Donations:

We are believing and contending for $35,000 to purchase a new Toyota pickup truck so we have a vehicle again!

In this newsletter:

FAMILY CHRISTMAS
STREET KID CHRISTMAS PARTY
NEW YEAR'S EVE
2015 FINANCIAL STATISTICS
QUICK NEWS

FAMILY CHRISTMAS

I have been wanting to tell you for weeks about our Christmas and New Year's celebrations in Bamako. On Christmas we took all of our children swimming which is their favorite activity. We had so much fun. Then we all went to a restaurant not far from us where everyone received a big plate of chicken and fries and a drink. Most of our kids only ever get to eat out - and get to eat chicken - this one time per year, so it meant a lot to them.

We then returned home using public transportation and taxis for our actual celebration. We found three policemen on sight that the police had sent for our protection. Dozens of adults and mainly kids squeezed into our living room to celebrate Jesus's birth. We talked about the significance of His birth and His death, sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Him, ate the cookies the kids had baked, lit sparklers, prayed, and then it was time to exchange gifts. We put together bags full of goodies for all our 40 children in our sponsorship program, and those of us living together, we each drew the name of a person to give a gift to. We had a wonderful time as each kid came up to receive his gift and pick a chocolate off the Christmas tree.

God was moving among our kids, and so was the enemy. Two of our teenagers felt dark forces clouding their minds and pushing them to leave our center. Two other teenagers decided to go with them. Another teenager felt the Holy Spirit holding him back. They had barely left when they realized what they had done and wanted to come back. After some talking and praying and several days, they returned to our family with contrite hearts.

Click here to look at all the pictures from our Christmas celebration.

STREET KID CHRISTMAS PARTY

Three days later we put on a Christmas party for the street children and neighbors' children. 80 children played games with us, then we had a time of Bambara praise before Paul explained the gospel from beginning to end and invited them to give their lives to Jesus which many of them did. Then they watched the MATTHEW movie in their language before getting a big plate of great food and a drink, as well as a pair of shoes and chocolate off the tree.

Is there anything more rewarding than being a channel of God's love to these abandoned, hurting and lonely little ones?

Click here to look at all the pictures from the Street Kid Christmas Party.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

We finished the year strong with a wonderful family time on New Year's Eve that a number of street children joined us for. We looked at all the pictures of the past year, and thanked God for so many things that happened. Suddenly God's Spirit inhabited our thanksgiving, and we spontaneously started singing a simple "Thank You, Daddy" song that Joseph had written, and God's thick presence filled the place. You can watch a short video clip of it here.

We also looked forward to what we'd like to see happen this coming year. We spent time thanking and praising Him, praying, eating cake and playing games, and started the new year the best way I could imagine how.

God is so good!

In our next email newsletter we will tell you about the exciting things ahead for us this year.

Click here to look at our December pictures.

2015 FINANCIAL STATISTICS

The following paragraphs give you some insight into our finances. It's always interesting to me to compare the numbers of the past year with the previous year. This is what we found:

      General donations & sales 2015 - up 9.2%
      Expenses - up 3.6%

While we started 2015 with a deficit of 3300€ or $3,600, to our greatest astonishment and delight we ended it with a small plus of 550€ or $600.

Our monthly average amount we spent was 9.820€, i.e. $10,700.

Our faithful monthly donors currently give a total of about 4.000€, i.e. $4,360.That means we are 59.3% of our expenses short every month, which is slightly more than last year. In the best case scenario, that difference comes in through one-time donations. In the worst case scenario, the ministry goes into debt. It is our travels that help bring in those one-time donations.

People ask me where most of our donations come from - 47% of last year's donations came from the USA, while 45% came from Europe and mostly from Austria.

Some numbers of expenses so you have an idea where our greatest needs are; these are averages per month for 2015.

Food - 1.303€, i.e. $1,420 (excluding Claudia & Randy's food)

Schooling - 1.316€, i.e. $1,434 (tuition & supplies)

Electricity & house repairs - 650€, i.e. $708

I hope these numbers are beneficial to you. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions.

QUICK NEWS

•        Bible School - All our 8 older boys have now finished their first trimester. It is yet to be determined through homework assignments how many of them will continue on to the second trimester.

•        Delta Skymiles Needed - Randy's youngest daugther is getting married in July, which is reason for great joy, and requires that at least Randy makes it to the US then. He is 30,000 skymiles short to get a reward ticket. If any of you have skymiles to donate, please contact me.

•        New Video Presentation - I made a new video presentation that shows 2015 in review. Click here to watch it on our YouTube channel.

•        Itinerant Ministry - We're currently ministering and sharing in the US and later in Europe. Please pray for protection, provision and divine appointments, and check on the left to see if we're coming to your town.

•        Monthly Donors - We're praying that God would put it on people's hearts to support us on a monthly basis so that we have more than the current 41% of our budget met. Could you be one of them?

•        Child Sponsorship - Several of our children are currently praying to find a (new) sponsor to support them with $60 or 40€ per month. Please go to our CHILDREN's page to see which ones and let me know whose sponsor you'd like to become.

•       Volunteers - We always need volunteers in Mali who can stay a few weeks or months. If you'd like to come help us, please contact me.

The old life is gone, a new life burgeons! (MESS, 2 Cor 5:17)

All HIS,

Randy & Claudia