International Bible Fellowship-our church

The International Bible Fellowship, or, IBF as we call it, is the name of our church here in Ouagadougou that we have attended for nearly three years.

I don't really know where to start in talking about IBF, and our experience there. But I guess I will start by saying that our time involved with this church has been one of the most rewarding and enriching times we've ever had at a church.

IBF isn't fancy. No, there is nothing fancy or modern about it. It is very basic. It is stripped bare of all the flashy gimmicks and concert shows that many churches use to draw in new people these days.

We gather each week in a rented building with sometimes (when it's working) one flushing toilet, and no working air conditioners in the Sunday school rooms except in the one designated for nursery (it's been a hot couple years teaching Sunday school I may say. ) There are two, maybe three, a.c units in the main room the congregation gathers but given the sweltering heat of Burkina, the poor quality of the ac's, the small size of the room, and the amount of people squished into it, and you have a lot of people who are sweating profusely before the first song has been sung.

We have a power point to read along the music lyrics. A guitar, an electric keyboard, and one singer to lead worship. Sometimes the power cuts in the middle of service (like Sunday) and sometimes fires start on the electric panels outside from the blazing heat (that happened twice, thank goodness someone had a fire extinguisher in their cars each time!)

My Sunday school room was overrun by ants most Sundays and there was a bee infestation in one of the classrooms upstairs. Sometimes there would be random squatters in the building, like the man Rebecca found sleeping in the upstairs hallway on Sunday when she arrived to set up for service.

This is not your typical church.

There are no paid staff members or even a pastor who works at the church. Everyone who serves, whether it be preaching, leading worship, teaching Sunday school, or setting up and tearing down are all there as volunteers. And that included me and Isaak. When we began attending IBF there was no toddler aged sunday school program available for that age group. All the kids from birth to six years old stayed in the nursery. Wanting Marvelly to have the opportunity while here to be taught the word of God on Sunday mornings I volunteered to help start and teach the Sunbeams class for kids aged 3-6yro.

Me and my class enjoying a Dum Dum sucker (for saying their bible verses) on my last Sunday teaching. 

I also had the privilege of running the hospitality ministry for IBF and being on the leadership team the last two years. Isaak was on rotation to help with setting up and tearing down before and after service and had the honor of leading service a couple times. Sydaleigh has been my helper on a few occasions in my Sunday school class, and while I was in Paris last month she had her first experience co-leading worship with Megan.

I can say without a doubt this is definitely the most involved we as a family have been with a church on a weekly basis. Our duties in serving certainly stretched us and taught us many things these past few years. And it has been such a privilege to be given the opportunities to serve such a wonderful community of believers.

We are not a big church. IBF has roughly 75 people attending (including kids). Some are regulars, some are not. It's a very transient community with people coming and going all the time, but it's a wonderful group of believers. This is the smallest church we have ever been a part of. But we haven't minded in the least.

IBF is a church, but really more of a family. It is a group of people who gather each week in a small room to worship and fellowship and go out in pockets to do life together during the week. It is a place where we can laugh and poke fun at each other from the pulpit. Where we can laugh when the powerpoint malfunctions and the music gets messed up. It is a place where our children sit with us during worship time and get to participate in collecting offering. It is a race for the children to get their hands raised first when the service leader is looking for two volunteers to pass the baskets. Each week someone is scheduled to bring a snack from home to share with the church following service while we stand around and fellowship outside. It is a place where the kids run around after church, climbing trees and chasing each other.

It is a place where we can breathe deeply and sigh in satisfaction as we enter through the doors each Sunday morning because it is home. It is a place to belong. It is a place to be known and know others in return. It is a place to laugh and worship and learn and grow and serve the Lord together.

Our family was welcomed into this body with open arms and we have felt the greatest sense of belonging while here.

It has also been so refreshing being a part of a church that is not only small, but is stripped bare of the show stopping entertainment like in the States. It has been the greatest experience being a part of a body of believers where you are forced to fellowship together in smaller numbers and approach the Lord in a truly simplistic and basic fashion.

We have attended many churches over the years in the States that have aimed to be current and relevant and hip in their worship and sermons and their approach to the congregation in order to boost attendance.

That is no longer something that appeals to us.

Our church in Burkina may not be fancy or have high tech equipment or coffee bars or light shows or indoor playgrounds. We may not sing the most current worship songs or have cool video segues to introduce the sermons.

But that's okay. Because in being a part of this body of believers and embracing what this church does have to offer (albeit minimal maybe from an outsiders perspective) we have found that worshipping and fellowshipping together is just as spiritually fulfilling and edifying and pleasing to God without all the gimmicks.  I have discovered the beauty in simplicity. In stripping away the excess and just approaching God with bareness and humility. Case in point....

During our last Sunday at IBF this week we sang the song The Heart of Worship.....

"When the music fades, and all is stripped away
and I simply come, longing just to bring
something that's of worth, that will bless your heart."

And then....the power went out. The lights went off. The keyboard and the microphone stopped. But the you what didn't stop? The worship. No one missed a beat. The whole congregation just kept right on singing, voices loud, hands raised high.

"I'll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself
is not what you have required, you search much deeper within
through the way things appear, you're looking into my heart
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
and it's all about You, all about You, Jesus."

What a cool moment. I love this church. I love the people here. People from all over the world, from all different denominations, casting aside what separates us and focusing on what unites us...and that's the Lord. We are not a perfect people and our church isn't perfect. We've had our ups and downs and frustrations like at any other place, but I love this church. I love the people. I love that God led us here. I'm so thankful for all the opportunities to be involved and serve and grow in not only our walk with the Lord but our relationships with other people. I thank Him so much for what this church has taught us, and for all the people in it who have loved us like Christ and walked beside us and encouraged us while on the journey here. And for our last Sunday at IBF I can't think of anything more fitting to represent our time here than this song, the power cut that happened in the middle of it, and all the people that we have stood shoulder to shoulder with who have impacted out time here in life changing ways.

When the music fades. When all is stopped away. And I simply come. Yes, simplicity, a stripping away of excess, that has been our experience with IBF, and all our time in Burkina these last few years. And what a rich and fulfilling experience it has been.

I sure will miss coming to church here each week. It has been the greatest joy.


*Before we arrived in Ouagadougou I had been informed by someone living here that there was an english speaking church that many of the missionaries attended. I didn't know the name of the church or where it was, but during Sydaleigh's open house at school that first year I wrongly went into the art teachers room wanting to talk with the teacher, thinking that she also taught first grade. It turns out she didn't teach first grade art. But the teacher did happen to be the same woman we were seated next to at the Rec Center the week before, and as we stood there briefly talking we recognized each other from the restaurant and it came up that my family was looking for a church....and she just so happen to attend the one we were inquiring about! We exchanged numbers and she called me one Sunday morning following our school encounter and gave us directions to the church, and even offered to pick us up since we didn't have our car yet. That wonderful woman was Megan, who would become one of my dearest friends. God is so good and clever in the ways He orchestrates friendships and brings people together =).