Is your church ready to adopt a people group in West Africa?
BURKINA FASO, West Africa – Is your church ready to adopt a people group in West Africa?
If so, you will need to be prepared for “a total commitment,” says
David Wood, a Southern Baptist missionary in Burkina Faso. “These
people need the Lord, but it’s going to take an extreme commitment.
It’s going to be hard.”
Churches that accept this task need to be willing to sacrifice time,
money, resources and the comforts of home. And, most importantly, they
need to pray.
In this part of the world, electricity and running water are considered
luxuries. About the only fast food comes from a roadside stand. And
just getting to a West African village from the United States involves
days of travel.
It’s not a job for everyone.
“If you have to take a shower every day, this job probably isn’t for
you,” Wood says. “If you can’t survive with a little muck and dirt on
your feet and hands all day long, this is probably not the place for
you.”
Other challenges include language and cultural differences. For the
best impact, volunteers will eventually need to learn the basics of the
language of their people group. However, it’s not as hard as some might
think, Wood says.
“Our experience has been that if you immerse yourself in the culture,
within a short period of time – short being about two months – you’re
going to be at a level where you can have rudimentary communication
with the people,” he says.
For those who accept God’s call to West Africa, Wood says it’s worth the sacrifice.
“It will be difficult to be here, but it will have long-term
repercussions in the life of (the people of West Africa),” he says.
“Those people need to have the Gospel.”