Buck and Catia Billings

What a blessed week we have just spent with the Dagara and with the team serving them! We went with the goal of teaching the Dagara about the greatest thing - Love. As the week went along, though, it was we who learned the most! We felt loved and appreciated. It was such a blessing to see how the Dagara Christians love one another and how they love God! We also came away from our week there with 2 observations:

1) The Dagara churches are not about buildings or programs. Their worship is literally out in the open, often right next to market areas where the non-Christians are hanging out.

2) At times, our translators (the missionaries) struggled to find ways to express the thoughts we were sharing in ways that made sense in Dagara. The gospel must be shared among the Dagara in simple language, which really ought to be the way we go about it here at home as well. Nothing fancy - just the love of God in ways that people can understand.

We thank God for this experience, for allowing us this glimpse into the lives of people who have said "here am I, send me," and those of the people to whom they have been sent.

All because of Him,

Bill Brunet and Buck and Catia Billings

Mark Tidwell, Ken Conway, Archie, Emma and Vicky Conway

We were immeasurably blessed this month to spend eight days with the Chankins and their teammates in Dano. It was the first trip to Burkina for all of us and the first to Africa for three of the four in our group.
We packed what feels like a month of experiences into a week: a wedding, a funeral, worship meetings in six different villages, hot market days and cool morning bike rides, and lots of tea with Mr. Barry.
In all these experiences we were struck by the warmth and friendliness of the Burkinabe, as well as by the Dano team's sincere love for the Dagara and their passion for sharing the gospel with them.
Coming here, it is impossible to deny that God is doing a powerful work among the Dagara. Village churches are vibrant and growing, leaders are being raised up and trained, and local believers are anxious to spread the word to new people and places.

Mike Oakes and kid

Africa - hot and dusty, poor and family-centered - seems to burn away many of the manmade (and mainly Western) trappings of Christianity and to boil the message down to its essence. What a pleasure to sing worship songs in the shade of a mango tree. What a joy to see Dagara church leaders teaching in their own language out of the newly published Gospel of Mark.
We are inspired by the team's creativity, humility and above all the spirit-filled wisdom that infuses this work. Those qualities were exemplified one Saturday night in the village of Dagore. Suffice it to say that they overcame numerous obstacles to get the projector and sound up and running, but it was well worth it. Some 400-500 people sat on logs and earth on either side of a strung-up white sheet to hear and see the Gospel story, many of them for the first time.
When five young men approached Archie after the showing saying they wanted to know more about Jesus, he immediately directed them to Zobashon, a local church leader, who invited them to the Sunday service there on the following day.
Typical of this team, he got out of the way to let the local church step up, and God was glorified.
We thank the entire team for their hospitality, and for showing us how to be the hands and feet of Christ.

Blessings,
Mark Tidwell, Mike Oakes, Ken and Vicky Conway

A Week in the Life of the Dagara Team, Feb. 24 - March 2, 2007

I find it difficult to summarize a mission experience like the one in Dano, Burkina Faso. Words seem inadequate to fully paint a picture of what the mind has perceived and how the heart has been touched. Traveling to Africa was a new experience for me and my traveling companion, Ben Kail, a deacon in our church. This trip was one of many "firsts" for us: 1st time to step on African soil, 1st time to visit a remote village, 1st time to preach for the Dagara people, and yes, the 1st time to drink the local millet brew (not so good). God was taking us down a path beyond our expectations. Everywhere we turned we saw His hand at work and the blessing He had in store for those who were willing to follow Him. I can't even begin to tell you how much we learned from the missionaries and the Dagara people. Being in Africa is both challenging and humbling. Challenging in that it is such a different world than the one to which we have grown accustomed and humbling in that a people with so very little resources could teach us so much. Ben and I have been amazed at the depth of spirituality we have witnessed by our African brethren. They are daily dependent on God, full of joy in the Spirit, and deeply committed to the task of reaching their own people. Their commitment, zeal and perseverance in the most difficult of conditions is remarkable. God is truly blessing the Dagara people and bringing about great growth in the Kingdom. Ben and I were also amazed at the team of missionaries serving in Dano. They are very talented, well adjusted and obviously very effective. We got to see first hand how they are working among the Dagara to plant indigenous churches by training and discipling church leaders. They are truly pioneers serving on the front battle lines of mission. And through them, God is bringing about a great harvest of souls. What a joy it was for us to experience all these things with the Dagara Team. This is, we believe, one of the best models in our brotherhood of how mission work ought to be done. Christians from two different continents working together for one purpose, to glorify God by making disciples of all nations.

From Geoffrey Richter, Minister of the Hawley Church of Christ, Texas

This is a poem written by Ben Kail with some of his observations of his time among the Dagara.

WEST AFRICAN

Silver and gold have I none,
Yet I am rich for I have won,
Victory through Jesus, God's only Son,
I am you see, a West African.

Our land is poor, the soil is dry,
the sun burns down from hazy sky.
From day to night I toil under hot sun,
I am you see, a West African.

With joy in my heart I work and pray,
for Almighty God to send rain this day.
Empty the clouds so that we may live,
and from our abundance to others give.

The salt of the earth, a light on a hill,
My heart with love He does fill.
Without tiring the race we do run,
For you see, I am a West African.

Though you are rich and cannot see,
how spiritually blessed the poor can be.
Open your heart to God's tender love,
Given to men from Heaven above.

Walk with me in my humble life,
Leave behind the world and its strife.
Together in glory when life is done,
You and I, West African.