BURKINA FASO: Seven Servants Go Home

Source: Mission Network News, January 20, 2016

Burkina Faso ends three days of national mourning today.

The president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country’s borders after Islamic militants killed at least 28 people last week.

Six of those who died were from Canada, on a mission trip, while a seventh was a U.S. missionary. According to Brietbart and World Watch Monitor, the seventh victim was 45-year-old Michael Riddering, a native of Florida. He was in Ouagadougou with Pastor Valentin, his Burkinabe associate, to pick up a team of missionaries visiting from a church in Florida. They were early, so they stopped by the Cappuccino Cafe to wait.

Not long after they arrived, [al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] launched the attack, beginning with the café. Valentin called [Riddering’s wife] Amy to ask her to pray urgently, but the line went dead before he finished what he was saying. Valentin was eventually found and rescued by security forces. Mike was found in a morgue 24 hours later.

In the days following her husband’s death, the community the Ridderings served has come around Amy and are mourning with her. She posted on her Facebook page her struggle to come to grips with what happened, her love for Mike, and her hope in Christ. That came through yesterday, when amid her grief she posted this: “One of our ladies as the Women’s Center gave birth two days ago. She wanted me to name her child. Her name is Chantal Relwende. ‘Relwende’ … means ‘Lean on God.’”

» Read full story and see also Burkina Faso Dead Include Seven Mission Workers (World Watch Monitor) and note that on the same day as this attack, an Australian doctor and his wife were kidnapped in Ouagadougou. Please keep Ken and Jocelyn Elliot in your prayers.

» Readers might also be interested in an article from Florida’s Sun Sentinel newspaper honoring Michael Riddering and learning about the ministry with which he served, Sheltering Wings.

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