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CHRISTMAS IN BAMAKO

On Christmas Eve we had our family Christmas celebration on our base. All our sponsored kids and workers came for a big meal of chicken and fries and a drink. Even two of my grown-up children came. They all had a great time of fellowship with each other, as it's the only time of year they all come together. After having eaten, Paul spoke for a short time, then all the sponsored kids received a gift bag full of goodies (school, hygiene, candy) in the name of their sponsors. I loved looking at all the pictures, but it was also painful as it created such a longing to be there with them. We were once again not able to fly to Mali because of the jihadists waiting for our return to kidnap us.

KIDS' CHRISTMAS PARTY

The following day it was time for our yearly Kids' Christmas Party, which is our biggest event of the year. It has now become so well-known that kids come from far and wide and already wait at our gates early in the morning to get in. 2100 children came inside, when the gates opened. Paul played games with them, then they sang and danced, and then Paul preached the gospel from beginning to end. He told me that he was amazed at how much these kids already knew about the gospel - fruit from previous parties. He had a time of questions and answers, rewarding correct answers with candy, then prayed with them to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Then it was time for the big distribution. Paul and our kids had laid out the 1500 pairs of shoes (plus 33 the vendor had given us for free) in our dining room, as well as 200 clothes and 400 drinks. Then the kids went inside one by one to pick out what they wanted. Obviously, that took quite some time. After they'd received their gifts, they had the choice of leaving or eating a meal with us.

By the time Paul preaches, our gates are closed so that children can't just show up for a gift without having heard the gospel. That meant that more and more children were gathering outside our closed gates. In fact, 1800 more children waited outside to get in! After Paul was done with the distribution, he went outside and preached the gospel to those kids as well, giving them a chance to start following Jesus. And so 3900 children heard the gospel that day!

The village chief of our area sent a representative to our base to thank us for what we're doing for the community. He said that no child would have to go bare-footed if the Muslims would do what we're doing.

CHRISTMAS IN THE VILLAGES

Thanks to the German NGO CCARA we were able to give away thousands of shoes and clothes. However, it was not enough for the thousands of children in Bamako and the villages. And then the miracle happened that thanks to all of you giving small and large donations, we were able to nearly double the amount of shoes and clothes so that all three villages we do the distributions in were blessed. Thank you so much! And still, in total 4500 children left our events empty-handed.

DARA

In Dara Paul also started early, at 5:30, to set up everything for the distribution. In all villages, the local school lets us use their premises to that end. Paul laid out 1500 pairs of shoes, 100 clothes and 520 drinks, while the children gathered outside, lining up to go inside and pick out their gift. Then Paul preached the gospel to them and gave the opportunity to pray to start following Jesus. Then it was time for the distribution, which takes many hours. About 1000 kids had to go home without a gift after everything was gone.

The village chief was overflowing with thankfulness and blessings for us for what we had done for their community. Dara ist the main little town in the area and growing quickly, with about 150.000 inhabitants right now.

SEBELA

A few days later, Paul went to Sebela, the remote village that has seen a majority of its people become Christians. He repeated the same process as in Dara, distributing 800 pairs of shoes and 100 clothes. About a 1000 kids had to leave empty-handed. People were so thankful that we had come.

DARALA

The last distribution took place in Darala. Paul repeated what he had done in the other villages, distributing 800 pairs of shoes and 81 clothes. About 800 had to leave empty-handed. Still, everyone was really thankful for what we had done.

TOTAL

When you add up the numbers, about 10,534 children heard the gospel and had a chance to start following Jesus, and 6,034 gifts were given away. That is once again an increase from the previous year. Thank you so much for making this possible with your prayers and your giving!

QUICK NEWS

•        Daily Blog - If you are not on Facebook but would still like to read my (nearly) daily blog about our life (with the triplets), including pictures, you can do so on our website. Go to https://h2tni.org/blog/.

•        Easter - With Christmas barely over, Easter is not that far off. We do events like at Christmas at that time as well, but usually we don't quite have as many shoes to distribute. We're thankful for any donations that enable us to bless the children in Mali at Easter.

•        Construction - Paul is right now waiting for our new builder to give us an estimate of how much it will cost to finish our fourth building. With all the building material prices having gone up, it's going to be more than it was before.

•        Situation in Mali - The UN has finished pulling out all their people from Mali, after the French had done the same the year before. Instead, the ruling military junta has brought in Russian mercenaries to combat the jihadists. They have also just annulled an agreement made with the rebel Tuaregs years ago. And Mali has taken its distance from the regional bloc, leaving the economic union and forming a new union with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, who are also both led by military juntas after coups. Please pray for our country.

•        Triplets - We've just come back from a week in the mountains. It was Tammy's and Emmy's second time going to ski school, and this time they already went up bigger hills and got to run the race on the last day. The kids had a great week enjoying the children's hotel. Now we're back to our regular routine of Sammy going to kindergarten in the morning, and me working a little with the other two kids at home. In the afternoon they have their classes - ice-skating, exercise class, dance, piano and swimming. And in between I teach online as much as I can. (And I'm still taking students in English, French and German.)

•        Healing Needed - We've all been sick over this past month. Right now I'm the worst off with a terrible cough and other symptoms. Please pray for us. Long term, I've had a latent eye condition all my life that became acute a few months after the triplets' birth, during the first lockdown. It makes me go cross-eyed, causing double-pictures and headaches if it goes on for a long time. It has made life difficult and also embarrassing in the past 4 years. Please pray for healing.

•        Malian Director Paul - Please pray for Paul who carries the full weight of the work in Mali on his shoulders. Pray also for his safety as he moves around a lot, while jihadists are increasing their attacks everywhere.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. (Mat 10:8)

Loving HIM,

Claudia (& Randy)