God's Protection

DAK Ministry Update June 18, 2012

Greetings to all!

Scorpions and leaking gas tanks

Little things happen once in awhile that give us pause for thanks to God for His protection as we go about our daily activities. May 7-11, I was working with the Siamou* Review Committee in Orodara. During the week, I sat in on their discussions as they examined the stories of David from 1 and 2 Samuel, and showed pictures from Israel, and told more stories of David's hiding from Saul in the desert mountains. At the end of the week, two new participants (not yet Christian) asked for (French) Bibles so they could read the stories for themselves! The work of this committee clearly showed its value during the sessions. For instance, Joseph, the Catholic catechist and others would periodically state - I really can't figure out what the text is talking about here, OR, I think we can say it better this way... I was there to help them streamline the process of reviewing so that the important issues would not be lost among secondary details.

Late one evening, as I was preparing to go to bed, I stepped out into the hallway only to see a big black scorpion coming towards me! I called the guard, and he came and dwelt with it. Picking up my towel, I turned out my bedroom door again, heading towards the bathroom, when something crunched under my flip-flop sandal. Lifting up my foot I discovered that I had just crushed the little red-brown variety of scorpion this time, smaller but more dangerous than the black variety. Thankfully its stinger was safely crushed under my sandal! I tell you, if I had been stung by that scorpion I would not have been much use to the Siamou team! Thank-you Lord! The workers at the Orodara guest house said they had never seen or heard of scorpions in the guesthouse before, and certainly not two different types in the same place at the same time!

A few days later, I was on my way to Bobo from Orodara in a mini-bus, when we all started smelling diesel fuel. At a town midway to Bobo, the driver stopped and took a look at the engine located right beside his seat, and sure enough, fuel was spilling out of the tube right where it was connected to the motor. Yikes! After about thirty minutes of tying different things to the tube to stop (or slow down!) the leak, we were finally on our way. Was I happy to get to Bobo!

Fragile Peace and Rising Tensions

The next morning I took a bus south to Ferkessedougou, in northern Ivory Coast. Just ten years earlier, this town had been overrun by rebels and Ivorian southerners had to flee for their lives. Now things are calm, and economic activity is slowly picking up in their part of the country, while western Ivory Coast continues to suffer from violence.

The people of northern Ivory Coast have a lot in common with Burkina Faso. For instance, the Nyarafolo** language, whose Psalms translation I was checking, is a Senufo language, just like Sicite which is located in southern Burkina Faso where I worked from 1982 on. While I was there in Ferkessedgou, I heard that a Nyarafolo elder explained that the Nyarafolo people come from the Nanerige Senufo, the language group that my Mennonite Brethern colleagues work with in Burkina Faso! Anyways, it was lovely checking the scriptures of a language where I could recognize words and grammatical structures, and learn how God is at work among those people.

In a few days I will be travelling again to Nigeria, where church bombings have picked up again in the last couple of weeks, and where 'Christian' youths retaliate with violence ignoring their elders' calls to remain calm. While there, I will be checking scripture translations of the Ngas*** language in 1 and 2 Samuel. I have been invited to follow their translation work on a regular basis, so Lord willing, I will travelling to Nigeria checking Ngas scripture about three times a year. More about that when I return from Nigeria on July 9.

In a few days I will be travelling again to Nigeria, where church bombings have picked up again in the last couple of weeks, and where 'Christian' youths retaliate with violence ignoring their elders' calls to remain calm. While there, I will be checking scripture translations of the Ngas*** language in 1 and 2 Samuel. I have been invited to follow their translation work on a regular basis, so Lord willing, I will travelling to Nigeria checking Ngas scripture about three times a year. More about that when I return from Nigeria on July 9.

Meanwhile in Burkina, we continue to pray and seek God's intervention and protection for the tensions and conflicts around us. We are only too aware of the military uprising we ourselves lived through last year, while we look to the north and west of us where Mali struggles to re-establish authority of a central government, and the different rebel groups in the north seek to impose their power and autonomy. At this point, there is no army fighting against the rebels, although there are discusssions about that possibly happening. Pray that this conflict can be resolved peacefully rather than through arms. There is no limit of prayer topics for peace our region. I encourage you to choose a country as you feel led and pray for it, following any news that you find on Internet, or write and ask me for more details.

Our trip to North America

There are still some Sundays free for those you who are thinking about inviting us, and learning first hand how things are going here in this part of the world as well as getting more informed about our respective ministries and how you can invest in them. Here is the schedule and tentative plans that we have so far:

Please do write if you have any questions or would like to schedule a time to meet with me/us. We are open to any encounters formal and informal, Sunday morning or weekday or evenings.

Thank-you for your continuing support, prayers, and encouragement!

Anne and Daniel Kompaoré

*The Siamou language is spoken in Orodara area in south western Burkina Faso. This is a project of the Burkina Mennonite Church in collaboration with the Evangelical Mennonite Church and Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission. Paul Thiessen provides leadership for the Siamou language work.

** The Nyarafolo language and translation work is is a project of World Venture Missions in collaboration with Seed Company, a national involvement funding organization affiliated with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

*** The Ngas language is a project of the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust, in collaboration with the Seed Company.

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Email: agkompaore@gmail.com, danielkompaore@cten.org; Skype: annegk1

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