Fruitful Partnerships for Eternity Between Côte d’Ivoire and Mali

The Christian and Missionary Alliance of Côte d’Ivoire advances in Papara in strengthening the faith of the brothers of the 12 villages closer to the border of Mali. Let’s pray so they may continue to reach them with the gospel.

Papara is an area located in the far north of Côte d’Ivoire. It is also the chief town of the Nafanan canton. The canton includes 12 villages. Its population is composed of indigenous Senoufo-Nafanan, Malians, Burkinabe, and other ethnic groups who have come to Côte d’Ivoire primarily for illegal gold panning. The Senoufo-Nafanan people are farmers, and their main crops are cashew nuts, cotton, rice, corn and peanuts.

The C&MA church of Côte d’Ivoire began an evangelistic campaign that resulted in the founding of a church in Papara in 2014. A year later, three other Christian communities were founded in the villages of Kokari, Iribasso, and Doubasso in partnership with the Yamoussoukro-N’zuéssi district.

After four years of theological training at the C&MA Bible Institute in Yamoussoukro, Pastor Konan Bruno Kouame was assigned as a missionary to Papara in September 2019. When he, his wife Akissi Bernadette Kouadio and their four children arrived there, they found a church of about sixty people. The congregation was unstable because of the numerous displacements caused by clandestine gold panning. The other three villages had churches primarily formed of indigenous Senoufo-Nafanan people with an average of ten people each, most of them women. Worship services in these villages were held in public squares or under mango trees.

The Papara region is close to the Mali border, which offers the possibility of reaching other areas, such as Tchongui and Kadjana. The evangelism team is 90% Malian and has been motivated by preaching and teaching to go on a mission to found new churches in Mali. Rev. Célestin Koffi, the coordinator for the AWF Africa Region, facilitated the work with the pastors of the C&MA church based in Sikasso, Mali. The exchanges were fruitful and instructive and led them to define the lines and perspectives of the missionary work for the coming years.

Pastor Kouame and his team have gained many lives for the Lord. They built a church for 200 people in Papara and churches with a 100-person capacity in each of the other villages. The construction of a community health center, a school, a training center for discipleship, and the initiation of community development projects are part of the fight against poverty in the area. They also need an adequate sound system and podium truck for their evangelistic campaigns.

Let us pray for the missionary work in Papara so that the Senoufo-Nafanan will be counted among the people reached by the gospel in the world. Pray also for the church so they keep bringing the love and care of Jesus to their people.