Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you have enjoyed your Christmas day. We had a Christmas service at Bethel Bible School which is where our Sunday church services are held. The Malian Church designs a Christmas cloth every year and they have outfits made to ware on Christmas day which you see in the photo of our family and Yaya's family. We employ Yaya to help us around the house and for just helping us with malian life. This gives him a good living for here and it is a way we can help him and his family have a better life. Back to the service. The service started at 9:30 and we left there at 12:00 noon. Quite a long service. After the service we had lunch with the Bible professors and their families. It was a fun time of fellowship with the missionaries, professors, and their families. The President's name of the bible school is Daniel Jollo. I think his last name ought to be Jolly. His joy and laughter is contageous. We had a great time listening to his stories of coming to the US to visit and raise money for the Bible school. With him living here in Mali, he has not seen or experienced a lot of things that are in the US like fast food, escelators, credit cards and the like. It was fun just listening to his experiences and his view on what life appears to be like in the states. For lunch we had kooskoos, chicken sause, chicken parts, deep fried bananas, and french fries all prepared over an open fire. They cook all their food over a fire outside because they don't have stoves or ranges. There are a lot of things we take for granted that they do not have or have even experienced. We have be so bless with ease of living. We didn't realize what we had until we moved here. We have loved seeing the joy these Christians have! We have a lot to learn about joyful living despite our conditions or external things. They have very little and still are joyful because of the hope they have in Jesus Christ. What a blessing it has been to interact with them. Keep the Christians in your prayer. They face great difficulty in just living and interacting with a 98% muslim country. We thank all of you for your prayers for us. They have been greatly felt.
The picture of Jeffrey on the motorcycle is taken on the way to the hospital from our house. Notice the cows in the background. We swerve around all kinds of animals here everywhere we go. It can get quite fun.
Have a great New Year!