LCMS World Mission Blog

I saw new faces at the recent seminary graduation ceremony that I had not seen before. When I inquired, I was informed that the new faces were those of members of two new churches that the students had been planting throughout the year. It was not a class assignment, nor even a part of their normal fieldwork, but at the beginning of this year several of the students began to travel to the town of Bomboake to do evangelism.

“This is no easy task for a full-time student who has assignments to complete during the weekend and whose sole mode of transportation is a bike. (Bomboake is about a 20-mile bike ride there and back from Dapaong, where the seminary is.) Planting these two churches on their own initiative took sacrifice and a conviction that what they were being taught at the C.L.E.T. is worth telling others about. I am proud of the students.

“The student who started the evangelism effort, Espoir Sawadogo, is himself from a newly planted Lutheran church in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Although only in the beginning Novice Program, he led other students in the Pastoral Program to get involved in the evangelism effort. His heart for evangelism has earned him the nickname ‘Missionary.’ Espoir (which means ‘hope’ in French) originally went to Bomboake per the request of a member from the church in Ouagadougou whose father was from Bomboake. This led to an opportunity to speak to them about the Good News of Jesus. And they wanted more. He biked to Bomboake several times during the month using ‘Good News’ journals as his evangelism tool. With time, other students became involved in the effort and two new church plants started in the area. The African Church and its leaders have a passion for the lost that can serve as an encouragement to those of us from Europe and the U.S. Praise be to God!”

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