Burkina Faso, West Africa
Lutheran Heritage Foundation:
THE WORD AT WORK
Volume 29 Number 3 ■ May/June 2022
“JESUS NEVER FAILS” IN BURKINA FASO, WEST AFRICA Though the devil’s arrows fly on all sides, they are nothing against the shield of faith, taught in God’s Holy Word! Read more about Burkina Faso (a West African country roughly the size of Colorado), where our Lutheran brothers and sisters faithfully proclaim that “Jesus Never Fails.” Rev. Tanpo Tchiritime, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Burkina Faso (ELCBF), writes: “Burkina Faso (meaning ‘country of honest men’) is a beautiful country with great cultural diversity, endowed with many tourist advantages which attract many people. But it is a country with a low Christian rate - only 23%. So a lot of work remains to be done there. “Since 2015, this beautiful country has been ravaged by a terrorist war that has left more than 20,000 dead,
thousands missing, nearly 2 million internally displaced people, and hundreds of thousands of refugees in the neighboring countries. Educationally, there are more than 4,000 schools closed and children out of school. On the social level, the ordeal is palpable with an ever-increasing number of street children. So, the situation is dire here. “In terms of the Church, we had to close 6 parishes and 7 preaching points. Forty-two church members have been killed, and one deacon kidnapped. He has not been released to this day, and we don’t even know if he is still alive.
“The big problem we are facing right now is the inaccessibility of many areas where church members are, because the roads are mined and they are arresting and killing people. The other challenge is that we pastors who find ourselves in those areas are targeted by terrorists and therefore our
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