Mar 22: Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Africa
See Prayer Information
Geography
Area: 274,200 sq kmA landlocked country of the Sahel. Prone to drought and famine.
Population: 16,286,706 Annual Growth: 3.45%
Capital: Ougadougou
Urbanites: 20.4%
HDI Rank: 177 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)
Peoples
Peoples: 79 (35% unreached) All peoplesUnreached Peoples Prayer Card
Official language: French, spoken by a minority of the population. Trade languages Moore (the Mossi language), Jula in south and west Languages: 70 All languages
Religion
Largest Religion: Muslim| Religion | Pop % | Ann Gr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christians | 3,369,719 | 20.69 | 3.9 |
| Evangelicals | 1,441,771 | 8.9 | 4.1 |
| Muslim | 8,501,661 | 52.20 |
Answer to Prayer
The increase of Christianity, particularly evangelicals, has been sustained over several decades. The growth of the early 1990s may never be equalled. Nonetheless, evangelicals grew from 10,000 in 1960 to 1.44 million in 2010.For an additional Answer to Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.
Challenge for Prayer
The evangelical churches find themselves stretched by the growth of recent years. Failure to consolidate this growth has in some areas resulted in backsliding and losses to Islam. There are many needs:a) The crisis of leadership, generated by the rapid multiplication of churches since the early 1990s. Pray for Bible schools run by the major churches and missions in local languages and in French (SIM, CMA, AoG, WEC and Pentecostals), and pray for independent faculties such as the Institut Biblique Supérieur, Institut Biblique du Sahel andInstitut Logos. Pray for development of sustainable training programmes that suit the needs of churches and national believers.
b) Pray for church leaders at this vital time. Church growth has also created the great challenge of discipling many new believers. Pray for mature, godly wives for these pastors and evangelists who often struggle to find an appropriate helpmate. Pray for Christian leaders able to stand firm against idolatrous practices and against the pressures of living in a society that is predominantly Muslim, animist and tribally hierarchical.
c) Economic hardship is widespread in the Church, as in the rest of the nation. Pray that national believers may overcome a “poverty and dependence mentality”. Pray for sacrificial servant leadership, for microenterprise and international partnership projects and for corporate economic righteousness to be practiced by all Christians.
d) The growing AIDS crisis is being addressed by both government and Christian initiatives, but the challenge remains great. Estimates of the HIV rate range from 1.6% to over 10% of the adult population. Awareness, prevention and care are all being taken up by churches and missions.
For an additional 11 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.
