No Longer A Flip Flop

I’m not sure if I had such a good time because I personally was enjoying the conference, or if it was just the fact that everyone else was enjoying it so much. No one in their right mind could have seen the joy these women had and not feel the contagious effort on their own heart. 

This past weekend in our town in Burkina Faso, about fifty women gathered from about twenty villages for the first ever women’s seminar associated with the evangelistic church movement. Considering that the vast majority of Christians and church attendants in our area are women, it was high time to launch a women’s ministry. And it was launched like a rocket, for every woman left with a fire blazing with smoke trailing! 

Planned, organized, and executed entirely by Burkinabé women, this seminar was perfect evidence of the fact that God’s kingdom is advancing in Burkina Faso, and local believers are taking charge and leading the way to minister to their own people. 

I remember one time having a conversation with an African colleague who lives among the dagara people but is not dagara herself. “If there is one thing I’ve noticed about the dagara people,” she said, “it’s that most people value my shoes more than a dagara woman.” She pointed to her simple, plastic black flip flops that she bought at the market for less than one US dollar. The lowest quality, the cheapest price. She added, “A dagara woman is normally not valued for more than her work in the kitchen and her place in bed.” 

But that’s not what God thinks. 

So this past weekend, I took buses from Togo to Burkina (that’s a whole another story) to attend our team’s first, but definitely not last, women’s seminar with over fifty dagara women who learned about their identity and their value in Christ. They learned that they have a very important role to play in their family, in their church, and in their community. And when value was spoken over them and into them, it changed the way they thought and felt, and you could see the difference in the way they carried themselves. And in the way they worshipped. 

Oh, how lively and joy-filled the worship! There was no standing still. Every in-between moment was spent in song and dance, elevating God with whole bodies and souls. One song in particular because the theme song for the weekend, a song that says, “I have gone through the whole world looking for a savior, and I have found no savior like Jesus Christ.” 

Knowing who you are changes things. Knowing Jesus helps us know who we are and the value we have and the reason we are alive. I saw the difference it made in fifty dagara women who had a light in their eyes, a bounce in their step, a lightness of spirit, and a sincerity of joyful praise because of discovering their worth in Jesus and their importance in his kingdom. They left that seminar like shooting stars, and I left feeling overjoyed because of their joy, and I was thankful to God for such a Spirit-filled event that was entirely led by Burkinabé women who also know their identity in Christ and are leading others to him.