Thank you to all of you who have been praying for me (Katy) to complete the French language program. I have been evaluated at capable-high and am officially done with formal French sessions!
Now that both Cameron and I have acquired this level of French, our eyes are even more on Burkina Faso, where we plan to work with 2 ladies in a village that does not have the Bible in their language, nor a body of believers. The 2 ladies are in the process of having their village houses built right now and have already spent time staying in villagers’ homes and have begun learning the language.
Our family’s next step is to move to a town in Burkina, not far from their village. Our plan is to spend about a year there before taking a trip to the States, then moving into the village. We have 2 main reasons for wanting to spend some time in town before diving into the village:
1. A support system/relationships – We will be in a village surrounded by non-believers and feel it is important for us to have a Christian support system in the nearby town that can encourage and counsel us. Please pray God provides a church and fellow-believers for us to draw close to in our time there.
2. To learn the trade language – Just like there’s a trade language here (Wolof) that’s used and better known to many people even than French, there’s also a trade language there (Jula) that is used at the market, in most churches, and in many settings. Because we hope to live in Burkina for years and years to come, we feel like knowing at least some Jula, along with French, will help us have deeper relationships with people in town, and help us when we have things outside of the village we need to do.
The end of April is our host family’s sister’s wedding here in Senegal, so we will be staying here until then. In May we’ll make our way to Burkina Faso and begin another adventure!
Bye-bye ocean…Burkina is a land-locked country.