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Triennial XI: Fulani Woman Makes First Visit to U.S.
By Craig Pinley
CHICAGO, IL (August 12, 2004) - Triennial XI, a ministry of Covenant Women
Ministries, has taken on a decidedly international flavor with more than
two dozen special international guests scheduled to be in attendance
during this week's event, which begins this evening and is expected to
draw nearly 1,300 women of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
None are more special, however, than Fatimata (Fati) Bande, a Fulani
woman whose participation in Triennial XI was made possible by a gift
from an anonymous donor. She is the first of the members of the Fulani
community working with Evangelical Covenant Church ministries to visit
the United States. (Top photo shows Fati and her son – lower photo shows
them in Chicago's new Millennium Park.)
Fati and her husband, Eli, are among a small percentage of those in
Muslim-dominated Burkina Faso professing a Christian faith – she met her
husband shortly after becoming a Christian. She traveled to the United
States with her infant son while her husband and another son stayed in
Burkina Faso.
After arriving in Chicago, Fati spoke at nearby Northbrook Covenant
Church last week before more than 70 people. She also visited Covenant
offices and last Friday was in Rockford, Illinois, to speak to local
Covenanters there. She traveled to Triennial XI from Minnesota with her
translator, Jill Johnson.
While in Chicago, Bande visited Jesus People USA Covenant Church in the
Uptown area, visited the John Hancock Building and spent time along
famed Michigan Avenue and the Lake Michigan shoreline.
"Everything I've done here I've enjoyed," she said. "Visiting Jesus
People USA's Sylvia House gave me a taste not only of rich America, but
of the suffering and poor. If you had told me there were poor people in
America, I wouldn't have believed you. I also found it
fun to go to the John Hancock Building and see the big lake from the top
. . . never rode on a plane or been in an elevator or escalator. The
tallest building in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso's capital) is only 12
floors high."
"I was struck first by her poise," said Ruth Hill after meeting Bande
and hearing her story. "Though this 23-year-old woman was experiencing
so many first-time experiences (an airplane, an elevator, automatic
doors, kitchen appliances), she was so composed," continued Hill, who
serves as executive minister of Covenant Women Ministries. "Secondly, I
was moved to hear that a Christian's simple question - 'Do you know that
Jesus loves you?' - began her journey into the family of God. May God
embolden me! Lastly, the cost she pays for following Jesus - abandonment
by her family - humbled us all."
Covenant Communications staff writer Craig Pinley interviewed Bande last
Friday afternoon with the assistance of her interpreter. Following are
question-and-answer highlights from that interview.
Q: How did you become a Christian?
Fati: I was born in a Muslim family. My father had two wives and
my mother had five children – three girls and two boys. The three girls
were older and they went
to school, but the two boys didn't have a chance to go to school. I went
to school and at the same time I studied the Koran. I went early in the
morning and . . . I'd go later in the evening with other people. I was
one of the most interested and eager students there. Despite that, I
didn't have a life that corresponded with what the Koran was teaching me.
I did bad things. When my father married his second wife, he abandoned
my mother and he stopped feeding us and supporting us. My mother started
selling (things) to feed us. That's when I quit school.
I was a bad child. My mother would take milk powder, add water and sell
it to people on the street. I stole that milk powder and sold it more
cheaply at school to the kids. My mother would beat me a lot to make
sure I'd quit stealing. My mother beat me up so much that she gave up
doing that after three and a half years because it did her no good. I
got used to having money while at school. At the time, my father owned a
boutique and
I'd steal money from him. But I was studying the Koran and I'd study and
practice the Koran with all of my heart. No one was telling us what was
good and what was bad. They just taught the words.
One day when I was 16 years old, my mother left to do her commerce – my
mother would go to places where there were gardens and sell to those
working in the gardens. There was a young man at one of the gardens who
said to me, "Do you know that Jesus loves you?" That got me thinking
about who is Jesus. The friend who helped me steal the milk powder, I
asked her one night to go to a (nearby) Assemblies of God church. We
left at night and we visited and then on a Sunday I visited for myself.
In church there were
people who approached and came alongside those wishing to make a
decision for Jesus. A young woman from the church came and told me that
Jesus was the only way. She asked me what the Koran taught about (the
concept of) the second death. And in that way I became a Christian.
Over the Sundays during the next month she would encourage me and in
that way Jesus transformed my life. All the beatings my mother gave me
did nothing to transform me; but in Jesus I was transformed. I didn't
steal anymore . . . and I think to myself that when I give to God, I ask
my husband to take out our tithe before we do anything else. Before, I
might have thought about stealing from the world. But now I think to
myself, regarding the tithe, "How could I possibly steal from God?" I
saw the beatings (both from her mother and later her father) as being
nothing. I want to grow in my faith and put my attentions there. I don't
want to grow with worldly things. I quit going to films.
Q: How did your husband come to the Christian faith and how did you
meet?
Fati: Eli is also from a Muslim family. And in all of the
villages around us, he's the only Christian Fulani. One time he went to
a village to look for some work . . . and he got to know some people and
make friends there. They invited him to church - the music
attracted him. The word of God that he heard then touched him . . . and
in that village he gave himself to Christ. When he returned home, the
family refused to receive him because he had turned towards Christ. My
husband's oldest brother beat him and chased him from the village. My
husband returned to the village where he was saved and lived with the
pastor. Six months later, the pastor went back to my husband's village
and asked
for pardon for my husband so he could return to the village. They
accepted his return, but because he had become a Christian, there wasn't
anyone in the village who would give their daughter to be his wife. He
was isolated. He wasn't seen as a son of the family and he lived in that
state for a long time. Eventually, they gave up treating him badly.
We grew up around 250 miles away from each other. My husband had left
his home village and went to Ouagoudou and then to Djibo. At the same
time, I went to Djibo on a bus. We were on the same bus and halfway
there we went off the bus for a lunch break. I had my brother with me
and had a Bible with me. My husband came where I was reading my Bible
and asked if I was a Christian? I said I wasn't, because I was afraid of
my little brother finding out I was a Christian. But when I pulled away
from my brother, I told my future husband I was actually a Christian but
hadn't told my family because I was a new Christian. I asked him if he
was a Christian and he said yes. We continued on our way and he
explained to me his ultimate destination and where he'd be staying. And
the next day I visited him at the home of a missionary colleague. He was
the first Christian Fulani man I had met. The church I had attended was
a Mossi Church, with a different language and culture.
I went to visit him a second time and told him when I'd be traveling to
Ouagoudou. It was the same day he would be going there, so we agreed to
take the same vehicle back. But (the next trip) he was late – he took a
later vehicle – and our vehicle got stuck in
the mud about 100 kilometers after we started. We spent the night in the
bush. His vehicle also became in disrepair and they spent the night in
the bush. We both eventually went to Ouagoudou, but we never saw each
other that time.
However, my husband found out from people . . . where I lived. He, along
with a Fulani pastor, came and visited me. They were both welcomed by my
family because they were
Fulani, but when they showed the family they were Christians, they said
they didn't want to enter into the affairs of Christian because they
were Muslim. My church took charge of matters at this point. They put
together a great deal of money (around $50) and two deacons accompanied
me . . . and my husband and I were married in 1998.
Q: How has Eli helped you in the faith?
Fati: He knows my weaknesses and when I do something that isn't
good, he tells me. Also, when I see him do something that may not be
good, I also tell him that's not good. We encourage each other in our
faith. If something's not right in our family, he prays for me and I
pray for him; we pray together. It's real good to have someone to
encourage you and show you what is good. And it's real good to have a
husband who can build a home with spirituality.
Q: Is there a Bible verse or are there character(s) or stories in the
Bible that are significant to you as you grow in faith?
Fati: Concerning our family life, it's the book of Proverbs that
I read and it helps me, especially Proverbs 31, about how a woman should
live. The story of Abraham, in particular, helps me. He didn't know
where he was going; he was old and didn't have a child and yet he still
had faith. Sometimes we as people want to see before we believe. But
Abraham, he believed before he saw. His story helps me a lot in
believing in God. Also, the story of the prophet Elisha, the one who
cured the Syrian (Namaan the leper) in 2 Kings, helps me. Elisha had the
gift of healing and God used it to help him and he was sure that the
grace of God helped him use it freely.
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