Womens Conferece Part 2

Women's Conference report, part 2
The women's conference was held at the Camp Biblique de Femmes (Women's Bible Camp), which is really just a church courtyard and mission compound in Sikasso. The ladies report that they were very warmly welcomed by their sisters in Christ, and that 165 women attended. There were 32 from Kadiolo; 25 from our Pain de Vie (Bread of Life) church.

The ladies gave personal gifts that contributed to the purchase of sleeping mats, lanterns, and glasses, which can be re-used for future events at the Camp.

There were three pastors who preached during the conference on themes like: tithes and offerings, sin, prayer, giving yourself in service to God, the youth, perseverance in the Christian life, etc... The theme fabric printed had a design of a tree and borrowed from the verse in Matthew about how a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. The messages mentioned above no doubt encouraged the women to pursue being a good "tree" and bearing good "fruit".
To quote the President of our Pain de Vie group, "The different preachers edified us during the Bible Camp about a good walk in a Christian family. I hope that we all learned a good lesson. What very much interests me is that a similar camp is/would be planned for our husbands with the same preacher(s)".

Another interesting thing happened this week in Mali. M'omar Khadaffi arrived here in Mali with a huge enterage of followers. He is taking them to Timbuctu. He wants to have Timbuctu declared as a holy Moslem city. (Timbuctu is the site of some of the earliest Moslem structures in West Africa.)
Our mission does not work up in Timbuctu. But the Evangelical Baptist Mission is there.

Our concern is that if Timbuctu is declared a holy city, that could really restrict religious freedom up in this needy area for the gospel.
We need to remember that we are ambassadors for Christ in Mali, a country where 90% of the people are Moslems, and against the gospel we preach.
Continue to pray for us as we seek to serve here.