The church in Burkina Faso has been in existence for more than 200 years. The Catholics first came with the French colonists in the late 1800s, and Protestant, evangelicals would follow. By the 1920s, congregations were worshipping in most of the regions of the country.

Clear and Simple Media has been only a recent addition to the landscape. During a story-development trip in 2015, Simple Truths was put into the hands of a pastor in Banfora to see if he thought the book would be helpful to his new and growing congregation. Since that time, CSM has completed five translation projects and is in the midst of three more. That pastor was Dieudonné Somé. In fact, he was so enthused about the project, he and two other church leaders stayed awake for two nights working to finish the first draft of the Dyula (Jula) translation.

In the recent CSM Africa meeting in Ouagadougou, we heard reports about three of those languages: Pougouli, Cerma, and Bwaba. Some of the most interesting and encouraging conversation actually came from what was thought to be bad news initially. The Pougouli translation, which we had been working on since April, would not be ready for at least another month. The explanation, however, was the encouraging part of the report. The reason for the delay is, “we have secured the best translator in that language. He is very busy. We could get someone else, but we think the translation would not be as good. So, for the quality, we will wait.” That bit of news came from Dieudonné, who since that Dyula work, has helped us manage four other projects to date. He reviewed the processes and quality assurance guidelines that we had previously agreed to and felt that we must be strict to keep them. “If we make compromise, it will not be a good idea.”

While the Pougouli church is anxious to receive the “little books”, it is good to know that the process intended to put our best work into their hands is not being compromised.

Some things are worth the wait.