BURKINA FASO, West Africa (BP)--No one in the remote West African village wanted to be the first to follow Jesus. The choice could mean losing family, home, job, friends, children -- everything the Vigue people hold dear.
More than 8,000 Vigue (vee-gay) live in southern Burkina Faso scattered among 12 villages. Poor by Western standards, they live without electricity or running water, surviving as farmers. A mixture of Islam, spiritism and ignorance shields their hearts from the Gospel. Until recently, there were no known Christians among the Vigue.
That changed last year when short-term missions teams from Bartlett Baptist Church in Bartlett, Tenn., began to visit the Vigue and share the story of Jesus. The church is partnering with the International Mission Board to take the Good News to the Vigue because there are no full-time missionaries available to reach them.
Becky Babcock, director of missions at Bartlett, said virtually all the Vigue encountered by the church's missions teams know nothing of the Gospel. Since most Vigue cannot read or write, teams work with translators to tell oral Bible stories. God used Babcock's own witness to lead the first Vigue to Christ -- a woman named Safi who accepted Jesus as she and Babcock sat in the shade under a tree in Safi's compound. Read More
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