New Life

Maliki had longed to share his faith in Jesus with his family for a number of years. God placed it on his heart to go to his home town of Silorola to share the goods news, so last year Maliki traveled to Silorola along with MB Mission church planter Phil Bergen.

They shared the message of the gospel with a group of Maliki’s family and neighbors of all ages. God worked powerfully during this time, but most people were not yet ready to follow Jesus. When Maliki read the Great Commission to the group, the head of the courtyard said, “We believe what God’s Word says. But we can’t call ourselves Christians yet. Jesus himself told his followers to go make disciples, teaching them to obey all things that he had commanded. Shouldn’t we be taught first before we start saying we are Christians?”

So Maliki, Phil and Pastor Madou returned again this year to go through the book of Matthew together with Maliki’s family and neighbors. During this time, the Holy Spirit opened the hearts of many people to understand the truth of God’s word.

After his first week of teaching, Pastor Madou asked everyone in the group, one by one, if they were ready to commit themselves to the Jesus whose teachings they now understood. Eight out of ten people responded that they wanted to follow Jesus, including Maliki’s mother and brother. And six of these people wanted to go straight into a baptism class!

Pastor Madou spent another week in Silorola teaching a baptism course to prepare these new believers to take this next step of faith, and they were baptized on Easter Sunday!

It is not easy for people in Burkina Faso to step away from the mosque and the fetishes that so many people believe in. But God has revealed Himself to these new believers and they now recognize their need for Christ. They understand that they can not be saved through doing good deeds, and know that salvation only comes from faith in Jesus.

The town of Silorola now has its first evangelical church – the transformation of this community has begun! Pray that God will empower these new believers to stand firm in the truth and that He will protect them from any of Satan’s efforts to discourage their faith. Praise God for what He is doing in Silorola and pray that His Spirit will continue to move through this town, causing growth and new life in Christ!

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” - Isaiah 55:10-11