Pastor Bandiba and bringing beauty from ashes

Like many villages in Burkina Faso, Binadéni faced the onslaught of extremist violence. However, Pastor Bandiba still prays for the restoration of his church family – when beauty will come forth from ashes.

Before Pastor Bandiba* started work in Binadéni in 2002, the church was small – but a harvest awaited. As he began sharing the gospel, people were daily added to their number. Young people even started to plant churches elsewhere.

“I was joyful, continually thanking God because we were winning the whole village to God,” Bandiba remembers. For almost two decades, peace reigned in Binadéni.

Tremors

As the number of Christians in the village increased, as did reports of extremist attacks in nearby areas. Amongst the rising leaders in the church were two young men dear to Bandiba’s heart: Amadou and Jeremia, passionate youth fixed on gospel proclamation. “I had known them since their childhood, and I had seen how they gave themselves to the Lord until the day of their death.”

That day would come sooner than expected.

In May 2025, jihadists launched an assault on Binadéni. At the time, Bandiba was travelling to a neighbouring village. But on the way, his motorcycle broke down. “That’s when I saw people from our village on their motorcycles fleeing and shouting for others to flee as well!”

In Binadéni, the attackers had sought out Bandiba’s house and burnt it to the ground. After the attack, he finally made it home with one objective in mind: get to the church. But he wasn’t prepared for what was there.

“I saw bodies in the church covered by curtains,” he shares. Bandiba folded back the curtains and found them: Amadou and Jeremia.

“I lied down next to them,” he says. “I wished for death because at that moment, my life was useless. I had to be pulled out of there.”

Running the race

Pastor Bandiba’s house had been burnt to the ground in the attack, as he was known by the extremists to be the village’s pastor. So, Bandiba and his wife relocated to a nearby town where Amadou’s wife, Pogniagou, and his mother were there. When he arrived, he saw Pogniagou in the church. “She was crying with all her might. I held her until she could calm down,” he shares. “Afterwards, I went to console Amadou’s mother. But to my great surprise, she sat without crying. She asked people to help me rather than her. I couldn’t hold back my tears! Her words touched me deeply. She, who had lost her only child, wasn’t crying but was instead asking for help for me.”

The presence of other believers gave Bandiba and his wife the strength they needed to begin healing from their traumatic experience. “My fellow pastors said that Amadou and Jeremia died in the Lord. Those words helped me recover.”

With the support of your gifts and prayers, Bandiba and his wife began trauma counselling. “I had a hard time forgiving,” he shares. “If you are not healed, you cannot help anyone else. Now I am healed, and I am helping others. This training has allowed us to rebuild. We have regained a taste for life, and we help others to get back on their feet.”

Thanks to the help he received, Bandiba found the strength to encourage his church, too. “Amadou and Jeremiah finished their race well. May these two young people be a model of faith for us. Let us finish our race well like them.”

As they heal, Bandiba and the church look forward in faith to the restoration of their home, when songs of praise will once again resound from this resilient community of believers.

*Name changed for security reasons