The Gibsons online blog

Midday and we were still three hours away from Djibo. My colleague and I were on a mission to fetch the new pastor's family, along with most of his worldly belongings and bring them all up to Djibo. As I drove along the monotonously straight roads I reflected on the events we were involved in. Never in the history of the Fulani church in Djibo have they had their own pastor. In fact, to my knowledge, I don't think Djibo has ever had a Fulani pastor before. Mossi ministers, yes, in the AOG church, but never a Fulani. And here we were involved in the process of installing the first Fulani pastor in this predominantly Fulani town. I must say I felt quite honoured to be present at this significant milestone in the church's history.

The following weekend was a time of celebration as the small Fulani church gathered on the Friday evening in our compound for a meal in order to welcome Jodoma, their new Pastor. On the Sunday the celebrations continued as we held the induction service in our grass mat hanger (church) near to the centre of town. It was thrilling to see a number of the local Mossi AOG pastors there to show their support for the church's new pastor as he was officially appointed in his new role. Nobody really seemed to mind the three hour service even though everyone was dripping with sweat due to the heat and humidity. The events ended with another meal accompanied by goat meat all swilled down with a creamy looking millet drink called zonkomre.

The events were a great success, now comes the hard bit… Pastoring a small church on the edge of the Sahara.