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By Don Meyer
GAMBOULA, CAR (April 16) - Fearful of bandits and seeking relief from an ever-encroaching desert, the nomadic Fulani are seeking refuge in a different area of the Central African Republic (CAR) where new and unfamiliar challenges are reshaping their lives and at the same time opening doors for ministry.
It is against this backdrop that Evangelical Covenant Church missionaries Roy and Aleta Danforth are developing inroads to share the gospel through education in areas of agriculture, nutrition and hygiene.
Covenant World Mission Executive Minister Curt Peterson and his wife, Martie, had a first-hand look at both the challenges and the Danforths' work during a visit to the region near the end of March, accompanied by Pete Ekstrand, Africa regional coordinator. It was Peterson's first visit to that area of ministry and Ekstrand's first visit in some four years. (Top photo shows Martie, Curt and Aleta).
The Petersons arrived in Yaounde, Cameroon, on March 29. The following day they arrived in Gamboula following a two-hour flight, returning to Yaounde on March 31. While in Yaounde, they visited the Rain Forest International School where the Covenant missionary children attend boarding school. Peterson later spoke during the April 2-7 All-Africa Covenant missionary fellowship and spiritual retreat.
Upon arrival in Gamboula, the group was met by a delegation from the Evangelical Baptist Church (EEB), known as Eglise Evangelique Baptiste. The delegation included EEB President Valentin-Betale, Vice President Lazare Nambena, and Revs. David Coursou and Jean Noel Ngbeme Boda. The EEB is the Covenant's national church partner in western CAR, founded by the Swedish Baptist Mission now known as INTERACT. The EEB national church includes approximately 70,000 members in western CAR.
The Fulani people have been a mission priority for the EEB over the 22 years the organization has provided outreach ministries in that part of the country. One goal of the visit with the EEB delegation was to discuss the nature of the partnership between Covenant World Mission and the EEB, especially future opportunities for ministry partnerships, Ekstrand noted.
While in Gamboula, Curt Peterson, Roy Danforth and Ekstrand visited a nearby Fulani village and one man's exemplary fruit tree garden. Martie and Aleta visited several women and their children.
The Danforth's involvement with this particular group was sparked by a visit from a Fulani chief about four years ago, early in the Danforths' last mission term. The local chief asked Roy to teach the people how to farm. These Fulani, who left northern CAR to escape bandits in the search for grazing land for their cattle, found themselves in a more tropical area that is wetter and prone to tropical disease that began killing off the cattle.
The changing lifestyle brought about by climate and disease drove more and more Fulani people to the EEB-operated hospital, suffering from malnutrition. That created opportunities for the Danforths to initiative educational programs – Roy teaching the people how to plant crops (especially fruit trees) and Aleta teaching about nutrition and hygiene.
The educational programs provide a key opportunity to share God's love. It's about compassion, Roy emphasizes, "showing God's love of wanting to help learn how to feed themselves properly." The first day of the three-day educational seminars is spent talking about God's love and compassion. "We see a big interest and changes in their attitudes to one another following these seminars," Danforth notes. Seminars offered to the Fulani also have included local Gbaya people and emphasize the importance of working together to solve their problems and meet their collective needs.
Sharing the story of Jesus and his love is no simple matter, considering that 99.9 per cent of the Fulani are Muslim, Ekstrand observes. "Compassion ministry opens the door to friendships through building the Fulani's' trust and confidence in the missionaries," he notes. "The ultimate goal is to develop a sense of community and working together and thereby share the gospel in a holistic way."
The hospital is another key factor in outreach efforts, according to Ekstrand. "The Fulani trust the doctors and their medicines," he says. "Thus, while the overall percentage of Fulani in the local population is low, the percentage at the hospital is disproportionately higher."
Aleta works at a nutrition center that serves as a rehabilitation center for children, particularly Fulani children because so many are malnourished. She helps teach nutrition and hygiene to Fulani women, but says her main purpose is to make friends through these contacts and share Jesus' love with the women. Some eventually stop to visit her at the Danforth home, sitting and talking, often watching the Jesus film and sharing their reactions. (Bottom photo shows Aleta talking with some of the Fulani women).
"Watching the Fulani women and children interact with Aleta, it is clear that she is loved and adored by them," Ekstrand observed.