Fulani New Testament bible dedication

Last Saturday we attended a very special ceremony. A ceremony celebrating something that is literally going to change eternities. A ceremony that was a long time in the making...for it was the dedication of the New Testament to the Fulani people of Burkina Faso in their native Fulfulde language.

It's hard to find words to communicate the significance of this day. I have sat here and tried. I have typed out words and then deleted them...over and over and over. I find it so very hard to describe something that is beyond what words can convey. This day was so much more than a ceremony. It was so much more than a presentation of the New Testament. It was more than the songs we sang. It was more than the dancing done.

This day...was literally eternal life being born. It was people from all over the world standing shoulder to shoulder as witnesses that God does not neglect or forsake His people. It was the giving of the living Word of God.

"For the word of God is alive and active.

Sharper than any double-edged sword"  

Heb. 4:12a

Until this day the Fulani people of Burkina Faso have had no bible of their own. Nothing in the specific dialect of their language that they can read and understand. 

I come from a culture where I have no i-de-a what it is like to not have access to a bible. I mean, we have bibles. Period. They're everywhere. We can find bibles virtually anywhere and in a variety of ways...small, big, leather, engraved, varying colors, bibles for kids, teens, adults, study bibles, multiple translation bibles...I mean, the list is endless. Take your pick.

And we never give it any thought to just what it cost so that we might have His Word. Or the people who painstakingly slaved over accurately translating every.single.word of scripture so that we might have access to the Life it contains.

In the United States alone 93 percent of American households own at least one copy of the bible, and 84 percent own more than one. And the median number of bibles owned per household is four.

Yet until this day...the Fulani here haven't had any.

Oh how we take God's Word for granted. From the chair I'm sitting in right now I can turn my head and see three bibles tucked away on the book shelf. We have more. I don't know how many but it's a lot.

And it's with sadness and embarrassment that I admit that I have never even read it all. We have all these bibles at our disposal and yet they sit untouched. We have God's Word...His living and active word at our fingertips, and we just let it sit and collect dust! Many of us begrudgingly open it up out of obligation, and then close it five minutes later after we feel better about ourselves. We skim the verses or read only our favorite parts. And in doing so we commit an incredible injustice to the people who wrote down God's stories and history in obedience to the Lord, to the people who translated them so we might be able to learn from it, and to God Himself for discarding His words and life to us, which is for our benefit. We are willfully parched because we deny ourselves His water.

And I am no exception.

I have taken God's word for granted most of my life.

But my eyes have been opened. I can not look at it the same again. I can not sit and read in the morning, with the leather covers resting on my lap...and not be reminded of the gift it is that I have. Knowing so many people all over the world...do not have it. They are still waiting...waiting for God to raise up others who will come, and give up their lives, to make God's word accessible for all. There are people all over this world, who are waiting for someone to come, driven by a desire to proclaim and make known the life changing love of Jesus. So that they too, might know God more. There are people panting from thirst, who want nothing more than to drink of the Living water, but they can't because they don't have access to the Well.

Such was the case with the Fulani. Until...Saturday January 19th, 2013.

It was on this day that we gathered under these tents, with people from every corner of the earth in every shade of color speaking a variety of more languages than I can count, to join together as one...and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord and proclaim his faithfulness to His people.

"Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,  

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 

 in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,  

to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11

We celebrated together what so many people have spent years and years of their lives working to accomplish. These men and women gave up their lives...

...they left their countries, their homes, their families and friends, modern conveniences, accessible healthcare, Starbucks, televisions, hot water, air conditioning, safety, their cultures and native languages....to come here. They left everything behind...to come and serve the Fulani people.

 "If anyone would come after me, 

he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

For whoever wants to save his life will lost it, 

but whoever loses his life for me will find it."-Matt.16:24-25

And not just serve them...that was just the beginning. These people have sacrificed everything, surrendered their lives and made sacrifices to be here in ways that we will never fully know....to do life with them. They have spent years of their lives learning their native Fulfulde language in order to communicate. To understand them. To build relationships with them. To introduce Jesus to them.

Because they are driven by a desire to make Jesus known. So that all people, speaking all languages, might have an opportunity to know of God's great love for them.

This precious gal, now an old woman, came to Burkina Faso as a missionary in the 1950's. She lives here still. She has so far dedicated over fifty years of her life to serving the Fulani people. She decided, when she was a much younger lady, that she was gonna let God use her, for her whole life. And here she stood, on this day, with these people, to pray over them, in their native language in which she is fluent, in thankfulness for a day that the Lord was faithful to see them to.

This translation was started in the late 1970's by a missionary who wanted to see God's Word made available to all people. But after a series of setbacks and lack of support, the project was shelved. That man ended up leaving not to return until the year 2000, when he started the translation once again. This time, there was support...and after twelve grueling years of tireless effort...it was finally completed.

For the good work that was initially started over 30 years ago...God brought to completion on this day when His Word was presented to the Fulani people here in Burkina Faso.

"In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:4-6

Can I get an Amen?

After the ceremony I heard someone say that, "God speaks Fulfulde."
Just three words.
A simple truth.
But it communicates so much.

Because God does speak Fulfulde. He speaks Moore. He speaks French. He reads braille. He hears the thoughts of the deaf. And knows every language spoken and unspoken on the face of this planet. Their is no language that has gone unnoticed before Him. There is no people group unseen by Him. In the farthest corners of the earth, buried deep in the jungles of this world, in the most obscure and unknown countries across our planet....
God sees all.
He forgets none.
He loves all.
He desires for every.single.person to know Him. He wants the Animists to know Him. The Muslims. The Atheists. The blind and deaf. The orphans. The widows. The witchdoctors. The prostitutes. The pimps. The terrorists. The unreached people of the Amazon. The Christians. The rich and the poor. The young and the old. The white, the black and every variation of color in between.

Jesus died so that we all might have eternal life for those who put their hope in Him, and it's by all that he wants to be known. 

..."for God so loved the world..."

The world means all.

Every.single.person.

God is not biased. He shows no favoritism. He is not partial.

God will move heaven and earth so that every person in every corner of this world may come to know of Him. And He's on the move. He's doing it...here in Burkina Faso and all over other remote places in this world. He's the current that's silently but forcefully moving under the water. He's making ways where there were none before. He's tearing down barriers. He's building bridges. He's calling up people to go with Him. He will make a way. He will do whatever it takes, call upon whoever will go, move whatever mountain and destroy whatever roadblock stands in His way....

so that all people have the opportunity to know Him.

"Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand." Is. 14:24

And this ceremony shouted that truth from the flat planes of Burkina. God makes a way. No matter what. There is no one in His creation unseen by Him. No one is forgotten.

Not the Fulani. Not anyone.

And so together we sang, and danced and clapped and poured out prayers of thankfulness for that truth...  

"Praise the Lord, all you nations;
    extol him, all you peoples. 

For great is his love toward us,
    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever." 

Psalm 117:1-2

That's definitely something worth dancing for....Hallelujah.