Much of the ministry in which Dad and I were involved required travel. How thankful we are for God's protection as we travelled many miles by road and by plane to fulfil the ministries in which we were involved. Our lives were certainly never boring. As I read about the ministries you girls are having oveseas and the travel involved for many of you, I live again vicariously those days when I was on the road - or in the air - a lot in order to teach and encourage the church in Africa.
CPE was the francophone Africa publishing house and both Uncle Dave and I were on that board for some time. Being on an inter-church board like that gave me the gift of meeting African brothers and sisters from many nations. We had annual meetings at which top level decisions were made. CPE published some French TEE texts, which were used by several of our Alliance fields, so I had to be familiar with those. The Conservatice Baptist mission was the one who organized several of these inter-country ministries.
CEFCA was the brainchild of Marge Shelley, a Conservative Baptist missionary who had come to West Africa from Congo during the crisis down there. She was such a wonderful lady to work with. Her vision was to have a kind of graduate program for francophone Africans where they could do continuing studies and keep them fresh in ministry in their countries. She asked me if I would be professor for the school in the areas of Christian Education and TEE. What an honor and how it expanded my view of the church in Africa. We all lived together in the same large building bought by CEFCA, sleeping there, eating together and studying together. It was a very family atmosphere.
During our last couple of terms in Burkina, the new Alliance graduate program, FATEAC was established by Tite Tiénou, being supported by the various Alliance churches and missions. Another Alliance missionary and I were asked to be members of the board which met about every quarter at first, so I was in on the joy and planning - and sometimes pain - of those early days of our West Africa Seminary. One day there was a lot of disciussion by the committee about some issue, and the other missionary on the committee was opposed to the idea, but I voted with the African contingent. After the meeting he said to me, "" Why do you always side with the Africans when we vote on an issue?" And my answer was: "I thought that was why we are here - to help the African church realize their vision, not ours." We remained friends but did not have the same view of mission and church.
Tite was the director, and I loved working with him. I even had to fly back to Abidjan for a board meeting while I was on tour in the States on home assignment. I just missed a week of tour and flew to Abidjan for one week before returning to the States to finish up tour. Dad and I were back in Africa - at San Pedro for a year - when our new Seminary buildings were finished and ready to be dedicated. What a delight. I was even asked to pray during the ceremony - what an honor. Our Africa regional director at that time gave the message, and I complimented him afterwards on his good presentation. His answer: "Compliment your daughter, Debbi, she is the one who polished up my French for me!" What a beacon for Christian professional training the FATEAC has been. The last I heard, they had students from sixteen nations and several denominations studying there.
Back home in Burkina, I had the privilege - and fun - of being a representative of our mission (along with a church rep) to the bi-annual Burkina Literacy association. We met in the university meeting hall, several hundreds of us from all over the country of Burkina. This was happening during the Sankara years when everyone was called "Camarade". We got to know each other during breaks and it was a very helpful meeting to attend for contacts and information. Dad and I usually attended together. They were wanting to set up a steering committee for the organization and people were sharing names from the audience, which were then seconded. One of the University profs had been talking to me and he proposed my name for the comittee. He did not know exactly how to present my name, and finally came up with Madame Carmarade Pasteur Nancy Pierce! That is the most flowery introduction I ever had anywhere! Needless to say, I declined the nomination - it would have been interesting but I did not have time for it.
The Same university prof tried to get me to do some teaching in linguiistics for them at the University. I declined on the basis of not having a maitrise, even though I have some masters credits to my count. He said they would work it out with what I had if I would come and teach. I appreciated the honor but there was no way I could do that. Just before we retired - when I was deep in finishing our translation project - I got a call asking if I would join a group of educational professionals in Ouaga for a week of meetings to decide about putting a translation major in the univesity. This was being sponsored by the Dutch goverenment. Dad encouraged me to accept. We stayed with Clousers so had fun family time and I spent each day contributing what I could to the colloque. I was one of three "translators"- the other two were Burkinabe. As you can see, I had lots of variety in my life.
That same year, as I was working against time to finish our translation, we had another call - this time from local educators. The University of Paris was funding and sending people to an all day seminar on various historical subjects. They asked Dad if I would be willing to present a paper on how the Protestant church began in Burkina. A paper in French - presented to a group of highly educated people - Burkinabe and French! What a challenge and my first reaction was to say "No". But Dad thought I should do it, so I took time to prepare the paper and was accompanied by Dad and Bamiky and Prosper and Robert Sanou in a public building in Bobo where the conference was being held. I read my paper and it was really an interesting experience for me. I sat on the platform, along with all Burkiabe, most of whom I had known through the years. They were most encouraging in their support of me when I had to answer some hard questions after the paper was read. When asked a question about the conflict of animism and Christianity, I referred the question to Pastor Bamiky who answered for me. Another interesting experience in a long life of variety of ministry in Burkina Faso and other countries in Africa. I was indeed blessed!
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