Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We at Catalyst for Africa wanted to say again how grateful to God we are for all of you who supported us and prayed for us in 2015.
I will leave you with one story from this year:
Christophe Dembele (above photo, far left) pastors the second largest church in Bamako, Mali. Over 450 Christ-followers attend his church in a city that is 90% Muslim. While ministering with Christophe this past November, our driver was a man named Karim Keita (above, far right). While riding with him every day, we learned his story. He is a new convert from Islam to Christianity and is a father of six. This year, his wife abandoned him and his children and they are struggling to make ends meet. He drives a taxi 14 hours a day to provide for his family, and the oldest children take care of the younger ones at home.
While we were there, we decided to treat their family to a big dinner with two grilled chickens, a huge bowl of rice and lots of vegetables. When we delivered the food to Karim’s house that night, he wept. His children clung to him and danced all around him thanking us for the big surprise.
The next morning when he picked us up, we asked him, “Karim, how did your children like the meal?” He smiled a huge smile and said, “My children loved it, they ate everything and they said, ‘We had heard that Christians were not nice people but now we know differently.'”
As we left Mali we gave a monetary gift to Karim and asked him to bless his family at Christmas. This is the first Christmas his family has experienced as followers of Christ.
We thank God for our partner Christophe for sharing the Gospel with Karim, and we thank you for supporting Catalyst for Africa, which invests in great leaders like Christophe.
Together, we are changing the world in Jesus’ name, one relationship at a time.