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My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.... (Gal 4:19)

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 4)

I'm proud of my team because they were able to "hold the fort" during my 5-week absence - preaching, praying and ministering to children and adults. But they're also glad that I'm back, and so am I.

What is hurting the most, having come back, is that "my son" Sekouba has distanced himself, coming to few meetings and being hardly ever around. I miss sitting down together with him at night to teach him reading and writing, to see him play computer games, or to just have fun together. I saw him when I arrived, and he didn't even look into my eyes and hardly said a word. Since then I've only seen him twice and not had a chance to talk to him. Please pray for him to come around again.

By the way, the second kid, Brouhama, who moved in in February, is gone. I normally don't take in kids I don't know (though that was the second time), but I still believe it made some difference in their lives.

Finally, please remember Simeon in prayer. He got a final notice from his landlord, having to pay $130 by Thursday, or he'll be evicted. He says he's trusting God to come through for him. I'm glad, because I feel God's restraint for me to help him out this time. He's also struggling a lot and desperately needs inner healing and deliverance. Together with two other women, we'll be doing a few sessions with him in a few weeks.

Well, tonight is Bible School, and I also have to boil 100 eggs that we'll color tomorrow for the KIDS' EASTER PARTY on Wednesday.

On Friday, we're showing THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST for our movie night, followed by an invitation to consecrate one's life to Jesus.

We're working on getting our minivan registered (a BIG thank you to all of you who've given generously in March), and have run into new difficulties. We're still hopefull that we'll have it done by the time....

.... Pascale & Corinne come to Mali on April 19th. They will be staying for nearly two weeks, participating, and serving us, helping where they can. They'll be teaching a seminar on marriage and how to raise kids (much needed) and a French class. We're all very excited to have them with us.

Having the vehicle will open new doors for us. We'll have everything needed to go into villages with the gospel of the kingdom and the confirmation with power, and to go help those that are starving physically for lack of food. Reports like the one below always break my heart.....

In HIS service,

Claudia

I took that picture in Mali in 1999.

Children at risk once again in hungry Sahel

DAKAR, 28 March - Hundreds of thousands of children could go hungry yet again this year across the arid Sahel, one of the world's poorest regions, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"The situation is serious, the coming weeks will be critical," said the West Africa director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Herve Ludovic de Lys.

The UN is appealing for US $91.9 million to help some five million people at risk of going hungry in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Media images of emaciated children in Niger last year shocked the world, bringing a surge of support for a country hit by poor harvests, a rare but devastating locust invasion and soaring food prices - all amid chronic poverty.

But despite a good harvest late in 2005, people in Niger and across the Sahel face more months of empty stomachs from now until October/November 2006, the lean months ahead of the harvests when granaries tend to run empty, UN officials said.

Last year's food crisis forced farming families into heavy debt they are still struggling to repay, while prices of basic foodstuffs remain high. In Niger a sack of millet borrowed in late spring of 2005 for seed or for food required up to three sacks as repayment by October of the same year.

And children are the most at risk, with malnutrition partly to blame for the deaths of over 300,000 children - just over half of the child deaths in the region, said Theophane Nikyema, deputy director of the regional office of the UN children's agency UNICEF.

In recent months UNICEF has been conducting nutrition assessments across the Sahel to help forecast the 2006 picture. Tuesday's new appeal to international donors comes on top of a request for $152 million in the original UN Consolidated Appeal for West Africa, bringing the total to $244 million.

The deputy director of the World Food Programme's regional office, Christine Van Nieuwenhuyse, said the funds would be used not only to help feed an estimated five million people who could go hungry, but also to bolster nutritional centres, local cereal banks and help provide long-term solutions to chronic hunger.

"We must have long-term solutions," she told a media conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar. "Children who are malnourished carry the consequence for years and malnutrition feeds poverty, which in turn feeds malnutrition."

In a separate statement, Oxfam said that currently one in three people in Niger do not have enough to eat and that this figure could double in six months failing an international response.

"While the emergency response is imperative, there must be a true and sustained commitment to long-term engagement," said Natasha Quist, Oxfam GB's West Africa director. "Without it, the people of the Sahel will remain among the world's most vulnerable, marginalised and perpetually at risk of food crises."