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UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN MALI

On Tuesday the curfew was lifted. The borders and airports were reopened on Monday - but in a restricted way. The airport is not open around the clock, and some airlines adjusted their schedules, or canceled some flights. Yesterday there was a scare that Air France stopped operating entirely, but that turned out not to be true. We can only pray that air travel continues to be possible. I'm scheduled to fly to Austria April 11th.

The children are on "Easter vacation" this week, and are supposed to go back to school next Monday. Food and gas prices have risen, but are now going down again with trucks being able to move around freely and bring in supplies from neighboring countries. Today we're buying a big quantity of rice in case the situation worsens and prices go up again.

The coup leader captain Sanogo is a middle-level soldier who has been able to gather a lot of unhappy people around him. In fact, politicians and organisations have now split into two big factions - those FOR the coup, and those AGAINST it. The president is alive and safe, and the French ambassador has talked to him.

Sanogo is planning to retain power until elections have taken place and a new government is in place. When? He said it could take months. Originally elections were planned for April 29th. They have just made their new constitution public on TV, reading out all articles.

The international community has without exception condemned the coup in Mali and stopped most aid, with a few exceptions for humanitarian aid. Don't forget that over 3 million Malians are directly affected by the severe famine in the country, and the current situation makes it hard to impossible to help those people.

To make matters worse, ECOWAS (the West African economic union) had an emergency meeting yesterday and imposed economic sanctions on Mali. As of today, no money transfers in or out of Mali are allowed, Western Union and the like are closed. Banks are only open a few hours, and only pay out limited amount of money. It is unclear as of now, whether that also means that we cannot use our foreign ATM cards to withdraw any more money. This is the way we access our European and American accounts. Needless to say, if that is not possible any more as well, we will have no way of acquiring money. Thankfully, or providentially (thank God!), we had just made a big transfer of money to Mali through an organisation that was helped that way, and they were just able to get that money to us. So we're now restricting our expenses to what is absolutely necessary, as we don't know what lies ahead, and how long this situation will last.

ECOWAS is also sending a delegation of 5 African presidents to Mali within the next 48 hours. Their goal is to convince capitaine Sanogo to step down and restore democracy and the regular government. In case he is unwilling, their troups are already gathered at Mali's borders to march into Mali and make him step down by force. So these next 48 hours will be crucial. Please pray that he is willing to step down to prevent a bloodshed in our country!

Continue to pray for us, and forward this email to anyone you know who could do so as well.

We know that we are surrounded by an army of big, strong angels who will fight for us, and I know that it is no coincidence that I'm in the middle of a 40-day fast right now (though I didn't know that's why He asked me to fast).

A BBC article: Mali suspended from regional bloc ECOWAS over coup

A NY Times article: West African Bloc Puts Peacekeeping Troups on Alert

QUICK NEWS

•        Our village church Goro - This village is nearly a 2-hour drive from our base, crossing all of Bamako, and leading through the town where the rebels have their headquarters. It is out of the question for us to travel that direction with the current situation.

•       Our village church in Dara - This village 45 minutes away is safe to visit. However, Paul will go there for the last time today, as it costs a lot of gas. I'm also sad that we have to postpone handing out bags of rice to some needy families there.

•       On Our Base - The mood on our base is good. The kids are on Easter vacation (school starts again Monday), and enjoy their free time and time to play, as if everything is as always. We're following our regular schedule. We do keep them informed as to what's going on in the country, and ask them to pray, which the older ones are (hopefully) doing. On Thursdays we have our weekly prayer meeting.

•       Connecting to city electricity - Since we have not given them any bribes, they keep saying "tomorrow" as to when they'll come to connect us to city electricity; it was scheduled for the end of February. Paul went there today and they said that the rebels have seized all their vehicles so they're unable to do any work at this time. I'm measuring up to 98.8 F (37 C) in my bedroom every single night (it's the hottest time of year), and our power goes out from about 1-2 am to 10 am every night (not enough solar power), making it hard to sleep.

•        Europe Trip - I'm very much hoping I'll be able to fly out on April 11th. The Austrian ambassador and consul have also talked to me about possible evacuations. I can only hope it won't come to that. I also very much hope I'll be able to reenter Mali in May. Look to the left to see when I'm where, with more details on the CALENDAR page of our website.

•       Volunteers - We still need volunteers, but as of now, it is NOT advised to travel to Mali.

•        My Book - My book can now be ordered from all over the world. Just click on the link on the left side.

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2.Ki 6:17)

Safe in HIM,

Claudia