A History of the Work

A long time ago at a Christian college far, far away. . .
Our team began in 1999 in the home of Calvin and Alicia Groen while we were all attending Abilene Christian University. A group of people interested in West Africa began meeting on a weekly basis to visit, dream, and decide if it wanted to become a team. This initial group included the Burks, Amy (who was single at the time), the Groens, and Chris Boyce. As time passed, Chris moved on, but new families joined. Chad Carter and Amy, engaged at the time, committed to be a part of this team to West Africa. The Chankins as well decided they would like to join. About the time the Groens decided they were called to East Africa, the Johnsons elected to be a part of our team after a difficult decision of whether or not to go to Uganda. Another family also joined but, sadly, was not able to come. We met one night in the Burks' living room and made a prayerful decision to commit ourselves to go together to West Africa.

After the team was formed, we needed to decide on the people group with whom we would work. Each family chose a different people group from among several that had been surveyed. We spent several weeks researching these groups, making contacts with missionaries in the area, and being diligent in prayer and fasting. When the time came to present the people groups and make the decision, our preliminary vote was unanimously for the Dagara people of West Africa. By God's grace, we now had both our team and location.

Next came months of preparation for our departure. There were funds to raise, moving logistics, families to part with, language preparations, and so much more! After finding supporting congregations and raising start-up funds, three of the families were ready to head to France for French language study. The Chankins, Johnsons and later the Burks were in Lyon, France, for the 2001-2002 school year. The Carters stayed an extra year in the states to raise the rest of their funds. After their stay in France, the Chankins and Aaron Burk made a short trip to Dano to find housing. The three families then met in Dallas, TX, to pack everything they could imagine needing in Africa on a 40' freight container. They said their difficult goodbyes and flew to Burkina Faso in September of 2002. The Carters were able to leave for language school in France the following year and joined the team in Dano in March of 2004.

The three families that arrived first had a difficult task ahead of them. Their houses were not exactly in move-in condition. They needed to add plumbing, sewage, electricity, window screens and shades, ceilings, bathrooms, and just about everything else you can imagine needing to add to a house. They also needed to find both vehicles and workers they could trust, get their yards in order, fill out government papers and taxes, find good grocery stores, etc. Needless to say, no one felt like this was true missionary work. The team had the dream of jumping into language learning and spending nights in the village within our first month of arrival. God decided instead to put in some 'character building' time. They spent their first three months in a hotel in Dano with outdoor toilets while they waited for their houses to be finished. They also began their language learning and spent a year and a half learning the language of the Dagara people to minister to them in their heart-language.

Chad and Amy arrived in March 2004 with the same tasks as the other three families, but with the blessing of having established teammates. This helped their transition considerably. They quickly tackled the task of language learning once their house was in a manageable state.

As Chad and Amy were arriving, the team began their evangelism lessons in four villages (Mebar, Dano-Pari, Nakar, Bontcolli). By God's grace, there were baptisms in all four villages. Two of these villages have churches that are faithful and are even reaching out to villages around them. The team has been busy with leadership training in those villages, and beginning to plant churches in new villages with the help of existing Dagara Christians. There are even churches that have been planted solely by the efforts of Dagara Christians. We have developed a women's ministry launched in Dano-Pari. There are now 10 churches and well over 400 people have come to Christ by the grace of God as he has been able to use us. The team is also translating Train and Multiply, a leadership-training curriculum. The Dagara Team's hope and prayer is to see the entire Dagara people group claimed for Christ.