Monday, March 28, 2011

What Difference Can a Church Make?


Foyer Evangélique Mennonite de Ouagadougo, the Mennonite Church of Ouagadougou, began as a church plant nurtured by Mennonite Church Canada workers Jeff and Tany Warkentin to provide a place for university students to live and worship. Most university students leave familiar rural lifestyles behind to pursue higher education in this city of almost 2 million people. The change can be overwhelming.

The Foyer began just as Paulin Diarra finished high school.  He arrived in Ouagadougou with nowhere to live.  “I thank God for this Foyer,” he says.  “You can’t have success in your studies if you don’t have a good place to live.”

Another student, Zacharie Ouédraogo, agrees.  “Because of the Foyer, we have a place where we can sleep in peace, study and relax.”  He says that living together with other students in the building that serves as both a church and a residence has allowed them to pray and study the Bible together.

“It’s a place where we are taught to live together, to appreciate our differences and to abide in our faith,” says Johanna Dakio.

And it’s a place where future leaders are taking shape.



Sunday, March 27, 2011

Rules of the Road

Hold on...wait a minute…wait …a…minute…go!

Traffic did not merge in Ouagadougou; it lunged.  Cars, mopeds and bicycles careened around corners and through intersections like a swarm of bees. Or maybe a Madrid stampede.  On one occaision, the bumper of a car flying around a corner brushed against the skirt of a woman riding a moped.  She seemed to take no notice and the baby on her back continued to sleep.

Rules of the road didn’t appear to exist. Drivers, beware.  Change lanes or cross intersections at your own risk!

The speed and urgency of travel was quite a contrast to the leisurely pace we sensed from those whom we met in the markets or anywhere else where they had their feet firmly planted on the ground.

We sometimes made our way from place to place in a van, which was in relatively good shape other than fold-away-seat that was more inclined to fold than seat, but we often rode in taxis.  Our taxi drivers were inventive. They made use of vehicles that we in North America would likely relegate to the junk yard.  Such waste!  In Burkina, any running vehicle had a purpose.  We found windows that refused to open, doors that would only open from the outside (or didn’t close all the way) and seats with broken springs.  Bungee cords, anyone?  We heard lots of clunking, inhaled odours of gas and oil and marvelled at the resiliance of our bottoms.

A Burkina flag proudly hung from every taxi’s rearview mirror.

Transportation in Ouagadougou was a curious mix of resourcefulness (recycling) and fearlessness – not for the faint of heart, but thrilling.




Monday, March 14, 2011

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like...

The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, or like yeast…like a treasure hidden in a field, a merchant in search of fine pearls, or a net thrown into the sea, catching fish of every kind…

On several mornings, Learning Tour leader Norm Dyck offered small tidbits of these Kingdom parables, inviting us to consider what insights they inspire.

The Kingdom of heaven seems to be found in small and seemingly insignificant places, but within each lays the capacity for something far greater.  And maybe we don’t focus enough on the small things, or the tiny seeds we plant through our everyday activities and the way we choose to live.  Maybe we don’t always recognize the seeds that are planted in us.

I like to think we planted seeds of encouragement among our brothers and sisters in Burkina by travelling such a great distance to visit; everywhere we went we sensed an appreciation for our efforts.  Somehow, though, I suspect being in Burkina planted just as many Kingdom seeds in us.

Each morning before the first rooster crowed in Ouagadougou (and yes; there are roosters in this city of 2 million people, and chickens, and donkeys and goats…), the call to prayer or adhan rose from a nearby mosque.  Allah is the greatest. I testify there is no other God except for Allah…

It was one of five calls-to-prayer daily although, admittedly, I was so caught up in my activities that I rarely noticed the others. The early morning adhan quickly slipped under my skin. Although I couldn’t determine whether the words were chanted in Arabic or French, they reminded me of God’s presence and created a kind of longing in my soul for the intimacy of prayer.

It was also a solemn reminder that although the world has generated a culture of fear around Islam and some interpretations of the Koran (seems to me that some interpretations of the Bible generate a culture of fear too) those who practice it are indeed devout.  Prayer is a publicly prescribed part of their lives.  Perhaps some Muslims pray because they are expected to, but I suspect spending a couple of hours a day on one’s knees will eventually create a connection with our Creator.

The call to prayer and thoughts of Islam remind me once again of Othniel’s sermon and his question; did Christ come only for Christians?  

Doesn’t God speak to us all, regardless of our beliefs, wherever we may be standing? Or kneeling.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Language Barriers

Although I cannot carry on an intelligent conversation in French I was surprised at the number of French words or phrases that popped into my head after arriving in Burkina. Chapeau. La fenêtreFermez la porte. Pourquoi? Qu'est-ce que c’est?...not that any of those particular examples were of much use to me.

Bonjour, ça va? Le famille? Good day. How are you? The family? These are typical greetings that I learned to extend to everyone we met.  That was easy enough to do, but most people responded with a further barrage of French far beyond my capacity to understand.  Non parlez français, I'd say, and they would offer a smile or a phrase like petite anglais, but communication usually faded. I couldn't connect with them and it was frustrating.

Being in Burkina made me wish I had paid more attention in language class.

I’m used to striking up conversations with relative ease, but that skill was lost to me during the Learning Tour. I wanted to know how Othniel, the preacher who blessed us with a sermon about Jonah at Foyer Evangélique Mennonite de Ouagadougou on Sunday, came to speak with such passion. (His sermon was translated for us by Pastor Calixte Bananzaro.) I yearned to discover something about Othniel's background and how he came to be where he is, why he is studying law instead of theology when he is obviously so gifted. 

I wanted to ask the old man on the corner outside of the marketplace what he thinks of as he sits on the street all day, and if he has a family, but I didn't have the words to open doors to that discussion.

Conversation is a delicate art, nuanced by body language, facial expression, intonation and even the ways in which words are strung together. Although there were several French-speakers in our group willing to translate for me – and I am grateful for their help - I could not follow these translated interactions closely enough to recognize the signals that might lead to deeper conversation and more meaningful connections.

Not being able to communicate freely gave me a new appreciation for what Mennonite Church Canada workers face when they choose to serve abroad, and for what newcomers to Canada endure as they struggle to converse.  

Language is a vessel of connection that I've always taken for granted. Without it, I felt lost.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Experience in Burkina Faso

I am so excited and happy that I had the chance to experience what Africa is all about in just 10 days. I really enjoyed my time being with the group from Canada. I enjoyed traveling through Ouagadougou, Bobo and Orodara. The group that went on the bus with me got to experience a couple of problems with the first bus we were on it had some problems 2 different times. The first 2 times we had so electrical problems which they fixed in about 5 mins one of the bus drivers came back on the bus to grab a fan belt which they somehow were able to start the bus up again. Then the same thing happen not more then 10 mins later or so. Then the bus driver and some other guys got out and started it up the same way again. Then we were off on the road again. Wow that is defiantly a great way to experience travel in Africa. Tany was also on the bus with us and she told us this is how it is a lot of the time traveling in the buses. I didn't mind all the problems cuz it made is think that we weren't in Canada anymore for a couple of days. Then once we got to Bobo we got to the Claire's guest house. Then after lunch we we got ready to go to Orodara we had to wait at the bus stop for the next bus to take us. As we start to drive to the outside of the city we have a bus that is having stick shifting problems but thank God we were able to make it safely to the bus depot that we could change buses and not get stuck out in the middle of no where and end up waiting for someone to come and get us.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Unsettling Complacency

As the last flight of my trip descended into Winnipeg, I listened to the U2 classic, “Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For”. At risk of being sentimental, I would say that that song captured a lot of what I saw on this trip. I went with ambivalent expectations without a really clear reason for doing so. I didn't know what I was going to find, and what my experience would be like. And although some of what I predicted did happen, I also found myself thinking in ways I had not expected.

In group reflections on the many conversations we had with different church members and leaders, many people mentioned how inspiring it was to watch these people at work. They faced so many difficult challenges and obstacles in their context. Animism is prevalent. The large Islamic population is not always tolerant of Christians. And yet these Mennonites carry on anyway, working at the seemingly futile tasks of bible translation and church development. And then, consistently, these conversation partners would turn to us and ask, what are your challenges? Every time, our group hesitated. I think we found it difficult to answer in the face of that kind of dedication and determination to make a change. This left me unsettled. After each one of these conversations, I was left with a knot in my stomach. Why? Because the challenge we face, as a Mennonite church in North America is apathy. It is a lack of courage to work within our own contexts and inflict change on them. We love going to other places and being inspired by what others are doing there. But what about here? What are we doing in each of our communities and neighbourhoods?

I did learn on this learning tour. I did engage, and I did grow. But it wasn't in the ways I expected. I was impressed by what I saw from the Burkinabe people. And I was unsettled by it. And so the question I come away with, and I would like to see others wrestling with too, is the one of what now? We are back home. We interacted with a people of resistance, a people who struggles to change what needs changing. And they asked us how we face our challenges. I would name our challenge as complacency. Now, after that experience, how are we going to face our struggle of complacency? Are we going to allow ourselves to remain unsettled and to learn in unexpected ways, even in our home context?

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

This is Africa

TIA. This is Africa. It’s a phrase Steve and Vincent offer with wry smiles, based upon previous experiences on this magnificent content. These three simple words pop up when activities don’t unfold as planned, when tires blow apart on the highway, or when internet connections lag.

We had hoped to keep you up-to-date with our activities on Mennonite Church Canada’s Burkina Faso Learning Tour, but sporadic internet connections have disrupted those plans.  Many stories have taken shape over the past 10 days and we do want to share them with you, so stay tuned. We will continue posting after we have returned to Canada.

In the meantime, thank you for checking in – and for your patience.   This IS Africa!