*names changed

By an Alliance worker in Bosnia Herzegovina

Ana was a shy, withdrawn girl when I met her in the summer of 2005 and began ministering to her. When I prepared to leave for home assignment in 2007, she had regular anxiety attacks because of her fear that I would not return. Now she is a confident woman who assisted with leading worship and preached a sermon at the church service while I was visiting.

Though ministry is often difficult and slow here, this trip to Tuzla and seeing Ana reminded me that God is always at work, even when we don’t see it, and He is transforming lives every day. Thank you for being a part of those transformations through your prayers and gifts to the Great Commission Fund.

Recent attacks by Tuareg* rebels (seeking an independent state in northern Mali) are evolving into a refugee crisis. According to the BBC, more than 20,000 people in northern Mali have fled to other countries to escape the fighting.

In the past couple weeks about 8,000 Tuareg (an Arabic term meaning “abandoned by God”) have come to Burkina; we hear that more are arriving daily. This has provided us with an unusual opportunity to share the love and compassion of Christ with a people who have historically been staunch adherents of the region’s predominant religion.

Harrowing Escape

Tuareg refugees who have been unable to secure housing and cannot afford a hotel room have found shelter at the old stadium in Bobo Dioulasso. Last week, Esther and Burkina Alliance church leaders were warmly welcomed when they brought the refugees 100 towels and large bars of soap.

Our team was led to several women and girls sitting on mats in a large storage room under the stadium stands. It was obvious that they were refugees, since they were surrounded by a few suitcases and bags—all of their earthly possessions.

The women immediately began to tell of their harrowing escape—how they had been hidden in friends’ homes until they could get out of the country. They talked about houses being burned, stores being ransacked, and even some relatives who had been killed. The mothers were still anxious about children and relatives who had been left behind.

“An Open Door”

Alliance personnel are working together to provide the Bobo stadium refugees with rice, oil, milk, coffee and tea, as well as drinking glasses, water buckets, and cooking pots.

With our limited resources, we can only do so much, but for the next two weeks—until other aid agencies arrive on the scene—we have committed to help school the Tuareg children. We have secured a room under the stadium stands, employed two Christian teachers from the Burkina Alliance Church, and provided the 40 or so students with notebooks, pens, and pencils.

Colleague Mary Crowgey has committed to teach the English class each morning, and Esther will continue to visit and help as she is able.

We want to take advantage of every opportunity to demonstrate Christ’s love in practical ways as long as this door remains open—to demonstrate to this people that our loving God has not abandoned them.

How You Can Pray

When people are displaced, they are often more open to the gospel. When Esther asked if she could pray for the Tuareg families, they immediately accepted. She was pleasantly surprised to see two of the women at Bobo’s Central Alliance Church this past Sunday.

Please pray with us that this refugee crisis will work together for the salvation of many Tuareg families. Pray, too, that we will have wisdom as we seek to respond to the needs and share the good news about Jesus with these families.

*Learn More: The Tuareg

The presence of the nomadic Tuareg was first recorded by Herodotus in the 5th Century B.C., but their heritage is unknown. Inhabitants of North Africa, mostly northern Mali, northern Niger, and southern Algeria, they are estimated to number between 300,000 and 1 million today.

The BBC reports that Mali’s Tuaregs have long felt marginalized by [Mali's] southern government and have staged several rebellions over the years.

Article sources: Note: Clicking on the following links will take you off of the C&MA Web site.

BBC News Africa “Mali: Tuareg Rebellion Forces Medical Staff to Withdraw,” February 7, 2012.

The Bradshaw Foundation, “The Tuareg of the African Sahara: The Nomadic Inhabitants of North Africa”.

The University of Iowa, “Art and Life in Africa: Tuareg Information”.

Recently, I visited Ana*, a young woman in Tuzla whom I have been mentoring for several years. I had lived and worked in Tuzla from 2005 until 2008, teaching in the English school operated by the local church. I was also involved in children’s and youth ministry as well as leading home groups. One of the groups included ex-addicts, of whom Ana’s mother was one.

I hadn’t been to Tuzla in over a year, so it was nice to see old friends again and catch up. However, my main reason for going was so I could see Ana to discuss her plans after she finishes Bible school in Serbia.

Ana was a shy, withdrawn girl when I met her in the summer of 2005 and began ministering to her. When I prepared to leave for home assignment in 2007, she had regular anxiety attacks because of her fear that I would not return.

A New Creation

Now, this same young woman lives, studies, and ministers in another country. She is a confident woman who assisted with leading worship and preached a sermon (a class requirement) at the church service while I was visiting.

Ana feels that the Lord is leading her to move to Macedonia to enter university there and to serve in the local church. I am assisting her in looking at all her options as we move forward with what we believe is the next step in God’s plan for her.  

I am so proud of Ana and overwhelmed by God’s grace. Though ministry is often difficult and slow here, this trip to Tuzla and seeing Ana reminded me that God is always at work, even when we don’t see it, and He is transforming lives every day. Thank you for being a part of those transformations as you pray for our ministry.

*name changed

Learn More

Read more stories of God at work through Alliance ministries in Bosnia Herzegovina.

What You Can Do

Pray for Alliance workers and for the people with whom they minister.

Give to the Great Commission Fund, which provides support for international workers and grants for U.S. Alliance church planting.

The Alliance church has raised the bar in its youth focus. When Peter began his role in 2002, “about 10 students made up our small youth ministry,” he says. “As a growing number of students joined the group, I sensed God’s nudging to establish a proactive outreach to area youth–one that would be conducive to student culture, not a ‘churchy’ building, which might be a deterrent to joining the group.

Several years into his search, Peter saw a for sale sign on a nearby building. “It had been a bar in the recent past,” he says, “but decades ago, it was established as the Italian American Pleasure Club–a social gathering place for a prominent Italian immigrant population.”

A Church Within Reach

Believing the old club would be an ideal ministry center, Peter contacted the realtor. “As I walked through the building, the vision grew,” Peter says. “The strategically located building could house a community-based outreach that would provide young people with a comfortable, inviting place to meet–a church within reach, both physically and relationally.

“I saw everything from a place in which current ministry could transfer to a place where we could possibly train students in business by opening a coffee shop. With God’s leading, the building was purchased in 2010 for less than the asking price and duly named Crossbar.”

Church members joined the effort to renovate, scrubbing walls and floors, cleaning AC units, refurbishing the kitchen, and more. “The growing youth group, which had pretty much maxed out our old facilities, was accommodated comfortably at Crossbar at first. But today, Crossbar is filled to capacity on our high school ministry nights.”

Currently, the youth group is made up of nearly 80 percent non-churched students. “We offer after-school program with Internet access, so students can study, receive help with homework, or just have a safe place to talk through difficult life issues with adults,” Peter says. “High school and middle school students receive a free meal on ministry nights. More than 100 meals are served each week by a volunteer cooking staff.”

Christian Culture Is What’s Relevant

“My first time coming here, I was a little nervous,” says Reggie*, who, like other high school students, finds a haven in Crossbar, free from the temptations and chaos of secular social gatherings. “But they made me feel at home. I’ve been in the youth group since my freshmen year in high school, and I keep coming back because it’s the best place to be.”

The Crossbar youth outreach also includes middle school students, with whom Reggie assists. “I go to youth group for the little kids and help them out, too. I feel like I can pass on the gospel to other kids,” he says.

Crossbar’s community impact has exceeded Peter’s original dream of ministry. “My heart was to provide a safe haven for students where they could encounter the Lord in a strong relational atmosphere apart from societal distractions,” Peter says. “Crossbar is that and so much more.”

Plans are in the works to install a basketball hoop in the parking lot and paint half-court lines, so Crossbar can host basketball tournaments. Additional events are held, such as parenting seminars, sweetheart banquets, community breakfasts and barbecues, Christmas parties, children’s ministry events, theological round table discussions, and much more.

Young people like Reggie return each week to Crossbar, where they gravitate to the truth of the gospel lived out in real life. “The meaning of respect is taught here,” says Reggie. “If I ever need help with something or I have something on my mind that I have to get out, this is the place to be. We chill and talk about things like a family does at the dinner table. I cannot express enough how great this place is. Crossbar is something special.”

*name changed

Learn More

Read more stories about U.S. Alliance churches impacting their communities. www.cmalliance.org/news/topics/gochurch

Read additional stories of the worldwide work of Alliance ministries supported by the Great Commission Fund. www.cmalliance.org/news/2011/10/24/gcf-celebration-stories

What You Can Do

Give to the Great Commission Fund. In doing so, you partner with Alliance workers who are lighting the way for people trapped in spiritual darkness.

Pray for Alliance workers around the world.

Check out how your church can begin a Ministry Partnership with overseas Alliance workers.

Alliance missionaries brought the good news to the Dogon, a tribal people in Mali bound by ancestor and spirit worship, in 1931. Today, there are an estimated 15,000 Dogon believers, celebrating the culmination of decades of work—the translation of the Bible into their heart language.

The last rays of sunlight cast shadows over the jagged cliffs as we drove the final few kilometers toward the village of Sangha.

Acres of dark green onion fields contrasted sharply with the otherwise desolate landscape—a striking testimony to the industriousness of the Dogon who populate this remote region.

Our van full of missionaries and Malians finally arrived in the village after an 11-hour drive from Bamako, Mali’s capital. We were among 5,000 people who had traveled by foot, donkey, bush taxi, and motorcycle to this site—the historic center of the Dogon Alliance Church—the venue for the Dogon Bible translation dedication.

All-Night Party

The excitement in the air was almost palpable. Dozens of large, colorful canopies stretched over wooden poles had been set up to provide shade for the thousands who would attend the dedication ceremony the next day, January 28.

As we sat down to a supper of toh and jabaji (millet with onion sauce—a Dogon staple), the drums began to beat, calling the people to an all-night celebration.

By 9 a.m. the next morning, tents were packed to overflowing (even though most people had been up all night singing and celebrating until 6 a.m.). Festive dancing to the unique rhythms of the Dogon drums ensued for an hour and a half as we awaited the arrival of Mali’s Minister of Education, Literacy, and National Languages, Professor Salikou Sanogo.

Once his motorcade comprised of many high-ranking officials arrived, and the honored guests were properly escorted to their assigned seats, the moment everyone had been anticipating began.

Jubilation

Led by a procession of drummers and singers dressed in traditional costume, porters appeared with cartons of Dogon Bibles balanced on their heads and carried them into the center of each tent.

When the first carton was opened and a copy of the newly translated Bible was held up for everyone to see, the crowd erupted. Imagine, 5,000 people singing, dancing, and cheering at the top of their lungs!

Holding the Bible high so all could see it, Dr. Youssouf Dembele, the chief translation supervisor, declared: “This translation is based on the original languages of the Scriptures and is an accurate copy of God’s divine Word!” Everyone again cheered enthusiastically.

Copies of the Bible were then distributed to each of the six Alliance district superintendents in the Dogon region, who were exhorted to make God’s Word available to every Dogon believer.

For the next several hours, various dignitaries as well as church and missions representatives paid tribute to the dedication and hard work of those who had undertaken the mammoth task of translating the entire Bible into the Dogon language over several decades.

Although the heat was stifling under the tents, no one wanted to leave. And in typical Malian fashion, the ceremony was finally brought to a close five hours after it had begun.

Reflections: Returns on 80-Plus Years of Ministry

That evening, I sat on the roof of the small rock-hewn hotel where I was staying. I had a perfect view of the old C&MA mission station—just three small houses and a chapel built out of rock. In the background was the old village of Sangha nestled in the cliffs.

As I pondered the events of the day, my mind went back to those first C&MA missionaries—the Stamms, McKinneys, Ballards, Burnses, and others who first settled here in 1931. They gave their lives to bring the gospel to the Dogon people. They spent years learning the language and initiated the work of translating portions of the Scriptures into the heart language of the people.

I thought about how much these missionaries would have loved to have experienced what I had just witnessed, and how blessed I was to be here.

What You Can Do

Praise God for the completion of the first translation of the Bible into the Dogon language; pray for many more Dogon to come to know Christ through His Word. Pray also for Alliance workers the world over engaged in ministry to the lost.

Give to the Great Commission Fund—partner in the exciting work of The Alliance, bringing the good news to whole people groups who have never heard the message of hope and redemption only Jesus offers.

This video was produced by x15a2

During our recent Dakar Academy outreach (January 20–22), we were able to share the gospel with some 3,500 people through drama, vacation Bible school (VBS), and evening evangelism campaigns.

“Rejoice with Us!”

Evening meetings were held in six villages, two of which heard the gospel for the very first time. Rejoice with us that over the course of the weekend about 100 people indicated that they wanted to accept Christ as their Savior!

In one of the two villages that had never heard the good news, the village chief not only gave permission to hold the evangelism campaign, he sent someone around the village to announce the event.

The chief also said that he would welcome a church in his village. Maybe this is where we will hold a future outreach!

Weekend Outreach Activities:

• Evangelistic drama presented in 14 villages
• VBS conducted in 11 villages
• One church painted; another roofed
• 150 meters of wall foundation dug
• 400 bricks hand-made
• 250 patients treated for health issues
• One church mural painted
• Well digging begun
• Four tons of sand moved
• 960 meals served

YOU Prayed, HE Answered

Thank you for praying for safety—146 of us traveled in 15 vehicles more than 4,350 miles that weekend!

We had four flat tires, two buses broke down because of wheel bearing issues, and one van had to limp back to Dakar because of engine problems. However, we are happy to report that we were kept safe—thanks to your prayers. We are so very grateful!

What You Can Do

Praise God for the successful outreach! Pray for the new believers to grow strong in their faith and for Alliance workers the world over.

Donate to the Great Commission Fund—partner with workers like Evan and Jewel to share the Light of Christ with many who have never had opportunity to hear the good news!

Read the Evanses’ update about the 2011 Thanksgiving weekend outreach.