Thank you for being our partners in the Lord’s harvest in Mali!  As we report to you, we are reminded again that the work is about lost people seeking, and about found people being transformed, even in this Islamic context.  Please consider the following:

Sidik
For two years Sidik resisted the Gospel witness, especially our insistence that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” His Islamic upbringing would not allow him to believe that Issa Al-Massih (Jesus) is the only way.

Believers kept him on their prayer list.  In June of this year a single persistent thought kept him awake at night: “No other Name, No other Name!” He came to our church in Kouri, and, convicted of his sinfulness and of the grace of God in Christ, he gave his life to the Lord.  The next day he came back with a bag full of Islamic baraka objects (amulets for protection, power, and blessing) and had them all burned.

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Mamie
As a Muslim Mamie believed that Jesus was a great prophet, and that’s all.  But she grew curious about the Gospel as Linda and I witnessed to her on and off over a period of three years.  On Easter eve she sat with us to watch “The Passion of the Christ,” and was overwhelmed by the love and sacrifice of Christ.  Mamie decided to go to church with us on Easter morning.  On the edge of her seat, Mamie watched the re-enactment of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. She eagerly surrendered her life to Him.

Lamine and His Wife Maimouna.
Lamine too resisted for over a year the idea that “there is no other name” than the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.  He often parroted the Islamic teaching that the message of the Gospel had become obsolete and was replaced by the Qur’an.

However, Lamine carefully watched the lifestyle of Christians.  Believers continued to pray for him.  He too had sleepless nights, as the Holy Spirit reminded him of his sins and his need for God’s forgiveness in Christ.  Early one morning he came to church and confessed his need of Jesus.  His life was so transformed that three weeks later Maimouna accepted Christ as her Savior.

For security reasons we cannot put the following persons’ real pictures in this letter ....

Tiémogo is a Muslim to whom we gave a Bible.  At one point during his reading he began to weep.  He is seeking.

Issa is a Muslim who is also reading the Bible and seeking.  He recently told us that he dreamed of Christ, but he is afraid to tell what Jesus told him in this dream.

Hussein, a Shi`a Muslim, agreed to come to our international English service on Sunday evenings.  The very first time that friends prayed for him, he began to sob.  I have had long conversations with him about Jesus.  He is seeking.

“Ali,” another Shi`a Muslim, comes to a Bible study in our home.  He is confused, but positively seeking.

Tidjan, a Dogon by birth, a husband of two wives, and a Muslim went hunting with me.  We spoke of Christ.  He humbly bowed his head and asked God to forgive him in Jesus name.  Tidjan was lost.  He is found.  And he secretly goes to church with us.

Hamma is a 10 year old boy who attends one of our Christian schools.  One of the men in his Muslim family is known in the neighborhood for his great magic and as a mighty dispenser of baraka.  He is the ‘Houdini’ of the town, because of his ability to walk out of chains and sealed rooms.  This man says that his power comes from the greatness of Islam and the Qur’an.

But Hamma had heard in our school that Jesus has greater power than anybody.  In childlike fashion, Hamma told the man that he had said a secret prayer that would prevent him from coming out of a locked room.  Sure enough, the man’s powers were paralyzed by the boy’s prayer.  He remained for hours a prisoner in that room and finally begged the boy to release him.

Hamma ran to tell his Christian teacher what had happened, how he had secretly prayed in Jesus’ name, and that Jesus had answered his prayer!  Hamma said that from now on he wanted to believe only in Jesus.  He has taken his first steps as a follower of Christ.

Take these real cases of lost Muslims seeking, and found Muslims transformed, and multiply them at least a hundredfold. This is what is happening, now more than ever before.  This is what your commitment to Missions and ministry to Muslims is accomplishing.  Because of you, and because of them, we are committed to stay the course, whatever the cost.

We thank you for making it possible by your prayers, your giving, your sending.

In the spirit of Isaiah 43:19,

David (Faouzi) and Linda Arzouni