Barto

“Oooh, it is so good!” Barto said after playing one song on my guitar. I wanted to make an excuse and explain to Barto that my guitar is actually really cheap and on the low end of all guitars, but I couldn’t. It has all six strings and will stay in tune, making it the best guitar Barto had played in a long time.  

Some kids and toddlers from the orphanage wandered over to the table where Barto was playing, drawn by the delicate finger picking and sweet melodies. I have to admit, Barto did make my guitar sound really good.  

With three children sitting on his knees and six more pressed close around him, Barto belted out songs to Jesus in Moore. He made up a song that used each child’s name: “Latif, Jesus loves you. Steve, Jesus loves you. Mandina, Jesus loves you…” With each name, he turned to that child just in time to witness their huge smile at the sound of their name in the tune.

 

“What should I name my guitar?” I asked Barto sometime later. “It needs a good African name.” 

Barto’s guitar’s name is “God is good” in Moore, his tribal language. This is appropriate because just about every other sentence out of Barto’s mouth is, “God is so good!” 

Barto is twenty-two years old, or somewhere close to that I think. He watched his own mother die. Just a year ago, he was in a serious vehicle accident that killed his best friend at the age of nineteen and took his own hearing and vision on one side. But you would never know it when you listen to him sing and play for Jesus.  

Even when he talks about the accident, he smiles and says, “But God is so good.”

 

“Was there ever a day when you were angry? When you wondered why all this happened?” Tenielle asked him.  

He thought and replied, “No,” and I absolutely believed him. “He is God, and He is so good.” 

He became a Christian in 2006 after having dreams about Jesus. He said that he would feel such joy and peace in being near Jesus. He would also see images of the cross in his dreams, and sometimes there would be a guitar playing itself beneath the cross.  

“Then I gave my life to Jesus,” Barto recalled. “Now, whenever I play guitar, I remember that dream and how Jesus has saved me. God has done so much for me, I wonder, what can I give to Him? I can play guitar for Him.” He plays guitar for hours in the village every day, writing songs and singing for Jesus. He can even write songs on the spot.  

“Barto,” I said, “I read a Psalm this morning and I think it will make a good song. It goes like this: Trust in the Lord at all times. Pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.”  

“Refuge?” Barto asked, obviously not understanding the word in English.  

“It is like a safe place.” 

“Ohhhh….” He said, and then began to strum and sing.  

“Trust in the Lord every day

and you will stay in a safe place.” 

I nodded my head and joined in, harmonizing. I think the angels joined in, too. 

I have had so many great conversations with Barto. Once we talked about heaven. Barto is excited to go to heaven because he will get his other eye and ear back, so he won’t run into trees anymore. He laughed as he said it. “When do you want to go to heaven, Barto? Today?” Tenielle asked. “Right now!” Barto replied. “I want to go jump on Jesus!” That’s his way of saying that he wants to give Jesus a huge bear hug. Precious.  

We also talked about a prayer meeting that he went to at his church in the village. It began at 10 PM and lasted until 3 AM. “ When it was 3 am, I thought it was only midnight!” Barto exclaimed as if he still couldn’t believe it. “Time was so fast. Because it is so good to be with God.” 

Barto inspires me to love Jesus with all my heart, to offer Him all that I have to give, and to worship Him with every breath I take. He inspires me to believe in God’s goodness through any and every circumstance and to proclaim it with my words as often as I can.  

When Emily and I explained to Barto that we were waiting and listening to God to hear if He wants us to be missionaries in Burkina, he got really excited and said, “Oh, then I will pray and tell God to ask you to stay.” 

I have found the perfect name for my guitar. Barto.