THEN - AND NOW.....................................

Dad reminded me about a reunion I forgot - that was one of our first and it took place in Bamako, Mali.  We three African families all went to Mali - Albrights, Kennedys and us.  We rented out the GMU guest house for our week together. And Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy both flew in to spend a week with us there.  They and we knew the folks in charge of the GMU guest quarters and they went overboard to accommodate us and had us over for dinner one evening. Aunt Donna, Aunt Margot and I fixed all the meals. And mainly we just hung out together there at the compound. It was a fun time. Amazing how often we have been able to get together, given the fact that we have lived on different continents!

The year Grandma and Grandpa left Carlisle on the sly and drove down to Kissimmee to live was another time when we three missionary couples were at Council or maybe at HAMS.  Anyhow, we thought our parents were nicely settled in Carlisle but when we tried to call them all week, they never answered. (Those were the days before cell phones.)  Bubnas, Phenicies, Clousers and we were all in the same dorm and had a great week together.  When we got back to PA, we found that Grandpa had packed all their moveable belongings into his car, and off they went to Kissimmee.  It was not long after that that Grandpa Kennedy died there. 

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Recently, as we heard some of the happenings with families overseas with the Alliance, I began to think about the tremendous differences we have seen during the seventy five years I have been in missions, both as a child and as an adult.  The changes have been many.

NOW - It always amazes me how often some international workers find it necessary (or are asked)  to return to their country of origin - for sickness, children's needs, graduations, speaking opportunities, just vacations.  Money is not as tight as it used to be and friends and relatives love to make it possible for their missionaries to return to the U.S.  Churches often call home a favorite missionary and ask him to bring along an articulate national pastor to upgrade their missions conferences.

THEN - When you signed up for overseas missions, you left for a full term.  In Africa this was five years the first term (one in France) and then four years each succeeding term. In some countries of the world, the Alliance required six, seven, even eight years per term.  There was also a "time bank" which was kept in the same way the financial books of the mission were kept. You were required as a missionary to serve a full four year term to the day. There was an accounting book kept for this in the mission office.  If you had to go to the States early for some reason, you had to also return early in order to make up your time.

NOW -  In country travel is so much easier.  There are many paved roads, buses are in abundance, there are in country flights as well.  Roads that used to be dirt and gravel are now paved.  The old bridges that used to go out in the rainy season (and require a detour) are now built of steel and concrete and hold up year round.  Missionaries also frequently return to their home country early for various reasons. They do have to get permission to leave early, but it is always granted.

THEN - Communication was very poor.  Few international phone calls got through. We had cables which went quicker than letters, but some of them got terribly mixed up.  I remember once when Larry Wrights were on furlough and we got the word by cable that Larry Wright had died.  People sent condolences to Grace Wright and we were praying for her in her sorrow.....only to find out later that it was Harry Wright, an old, retired missionary, who had died - and not Larry.  So those cables were not very reliable!  We were called into Bobo from Santidougou to wait for a phone call one time and waited for ages for the call to get through - it was to tell us that Cheryl had had an emergency appendectomy but was doing OK.  We talked to her briefly in her hospital bed.

NOW - we have phones that really get through.  Everyone has a computer with Facebook and all kinds of programs.  There is SKYPE - free calling overseas!  There is Vonage, a very low cost system for international calls.  We are so thankful for those possibilities with three families of you overseas!   When my mother's father and mother died within a few weeks of each other, she never got the word for four months - it came via the mail carrier's mailbag to our station in Baramba. Once a week he walked into Koutiala and brought back any mail.  And that is how the cable got to her telling of the death of both her parents four months earlier. 

THEN - Food products were found locally.  Rice and sweet potatoes were grown by the local farmers, so we ate those.  Occasionally someone in a town would kill a cow and we could buy some beef,  but chickens were available and so we ate a lot of chicken.  You bought flour and sugar in bulk - a large sack, imported from France, which you kept in a barrel.  There were some local vegetables sold in the markets, canned foods from Europe were few and far between.  The diet was limited.

NOW - Even when we went to Burkina for our first term, I was amazed at the European proucts we could buy in the Lebanese stores and the Monoprix.  African farmers learned that the Europeans and Americans loved vegetables like potatoes and cauliflower and broccoli and salad fixings, so they began to raise those crops for sale. Today the Bobo and Ouaga markets are full of the most beautiful vegetables and fruit, bought by West Africans and Europeans and Americans. 

THEN -  Medical care was not readily available in West Africa. Doctors were few, meds hard to get, hospitals almost non-existent.  Our nurses ordered their meds from Europe or America and kept stocks on hand to treat the local population and their colleagues in the mission.   

NOW - Many small villages have a local pharmacy and pharmacies are in abundance in the larger cities.  There are many medical personnel who have been trained as well as doctors.   The larger cities have hospitals.  Peggy and Jetty established a medical center in Bobo and have trated many patients and saved lives.   Our Alliance church in Burkina is building a hospital. What a difference from the small back door dispensary that existed when we went to Burkina!  We saved many lives through the years with medical attention locally and emergency runs to the city hospital.

THEN - The mission was pre-dominant when we went to Burkina in the late 50's.  The mission made the decisions, the church was not organized. Santidougou district was the least important of all the areas where the mission and church had worked.  The Bobos were known by many to be a very backward people. The women wore bunches of leaves fore and aft and the men wore handspun cotton jockstraps, the children were for the most part without clothing. 

NOW - What a change. Just in our district of Santidougou and the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. The Bobos are now predominant in leadership in the Burkina Alliance church. One of our Bobos is now dean of the Trinity graduate school of theology in the U.S.  The director of the Maranatha Bible Institute is from our Bobo tribe. The director of ACCEDES is also one of our Bobo boys.  We have many educated pastors among our numerous district churches.  One of our men is a professor at Poundou Bible School.  We have pastors in many large city churches as well as in village churches.  Our church educational system has come a long ways.  We now have many Christian primary schools.  We praise God for the way He has blessed our people and the church in Burkina.  Going to Burkina now as an international worker, you have the firm foundation of the Burkina church on which to build.

THEN - The early believers in our churches were all from animistic backgrounds.  The church thought it was impossible for a Muslim to convert to Christ and Christianity. 

NOW -   But this began to change. Certainly the conversion of President Saye Zerbo was a help to the church, letting them see that if an important Muslim like the ex-president could become a Christian, then perhaps it was possible for more Muslim to come to Christ.  Our church is now full of converts from Islam. Through our TEE program we tried to help in understanding how to witness to Muslims through a course we wrote and produced - Taking the Good News To Muslims.  We now have Alliance pastors who come from Muslim backgrounds.  This has been a big step forward!

The "good ole days" were not always so good.  It has been a delight to see the missionary decrease and the local church leaders increase.  We are most blessed to have lived through this transition and see how God has blessed the Alliance Church of Burkina Faso.