to be a long day! We ended up spending about six hours bumping and sliding over rocks and sand. Altogether we travelled about 80 miles on the dirt roads.

On our way to Gogo we had to pass through a number of rebel positions. At each stop we explained who we were, and we were able to obtain a travel pass from the rebel commander which enabled us to go to Gogo without any problems. The rebels were guarded although courteous.

The bad roads and army checkpoints had held us back quite a bit, so we didn’t arrive at the church in Gogo until about 10.30am. The believers were already assembled, and had been waiting for us. The church was packed with almost 200 people. As we walked in, they all stood up. We took our seats, and they started to sing a couple of welcome songs to us. It was quite emotional. We had not seen most of these folks for nearly four years. It was hard to keep the tears back when we thought of how it had all started many years ago with about six people meeting for Bible teaching under a mango tree!

After a prayer they asked me to speak to them. I had struggled to know what I should say to encourage them. Using Romans 8.28, Genesis 50.20 and Ephesians 1.11, I brought a message that focused on the fact that God is in control of every situation, no matter what the circumstances are.

When the service finished, we greeted everyone and then travelled another 10 miles to where they planned to hold the baptism. The local swamps and water reservoirs had all dried up. Altogether, eighteen new believers were baptised. It was a real joy to be able to participate with the Loron Bible teachers in baptising these new Loron Christians.

Once the baptism ended, just after 2.30pm, we started on the long journey back to the border. We had not anticipated just how hot and dusty it was going to be, and our water supply started to run low. After about two hours we arrived back at the Ivorian border town and we were able to buy some bottled water and warm Coca Cola.

Refreshed, we continued on, and just a few minutes before the sun dropped behind the mountains in the west, we crossed back into Burkina Faso. We were exhausted, but absolutely thrilled at what the Lord is continuing to do among the Loron people.

Hot and Sticky

2006-03-24T19:11:00.000Z

The hot, humid season is well and truly here. The average temperature in the shade this past couple of weeks has been 40C/104F, and they say it gets even hotter during April! Thankfully we have lots of fans in the house.

Bidore [be-doe-ray], one of the Loron Bible and literacy teachers in Ivory Coast, is coming to Gaoua this weekend. He will be working with us here on Bible translation, and returning periodically to Ivory Coast. He has been involved before with the translation project, and we look forward to working together again with him.

Gaoua, southwest Burkina

2006-03-05T20:27:00.000Z

Hello from Burkina

2006-02-18T15:44:00.000Z

Sorry about the scarcity of posts. Our internet connection here in Gaoua is very slow, and costs a lot so we might not be able come on very often. We have got our car from Ivory Coast and we have found a house, so things are moving.

:::

Eleven days after leaving Northern Ireland we finally arrived at our destination in Burkina Faso. We got into the little town of Gaoua [ga-wa], nestled in the rolling hills of southwest Burkina, early Thursday afternoon, February 9. It is a little cooler here than it was in the capital, Ouagadougou, but it is still pretty warm. It is averaging around 35C/96F in Gaoua at the moment, and destined to get hotter in March and April.

We had an encouraging encounter on the journey down from Ouagadougou. After three or four hours of driving we stopped at a little African restaurant for a break. While we were sitting there drinking our coffee a van-load of white folks pulled in. As they got out of their vehicle we could hear them speaking English, so we said hello as they walked past.

One of the ladies stopped to chat and we discovered that most of the group were Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) leaders on a trip to Burkina Faso. (CMA is a large evangelical church and mission organisation in the US.) We explained who we were, and what we were doing in Burkina. The lady, Amy, was the wife of the CMA director in Burkina.

One of the men (the CMA vice-president, I think) came back from getting a Coke and whispered to Amy, and asked if we were in Burkina in the Name of Christ.

The rest of the group, including the leader of the CMA, started gathering around us and we told them how we had had to leave Ivory Coast because of the war, and how the Lord had brought us back to Africa to resume working on the Bible translation in the Loron language. Out of the blue one of the group suggested that they should pray for us as we embarked on this new ministry among the Loron people.

So, right there, in a little roadside coffee stand in the middle of dry, dusty Burkina, shaded from the hot midday sun by a thin straw roof, these mission leaders put their hands on our shoulders as one of the men proceeded to ask the Lord’s blessing on the ministry the Lord had called us to. Needless to say we were very touched and heartened by their concern and spontaneity. We thank the Lord for the help we have received from the wider missionary community since we have arrived in Burkina.

We are currently staying with some WEC missionaries who minister here in Gaoua among the Lobi tribal people. We have started looking for a house to live in. Please pray that we will quickly find something suitable at a reasonable price. The sooner we find somewhere to live, the sooner we will be able to get back into Bible translation, literacy and evangelism among the Loron people.
There is a possibility that we may be able to get our pickup truck brought up to us from Ivory Coast. An African pastor who has been taking care of our vehicle in Ivory Coast since the war broke out has offered to try to bring it to Burkina for us. If things work out as planned we could have the vehicle by next week.

:::

We have been staying in Ouagadougou [wa-ga-do-goo], the capital city of Burkina Faso for a few days to gather up some food and other supplies. Today we bought a 110cc motorcycle. After spending a couple of days in Paris last week getting a visa for Burkina, and waiting for our flight, we finally arrived safely in Burkina Faso last Thursday night (Feb. 2).

On Saturday night we meet some men from the Friends in Action mission (formerly Friends of NTM) who are in Burkina Faso drilling wells. One of their African workers is in Ivory Coast at the present time, and they suggested that he could maybe bring our truck from Ivory Coast to us here in Burkina. He has done it before with other vehicles. We have been checking to see what paperwork would need to be completed to allow this to happen, and it seems like it is a real possibility.

We have arranged transportation to Gaoua [ga-wa], the little town near the Ivory Coast border where we are planning to live. We hope to travel there on Thursday with an African man who has a Toyota Landcruiser. We will put the motorcycle on the roofrack!

When we get to Gaoua we will start looking for a house to rent. There are a couple of possibilities, but nothing definite yet.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers over the past couple of weeks. It was very difficult leaving all our friends and family. We would appreciate your continued prayers.

Missing in France

2006-01-26T16:24:00.000Z

It has been a frantic 24 hours!

Yesterday afternoon we discovered that our passports had gone astray in the French mail system. Even though they were sent registered mail from the UK, we have been told they cannot be traced.

From the beginning of the week we had been getting a little concerned that our passports had not been sent back to us from the Burkina Faso embassy in Paris. We had sent them there to get visas for Burkina stamped in them about three weeks ago. Apparently, the Burkina Faso embassy never received our passports, and Royal Mail can do nothing to locate them.

After a restless night, and a flurry of phone calls and activity today, we are happy to report that we have be able to obtain new passports, and after adjusting our flights plans slightly, we are still on schedule to leave Northern Ireland on Monday for West Africa.

However, we will no longer be able to go to Ivory Coast to get our truck, (we lost the Ivory Coast visas in the old passports). So, we have cancelled the flights to Abidjan, and have purchased new tickets to Burkina. We can obtain visas for Burkina at the airport when we arrive. The travel agent informed us that we should get a refund on the original tickets from Air France within a couple of months.

We will not now have access to our truck, so we will need to purchase a vehicle when we get to Burkina Faso. Maybe at a later date we will be able to get our truck out of Ivory Coast.

We know the Lord has some purpose in all of this, and we are resting in the fact that He knows what is best for us.

One positive outcome of the situation is the fact that we get to spend a couple of nights in Paris as we await the flight to Ouagadougou in Burkina. It’s cheaper to do that, than buy new tickets for the Belfast-Paris leg of the journey.

Lord willing, we will fly to Burkina on Thursday, February 2.

Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Ivory Coast Elephants

2006-01-21T20:14:00.000Z

Every two years, the best 16 football (soccer) teams in Africa play in the African Nations Cup.

This year the competition is being held in Egypt.

Today, Ivory Coast beat Morocco 1-0 in their first group game. Didier Drogba, the Chelsea striker, scored the only goal but also picked up a knee injury.

Africans take their football very seriously.

We happened to be in Abidjan when Ivory Coast won the competition in 1992. After a scoreless draw in the final, Ivory Coast, nicknamed ‘The Elephants’, went on to beat Ghana in an 11-10 penalty shootout.

It seemed like everyone in the country went crazy. We were warned to stay off the streets with our vehicles because excited fans were dancing on the roofs of cars!

In 2000, when the competition was held in Ghana, Ivory Coast again beat Ghana, this time in the preliminary stage. However, because of poor results against the other teams in the group, Ivory Coast failed to qualify for the next round.

When the team members returned to Ivory Coast they were detained by the military authorities in an army training camp near Yamoussoukro.

A spokesman for the military government said the squad was being held for its own protection, to guard against possible reprisals by angry fans. But others in the military junta said that they were being held “to teach them a lesson in civic pride”, and “for letting down the country at the Nations Cup in Ghana.”

The BBC’s Mark Doyle said: This incident shows once again that soccer is not so much a sport in Africa as a religion.”

Calm returns to Ivory Coast

2006-01-20T18:47:00.000Z

Shops, businesses and schools re-opened and buses and taxis are running in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan on Friday as the city starts getting back to normal after four days of protests and rioting against U.N. and French peacekeepers.

After appeals from President Gbagbo and Prime Minister Banny, and the pro-government youth leader Ble Goude on Wednesday and Thursday, the protestors have left the areas around the French embassy and UN bases and returned home.

Barricades down as order restored in Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast Erupts

2006-01-18T21:35:00.000Z

Violence has again flared in Ivory Coast. President Gbagbo’s supporters have started to attack UN troops who are in the country as peacekeepers.

The current disturbances may force us to change our plans a little. We had hoped to get our pickup truck from Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast and travel with it to Burkina Faso, but the way things are developing, it looks like we may need to change our flight plans and go directly to Burkina.

This morning as I was wakening up I thought of Isaiah 26.3: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. I got up and read the rest of the chapter, and noticed verse 12: thou wilt ordain peace for us. Throughout the day the Lord has been giving us a peace in our hearts that He is in control, despite the escalating hostilities in Ivory Coast.

Please be praying for the situation in Ivory Coast, and as we look into possible alternative travel arrangements to Burkina Faso.

Ivory Coast News from Google

Photos from Yahoo

The Blood of the Martyrs

2006-01-12T19:23:00.000Z

Before Marina and I went into missionary training with New Tribes Mission in 1981, we read a couple of challenging books by Elizabeth Elliott.

They told the story of a number of young missionaries who went into the jungles of Ecuador in the 1950's to make contact with a group of people who had never heard of the love of Christ. Those first missionaries were killed by the Indians they went to reach.

The books by Elizabeth Elliott were called: Through Gates of Splendor and Shadow of the Almighty. Both books are still available at good bookshops or Amazon.

Another great book, God Planted Five Seeds, by Jean Johnson tells the story of the first five NTM missionaries who, in the 1940's, died while trying to bring Gospel to the Ayore people, an isolated tribe in Bolivia. The death of these men sparked an interest in tribal missions that continues today

God Planted Five Seeds, written by one of the three widows, is the story of how a permanent, friendly contact was established with the Ayore tribe . . . and how the women learned the truth concerning the death of the five men.

'Truthiness' and Katrina

2006-01-10T22:04:00.000Z

Apparently, the word ‘truthiness’ best reflects 2005.

A panel of linguists from the American Dialect Society chose the word last Friday, (Jan 6).

Michael Adams, a professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, said 'truthiness' means 'truthy, not facty.'

To be honest, I had never noticed the word before, but thinking back over the past twelve months, and the numerous incidents of bogus reporting by many large media outlets, I can understand why the word is so popular.

The American Dialect Society defined ‘truthiness’ as ‘the quality of stating concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true’.

The word ‘Katrina’ was in the run-off with ‘truthiness’ for the honour of Word of the Year.

The reporting around the events of Hurricane Katrina is a good example of ‘truthiness’. For weeks, the world’s media broadcast and printed many things that turned out to be utterly false. They stated ‘facts’ they wished to be true. We now know we were misled.

‘Truthiness’, a good word for 2005.

Eye of the storm

News Travels Fast

2006-01-07T13:00:00.000Z

Yesterday, when I googled for news from Ivory Coast, I was surprised to see the picture of a Loron child beside one of the search results. Google News had linked to a report by a news organistion in the US on our return to Africa.

We have come a long way from the time when prayer letters and news from the field sometimes took months to reach their destinations.

The Harvest Truly is Great

2006-01-03T23:48:00.000Z

According to the latest (2004) edition of Ethnologue, there are 6,912 languages in the world. Over 3,000 of these languages do not have any Scripture.

Luke 10:2: ...The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

Wycliffe Graphics

Mars exploration - is it worth the money?

2006-01-02T22:27:00.000Z

Two years after the European Beagle splattered itself on the surface of Mars, it appears that the American exploration vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, which landed successfully a few days after Beagle's unsightly impact on the red planet, are still going strong. They had been expected to last for only 3 months.

Apparently another European mission is planned.

My question is, why do we (British/Europeans) continue to waste so much money and effort trying to keep up with the Americans?

Despite allusions of grandeur in many a European capital, technologically, we are never going to catch up with the USA. Why can we not just accept reality, bite the bullet, and cooperate with the Yanks, instead of competing against them?

Just think of all that money being used to help eradicate malaria or fight hunger in the world.

Click here for some great views from the American Mars explorers.

Books that Influence

2005-12-30T23:42:00.000Z

I was thinking today about books that have influenced my life. Apart from the Bible, which is the basis of all truth, and in no particular order, I reckon the five books which have had the most influence on my life are:

'The Story of New Tribes Mission' by Ken Johnson (1985)

'Christian Foundations' by Ian Paisley

'Cry of the World' by Oswald J Smith

'Commentary on Ephesians' by William MacDonald

'Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay' by Gary Inrig

Early Days in Upper Volta

2005-12-30T18:04:00.000Z

I read a book last night called ‘A Place Prepared’ by Gloria Kearney. It’s about some of the first missionaries who worked in southwest Burkina Faso (Upper Volta, as it was then).

Stanley Benington, and his wife Alice, who came from Northern Ireland, worked with the Qua Iboe mission, and left Nigeria in 1932 to start the work among the Lobi people of Upper Volta.

It was very interesting to read about some of the trials and struggles that these early missionaries faced. The book comes right up to the present day.

Marina and I have met some of the missionaries mentioned in the book. In fact, some of them have been a great help to us, particularly on our previous visits to Burkina over the past few years.

In 2004, when Marina and I were in Burkina doing literacy among the Loron tribal people, we actually got to read some of the original manuscripts, by Stanley Benington, upon which the book is based.

Recommended reading. Get the book here.

Galileo didn't play second fiddle

2005-12-28T22:49:00.000Z

About twelve or thirteen years ago, at the end of the dry season, a Belgian archaeologist made the first of a number of visits to our village of Gogo, in northeast Ivory Coast. He usually appeared along with a pale-skinned, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed archaeology student around February or March. He was a professor at a Belgian university, and he was very anxious to discover ancient African settlements in the part of West Africa that we lived in.

Each year he would stop by our home for a cold drink or cup of coffee before embarking on a long foray into the local hills and forests in search of some long-forgotten prehistoric ruin. Having some knowledge of the area, we were able to help point him in the direction of some interesting spots.

One dry season, at least ten years ago, he arrived with a device which he assured us could pinpoint the location of our village, and indeed, the location of our home, within 5 metres/6 yards. He used his GPS receiver to connect with overhead satellites to record the exact location of his important finds. Guaranteed annual coffee and cookies ranked as an important find, so we learned that we lived 9 degrees, 46', 13.8'' N, 3 degrees 31', 44'' W on this huge terrestrial ball.

GPS technology was invented and developed in the US for the American military, and was then provided free of charge to the rest of the world. So, you can imagine my surprise when I read today’s news from Reuters about the Galileo programme:

‘The 3.6 billion-euro ($4.27-billion) Galileo programme, due to go into service in 2008 and eventually deploy 30 satellites, may end Europe's reliance on the GPS and offer a commercial alternative to the GPS system run by the U.S. military.’

The 3.6 billion-euro ($4.27-billion)!

What an absolute waste of time, effort and money in reinventing a system that already exists.

The final paragraph of the Reuters report said it all:

‘Galileo's critics say it is an unnecessary exercise in political grandeur, which is unlikely to be commercially viable, as GPS is free of charge and will soon be upgraded.’

It’s totally amazing. Something is freely offered, yet because of arrogance and pride, some people would prefer to spend a fortune to try to come up with an equivalent system, and then pay for what will be a perpetually inferior product.

What are the spiritual parallels? God has provided the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ, and the only thing a person has to do is ‘believe on the Lord Jesus Christ’ to be saved, accept what is on offer. Yet some people prefer to spend their lives trying to develop their own method of salvation. It’s a waste of time, effort and money. We are saved by grace, through faith. It is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not of works. (Ephesians 2.8-9)

Compassion

2005-12-28T20:12:00.000Z

Michael Yon recently won the 2005 Best Media/Journalist weblog award.

His moving photograph of an American soldier comforting a mortally wounded Iraqi child is one of Time magazine’s most popular photographs.

Burkina Basics

2005-12-21T10:30:00.000Z

One of my favourite descriptions of Burkina Faso comes from the Lonely Planet travel guide.

'[The people in] Burkina Faso consistently produce silk purses from sows' ears; they come from one of the poorest countries in the world, but they are renowned for their don't-worry-be-happy optimism and have managed to fashion a beautiful and culturally sophisticated country out of the little resources they do have.'

Some basic facts about Burkina Faso:

Population: 13.8 million (UN, 2005)

Capital: Ouagadougou [wa-ga-do-goo]

Major languages: French, 68 indigenous languages

Major religions: Indigenous, Islam, Christianity

Life expectancy: 47 years (men), 48 years (women) (UN)

Main exports: Cotton, animal products, gold

GNI per capita: US $360 (World Bank, 2005)

Internet domain: .bf

International dialling code: +226

(More: BBC Burkina Faso Profile, University of Pensylvania African Studies Center, Photos)

Great quotes from Bob Jones Sr.

2005-12-17T16:39:00.000Z

When I started attending Bethany Free Pesbyterian Church in Portadown, N. Ireland in 1975, I always enjoyed the visits of Bob Jones Jr. to the church. I liked his southern 'drawl' and his colourful, expressive preaching.

I recently came across some of Bob Jones Sr.'s popular chapel sayings. Superb. BJ Sr. started Bob Jones University in 1927.

Here are a few quotes to whet your appetite:

The door to the room of success swings on the hinges of opposition.

The two biggest little words in the English language are the two little words "do right."

It is better to die for something than to live for nothing.

Your character is what God knows you to be; your reputation is what men think you are.

It is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right.

God will not do for you what He has given you strength to do for yourself.

Don't sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate.

The test of your character is what it takes to stop you.

Zacchaeus had short legs, but he outran the crowd when Jesus passed through town. Short legs will get you there as fast as long legs if you know how to use them.

Flights Booked

2005-12-17T16:30:00.000Z

We have booked our flights for Ivory Coast/Burkina! Lord willing, we will be leaving Northen Ireland on January 30, flying to Paris with easyJet, and getting the Air France flight to Abidjan on Tuesday, January 31.

We are planning to get our pickup truck in Ivory Coast, and travel through Ghana (to avoid rebel-held territory in northern Ivory Coast), to Burkina Faso.

We have sent off our passports to the Ivorian embassy for visas. We also need to get visas for Ghana and Burkina.

Loron initiation

2005-12-13T23:59:00.000Z

Loron children between the ages of 7 and 14 are taken to the Black Volta river in Burkina Faso to be initiated into the tribe.

Over the years we have become aware of many of the activities that take place, but as they are supposed to remain secret, and some of the things they do are quite personal and inappropriate to blog about, we do not feel free to elaborate on them very much.

It is a very frightening time for the children. If a child dies during the initiation, his parents are not allowed to mourn but must pretend that the child never existed. When the children return to their village they are dressed in shells and feather headdress, and are considered to be now fully human, entitled to play a full part in the tribe.

Preparations for return

2005-12-13T23:17:00.000Z

We are in the process of preparing to return to Africa. All being well, we will be going to Burkina Faso at the end of January.

We have a lot of things to take care of, like arranging flights, getting visas, and going to the dentist!

We are also gathering up some items to bring back with us. When the war broke out in Ivory Coast in 2002, all of the stuff in our village home was looted, so we need to start again.