Dear Friends, Supporters, Encouragers and Prayer Partners,
David (Faouzi) and I are so excited to share with you some of the really wonderful things that have been happening at our Agricultural Project / Evangelistic Platform.
In the past three years, 18 people (16 men and 2 women) have walked away from Islam to follow Christ. We are actively discipling all the men, but it’s nearly impossible to work with the women for now (one is still a secret believer). We work with the men as long as we can, until they move away (3 men for other jobs), or pass away (our older tractor driver). Nine of those men remaining have finished the study series on water baptism, and have asked to follow the Lord in this obedience (We always let MBBs / Muslim Background Believers make this decision).
So, on Thursday, Feb. 9th, nine formerly Muslim men entered the waters for baptism. Even more exciting, there were 49 people to witness and to celebrate this wonderful event with them: 6 missionaries, 8 “Nomads” or Missions-Volunteers-in-Training (Live/Dead program), 15 Chi-Alpha folks from the States, and the rest were Malians.
Many Muslims have been coming to our Sunday gathering out at the Project. With this baptism and since the “Prayer Center” in town is almost completed, we are poised to make the move to the village where we’ll be opening up our first ever, predominantly Malinke (UPG/Unreached People Group) worship center.
To top things off, our second large School of Hope elementary school building (composed of 3 classrooms) is also almost finished! And the surrounding Muslim villages are so excited to see the promise of a quality education for their children (and a better future) coming to their area for the first time.
Please pray with us that the Prayer Center and school building will be completely finished. Please pray earnestly with us that we find quality Christian teachers and staff to man the school, serve the community, and make Jesus real to the 14 surrounding villages!
Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
David (Faouzi) & Linda Arzouni
