VIOLENCE IN BURKINA FASO IS AFFECTING ALLIANCE CHURCHES
Central Alliance Church in Burkina Faso and Alliance Church Appleton have been sister churches for over 16 years. Burkina Faso, located in West Africa, was a relatively peaceful country until 2016 when Islamic extremists began attacking Burkina residents. Since that time, over two million people have been forced to leave their homes as terrorists moved in, looting, stealing, and burning their homes, crops, and livestock. In total, 26,000 people have lost their lives.  

In the last three years, terrorists have increased violence targeted at Christians, and our brothers and sisters in the Burkina Alliance Churches have been affected:

• 163 Alliance Churches have been forced to close
• Nine Alliance pastors and 37 Alliance church members have been killed
• 189 Alliance pastors and over 19,000 church members have been displaced
• One Alliance Pastor is still missing

PRAY
Due to the urgency of this situation, Alliance Church is taking time this week and in the coming weeks to diligently pray for Burkina.

• Pray that the leaders of the Islamist armed groups would immediately end these deadly attacks on civilians.
• Pray for safety and encouragement for the Burkina Alliance Church pastors and church members.
• Pray for emergency relief, church reconstruction, income-generating activities (such as small-scale livestock farming), and provision of seeds for agriculture and gardening so that Burkina residents can return to their farms and begin the rebuilding process. 

GIVE
During our Christmas Eve services each year, we pick an outside organization, and all of our undesignated giving goes to that. This year, we will be directing that giving to efforts that support our Burkina partners. In addition, we regularly support our Sister Churches through our Alliance Church Fund. Last year, we gave more than $930,000 to support global missions.