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doulos
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 141
Location: Springfield, MA
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 Posted:
Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:14 pm |
 
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An Overnight in a Senoufo Village
When the work gets discouraging and tedious, when the Risograph balks and the computer is slow, we will remember this weekend (September 27, 28, 2008) ...
Several weeks ago when Pastor Abdoulaye, the director of PEDEBE (the Bible study program developed by our church association), told us he was going to a village (Bada, about an hour from Bouaké) to present diplomas to six graduates of the program, we asked to go along. He was eager to show us the results of this training program and it also meant we would drive him to the village. Several churches had graduates so they decided to make a grand fête out of the weekend, beginning Saturday night – and going throughout the night!
Several weeks ago when Pastor Abdoulaye, the director of PEDEBE (the Bible study program developed by our church association), told us he was going to a village (Bada, about an hour from Bouaké) to present diplomas to six graduates of the program, we asked to go along. He was eager to show us the results of this training program and it also meant we would drive him to the village. Several churches had graduates so they decided to make a grand fête out of the weekend, beginning Saturday night – and going throughout the night!
These graduates deserved a grand celebration as they have worked hard over several years – there are 15 courses in the program; students work five days a week in their workbooks, then meet together to discuss the lesson and learn from their teacher. Each course takes about eight weeks. One of the graduates, Esther (the hosting church’s pastor’s wife), did very well as she has three children to care for: one is a baby and one about two, but older sister is a big help with the little boys.
But it was the testimonies that touched our hearts. Esther told of growing up in Cebaara (Chay-bar-ra – a language of the Senoufo people, the courses are all written in Cebaara) but being educated in French, which she could then read and write. (The public education is in the national language, French). In taking the PEDEBE courses, she was able to improve her adult Cebaara, reading and writing it, and to learn more about the Bible and ministry and so be a greater help to her husband. The other testimony told how meaningful it was to read the Bible in Cebaara – this man had read the Bible in French but it touched his heart in a special way in his home language. Please pray for the printing of the entire Cebaara Bible – the New Testament has been available for years and the Old Testament is translated, but the printing is bogged down at the formatting level. Many are waiting for the entire Bible to be available in their language.
Because we went up the evening before the church service, we stayed overnight. We sat under the mango tree in the pastor’s front yard and watched the bright stars (no electricity or running water). After eating a late meal at 11:15, we were shown to a little house we could use for the night. So we got some sleep with the balafons (wooden xylophones) and the singing weaving through our minds until dawn. Next time I’d like to see some of the festivities, but this time we were too tired. It was delightful to sit on the front porch and eat our breakfast bread while watching morning village life: pigs running between the houses, baby goats sleeping, a rooster surveying his kingdom, babies being bathed, oxen being led to pasture, a woman making pots..
The church service began with lots of singing while we sat in on the exhortation to the graduates which Pastor Abdoulaye spoke in French since all of these graduates could understand it. He told them this was only a beginning, that they must keep studying (one graduate wants to go on to the Bible Institute). He said that the Nelsons keep studying even though they are old! (Well, we do keep studying…) After the three-hour service, we had another meal and then headed back to Bouaké; we had 24 people (including babies) in the double-cab pickup truck (19 in the bed!) to go to the nearby main town.
Yes, when the work gets tedious and we are tired, when we wonder if it’s worth typing for hours a day in a language we don’t know, when the Risograph makes ominous sounds and doesn’t print right, when pages need to be thrown away and redone, and we wonder if it’s a worthwhile use of our time, we will remember this weekend. Without a new supply of workbooks, the courses won’t continue (several new classes are ready in this area alone); without this training, there won’t be the new pastors and church workers that the Church in Côte d’Ivoire so desparately needs. There are currently 400 churches in our church association – and only 100 trained pastors.
As the graduates were told: God has called and you responded, and finished what He asked you to do. May we too be faithful to finish what God has called each of us to do.
The graduates and their spouses; Pastor Abdoulaye is at far right in the matching shirt that was a gift from the graduates.
Wayne & Melody Nelson |
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