Great news from West Africa! The recent two-week training for our Yalunka team has—by all accounts—been deemed a success. Now that the rainy season is over, we’re getting ready to head into the villages again, but this time we’re armed with more of the language skills we need to begin the much-anticipated oral translation of scriptures for the Yalunka people. With that in mind, our “Simply the Story” seminar has offered a much-needed refresher course in our oral translation methods, just in time to head out and begin telling the story of creation to this unreached people group for the very first time!
Our team also received training in Community Health Evangelism (CHE), with the goal of equipping our team to help the Yalunka villagers develop effective strategies to address problems they face. “In Community Health Evangelism,” explains Hal Lehman, international church planting director, “our team learns how to help the village leaders assess their greatest needs and then develop strategies to meet those needs with resources available to them.” Common solutions might be elevating fires so children don’t fall and get burned, for example.
Our team was joined in the CHE and “Simply the Story” seminars by our partners in the region, especially delegates from the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Burkina Faso congregations. “Both of these trainings were really intense,” says Steve Nelson, team leader, “but they were also full of joy. Now, we’re chomping at the bit to begin implementing all we have learned!” Please pray for our team as they prepare, travel, and spend time with our Yalunka friends over the next few months, and be looking on our website for more updates about our team’s trips into the villages—coming soon!
