Donations:

NEW FAMILY MEMBER

A few days ago Daouda (10) moved into our house and became part of our family, after nearly two years of living on the street.

Daouda's parents died while he was a baby, and his aunt didn't really want him and mistreated him until she one day dropped him off at his uncle's. The uncle beat him regularly and had nothing but contempt for this "good for nothing" boy. At school, Daouda's teacher beat him up because of his stuttering problem. At the age of 8 Daouda had enough and ran away.

Daouda has been sleeping on our base for the past 7 months and has given his life to serve Jesus. Please pray he settles in well and can enter into the great future God has for him.

If you'd like to become his sponsor, covering food, clothes, medical expenses, and tuition with $60 or 40€ per month, please email me.

If you'd like to read his whole story, click here.

We're looking into taking in more children. Please pray we make the right choices.

NEW BUS

A few days ago we completed the purchase of our new 18-year-old minibus. FINALLY, we'll be able to transport our children to school safely, plus we have room for quite a few more kids while our truck already had a hard time piling all the kids on the back. We're very excited about this new addition to our "family".

We still have some paperwork to get done before we can use it, and have to have it painted as it was used for public transportation - those are the only vehicles that are green.

The children are very excited, and so are we.

THANK YOU to all those who contributed to making this purchase possible, and we trust that the outstanding $1,200 will come in as well.

To read more about the bus and its purchase, click here.

NEW HELPER

Nearly three weeks ago Christian (20) arrived from Austria to help us for one year. I asked him to write about his first impressions:

Everything's different, the challenges are great, and God is good... So far my time here has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs emotionally. On one hand, there's the warmth I was received with by children as well as team members. From the first moment I felt a part of the family which really made it easier with regards to the preceding pain of leaving Austria as well as the frightening prospect of a long year in this world that is still very foreign to me.

My biggest battles in this time are the new hard-to-digest West African climate, the West African food that's as hard-to-digest, the adventurous car rides and the challenge of getting into the children's rhythm of life. Since I'm going to spend a lot of time with these children during this upcoming year, it's been important to me to get along well with them from the very beginning, and I'd like for that to happen on a level of mutual respect and appreciation.

But during this hard time of transition I realize even more how good and helpful it is to cling to God, because even with the whole world around me not being the way it used to be, and finding myself a long way outside of my comfort zone "walking on water", my God is still the same. He is faithful and his help is never late. And amongst other things, it is exactly those deep realizations of the faithfulness of God that makes this time so precious.l

NEW VILLAGE SITUATION

After four years of working with a village pastor and establishing 5 more churches in that region, and after years of dealing with problems of integrity and honesty, we finally have to end our partnership with this pastor.

It's heart-breaking, though, that after the pastor abandoned the new believers and widows, we now have to follow suit. We do not have anyone we can send to those villages to pick up the pieces.

Please pray with us; if there is any solution to feed those widows and feed the believers with the Word anyway, may God show us.

If you want to know more details about this situation, click here.

QUICK NEWS

•        Translator Needed - I'm looking for a German native speaker who could translate this newsletter every time one is mailed out. Please contact me if you're interested.

•        Holiday Activities - So far the long summer holiday of nearly 4 months has not been boring for our children. We've gone to a little amusement park, and to the zoo, and will still be going swimming. To read about all that's happening, please read the blog for July.

•        Construction Help - In two weeks we have a young man who's in the construction business coming to Mali to help with the wiring and plumbing of the current house we're building. Please pray for his time with us to be productive, and contact me if you can help with his travel expenses.

•        Family Vacation - Instead of going to Dogonland, we'll be spending three days on camp grounds not too far from us. The kids will have lots of stuff they can do - biking, kayaking, rock climbing, swimming, hiking in the hills, visiting a botanical garden, soccer, badminton,... and to top it all off, good food. If any of you would like to contribute to our special time away, it will cost us about $1400.

•        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 (details of my itinerary on the CALENDAR page). Please pray for the grace to get the book finished.

•        New Board Members - I'd like to inform you that H2TNI has two new board members. Pastor Anthony Turner (picture) from Colorado Springs, CO, and pastor Gerhard Kisslinger from Vienna, Austria. We're blessed to have them on board!

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” (Rev 21:5a)

Loving HIM,

Claudia