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December 29, 2008

Happy Christmas Djibo

I hope you all had a happy and peaceful Christmas, wherever you celebrated it. Here in Djibo, we had a really good time, throwing a Christmas Eve feast at church for about three hundred Muslim friends and acquaintances. Those present included one truck-load of Tuareg refugees, three truckloads of men and women from our immediate neighbourhood, herders, tailors, donkey-cart makers, rich men, poor men, magicians and thiefs - even our grouchy landlord Belko Sambo turned up to hear the Christmas message. Before the feast got underway, I talked a bit about the coming of the wise-men. Fulani people reckon they can tell from the stars if a king has died, but have never heard of a star portending the birth of a king. Now they have :-) Of course, it's one thing to see the star, it's another to make the journey. And quite another to prostrate yourself before the king, as the Magi did. Please continue to pray for our Fulani friends here, that God would give them the imagination and courage to respond to Jesus for themselves.

On Christmas morning we had a party for our neighbours' children. Charlie organized an around-the-yard hunt for milk-flavoured boiled sweets and then we showed them the first part of the film Magdalena. It's made by the same people who made the Jesus film and focusses mostly on telling Mary's story.

We went and had Christmas lunch with our friends Mark and Cheryl, who are English SIM missionaries from Rugby. No turkey, of course, but the chicken and roast potatoes went down a treat - they even shared their Christmas pudding with us, bless em.

Talking of turkey, Turkish Sophie is now in shops, and the books have a new range of covers and chapter illustrations. Sophie now sports a fashionable sunhat and her blonde hair tumbles all the way down to her knees. Chobbal is tuftier and smugger than ever and has taken on a pinkish hue - obviously been washed with the reds by mistake. Moussa ag-Litni is as round and menancing as any Ali Baba villain, and Crepe-Sombo is repulsive. Thanks are due to Gokce Akgul for his zany and eyecatching rendering of the Gorom-Gorom set.

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Posted by sahelsteve at December 29, 2008 04:37 PM