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12 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Twelve years ago I started a church called "Centre Apostolique Malien" (CAM), i.e. Malian apostolic center, in Bamako, just over a year after moving here. Much has happened since, good and challenging, but I cannot help but see the goodness of God everywhere. I'm amazed at what He was able to do with one little girl who said yes. It shows that nothing is impossible for our God!

Normally we have an outside speaker come in and do a weekend conference on our base. Not so this year. We only did a celebration on Sunday afternoon. We put up tents on our base, filled the baptismal tank, and rented additional chairs to put up. Radio announcements were made all week prior, and slowly people were trickling in. Paul led praise & worship, with our boys as his choir. Most of our boys had different tasks during our celebration, and they did a great job.

I shared the history of CAM, and then Randy prayed a prayer of blessing over us, the city, and the country. Our boys had prepared a skit to present the gospel, and they did a great job. We then baptized three people - one of the street kids we took in in summer, a street kid we have just taken in, as well as a lady from one of our village churches. It's always so exciting to hear their testimonies as they share before getting into the water.

Then it was time for the message. I couldn't help but preach on the goodness and faithfulness of our heavenly Father. I noticed how attentive every one was - which is certainly due to the totally foreign concept of a God being a loving Father in this Muslim culture. I was so aware of the Holy Spirit giving me the words to speak - it was just awesome! In the end, I invited people to start a relationship with this wonderful God the Father, and about 20 people made a first-time commitment. Praise Him!

We ended our celebration with a banquet feast. We had slaughtered two sheep in the morning and paid women to cook for us so that our ladies could be enjoying the celebration. Everyone got a big plate of couscous with sauce and mutton and a drink, and as you look at the pictures, their smiles tell it all.

Click here to look at all the pictures from the celebration.
Click here to watch a 10-minute clip from our celebration.

OUR CAR IS OUT OF CUSTOMS

Paul has been making countless, expensive ($40 each time) trips to the customs office outside of town, trying to get our car out of customs. He spent countless hours there, being sent in circles by officials wanting money for their own pockets. Unfortunately we had to pay customs after all, and before three months since its arrival in Mali had passed, or it would be auctioned off. In the end, it cost us $13,000 to pay for customs, which is a challenging amount of money.

In the evening of December 7th, the customs officials were once again gonna send Paul home without a car, telling him to come back in the morning, but he refused. Paul didn't care that the agents had gone home already and couldn't come with him, as he'd have to drive a vehicle without a license plate all the way across the capital city, a two-hour drive with traffic. And in fact, the police did stop him. Gladly, it was policemen who know Paul and let him pass.

And so, at 9:15 pm our Toyota Landcruiser came home. We woke up the kids who cheered and rejoiced. Now we're working on getting a temporary license plate as soon as possible, so that we can use our vehicle. Please pray to that end.

If you cannot see the embedded video of our car arriving, click here.

TWO NEW CHILDREN

A week ago we took in a new street kid - Hamidou, who is turning 16 next week. He's a remarkable young man, who prayed with us to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior in August. He has now started 2nd grade and is hungry to know God more. Hamidou is still looking for a sponsor to support him with $60 or 50€ per month.

So is Paul's newborn daughter, as yet without name, who was born on December 2nd. What an opportunity to support a child from birth and see her grow up!

Let me know if you want to sponsor either one of these children.

QUICK NEWS

•        Our Health - Claudia was able to get her tooth fixed in Austria without a root canal, so that we were able to return to Mali as planned. Unfortunately she's just lost the filling of another tooth. Also, please keep praying for us to have children.

•        Our School - Claudia went back to teaching her fifth-graders and is now two weeks in. The kids did an exam right after our return, and their results were not good. Hopefully they'll have better grades next time, now that they know Claudia's style. This time school will be twice as long as last time before we travel again. Please pray for French-speaking teachers to come to Mali to relieve Claudia as well as so we can start a first grade which is much needed.

•        Christmas - Every year we take all of our kids - resident and non-resident - as well as all our workers out to eat for a special chicken dinner and soda at a nearby restaurant. This year we will be more people than ever - 49 to be exact - which is projected to cost about $400 or 375€. Every child will receive a bag full of goodies. If you are sponsoring a child, we'd encourage you to give a little extra this month to help us put this bag together for your child. Any financial help for the dinner is also very welcome.

•        Government Papers - Please pray for favor with government officials as we keep working on getting papers for our organizations, the tax excempt papers, as well as a license plate for our car as soon as possible.

•        Malian leader Paul - Please pray for our Malian director Paul! He's an amazing young man, and he has a lot on his shoulders. This past year has been really intense for him, and he is tired. He'll be taking a week off in January, and it's always hard for us when he's not around. Also, we'd like to send him on a missions trip to Brazil with Randy Clark next June that would change his life, and allow him to bring the fire back to Mali. If you'd like to contribute to this trip, please mark your donation accordingly. Also, please pray for him.

•        Language Learning - Please pray for Randy as he continues to learn the local language Bambara which he really struggles with. Also, we now see the need more than ever for him to learn French.

•        Building #4 - We'd like to start building our next building that will service as dorms and classrooms for our elementary school in the beginning, and will be our business and workshop section later. Cost: $94,000 or 84.000€.

•        DMM - We've been introduced to the "Discipleship Making Movement" and are very excited about this great tool to make disciples and start churches. In February we will drive to neighboring Burkina Faso for a two-day training, taking a few of our promising future leaders with us.

•        Partners - We're looking for monthly financial partners as we only have 49% of our budget covered by regular monthly donations.

•       Volunteers - Do you want to come change an orphan's life? Do you want to heal the sick? Preach the gospel to those who've never heard? Come to Mali for a season and let God change your life. No language skills needed, but French skills are helpful.

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Jesus in Mt 7:11)

Loving HIM,

Claudia (& Randy)