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Words and Wells

Digging a well is a wonderful way to show God’s love to the people of Burkina Faso.

By Doug Conkle who, with his wife, Karen, serves as the Alliance team lead in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second largest city.

Alliance team members in Bobo Dioulasso work among the agrarian Dogose, an animist people group with little Christian influence who follow West Africa’s predominant religion. In partnership with U.S. churches, the Bobo team shares the good news and digs wells in their drought-prone land; as a result, the gospel is slowly taking root.

Burkina Faso can go without rain for eight months of the year, so water supplies run quite low during the driest seasons. Increasing drought conditions are worsening this dire situation.

According to WaterAid,* almost a quarter of Burkina Faso’s population lacks access to safe water. Every year, 20,000 children under five years of age die from water-related diseases.

Water Fight

Carrying water from the new well in Sanoko

For a number of years, a catchment dug in a low-lying area was the only source of “clean” water for the 3,500 Dogose townspeople of Sanoko, located in the remote Comoe province in southwestern Burkina Faso. Before dawn, the women of the town lined up to collect the well’s seeping, muddy offerings.

During the last dry season, fights broke out when some of the women jumped to the front of the line or took too much water. It got so bad that the men were ready to go to battle for water rights.

Pastor Takes Action

Sanoko residents knew who could mediate the growing tensions—Alliance pastor Daniel Tou in nearby Sideradougou. Pastor Daniel was able to do more than that, obtaining funding through an Alliance church in the United States to get a well dug—a wonderful way to show God’s love to the Burkinabè.

Our Compassion and Mercy Associates team here partnered with Envision to install the cement-lined well. “The water is now clear,” the pastor said recently. “It’s like what comes out of a city faucet! The townspeople are now saying, ‘The Christians don’t just talk; they really care!’”

Please pray that many in Sanoko will turn to Christ through the gift of clean water from generous believers.

Hot Pepper Thirst

Janga believers, shown, are discipling the new converts in Piment.

Last year, a team from Stonecrest (Alliance) Community Church in Warren, New Jersey, visited here to see how God could use them to minister among the least-reached Dogose.

We were building a temporary church shelter for the village of Janga when villagers in Piment—which means “hot pepper” in the local language—asked us to dig them a well. We took the team to see this village, which is located at the end of potholed, washed-out road that is difficult to navigate.

This year when the Stonecrest team returned, they saw the completed well that they had financed and were greeted by new believers. The man who dug the well is a local Alliance pastor, Innocent, who is from the Dogose center of Oua. Piment villagers recalled how he spoke of the Living Water while he dug their well—by hand.

The Jesus Road

The Conkles, center, with the Stonecrest Community Church team

Pastor Innocent is an evangelist at heart. Last year, an elderly Fulani man was refused use of the wells in Ouo. He was amazed that the Christians let his cow-herding people use theirs. When his daughter became ill, he brought her to the pastor for prayer; she was healed and is now following Christ.

Because of Pastor Innocent’s witness in Piment, Adama, from the hunter caste, which is renowned for its use of magic powers, decided to begin walking “the Jesus road.” His family of 12 followed. After his conversion, Adama burned all of his occult fetishes at the church.

A concerned friend of Adama’s waited to see what would happen. Three weeks later, when no evil befell Adama or his family, the friend also accepted Christ—along with his family of nine!

* WaterAid Web site

Pray

“We do not yet have a church in Sanoko,” the author writes. “Please pray that the townsfolk will give land in response to the gift of the well.”The prayers of God’s people strengthen Alliance personnel to live and serve across the globe. Using the weekly Alliance Prayer Requests, join our worldwide family in praying for them.

Learn More

Check out how your church can engage in short-term team partnerships with Alliance workers on the field.

Read an article about how the good news has begun to reach the Dogose during the past several years.

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