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THIS SUMMER
SMALL BEGINNINGS
QUICK NEWS

THIS SUMMER

Two days ago I started my twelfth year in Mali. Twelve is a significant number. Amongst others it symbolizes God's power and authority, as well as completeness. We have just entered the year of fulfilled promises. We have entered a new season that will see us catapulted to a whole new level as it was 10 years ago.

All summer I have seen the signs, I have heard God speaking, and I've seen the manifestation of that over and over again. I'm speechless, blown away, and excited to see promises fulfilled, to hear the rumbling of distant thunder, see the little cloud on the horizon and feel the first drops of abundance of rain coming down.

There are many parallels with 2004 when I returned after the summer and God's kairos moment had come to start the church, start the Bible School and have the first party for street children at Christmas. It was the beginning from where it's just been growing since.

My first year in Mali I had been teaching German at a local Malian High School, one of my neighbors got saved, and we did a weekly Bible Study. It was a VERY hard year, a year of waiting, a year of wondering how the HUGE vision God had given me would come to pass. I was alone, with Jesus being my One and Only, the One I'd run to and in whose arms I would let myself fall. When I came to the US in the summer, I was tired, worn out, and discouraged.

And I walked into a church where they were singing "I'm Trading My Sorrows" during worship, and as I heard the chorus, "Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, yes, Lord", I knew God was waiting for an answer from me. I finally said, "Yes, Lord, even if the second year is as hard as the first, I say YES to where You want me to be, YES to Your calling on my life." I could sense God's pleasure, and the spiritual world became a busy place as He was preparing for that kairos moment after my return.

After 11 years of hard work and toiling and loneliness - and God doing awesome things - and a very tough last year culminating in a relationship breakup before the summer leaving me empty, tired, and discouraged as I was 10 years ago, I felt God wanted me to take two months in the US, and I told all of you so. I obeyed, even though we didn't have the money for me to do so. My goal for those two months were to get excited about life and ministry again and return to Mali with more fire than ever, advancing God's kingdom more than ever, and to be happy as a single woman again. And God FAR exceeded my wildest expectations!

I stood in worship at a church in the US this summer, as I did ten years ago, when God asked me this question, "If eleven years from now, you will STILL be the only Westerner in Mali, will you go back to continue what I've called you to do?" The day before I had just shared my heart's cry for workers with somebody, and how Paul and I are at the limit of our strength and what we can do, just maintaining and surviving rather than taking new ground. It was a hard question, and as ten years ago, it took me a few moments to answer. "Yes, Lord, Your will be done." And once again I could sense God's pleasure, and the spiritual world became a busy place as He was preparing for that kairos moment after my return.

Four days later, on Sunday morning, the speaker who was preaching asked whether I was still here and prophesied that I had been through the fire, but now I'd be a carrier of fire, and what God was gonna do would be known as the "Mali Fire Outpouring". (Watch here.) God's fire was all over me as the words were spoken.

Another four days later Rodney Howard-Browne laid hands on me and prayed for an impartation of fire. My hands were on fire once again, and have been many times since.

There were many other prophetic signs - like my cat that I got in 2004 dying just before my return to Mali. The things of the old season needed to die, for the new season to start. God also spoke to me many things, gave me a great excitement and anticipation of what He was up to. On my last day in the US I remember saying that my purpose and goal for the trip had been accomplished. That very day God acted in the invisible to change the future and bring fulfillment of promise.

SMALL BEGINNINGS

One of the verses ringing in my ears all summer was "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." (Ps 37:4) And then one day I heard a speaker say, "A third of the kingdom is joy." (see Rom 14:17). That statement hit me hard, knowing I was falling short. The lack of joy while in Mali, where things are just so hard, had been something that always bothered me but I didn't know how to change it. Hearing that statement, I told God how much I longed to LIVE that. I could not forget about the sentence that continued going through my mind.

Paul preached my first Saturday back home, but last Saturday it was time to release what God had done this summer. I preached more rhema than logos that day, and God's presence came down! I prophesied over our and other children and adults on a whole new level, and then the joy of the Lord hit us. Paul and I started laughing in the Spirit and ended up on the floor. Then I prophesied over Paul how he had thought about leaving the ministry because it's just so hard, but that now he was entering a new season and would be operating out of joy and rest.

Later Paul told me that he had pretty much decided to quit the ministry after our 10-year-anniversary conference November, as it was just too hard. While I was prophesying over everyone else at the end of the service, Paul said to himself that I just HAD to say something about that decision of his. WOW! AWESOME GOD!

The new season of JOY and operating out of REST (the latter another thing God's spoken to me about all summer) has STARTED! I've never experienced anything like it! I then realized that it's actually not 33% joy, peace, and righteousness each, but a 100% joy, a 100% peace, and a 100% righteousness!

Now when both of our cars are broken down and need money to be repaired, I praise God and trust Him to take care of our need.

Now when we can't pay school tuition, we praise God and trust Him to take care of it.

Now when for the first time our kids didn't have school supplies when school started, we praise HIM and trust Him!

And I said to Paul, when our debts recently hit the maximum and we were in a worse spot than ever financially, I said to him and prophesied that this was the LAST time we'd EVER be in THAT bad of a situation!

What I have not told you is that God also strategically connected me with people this summer. In just a month an article I wrote will be published and read by half a million people. I believe God is going to use that article - amongst other things - to take us to a new level of visibility, and to send people as well as supplies to Mali.

Yes, God wanted me to be WILLING to continue doing this all by myself, even if it meant for another 11 years. However, He was just looking at my heart, so He could receive the green light to take us to a new level and take us into promises fulfilled!

Abundance is coming, of people, of money, provision, and God's manifest presence in Mali! And when everyone will be talking about the "Mali Fire Outpouring", you - our trusted long-time friends and supporters - will be able to share about our small beginnings and of the seeds YOU have sown to even make it possible.

THANK YOU ALL! Keep praying for us! And keep sowing so that no child needs to go without school book, no widow needs to go hungry, and no broken down car keeps us from preaching the gospel!

QUICK NEWS

•        10-Year-Anniversary - This November we're celebrating 10 years since Centre Apostolique Malien was started. And we have two amazing speakers for this special conference, Charles Stock and Wesley Campbell. Please pray for all our preparations, and for God to show up like never before!

•        Millet & Corn Field - Our millet and corn is growing nicely and will be harvested soon. We hope to have a big enough harvest so we don't have to buy any millet for a year.

•        Driver/Guard - Our grown-up kid and driver Saloum is now starting a trade school and can't drive for us any more. Our day guard Adama (ex-street kid) has gone through driving school and will be our new driver. Our night guard Suma (ex-street kid) will become our day guard and start going to (evening) school, and we have 3 grown-up street boys who love the Lord to choose from to take in and become our new night guard. Please pray we make the right choice.

•        School Expenses - We thank each and everyone of you who has responded to our desperate cry for help! We've had money come in, but are still a long way away from being able to pay all school tuition and buy all the supplies.

•        New Truck Needed - Recently both our really old trucks were broken down, meaning no functioning vehicle to even take the kids to school in. We desperately need a new Toyota pick-up truck like in the picture, which unfortunately costs as much as $40,000 or 30.000€.

•       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.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Rom 14:17)

REJOICING in HIM,

Claudia