Summer 2005 SIM Mission Experience Mark, Carine and Anaëlle Lewis were sponsored by the church to gain some mission field experience before they committed themselves for a possible longer term of engagement. SIM France helped coordinate a field trip to Burkina Faso during which the Lewis family was able to meet and interview many missionaries and pastors thus gaining valuable first hand experience of life on the mission field and in Africa. Before hand all family members attended the COM, a missionary orientation course, organised by the FMEF, at Emmaus Bible Institute in Switzerland. For further details please read : Family Missionary Project Support this Mission Project Cette Page en Français

We crawl out of the plane - it is already night but not so hot as we had feared.

In the crowded airport it's quite different; we queue up at the customs, elbow our way to pick up the cases, queue up again for luggage inspection: a chalked "B" on our bag and we can go. That's it, then, here we are in Burkina Faso!

At the airport gates, taxis seek passengers, others flourish boards with names, and the travellers try to see which applies - everyone seeking something. Finally, far behind, there appear three smiling faces and our name scribbled in ballpoint on a sheet of paper. That does our hearts good! It's John & Lise, missionaries at SIM, who have come to meet us with their daughter.

We drive through the town in an air-conditioned jeep, but can't see much; it's dark, and the streets are ill lit. What strikes me though, are the wooden houses and shops with lots of youngsters at the roadside, selling telephone cards and paper hankies (100 Fr CFA - 15 cents a packet).

Our welcomers, embarassed but smiling, say our schedule has already changed: we're not going to Piela next week, but Mahadaga tomorrow morning at 6.15 am. We have to unpack our suitcases and repack a small bag suitable for the 8 hour bus ride awaiting us - the embarassed smile is understandable. That's what Africa is like! It seems that's what being a missionary means.... It's now midnight (2 a.m. in France), everything is ready for us to leave, but we'll have only five hours of sleep before we go.

Mahadaga is two hours away from the nearest tarred road, 30 km from the nearest telephone, that is an hour of dirt track. In Burkina, every trip depends on the state of the road, the vehicle and the people you meet, so we don't speak of kms, but hours spent travelling. It is the bush.

On arrival we join some youngsters from a church in Gap (France) who have come to help Françoise in her project: 'Forward! the Handicapped'. Françoise has been there for 23 years: she's a SIM missionary, nurse and midwife; she has set up a First Aid and Health Centre with a maternity section, visited by thousands of patients each month. When the locals allowed her to realise her plan, she established a Christian centre for handicapped people as well.

We saw a centre for motor re-education, and artificial limbs. Here they care for but babies, but older children too; there is a primary school: the little ones are boarded out in village families; there's a class for deaf and dumb children, another this year for the blind, a library to encourage reading and Christian reflection, a rehabilitation centre where adults are trained in arts & crafts together with an agricultural plan for drying mangoes and a tree nursery, (the aim is to finance the handicapped centre). Next academic year, a college (for 11-14 year olds) is planned.

Françoise has trained a team of professionals to work with her in the centre, but also outside: they visit the surrounding villages and try to reach the furthest homes in order to seek out handicapped children at birth, to follow their development at home and teach the parents how to help them grow, giving them necessary treatment, financing the hospital and artificial limbs in cases of need - and bearing the gospel. One can understand how difficult, it is since these children are considered a dishonour to their families, so they are hidden away from strangers.

We were able to go with them on a visit - and I shall always remember the sparkling eyes & cries of joy from a ten year old girl suffering from lack of cerebral motricity, unable to walk, speak or use her arms normally, to whom we gave some toys and a wheel chair; and the proud embarrassment of her mother who was able to wheel her out for the first time, without carrying a child much too heavy for her. Surrounded by the neighbouring children running and laughing, her smile was enormous. Two lives transformed.

With Françoise we were also able to take some of the children from the centre to bathe in a pool at the foot of a waterfall. Over and above the beauty of the spot, what joy to push these handicapped children round in the water, coiled in their inflated tyres or hanging on to inflatable mattresses.

The rain soaked roads gave us the opportunity to stay a few more days in Mahadaga, but then we had to leave the goats guinea fowls, cows and donkeys raised in semi-freedom, the children running (with our own daughter) round the village, like a big garden, without any fear of cars since they do not exist here, people coming to sit on our porch and pass the time of day and many other little blessings.

So here we are again at the Ouagdougou Mission Guest House with warm showers, Internet, fresh baked bread and air-conditioned shops, anew, part of our daily life.

This is where our prospection began, with meeting the local missionaries, for the first time on our trip. As the days fly by, we meet:

Ezekiel and Rachel, who work as Christian family counsellors (with families, couples and churches, preventing AI Ds, professional training etc).

Jean, who has temporarily left his post as Sunday school teacher for the SIM to set up a programme called SIM Tec (training in Computer Science and English at low cost, based on Biblical material in order to spread the Gospel).

Joseph, a pastor for young people, who has a short term plan for a children's centre dispensing evening courses for the young, for opportunities of sport, a library, for sharing the Gospel - the most urgent topic of prayer being the acquisition of a piece of land where the centre could be built.

Jacob et Rachel, Nigerian missionnaries who work with prostitutes (including getting to know them through sharing the Gospel) followed by lodging those who want to leave the streets in a house outside the town, which also takes in their children if they are still walking the streets. They are bought back from their "boss" if necessary, and trained in some trade. Since their financial backing was insufficient for all their needs, Jacob and Rachel have set up a primary school in their own home which they teach themselves. We met a fair number of prostitutes during an evening of street evangelisation; most of them are Nigerians washed up in Ouagadougou after believing promises of work in the West.

Janet, a Canadian missionary working with children in SIM churches. She organises Sunday schools, trains leaders, children's clubs; her driving mission is to use nothing but cheap material she can find close at hand. More than half the population is under 15.

Stella, also a Canadian missionary working with gariboubés (children from Coranic schools forced by their teacher into begging. This has two aims: to teach the children humility and let them be a blessing for their seniors, because by giving alms, they find their way to paradise)....Often their parents, who are very poor and live several hours away by road, do not know what is going on and believe their children are receiving a good education.

Within the framework of SIM again we were able to take part in a youth camp with 200 participants; later we met Amidou, president of the SIM churches in Burkina Faso, who explained to us the needs of the young in terms of group organisation, youth hostels, places for evangelisation and support for young Christians, where debates and Bible studies are held, with a free library available, as well as other activities.

We had another opportunity to leave the capital and visit Diébougou, a middle-sized town on the road to the Ivory Coast, to see Oscar working for the CITA (he came to our church at St Marc's in 2003). So we were able to discover another part of Burkina and especially encourage the brothers and teachers of the Christian college which St Marc's was already supporting financially last year. Teaching material in this technical college is very different from what one might expect in France, and is composed of a heap of "bits and pieces", remains of old bikes and mobylettes in the mech-anical workshop; a few hand tools in the carpenters' shop, too far from the school to benefit from electricity and frequently pillaged; a masonry workshop in the open air, where the bricks and mortar are carefully tidied away after each session to protect them from theft....

Young people trained here to become professionals in the style of their country: they are capable of repairing and building with the means to hand. As well as becoming competent in their professional role, they also become independent.

Aside from the number of people we met and the extent of the different things they undertake, we were struck by the extreme poverty of the regions visited, but we shall especially remember the welcome and generosity of the Burkinabés and the love and time lavished on us by the church.

The traditional homes we saw most frequently are a huddle of earth, bricks and straw; the bedding is reduced to a simple mat on the floor; food is not very varied and a chunk of meat a luxury. Notwithstanding, the Burkinabé greets you with a big smile and asks for news from your country and of your family. He is delighted to open up his house and entertains you with lavish hospitality even if it consumes his best food, and leaves him with nothing to eat for the rest of the week. The missionaries and the faithful who greeted us each gave unstintingly of their time, answering our questions and taking everything we expected into account. They were always there when we felt ill or tired, they supported and encouraged us.

We are grateful to the members of our congregation who have supported us financially and in prayer. We felt borne aloft, encouraged and loved by our family in Christ. To them be our gratitude thanks and brotherly love.

To God be the glory.

For further information please read our family missionary project.
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