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We arrived safely back in Bamako last night after an 18-hour drive from Timbuktu. We will soon tell you about that adventure, but let me first forward to you Alex Achuti's report on the week in Bamako he wrote just before we took off.

Nov 14

What a week in Bamako, Mali!! When the plane touched down in Bamako, I sighed with relief at long last. Mali is a landlocked ocuntry and situated in the heart of West Africa. It was colonized by the French and the majority of the people speak French. In Bamako alone, we have also the tribe that speaks Bambara and the word Anitie is to greet someone.

In the past week, we had a pastors conference in the mornings and an open air crusade each evening. Cliff dwelt on Ezekiel 20:5 about God who was once near but now is very far. God's chosen people had turned away from God's ways and were worshipping other gods. But God could not destroy them because because it would ruin His reputation among the other Egyptians -- It would ruin His name. Some Bambara worship gods, sacrifice to them and believe that by doing so they are near their god. They circumcise both male and female to give reverance to the queeen of heaven. They have gods of fertility and health and protection. When men worship other gods, the Almighty becomes very far from them.

Every single da at the end of these building up lessons, there were prayers for this men and women of God. The first day was hard as there was not much response from the pastors who numbered about 60. The second day they had opened up as we all sang with all our hearts in praise of our God. Hallelulia eeeeeeh!! came out powerfully as the Lord camedown to manifest His presence.

Randy saw four horses and knights reeady toi mount the horses. Alex saw them punch holes in the heavens and the presence of God could be felt in the room. The pastors became more and more free as we imparted to each of them each day.

I watched their faces change from gloom on the first day to pure bliss on the last day as they were ll smiles ande joy mingled with tears as we spoke words of life (may God be gracious to you and bless you. May the face of God shine upon your faces and may His ways be made known on earth and your salvation amongall nations) Tears rolled down their faces as they absorbed the words spoken unto them. Praise be to God.

The only problem we had was in the time taken to translate from English into French and then into Bambara.

The open air crusade (evangelism campaign) did not follow the pattern of other crusades we have been a part of. The music begins around 7 pm. Their are chairs arranged in a huge semi-circle, leaving space in the very large center for salvation and healing. We learned however, that the large center space is really for the whole crowd to join together in dancing to the Bambara songs of praise. They dance in this large circle, normally in one line, but often in many lines depending on the speed of which the dancers move. At times their were four and five lines of dancers moving about in the circle in various steps.

From the first day, Cliff cenbtered on the message of healing the land, that we are the representatives of God here on the eaerth and are to affect even the earth. God desires to heal the land, but first the inhabitants must turn to him, seek his face, pray and turn from their wicked ways. He will hear them, forgive them and heal their land. Atthe end of the crusade there were several salvations and we prayed for many people. Many who desired to come forward feared to do so openly for they could be disowned by their family and friends. There can be great danger in becoming a Christian in this overwhelmingly Islamic land.

On th second day, there were many more people in attendance, perhaps 300. Cliff gave us a chance to encourage the people from scripture --I chose Psalm 24:1-4. This night, the response was better. The Lord had given me a vision back in October regarding a man wearing a grey suit and brought in by two people who supported him as he could not walk by himself. Cliff saw him from the stage and directed me to him. Yes!! He was the one I had seen!! God touched him powerfully and he was able to go home without the support of the two people who had been helping him. Praise the name of the Living God!!

The fourth day, Cliff called for those who desired to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Abouit 300 came forward. As I encouraged them from the microphone on stage and encouraged them to press in for more, the Spirit of God rained on us all. I could hear screams and sounds of groanings as the team reached them and touched them. It was a unique experience as th people here do not show their emotions openly, yet, here they were with tears in their eyes as God was touching them so very powerfully.

We prayed for many hundreds over the four nights of the crusade. We know there were 3 people whose eyesights were restored and testified that they could see. There were two tumors that were reported to us as having been disolved. Two people who began to walk properly when they could not before.

Many of the people came to be healed but wanted nothing to do with Jesus in the Islamic nation. The number of people who came for healing and deliverance before and after the crusade as well as the meetings and on the street were very many. While Jesus would heal all who came to him, we do not know how many were healed that would not come to him, only wanting to be prayed for by the visiting evangelism team.

We know there were many initial salvations, but there has been great difficulty in determining the actual number. Again, even if people did come forward and did pray for salvation, they would not always allow their name and address to be taken by the counselors.

We are now on the way to Tombouctou, many hours by car. We will arrive there in two days. I will write more then.