| On January 1, 1921, Christian men and women arrived in Upper Volta which is now Burkina Faso in response to what they perceived to be God's call to reach a distant nation. Thus the Assemblies of God of Burkina Faso (AGBF) was born.;During the author's undergraduate and graduate studies, he noticed a lack of sources pertaining to the history of the AGBF. The author, a native of Burkina Faso who understands the culture, attributes the lack of these historical documents in his own country to the fact that in African countries, history is preserved orally rather than on paper. As the oral tradition is passed from generation to generation, the historical accounts either become obscured or they disappear altogether as the storytellers die. Thus, when the first generation of AGBF Christians in Burkina Faso died, much of their church's history was lost.;The only written sources of the AGBF's history were kept in the archives of the Assemblies of God Headquarters in Springfield, MO. The author spent two weeks searching these sources. In addition, this research is based on interviews with second and third generation believers in Burkina Faso; shortly after these interviews, these elderly individuals passed away.;The ultimate goal of this project is to publish a book on the history of the AGBF in order to provide a written account for the present and future believers of Burkina Faso. This dissertation will provide both a global and contextual perspective of the history and theology of AGBF. |
