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In this newsletter:

HIS MALIAN BRIDE
MALI IN NUMBERS
AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
QUICK NEWS

HIS MALIAN BRIDE

Earlier this month we spent a weekend in Paris to minister, and we were thankful to get the opportunity to connect with a new church and share what God is doing in Mali. Before we came up, the pastor asked his sizeable congregation if there was anyone from Mali. There wasn't. Once up on the stage, Holy Spirit broke my heart at the absence of His Malian bride when so many other African nations were represented. Later I discovered that most of the 120,000 Malians in France live in Paris, and that the Malian quarter is not far from where that church was. Thousands and thousands of lost Malians...

Only a few days later we were at the biggest Austrian missions conference and heard testimony after testimony of Muslims getting saved all over the world. The fastest growing church today is in Iran, where 60% of the population is already Christian. What about Mali, God? Oh Lord, that You would rend the heavens and come down! That you would create for Yourself a beautiful bride made up of Malians from every tribe and language! Nothing is impossible for You! Here we are, use us!

MALI IN NUMBERS

I have recently done some research to update the numbers I've been passing on to people for years. Many of you have not heard these numbers.

Mali is currently the 10th poorest nation in the world. 80% of the country lives on agriculture, 65% of the nation is desert. Half the country is under 15 years old. Half of the children live under the poverty line, and one in three children is forced to work. Children are being sold to work as slaves on cocoa, coffee and cotton plantations in neighboring countries. The infant mortality rate is the second highest in the world, and malnutrition the most common reason for it. 20% of children are already born with malnutrition. Girls get raped young, with the perpetratos rarely prosecuted as they are members of the family, and 71% of girls are married by 18, 15% before they are 15. As most girls have gone through FGM (female genital mutilation) and their bodies are not grown up yet, there are high risks with pregnancies, and a third of women die in childbirth. Life expectancy today is 57 years, while it was 36 years 50 years ago. Every good Muslim family gives away a five-year-old son to Muslim teachers called Marabout, who force the children to beg and beat them up, so they run away. Currently there are 6000 boys on the street in the capital Bamako alone. The children staying at home are also used to being beaten (allowed in Mali) and working hard, with only a third of the population being literate. Only 30% of the population has access to clean drinking water, and while Mali only had 7 Ebola cases, the new Ebola flare-up in neighboring Guinea is worrisome. Four years ago Mali had a military coup that led to the north of Mali being taken over by Al-Qaida and 10 months of sharia law. Three years ago the former colonial power France saved Mali from being completely taken over by the jihadists. Today the jihadists are all over Mali, attacking primarily Westerners. The number one hotel in Bamako was attacked a week after Paris last November, and the hotel where the EU mission have set up their headquarters a day before Brussels this week.

AND YET! We serve a God of HOPE! We serve a God of the IMPOSSIBLE! We serve the God who picks the least likely, the forgotten, the marginalized, those who are not, to show His greatness and glory! We are changing one life at the time, and we are believing that the day will come when the many little fires catch on and start a blazing fire that cannot be quenched. It is just a matter of time, a matter of continuing lighting fires wherever we go. God's heart is breaking for Mali, and He deserves a beautiful Malian bride as He's paid such a high price!

AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Exactly ten years ago I took in the first three street children who soon became four that I homeschooled for a year. I hired a teacher for the second year and then started sending them to school when there were too many on too many different levels. The vision has always been to have our own elementary school, especially since I spent my first two years in the Malian school system, teaching German, and have seen the educational system firsthand. It is the primary place where HIV is spread as the male teachers force the girls to have sex with them. Children get beaten by their teachers and are humiliated and traumatized. And it is hard to impossible to find teachers educated enough to be able to acually teach the children.

We want to change all that. We want to have a good Christian school where children are valued and keep their dignity; a school where they learn academically, but also learn integrity and morality.

We moved onto our property in 2008, where we have plans to build dorms for 200 children as well as the elementary school, a medical center, Bible school, sanctuary, offices, and workshops and shops. However, I went to Mali with no money, and we haven't had any money to build in over four years.

All that said, my husband of 13 months has been speaking of our need for our own school ever since we first met, and he has been pursuing it persistently. Money or not, rooms or not, teachers or not, so much still lacking, and still, we feel like it's time to take a first step, a step of faith. In July we are going to start with a small group of elementary kids, and I am going to be the teacher. However, our vision is to have French(-speaking) teachers come for a year or more to teach our children with the quality of education they deserve. That's one of the reasons we want to focus on the French-speaking world as we travel, to find those teachers the Lord has already prepared for us.

We need your prayers as we take this step of faith!

QUICK NEWS

•        Paul & Rokia - Our Malian leader Paul is an amazing young man who does a great job. Please pray for him, as he's tired from being the head of ministry while we were gone. Also, his wife Rokia lost the baby she was pregnant with last week. They both need prayer.

•        Easter Street Kid Party - Next Monday street children and neighbors' kids alike are going to converge on our base for a time of games, praise & worship, teaching, food and gifts to celebrate the greatest gift received - Jesus's death and resurrection. Prayers are welcome.

•        Language Study - Please pray for Randy as he's working on learning the local language Bambara. These next few months until we start our elementary school I will do my best to help him succeed.

•        Florentin - A few weeks ago we had to take Florentin to hospital as he had trouble breathing. Flo had a heart operation in Austria three years ago that saved his life. We've spent a lot of money on tests and medications these past few weeks, and are still waiting on results. Please pray for provision and for his complete restoration.

•        Painting & Gardening - Randy is going to continue painting our buildings in the next few months. We have also brought a variety of seeds with us to plant. Though we first need to bring soil in to bring up the ground level for our permanent garden, we are going to try growing some vegetables even now.

•        July - Randy's youngest daughter is getting married in July, and Randy is going to be in the US for that occasion for over two weeks. It will be our first time apart.

•        September - We will be ministering in Europe in September, giving priority to France, Belgium and French-speaking Switzerland. Please pray for connections and open doors, and let us know if you'd like us to come to your church or group.

•        Monthly Donors - We're praying that God would put it on people's hearts to support us on a monthly basis so that we have more than the current 41% of our budget met. Could you be one of them?

•       Summer Volunteers - Our children our out of school for four months, June through September. We're looking for volunteers to come during that time to watch and play and spend time with our children. No language skills needed.

The old life is gone, a new life burgeons! (MESS, 2 Cor 5:17)

All HIS,

Claudia & Randy