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* CAM is short for "Centre Apostolique Malien", the name of our church.

In this newsletter:

MORNING
AFTERNOON
EVENING
QUICK NEWS

MORNING

It's 7 am when the alarm clock in our boys' dorm room goes off during holiday season (rather than 4:45 am). There are now 12 boys sleeping in double and triple bunkbeds there, and there is room for another one or two. The older boys sleep in another room together. They all get up and gather in the living room for their daily half hour of listening to the Bible passage and devotional for the day and prayer. Then it's time for breakfast and showers. Because of all the rain, the water coming out of the tab is pretty cold now, meaning that some boys just pretend to have showered.

At 9 o'clock starts the voluntary daily hour of prayer at my house. A few boys never show up, those in the difficult teen years, while mainly the young ones come - maybe it's the added incentive of getting a sticker for their sticker book for every 5 times of showing up. I connect my computer to the TV set and start broadcasting the audio only Prayer Room from Kansas City, which is all our slow internet connection can handle (at least most of the time). Some kids read their Bibles, others pray, others seem to not do anything, some sit, some lie down on the floor. The last 15 minutes are either more of the same, or praying together for subjects, or I anoint them individually with oil and pray over them.

At 10 o'clock it's either time for our workout with my Wii that the little ones love joining me for, or I go straight to work while the kids leave to play. If the rains are on a break, they often play soccer, otherwise they have to stay inside to play with lego, or cards or something else.

At 11 am it's time for French homework which usually lasts about an hour. It's followed by the boys doing their daily chores. Each kid has a chore for a week, then it rotates - from sweeping to washing the floors, to cleaning bathrooms and making sure the living room is tidy.  

AFTERNOON

Depending on how much the rains impede shopping and cooking, lunch takes place either earlier or later, and it's always their staple rice, though with different sauces.

After lunch, it's time for "soaking" or "glorified sleeping", or as we call it in French, "marinating". Joseph puts on a French worship CD, and the kids lie down on couch, floor or even put their mattress on the floor.

After their time of rest, it's time for French class. Some days I work with all 16 of them together in the dining hall, other days I split them into two groups - those who can write and those who can't write yet - and do class with them in my living room. We've made quite a lot of progress this summer, and some are pretty good students while others couldn't care less. Since I don't watch time, class can last up to 2 hours and it's certainly never under 1. The first question after class is always, "Can we please watch a movie?", and I usually say yes. That occupies them for the next 90 minutes.

Except on Thursdays - that's when we have our weekly prayer meeting at 5 pm. So there is no French class in the afternoon and sometimes no movie. I get on my piano, and we start praising and worshiping God in French. In fact, I recently uploaded a little video clip of our time that you can watch at this link: http://youtu.be/V5zhZ1YKFEY

We never know what God is up to in the meeting, but often there is prophetic singing with God speaking to us, while other times it's more intercession. Last Thursday we were very blessed by our visitor, pastor Anthony Turner, who prophesied over each child which greatly encouraged them - and me.

EVENING

By then there is not that much time left before it's time for dinner at 7:15 pm. But it's enough time for them to memorize their Bible verse of the day from the passage of the day. Some memorize even 2 or more verses for extra credit (in stickers and money).

After dinner it's time for showers and getting ready for our nightly family meeting at 8 pm. It's the one time we all come together - including our "old kids" that would be in evening school during the year. I can really tell we have more kids than ever now; it makes quite a difference.

5 days of the week we first meet in the dining hall where the street children sleep. On Friday there is no family meeting at all because we have movie night in the courtyard where anyone can walk in to watch Christian movies. But the other nights we sit down together with the street children, and currently I'm reading biographies of great men and women of God to them; one children's book like that per week. Some kids listen better than others.

Then the street kids lie down to sleep, and the rest of us goes to the living room for our family meeting. First I check whether everyone has done their chores, and then their memory verse. We talk about anything that needs to be talked about, whether about that day or the following day. Sometimes we have much fun, joking around, and other times the mood is more somber when things have gone wrong. Once we're done talking, I lay hands on each child and pray over them.

Then it's "hugging time". I won't let them pass through to the dorm unless I get a hug! It's such a beautiful ritual I wouldn't miss. And sometimes we have the best time as I walk with them to the dorm to watch them go to bed, and we still talk and joke around until it's "light out". Their day has ended, while the night guard's work has really only just started. As for me, I often walk to the office to take advantage of uninterrupted, quiet working time. Sometimes it pays off to be a night owl!

QUICK NEWS

•       Bamako Floods - This week Bamako has seen the worst floods ever because of the continual rain (rainy season lasts another month or so). Over 60 people have been killed and thousands have become homeless. Please pray. I hope our walls won't crumble again as they did last year.

•        Return to School - Looking at last year's expenses, we calculated that it costs us about $150 per child at the beginning of the school year to purchase school supplies and uniforms and to pay the first installment of tuition. We will enable 35 children to go to school this coming school year. We'd be thankful for any help with these expenses.

•       New Night Guard - A few weeks ago former street child Suma became our new night guard and moved in with us. He's been doing good!

•        Joseph at YWAM - We're waiting to hear whether the Discipleship School in the south of Mali (starting end of September) is actually going to happen as they need a minimum of 10 students. However, we felt strongly that Joseph should do his school in Senegal as a way to take steps towards establishing our center there. The school in Dakar only starts in January.

•        Bus Repairs - The bus has been at the mechanic's for weeks now and is about to be returned to us repaired. I'm praying it will run a while before the next repair (it's over 20 years old). Already the repairs cost us more than anticipated.

•        Documentary - The documentary about us done by a Malian organization that will put it on TV is moving forward. When I get back to Mali after my next trip, they will start shooting.

•        New Child - Our last free bed was filled a few weeks ago with Amadou, in short Adou, who is about 13 years old, and things are going very well with him. There were others we would have liked to take in, but we can already feel the difference having added quite a few kids this summer, and we need to have more beds made first.

•        Elections - On August 11th, during the second round of elections, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK) was elected as our new president and is taking office on September 4th. The elections went well and peacefully. IBK is not the one we would have liked to see win but we pray God will use him for His purposes.

•        Summer Time - After over a month of just having fun, I started teaching the kids in July. It's been a fruitful time of improving their so important French skills which will help them big time in school.

•        Our American Visitor - We were extremely blessed by the short visit of our friend Anthony Turner from CO; he came to bless us and he accomplished his goal. God used him big time, and saying good-bye was really hard. This picture shows our kids praying a good-bye blessing over him. Thank God for having shining representatives of His Son on the earth!

•       Volunteers - We always need volunteers in Mali who can stay a few months or more. If you'd like to come help us, please contact me.

I’ll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. All the nations of the Earth will get a blessing for themselves through your descendants. (Gen 26:4, MESS)

Loving HIM,

Claudia