FEC and its partner in Burkina Faso have been watching God move among the Yalunka people in Mali since 2011. The Yalunka are spread over four countries: Sierra Leone, Guinea, Senegal, and Mali. The Yalunka who live in Mali were engaged by FEC missionaries Steve and Pat Nelson (among others) beginning in 2011. Today, that outreach has many believers and a church planter named Bengaly from Burkina Faso. The outreach to the Yalunka shows that God was at work long before the first Yalunka heard about Him.
One night, church leaders from Burkina Faso and FEC Missionaries met with the Yalunka people, and they watched a miracle unfold. Since French is common to most countries in West Africa, they expected to communicate in French since many different indigenous languages are spoken in both countries. However, when they heard the Yalunka speaking in their common trade language, Jula, they recognized it as similar to their own trade language. FEC missionary Steve Nelson described the meeting by saying, “We watched this discovery happen right before our eyes. They were as shocked as I was. They listened to them talk, and they began talking to them in a language that they each understood. Only God can orchestrate something of that magnitude and open the door for the Yalunka to be reached without difficulty.”
For several years, the Burkina Faso denomination had planned to reach out to the Yalunka in Mali and eventually send a missionary there. In 2019, a group of leaders from both FEC and Burkina Faso began praying for a church planter for the Yalunka people. When Bengaly showed up unexpectedly, saying that he had heard about the work and believed that God was calling him to go, plans were set in motion. Bengaly was already a church planter for the Burkina Faso denomination, so he went with a group of leaders to meet Yalunka believers and teach a seminar.
In May, Bengaly and his family moved to Falea in southwest Mali. From Falea, he will visit other Yalunka villages, some six hours away by motorcycle on unpaved, mountain roads.
