Gospel News — Mar-May 2012

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First Baptisms in Mali and Burkina Faso

You've probably heard of Timbuktu, the proverbial town in the middle of nowhere in the Sahara desert of Mali. What's amazing is that the true Gospel has spread even to Mali. Mali and Burkina are, on many indicators, the poorest countries on earth, comprised largely of the Sahara desert. You're never going to get too

wealthy in the world when your main export is groundnuts, most of your country is desert and your population largely illiterate and sick. We appealed a while ago for French speakers to come forward and assist on a visit to contacts in Mali and Burkina Faso, and we were delighted in the response of Sister Astrid Holt, who brings with her a wealth of practical charitable experience as well as a firm knowledge of French.

For a long time now we've been in contact with Gerald, a young man from Burkina who works in Bamako, Mali, as a teacher at a small primary school. He's worked through Bible Basics and has it and our other publications in French ever on his desk at the small `office' at the school, where he lives and sleeps on a mat on the floor after school. Gerald has a true heart for people as well as for Christ. The `School' is just three classrooms, and was founded by a Frenchman named Damien. Damien has a most unusual story. An electrician from near Nantes, in France, he was a rally driver in the various treks across the Sahara from Spain to the ports of West Africa which are widely popular amongst adventurous young people in France and Spain. He took a liking to Mali, sold his car after one trip and remained in Mali. Here he married a Malian woman called Fatah:

Damien and his wife Fatah