Since 2015, Clear and Simple Media books have been translated and used in Burkina Faso. The first translations of Simple Truths for the New Believer were completed in French, Moore’, and Jula and immediately put into use by pastors and church planters there. Since that time, because of the work of our friends Nebie Badiou and Dieudonne Somé, we have added nearly a dozen additional languages. The books have become a staple in the toolbox of many church leaders helping new believers begin their faith journey. Like most projects in West Africa, the latest project found us.

While Pastor Nebié was at a conference, he was engaged in conversation with a small group of Christian leaders. They discussed how to disciple people who had only recently come to faith in Jesus from Islam or one of the tribal religions so common in West Africa. When Nebié mentioned the book, “Simple Truths,” a pastor/translator told him that he knew of the book and, in fact, had already begun translating it into his home language, Bissa Barka.

Bissa-Barka is one of three dialects of the Bissa language. Bissa is a Mande ethnic group of south-central Burkina Faso, northeastern Ghana, and the northernmost tip of Togo. The Bissa people are primarily subsistence farmers. The Joshua Project puts the population of the Bissa people at 1.1 million people. There are believers among the Bissa and the Bissa are catagorized as a significantly reached people group as up to 22% of the Bissa in Burkina Faso and Togo identify as Christian. SIL/Wycliffe has been working among the Bissa people for decades. A New Testament has been completed in one of the Bissa dialects, as has the Jesus Film. But, as our friends in Burkina Faso explain, simple tools that are user-friendly, faithful to the scripture, and easy for pastors and workers to use to help new Christians are few. And so, we will once again join our friends in West Africa to put the “little book” into the hands of people asking for it.

We do not have final cost estimates for completing the translation and printing the first 2,500 books, but we began asking God to supply the funds weeks ago.