Furlough News

Greetings from our new residence in Roseville, California!

Recent News From Mali
We had reported to you that the church had steadily progressed in one term from 4 congregations to 18. We have now received word that in the past few months 4 more works have been started! Praise God!

Church property has been purchased in the city of Kati where Sheikna Traoré, the converted son of an ‘imam’ (Muslim priest), is pioneering a work in the shadow of the mosques that he used to attend until Christ found him!

Our coworkers in Mali report wonderful growth in our relatively new church in Kumantu where many converts were baptized in water.

Tiékoro Coulibaly, the Assistant Superintendent of this young Malian national church has just graduated from our West Africa Advanced School of Theology (Lomé, Togo)! This is significant because we desperately need Malian teachers for our Bible School. Your support and scholarship offerings have made this possible. Thank you!

Tensions do remain in Mali for us and other missionary agencies working in this nation with a 96% Muslim population. Persecution broke out in the northeastern part of the country recently during a campaign of food relief distribution and evangelism. A church was burned, precious equipment was destroyed, people beaten and the pastor’s home ransacked. The government attributes this to rebel Tuaregs, and not religious persecution. Please keep interceding in prayer for our Malian pastors and for other missionaries laboring there.

Help Needed For Critical Projects
A container full of pre-fabricated “tabernacle” structures is on its way to Mali. This will enable us to provide much needed, yet inexpensive, meeting places for our emerging congregations. We are praying for funds to cover the cost of some lots (about $4,000.00 each) and the cost of labor to set up the structures (about $1,000.00 for each). Can you help in any way? Please call us or write us soon.

We need your help in sending pastor Etienne Kodio to our West Africa Advanced School of Theology. Again, we cannot emphasize enough how desperately we need trained Malian teachers for our Bible School. If the Lord leads you to take part in this project, please be sure to designate your offering for “National Worker.”

Deputation & Family News
This furlough has been exceptional. We have been overwhelmed with the joy of fellowshipping with you saints who have supported us in prayer, some of you for over 20 years! We have also seen miracles of provision. We believe the Lord will release all the monthly pledges we are praying for in the days ahead.

Our son is in his last year at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. Our daughter is in her first year at American River College in Sacramento. My own sister, Rada, has begun her studies at Trinity Life Bible College in Sacramento. As for me and Linda, we are way behind in our own Division of Foreign Missions-approved graduate studies. It is our hope to wrap up our deputation by Thanksgiving and devote the remainder of our furlough to pursue our degrees in Biblical Counseling.

Thank you so much for your continued partnership in Missions. God bless you for being there for us every time we’ve needed you!

In the grip of His grace,

David (Faouzi) & Linda Arzouni

Changed Lives!

We wish to seize this opportunity to thank you for being our faithful partners in Missions, and to share “good news from a distant land.”

We are proud to report that every one of our Mali Bible School graduates is involved in full-time ministry!

“I heard a voice and saw a bright light for the third time that night….When my Muslim community threatened and discouraged me from ever reading the Bible, the voice said, ‘I will show you things that eye has not seen, and ear has not heard….’”

Meet Dauda Djeme, a Muslim whom we led to Christ following a unique spiritual power encounter, and who responded to the call of God in spite of tremendous obstacles. He is one of our Bible School graduates, and he is presently pioneering a church in Kalabankura, a new neighborhood in the capital city of Bamako.

Sheikna Traore now 45 years old, was preparing to replace his father, a Muslim priest, when he heard the Gospel and was transformed. It was our privilege to train him and see him through to graduation from our Bible School. Even though Sheikna was persecuted in the past, he told me not long ago that he is going back to establish a church in the same town of Kati where his father was a leader in the mosque. “I know it will be hard, but if I perish, I perish. I must go; I can do no less. God has commissioned me.” Please, remember him in your prayers.

The testimony of Makono Jarra is a miracle story. Raised in a village close to our Bible School, Makono was shunned by the Muslim people because he was insane. Unkempt and wandering aimlessly in the streets of Bamako, he came upon a small gathering where pastor Adama Traore was sharing the Gospel. In a brief moment of lucidity, Makono was attracted by the message of love. After another encounter with pastor Traore, and after a period of loving care and intense prayer, Makono was delivered and transformed. He immediately began to share his faith with others. God called him into His work. Makono has graduated from our school, and now he (and his bride!) are planting a church in the ancient city of Koulikoro.

In a nation where women are traditionally illiterate and undervalued, we are proud to present to you our first student wives graduates. Their biblical training and ministry skills will enable them not only to help their husbands in the pastorate, but also to launch Women’s Ministries and children’s outreaches. Makono’s wife, Anne, is first on the right; Sheikna’s wife, Josephine, is next to her; Dauda’s wife, Marie, is in white; and next to her, in red, is Silas’ wife, Cecile.

Silas Ouattara, the young man who was savagely beaten by his Muslim family for his faith in Christ (see our previous newsletter, Converted), and for whom so many of you prayed, is among our first Bible School graduates! He and his wife, Cecile, are sacrificially laboring in the small town of Sirakoro, a suburb of Bamako. God has honored their faith by giving them their first two new converts, and the unexpected early purchase of a piece of property for their future church building!

Meet Abdel-Rahman, a man originally from the country of Zaire (now the Democratic Congo Republic). He was born into a nominal Catholic family, came at a young age to the country of Mali, and was then converted to Islam. His keen interest in religious matters opened the way for him to receive training at a prominent Ahmadiya Islamic center for Muslim missionary work. (The Ahmadiya branch of Islam is somewhat unorthodox and is considered a sect by the majority of Muslims).

Abdel-Rahman heard of me through someone who had attended a seminar sponsored by the Center for Ministry to Muslims where I taught on how to reach Muslims for Christ. He contacted me by mail, and then traveled far to meet me in Bamako. I sensed immediately that though he was well versed in Islamic thinking, his heart was searching for a peace that still eluded him. After many weeks of progressively sharing the Injil (the message of Christ) with him, Abdel-Rahman yielded his life to the Lord. He has been changed! Please pray for him as he seeks God’s will about what he is to do with his life now and in the near future.

We are loving our time in the States with family and friends, even the chilly winter (what a nice change from Mali!), and we especially love visiting with you and the churches. Thank you so much for upholding us in prayer during this furlough!

In the grip of His grace,

The Arzounis

Converted From Islam

Greetings from “Crocodile Pond”—that’s what the name of our city, Bamako, really means in the local language. This letter is a couple of months overdue. It is true that time really flies, but it is especially so in our pioneering context. Our lives are filled with many struggles and blessings, victories and special moments. Usually, it is hard to choose among them the ones that most accurately convey what our work is all about. But today one of them stands out in my mind.

I would like to lay aside all my previously prepared reports about the steady growth of the church here, about our very first General Council, and about the Bible School construction and miracles of provision for our students. There is so much I could say about these exciting aspects of our work. Instead, let me tell you about Ali Ouattara, whom we affectionately call Silas.

We were together on the roof of our first Bible School building, nailing tin sheets whose reflective surface made the normal 110 degrees heat harder to cope with. As we worked and talked, our conversation led me to remember the first time we met. That was nearly 6 years ago.

Even though Silas’ people are part of the Mandingo clan of Mali, he was born and raised in a Muslim home in the northern part of Ivory Coast, just across the Malian border. He is 29 years old. He grew up in extreme poverty, never studied beyond 5th grade, and went to work as a teenager to help his barber father feed the family. His adolescent life was sunless and grey. His failed attempts to become a mechanic fostered the feeling that he had no future, and this became a terrifying burden. His allegiance to family, tradition, and the Islamic faith proved to be insufficient to overcome his hopelessness and the guilt of secret sins.

His contact with a Christian (incidentally it was Cecile, the one he later married) was preceded by a vision from Christ while Silas was doing his Muslim prayer.  He had been thinking a lot about his life, his sins, his hopelessness, and he had a lot of unanswered questions.  After the ritual prayer, while still sitting on the prayer mat and doing du’a (spontaneous supplication or reciting of personal wishes or needs before Allah), he suddenly saw a bright light in front of him and heard a voice saying, “Go to my children and you will find the answers you are seeking.”  Silas realized immediately this was a supernatural visitation.  And he knew instinctively the meaning of such words, for they were not Islamic words.  Something within him told him that “my children” meant Christians.  The only Christian he knew of and respected was a hairdresser named Cecile.  Silas knew that she was unlike most girls in his town.  She was God-fearing, chaste, honest, and very kind.  So he immediately got up from his prayer mat and went to see her.

Cecile told this young Muslim about Jesus. He surrendered his wretched life to Christ in May of 1991. Four months later his family discovered that he was a secret believer. He was immediately mistreated, insulted, disowned, thrown out. His father took away anything that would indicate in any way that he belonged to the Ouattara family, even his ID card. He became totally ostracized.

When Silas was not deterred in his Christian faith, the family and the Muslim community of Abengourou resorted to outright persecution. His father first summoned him and the pastoral staff of the Assemblies of God church which Silas attended. He accused our pastors of ruining his son’s life, and wanted Silas to recant. “The discussion degenerated rapidly,” Silas recalls. “My dad took up a rod and proceeded to beat me. One of the pastors shielded me from the blows with his own body. God protected us from serious injury, and helped us make it to the pastor’s car and leave.”

That was not the end of it. Silas was ambushed by his family one night after a late church prayer meeting. He tried to run away, but was caught just as he was about to rush into the courtyard of one of our Christian brothers.

“They began to beat me savagely. Blow upon blow, and kick upon kick. They nearly killed me. Blood spurted from my mouth and nostrils as I called on the Name of Jesus. They beat me for so long that I became numb and could hardly feel anything anymore. I was on the verge of passing out, but I could hear them rail and say ‘Where is your Jesus now?’ My assailants began to drag my limp body to my parents’ home. As they dragged me past a street light post, I made a desperate grab for the post and hung on to it. They began to hurl my head against it until I could no longer hold on. They succeeded in getting me to my parents’ house. Those who had come out to see what the noise was all about were told that I had become a dangerous madman, and that I had now been forcefully apprehended in order to be sent to my family’s village where I would be cared for.”

The church intervened. The police were called in, but there was little they could do when faced with an angry crowd of Muslims. The church had only one weapon left: Prayer.

Silas was locked in a bedroom and left alone. He too prayed. Later on that same night, his father ordered him to get up, wash, do the Muslim ablutions for prayer, face Mecca and recant. His head was throbbing, his face deformed, and his eyes swollen nearly shut. He was led robot-like to wash and do the ablutions. But then, amazingly, he was left alone to pray on the prayer mat. “I was spared having to be forced to return to Islamic prayers. I was even more amazed when they released me to go outside of the house the next morning.”

The pastor quickly arranged for Silas to flee Abengourou. I had already been alerted to his situation, and we had been praying too. It was our privilege to take him in, love him, disciple him.

Later, while we were still ministering in the Ivory Coast (our last field of work), it was our joy to celebrate his marriage to Cecile and dedicate their child in church. But the most wonderful thing of all is that even before Linda and I made a commitment to come to Mali, God called Silas and his wife to His work in the Muslim country of Mali.

Two years ago they joined us here in Bamako, knowing full well that it could cost them their lives. They have begun to prepare for the ministry in our Bible School. We are taking a man with a 5th grade education, a love for Christ, and a call upon his humble heart, and we are helping him reach the lost Muslims of Mali.

So here we were, in the sweltering heat, building a Bible School together. As we paused for another tin sheet to be passed up to us, I looked upon his face and tried to see if there were scars from his ordeal. I could not see any. Perhaps it was because he was laughing, and his face was perspiring profusely. Or perhaps I could not see clearly for the tears in my own eyes.

That’s what our work is about. You are the one making it possible by your prayers, and faithful financial support. Silas Ali Ouattara, and the many like him whom we are helping, are our victory - yours and ours, together.

Gratefully,

David (Faouzi) & Linda Arzouni

Christmas Greetings

Christmas greetings from Mali, the home of fabled Timbuktu! As we write these words it dawns on us that we’ve been here almost four years, and we have not yet set foot in that city. We live in Bamako, nearly 600 miles away from Timbuktu which is in rough and dangerous Tuareg territory. Most of our present ministry has taken place in the southwestern part of the country. Thus far we’ve pioneered in just two large cities: Bamako, the capital, and Sikasso, further south. We have yet to penetrate the other 8 major centers of Mali. We desperately need laborers in this vast harvest field!

We praise the Lord for everyone of our 16 pastors, and the 10 Bible School men who will soon join their ranks. School resumed in October, because of your praying and giving. Please allow me to introduce to you one of our students, Makono Jarra.

In the poor suburb of Sarambugu where Pastor Adama Traore has pioneered a lively church, Makono was known as the local madman. Literally! As practically all insane people who wander the streets of Africa, Makono was dirty, unkempt, in shabby clothing, and often roamed aimlessly about, muttering to himself. One day he walked into Pastor Adama’s yard and demanded to see him. The frightened pastor’s wife told him he was not home. But Makono refused to leave until much later that afternoon. No one had any idea why he had come, and why he waited for hours, or how he knew of Pastor Adama and his family.

A few days later, when Makono came back, Pastor Adama met him with Christ-given compassion. Though it was obvious that this young man was not fully coherent, Pastor Adama discerned that he had come because God had begun a mysterious work in his heart. It had all started at an open-air evangelism meeting where Pastor Adama proclaimed the love of Christ for people whose lives had been turned to ruin by sin and witchcraft, and had been rendered as useless as stones burned with fire. Makono was there, and in a moment of lucidity, he grasped the truth that Jesus could help him. And so the Lord led him to Pastor Adama’s house.

No doubt, the people in this Muslim neighborhood wondered why day after day, and week after week, the Pastor would spend time talking to a madman. Pastor Adama worked patiently with him, found out that he was the only son of an elderly widow, saw to it that he safely made it home after every visit, searched for him when he got lost in the bush surrounding Bamako, prayed for him to understand more and more of the Gospel story, and unrelentingly surrounded him with love. Finally, Makono understood enough to declare, totally on his own, that he wanted Christ to forgive him and deliver him!

Dramatic change came into Makono’s life with each passing day. His appearance changed. Gone were the filthy clothes and the incoherence. He faithfully attended church to the amazement of all who knew him. He soon requested that he be taught to read the Bible. In just two years he became an ardent sharer of the Gospel and an adept song leader. It was a joy to involve him in our Task Force evangelism campaign. Then in the Summer of 1995, he responded to the call of God for full-time ministry. Last Christmas, it was my privilege to officiate at his wedding to Ane, a young Muslim girl who also came to Christ in one of our crusades. Both of them attend our Bible School today and assist Pastor Adama in church!

Whatever it takes, no matter how hard this pioneer situation is, we believe God will raise up many like Makono and Ane Jarra. Thank you for making it possible through your dedication to the cause of Missions!

We pray God’s richest blessings for you during this holiday season. Have a wonderful Christmas and a purposeful New Year!

In the grip of His grace,

David (Faouzi) & Linda Arzouni

Pioneering A New Field

Warm Christian greetings from rainy Bamako, Mali. We are well in spite of the unique stresses associated with pioneering a new field. We have certainly had to learn new things as our experiences differ so greatly from those we had in Ivory Coast. The Lord has a way of not letting us get too comfortable, of stretching us. Spiritual warfare has become a daily necessity, not just a book title or a seminar theme. It’s so different putting into practice what one has learned in Bible School!

In the natural, we have had to struggle with extreme heat (140 degrees in May), dust and its devastating effects on all our equipment, new varieties of tropical illnesses, flooding at the school, and recently, electricity shortages giving us as little as 5 hours a day of electrical current.

But these have been the least of our difficulties. Spiritually, we have met concerted resistance by Muslim authorities for every step forward we’ve wanted to take. A simple request for church land, made to a Muslim mayor, often inspires the local Muslim leaders to officially protest. Already granted pieces of property have been taken back because of just such pressure.

Socially and culturally, we’ve dealt daily with bumper car traffic (not just vehicles, but also donkey carts, animals, the insane and the careless) and we’ve anguished daily over the effects of poverty, pollution, and ignorance. We’ve endeavored to understand a self-effacing “opaque” people who are hard to “read” and understand, even among our Christian brethren.

Yet, considering the context, it is no less amazing what God is doing in this country. The American Assemblies of God has been part of the solution for the woes of Mali.

Sacrificial giving from you, our friends, has injected new enthusiasm and hope in Malian Christian hearts. Speed The Light has purchased a vehicle for each of the missionary families, and four motorbikes for the national leadership. Boys and Girls Missionary Crusade provided funds for starting the Bible School French library, and for translating course textbooks into Bambara. Etta Calhoun funds purchased beds for the school. Overseas Relief bought rice and millet for our students when, two years in a row, their fields were ruined by floods. Light For The Lost has poured thousands of dollars into International Correspondence Institute (ICI) evangelism literature, AIDS pamphlets, and Bibles in several languages.

Because of your involvement in construction, in three short years we’ve seen the purchase of property for a Bible School, and the construction there of a twelve bedroom dormitory building, a double classroom building (with two offices, though still unfinished), an administrator’s residence, a water tower, and even a bread making kiln. Three large churches, the first ones for this fledgling national church, are up and running even before completion. Thank you to everyone who shared financially in this!!!

Our Bible School had its first full year of studies with four missionaries and four Malian pastors and three translators (French to Bambara) sharing the teaching load. Each Bible School student works with a Bamako pastor on the weekends. Child evangelism has been given priority with both special training courses for pastors and a children’s literacy and evangelism program.

Numerically, our pastoral force and the church membership has more than doubled, and we’ve formed our first two districts. One of our pastors has been sent for training to our Advanced School of Theology in Lomé, Togo. Women’s Ministries is being set up in some of the churches, and all literature in French from ICI University is available to our churches.

We’re one year away from furlough, from visiting your churches and sharing God’s vision for Mali with you. Please continue to pray for our strength and perseverance on this particular front. Having the confidence that this is God’s time for Mali has not changed the necessity to do battle. Rejoice with us in the incredible progress that has been made. To God be the glory!

David (Faouzi) & Linda Arzouni

P.S. Please click here to read a special testimony from our daughter Tami.