“Culture Shock!”

          Culture shock? After more than 5 ½ years on the field? Absolutely! But this time the culture shock was not the realization of a new element of the Burkinabe culture, but the uncovering of a number of evil Burkinabe cultural norms among our best and brightest.
          Though you never received it, I sat down to write one last letter in September requesting that you all pray for Pierre and Roger, that they’d keep their lives pure in the future given that moral failure is the leading cause of ministry casualties here in Africa. I did so believing, however, that with just a couple of months to go they had both at least made it to their ordinations without having disqualified themselves from ministry. But before I could get my September prayer letter out, a missionary friend called to ask for a face to face meeting. I knew his request had to mean that something unpleasant was coming, but I had no idea that he was about to inform me that he’d heard through the grapevine that Pierre had illegitimately fathered a child three years ago and that he’d kept his sin, his relationship with the girl, and the baby all a secret from me for that entire time.
          When I called Pierre to confront him, the names of witnesses were not necessary, he just responded honestly to each question. What hurt the most, however, was hearing that same old foolish self-serving Burkinabe custom of attempting to make the missionary believe that his being kept in the dark was for his own benefit and that lying to protect one’s personal interests is “normal”. Pierre said he hadn’t confessed his error to me, in spite of our emphasizing nearly every class period the need to expose and deal with sin and that no error is beyond fixing if confessed and abandoned (Though there are often lasting consequences), because he didn’t want to discourage me (Apparently all of the other students knew as well but were also protecting the poor old missionary from the truth). I asked, in response: “You don’t think I’m discouraged now when I’ll be leaving the field in two months and must now deal with a very serious and complicated disciplinary issue in a remote village church and replace the church’s pastor?”
          Pierre is being replaced by his two cousins, Benoit and Salif, who were also trained for ministry last year. Neither has the practical experience that Pierre has, but with just less than a month left before our departure now, we have no choice.
         The one morsel of good news in all of this, however, is that Pierre has really humbled himself, asked for forgiveness, and has agreed to the conditions both of his restoration to his local church and to the ministry. He and Dianne, a member of another independent Baptist church, will soon be legalizing their marriage and then Pierre will support his cousins as co-pastors of the Babo church for one year. He has already confessed his sin before the church and asked the church’s forgiveness. Pierre will not be able to hold any position of leadership but will be required to be absolutely faithful during that one year probation period. If after that year the church determines that Pierre has done everything possible to right his wrong and that he has proven himself to be back on the right track he may be considered a ministry candidate again.
         As you might imagine, we have really been scrambling since having written that September letter that never got out to try to right the ship. Roger survived his interrogation last week and is ready to be ordained on November 15th, and we will be making a trip to Babo to interrogate both Benoit and Salif this weekend so that they too may be ordained during Pastor Matt Keller’s (My former sending pastor) November visit to Burkina.
           We had really hoped to just kind of coast into this furlough, but doing so was obviously not the Lord’s plan. Nevertheless we’re looking forward to some serious R & H (Running & Hiding) when we arrive back in the States on November 19th. Your prayers have, no doubt, sustained us through this frustrating and disorienting time. Please continue to pray that we’ll finish this well and that we’ll see the Lord’s hand where it seems that we have fallen short. This is His work, and we can honestly say, at this point, that if it is going to succeed He’ll have to do it! Thank you for your faithfulness!

Partners,
John & Tammy Cooley