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MUSLIM LEADER TURNING TO CHRIST

Mali is a predominantly Muslim nation, and so you find mosques at every corner. We also have a little mosque not far from our base (picture). When a group of our children would pass by to talk to the muezzin of the mosque (the one who calls the believers to prayer 5 times a day) or invite them to an event, he would chase them away. One day he was gone, but his children were home, and very sick. So they let our kids in to pray for the children - and God healed them. That was the beginning of Mounkoro's journey to God.

A few months later he came to our service saying he wanted to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Paul prayed with him right there and then in front of everyone (picture). Mounkoro quit his job at the mosque, and Paul is discipling him now. Pray for both Paul and Mounkoro. May he become a leader in the kingdom of God!

CONSEQUENCES FROM MAY INCIDENT

At the end of May I sent out an emergency prayer email to everyone, briefly sharing with you what happened in Mali just after Paul and I had left for the US. As expected, your prayers immediately made a difference. Here's what's happened since then:

The teenager who had sex in Paul's room also stole a lot of money from a street kid that had found it on the street. After he realized we know about his sexual activities, and just after my email went out, he decided to leave our house. He left to live with his father and uncle, and bought himself a motorbike with the stolen money.

This 16-year-old had lived with me for three years. I've seen him change, seen him grow in his faith, and become pretty responsible. He has a great calling on his life, and is very gifted musically. For the past few months things were difficult with him, and I could see that his relationship with God wasn't right, and that wasn't changing. It breaks my heart to see him so far from God, leaving the right path. I hope he continues his schooling, and we'll continue to provide everything he needs to finish his education and continue with God. Please pray for his relationship with God to be restored.

In January we found another driver to work for us. This time we thought we had found the right one. After a few months some problems started to come up, and then he cruelly whipped two of our street children. As soon as school was out, he had to leave us. Once again we are without a driver, but at least it's summer holiday now.

Over the past few months we've lost four people because they either left or were kicked out.

CONTAINER & CONSTRUCTION HELP

I felt that I was supposed to add one more week to my time in the US, and so Paul returned without me while I went to Colorado Springs. I thought I went to get some much-needed rest - but that's not what God had in mind.

I've been totally amazed at how God cares about the hidden deep desires of our hearts, that don't seem that important on the big scale. We're currently building the house that I'll be living in. I'd been dreaming about having a nice kitchen, but that didn't seem in any way possible. In Austria I lived for 5 years in a little apartment that didn't even any water faucet (or heating), and the past 7 years I've been dealing with Malian kitchens.

In the past few days God has been putting things into place in an amazing way.

A container is leaving for Mali, and they're taking my kitchen (and bathroom sink and bathtub) with them.

Only one Lowe's store still had the kitchen I liked in stock - and they even had each one of the cabinets I needed. One of the cabinets was the very last one they had. This kitchen is not manufacted any more.

The store gave me 10% off because it's for missions.

I didn't have to pay sales tax thanks to the local church I came to visit.

God sent us a young man who is in the building industry. Two weeks earlier God told him he would go to Charlotte, NC, and he had no clue why. The container is leaving from Charlotte, and he's transporting everything to it with a trailer this coming week - leaving from Denver! If any of you could help with the costs for gas, we'd be grateful.

This young man is also coming to Mali in August to do all the wiring and plumbing on the house, so it's done well for the first time! We now need to get the money together for his plane ticket. He'll also come a second time once the container arrives to install everything.

Please pray that everything works out with the container, since there are still a few things that could go wrong.

QUICK NEWS

•        New Helper Arriving - On July 5th we're welcoming our new helper from Austria who is staying with us for a year. We're all very excited about Christian's arrival. He's 20 years old, speaks French, and is a strong Christian. Please pray for his and our preparations.

•        New Children - Now is the time for us to start looking into which street children we're going to take in before the next academic year starts. Quite a few of the street children who are with us every night are eligible. Please pray we make the right choices.

•        Little Bus - We're still looking for a little bus that can carry sufficiently many people so that we can transport our children to school in a safe way. Recently one of our children fell off our pick-up truck on the way to school.

•        Family Vacation - We'd like to take a family vacation for a few days with our children, going north into Dogon country. It will be an opportunity to spend quality time with our children, but also for Eva (before she leaves) and Christian (after his arrival) to see a beautiful part of the country. The logistics are quite challenging (transportation, lodging), so we're praying it's going to work out.

•        Book-Writing Break - God miracously provided the money for my book to be published. Since I also need a break for spiritual and physical renewal, I'm taking September and October off for both these purposes. I'm going to spend most of that time in Kansas City. I'm praying for the grace to get the book finished.

•        Board Members - Healing 2 The Nations International needs to find two new board members over the course of the next month. Please pray God picks the people to serve in this capacity and makes them known to us.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Gal 6:9)

Trusting HIM,

Claudia