Hi everyone! Yes, we
know, it’s been a while since our last post… and, yes, there has been a lot
happening in this part of the world. So,
a quick update is in order:
First, presidential elections are over, in theory the
political chaos of the last year is over.
Even though there was a lot of uncertainty associated with the
elections, there were no problems of any kind on the actual day. Everything remained completely peaceful,
happily! Our hope is that things settle
down so our preaching isn’t interrupted, of course!
Second, many have seen concerning news items about West
Africa recently. It’s true, there have
been some scary events in nearby countries recently. In these last days, scary things are
happening more and more often. However,
the situation here in Bobo remains quite safe.
We are 8 hours away from Bamako, where a recent attack happened, and
much further away from Nigeria with the infamous Boko Haram. Besides distance, we are also insulated by
virtue of Burkina’s government. They are
taking every precaution to ensure that nothing spills over from neighboring
countries. This means much more frequent
traffic stops to check ID's/ nationality as well as searching cars (police can search any car at any time here), visible police and military presence and a continued curfew from
1-4 AM throughout the country (truck loads of police with M-16’s patrol during
the night to dissuade any criminal element from using the cover of darkness to move about). Again happily, the
country got through it’s election without any problems, so that closes one
potential door to terrorist activity.
All in all, it’s just as safe here as anywhere else in the world.
Third, theocratic stuff, the best part! The next 2 months are very busy for us here
in Bobo, as we have a special visit by a Governing Body representative in 2
weeks (video broadcast from the branch) and our circuit assembly in
January. In addition to that, our
congregation also has CO visit in January.
Adding even more, we have the privilege of attending Pioneer School
again in a couple of weeks! All of the
permanent foreigners here in Bobo were invited this year, with the exception of
1 sister who went last year and 2 couples who just finished the Evangelizers’ School. Besides special events, we are also very
encouraged to see the young ones in our congregation increasing their
service. Those in the 16-25 age group
are making extensive use of the “presentoir” (witnessing cart) which is
stationed at our house. Some are using
vacation times to auxiliary pioneer, and even beginning to think about regular
pioneering after school. Nearly half of
our congregation is under 25, so there is a lot of work to do training and
teaching, but also a lot of potential!
That’s about it for us, for now. We apologize for the slowness in posting, and
complete lack of pictures on our blog recently!
