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JUST A LITTLE FURTHER...

CHRISTMAS & ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

The past few weeks have been so intense - and wonderful - I could write a separate email about each event we put on. Instead, I'll try to keep it short and will give you links to look at all the pictures that speak volumes.

Our first event was our Christmas & anniversary celebration on the 22nd. This year we decided to cancel our anniversary celebration earlier, and do it together with our Christmas celebration instead, and it was a great success.

Our short-termers Nadia & Olga went into our neighborhood with our children a few times to hand out invitations, and posters were also put up all around us. A few hundred people - many children - came to celebrate with us. We slaughtered a sheep for our banquet that morning, and the ladies cooked it, a sauce and many kilos of couscous for the meal at the end of the day. We put up our tent and welcome banners, and had last preparations with the baptism candidates.

We started at 3 pm with Bambara praise & worship that Paul led, with our kids being the choir. Since it was our 14-year anniversary celebration, I told our history and what we do, and then Randy prayed a prayer of blessing over us. Next it was time for the baptisms. We baptized our very own Hama (9) and Patrice (10). They first gave a testimony, then we asked them a few questions and baptized them. After having changed, we gave them a certificate and prayed and prophesied over them.

Then it was time for the children's Christmas play. Nadia & Olga had worked hard with them to make it happen, and they did a great job. It was the introduction to my message, which was simply the gospel from Adam & Eve with a focus on Christmas. I looked at hundreds of faces listening intently which was exciting. In the end, I gave an invitation to start a life with Jesus, and hundreds of hands went up. Praise God!

Everyone enjoyed their festive meal and drink and went home happy. It had been a wonderful celebration!

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

FAMILY CHRISTMAS

On Christmas Eve it was time for our family Christmas celebration. First, we invited every sponsored child and all our workers to the restaurant for a meal of chicken with fries and a drink. We were nearly 40 people as a few people were missing. It brought so much joy to me to see and spend time with some of our non-resident kids we rarely see. How they have all grown! We took lots of pictures, and greatly enjoyed our meal. As some children were not able to join us on the base for the rest of the evening, we handed them their gifts in the restaurant and sent them home with our blessing.

We put together gift bags for all of our 33 sponsored kids, filling them with candy, toys, school supplies, clothes, and hygiene articles. We give those bags to them in the name of their sponsors who enable them to go to school, eat and have medical care.

Back on our base, everyone piled into our living room where all the gifts had been gathering for weeks. All those living on our base drew one other person's name to give a gift to, which I then wrapped so nobody knew who it was from. We also had the 33 gift bags for the sponsored kids sitting under the Christmas tree, which was full of chocolates (an Austrian tradition).

We first spent some time talking about the significance of Christmas, sang "Happy Birthday" for Jesus, prayed, and ate the Christmas cookies the kids had made. I also lit one sparkler who then lit the sparklers everyone had in their hands, showing how the Light of the world becoming flesh has lit us all up and spread His light.

Then finally what they had all been waiting for - gifts! One by one everyone came forward to open his gift and choose who would open the next one. That takes a while, but it's so much fun to watch everyone unwrap their gifts and rejoice.

At the very end, I opened a piece of paper from Paul and it had a word on it that I did not understand. While I stood there wondering what it meant, Saloum came in with a huge turkey in his hand! I was truly in shock seeing this live turkey in our house! I had not known the Bambara word for turkey! What an amazing (and expensive) gift! We sure enjoyed eating it, and still have some in the freezer!

For me, Christmas Eve was very special and filled me with joy, mainly because I got to reconnect with so many of my kids, many of whom I miss because I see them rarely. Especially Paul's 2-year-old daughter Salomé who I had only seen ONE time right after her birth. It was wonderful having Paul's whole family with us (they skipped last year).

Click here to look at all the pictures from Christmas Eve.

CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS PARTY

The last few times we've been amazed to have a record number of 200 children show up for our parties we do at Christmas and Easter. Imagine our amazement while handing out a paper with a number (and candy) to each child walking through our gates, when we passed 200, then 250, then 300, scrambling to get more papers with numbers, until we reached 350 when the last child walked through the gates. WOW! Our dining hall barely had room enough for them all. Praise God!

We put them in groups of 10 for the first game. Each group was given a sheet, and then Olga threw a balloon filled with water at them that they had to catch with the sheet without it bursting. They had a lot of fun, and a few of us got wet!

We narrowed the kids down from 350 to 60 or so with this game, and the 60 went on to the second game, getting an apple out of a bucket of water without using their hands. The first team of 30 to have all done it went on to the third game. The third game was our version of "Simon says" called "Jesus says". It did not take long before we had one winner, who later received his prize of a soccer ball - the best gift you can give a boy in Mali!

Everyone scrambled to get into the dining hall, where Paul led them in a time of Bambara praise, singing and dance. What a sight that was! Then our kids played their Christmas play one more time, before Paul shared the gospel with the children, from Adam and Eve to the crucifixion and Jesus's return. He did a Q & A time and prayed a prayer of salvation with them. What a wonderful sight!

As the meal wasn't ready yet, we put on the Matthew film of Jesus in Bambara for them, and they all watched and listened intently. Then they all ate, and now all that was left was to come to our house for their gifts.

Our children handled the logistics as each child - starting with number 1 - walked into our living room where hundreds of shoes, toys, clothes, drinks and chocolates were waiting for them. We had more gifts to hand out than ever, thanks to the people of VCC-Jesuszentrum in Vienna who gave us a van full of toys and clothes on our last trip. A BIG thank you to you as we couldn't have done it otherwise!

It took us a full 3.5 hours for every child to come in, get a pair of shoes (if we were out, a toy or T-shirt instead), a drink and a chocolate off the Christmas tree. We were completely worn out in the end - but in a good way.

A big thank you also to CCARA and Nadia & Olga who helped us buy the 200 pairs of shoes, and all those of you who have sent donations so we could buy food and drinks. Your heavenly reward is great!

Click here to look at all the pictures from the children's Christmas party.

CHRISTMAS IN THE VILLAGE

The very next day we filled the car up with all the remaining shoes, toys and shirts, as well as all our children, and headed to the village of Dara where we started a church 10 years ago. And they were sure expecting us! Nadia & Olga handed out balloons to the children, who patiently stood in line to get theirs, while the rest of us set all our gifts up in a courtyard where they then stood in line to come one by one to get a pair of shoes or toy or T-shirt. I wished you could have been there with us and see the faces of these children as they received their very first own toy in their lives! It was so beautiful!

It took a while as who knows how many hundreds of kids came for a gift. Paul then led us in a time of Bambara praise and preached a short Christmas message, and we prayed for several sick people who were either healed or better.

Then it was time for something we had never done before - show a big-screen movie with everything being battery-powered. We had received the gift of a battery-powered small projector and bought some Bluetooth-speakers to put up in different locations. We connected our computer to the projector to show the movie. Once it was dark, we started showing the Matthew Jesus film. And it worked, praise God! The only annoying issue was that we were right next to the mosque (whose imam is totally against us), and the mosque blared loudly out of its speakers for at least an hour, making it hard to hear our movie. It sure seemed like it was on purpose!

And then, after only one hour, our fully charged projector was already out of power. We had to show the last 20 minutes by holding up the computer. Thankfully, the crowd wasn't too big, so it worked. In the end, Paul prayed a prayer of salvation, and then we headed home. It was after 8 pm, and our kids were all tired and hungry, but I hope it impacted them as well. We sure loved every minute of it!

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

NEW YEAR'S EVE

I was exhausted after all our events, and spent days looking through all the pictures, picking the best and editing each one of them before uploading them. Especially since I needed to be done by New Year's Eve, when we look at ALL the pictures of the past year.

We all gathered in our dining hall with the projector and enjoyed remembering the year through the pictures and videos. Our kids reacted with laughter and much talk at some pictures, as they had never seen themselves in these pictures before. It took us quite some time before reaching the end of the year.

Then we talked about the last year, the high and low points, before I handed out the little notes we had all written to ourselves a year ago, containing our dreams and hopes for 2018. As for me, I had 10 items on my paper with not one of them having come true (same for Randy and Paul). I then handed out new papers to everyone, so we could do the same for 2019.

I had made a "New Year's Eve cake", and we also finished off the rest of the Christmas cookies. The last hour before midnight, we gathered in a circle to pray, thank God for the past year and pray for the next, as well as to praise Him in song. The last ten seconds we all counted down, and then we cheered once the new year was here, all hugging each other and wishing a Happy New Year. Before going to bed, we played one game together, which had become a tradition, and enjoyed having fun together. But then everyone was eager to fall into bed. Ready for the New Year!

Click here to look at all the pictures from our New Year's Eve.

QUICK NEWS

•        Spiritual Warfare - Right after our Christmas events we could feel the intensified warfare. We need intercessors to hold us up in prayer!

•        Emails & Contacts Lost - Yesterday, suddenly all my emails (of many years) and contacts were simply gone. Even though I have 2 backups, nothing I tried worked. That's a disaster, as I have a lot of important information in those emails I need to have access to. Please pray!

•        Visiting Helpers - Nadia & Olga are half-way through their time with us, and they have been a tremendous blessing. It will be hard to let them go! This Sunday, another Belarussian lady is arriving for two weeks. After the 3 of them leave, we are expecting the arrival of two Americans, and then a German Bible student after that. Please pray for them and us.

•        Construction Update - Our construction manager was really sick and is now picking up work again. We are still waiting for the walls to go up. Believe with us for the remaining 56.000€ or $64,000 to come in so we can finish it and start our school.

•        First-Grade Teacher - We are still looking for a French-speaking first grade teacher to join our team next September. There is such a need for a good, Christian school where the children are treated with dignity and learn something. Many of our Muslim neighbors would send their children to our school. Please pray we'll find a teacher!

•        Malian Director Paul - Paul's wife Rokia has been sick and is currently undergoing treatment. Please pray for her complete healing.

•        Security Situation - Mali is becoming more and more radicalized by jihadists. Also, the population is rising up against the government, still not accepting the president's election. Please pray for peace, and for protection from jihadists.

•      USA & France - We have started planning our next trip, and need to hear from you to make better choices where to go and where not to go. We're planning on being in the USA late March and April, and in France in May. Please contact me if you'd like us to come, especially now that I've lost all my contacts.

•        Miracle Baby - Keep praying as we are not ready to give up on our promised child.

•       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.

[..] The goodness and kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared in human form as the man, Jesus Christ. (Titus 3:4, AMP)

Loving HIM,

Claudia (& Randy)