Christmas in Mali
At the moment I am writing this we are done with four of the six Christmas celebrations in the prisons. Every year it is a wonderful experience to make His light shine in these dark places. I can still see all those happy faces from the last couple of days, but unfortunately I don’t have pictures to show them to you. So an old picture from April this year to make up. This afternoon I just came back from the prison in Koulikoro , a trip that takes 2 1/2 hours one way on a horrible road and tomorrow Kati is on the program. These two are prisons for "real criminals" , but God loves those guys and He wants to change them radically, as He did Paul. A group of women will go with me to church in a car filled to the brim. They will prepare a meal for those men. By the end of the week, on Friday and Saturday, December 23 and 24 I hope to be able to celebrate Christmas with the various neighbors in my street. By giving little presents and some sweets for the kids and the parents, I try to show them God’s love and share the Christmas story with them. I hope to involve my new American neighbors a bit in this as well , so they have a chance to get to know the people in the street better. You see my neighbor Elaine on the picture, with the children of our day guard Alassane. Christmas day there will be a big celebration in my church in Sabalibugu. I will sing again in the women’s choir. I hope my voice will be well again by that time. I have had a miserable cold the last couple of weeks, which turned into bronchitis. I finally got started on antibiotics last week, which has already begun to have an effect. After Christmas I will take a week to rest and recover and go with the choir I joined to Selingue for a couple of days. That will mean relaxing at the lake, walk, read, swim, play games and so on. I am looking forward to it!
|