Donations:

WORKSHOPS & BUSINESSES

OUR OWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Two weeks ago we finally started our elementary school that had been part of my vision for many years, and very much on Randy's heart from day one. Fire or not, challenges or not, the enemy could not keep us from this huge step forward, and so we started our school on July 11th.

We bought a whiteboard and hung in on the freshly painted wall in our renovated living room where the fire had started. We moved some old school desks out of storage, Randy repaired them, and moved them into our living room in front of the board. We bought school books, and were able to acquire the curriculum for grades 1-6 in Mali, which is considered elementary school here.

We decided to not start with first grade, but with fifth grade. One of our boys - Bakary (12) - lost his parents when he was 3 years old and then lived on the street because there was nobody to take care of him. We took him in when he was 5, and he's always struggled in school. He did first grade as well as fourth grade twice, and still knew very little. I knew that he would profit greatly from being in our school.

We wanted to open up our school to families from our church and neighborhood. Four children joined us from the outside bringing our total number to ten. Unfortunately all four had to drop out sooner or later as they literally knew little to nothing and would have had to start with second grade or so.

The Malian school system is in very bad shape. Classes are huge and children don't speak or understand French. However their mother tongue Bambara is prohibited and they get punished for using it. All the children do is copy from the board and memorize, without knowing what they're saying or writing. As you can imagine, they're not learning much. As they get older, the predominantly male teachers force students to have sex with them, and also demand money to pass students. When I taught in a little Muslim High School in Mali my first two years here, I was shocked at how little the students knew in 12th grade.

Our school is supposed to change all that. We use their mother tongue, we make sure that they understand, and we treat them with the dignity they deserve. Jesus is in the middle of our school, and we want to raise up children to love Him and be educated beyond what a Malian school can offer.

Yesterday I helped our children write emails to our sponsors, and I was touched again and again as the children in our school wrote that now that they are in our school, they actually understand what is being taught. And Adou sharing with me that he does not want to go back to the Malian school (he's the weakest student now) because his teacher always makes fun of him for being older than the others. That's the challenge with taking in street children when they are 12, 13, 14, and need to start first grade at that advanced age.

Click here to see all the June-July pictures.

SCHOOL LIFE

We start at 7:30 - and that includes ALL the children in our center - with a devotional time of worship and Bible study in our living room. For an hour we worship and listen to the Bible teaching of the day.

At 8:30 the school kids move over to the desks, while the rest leaves to be on vacation or do certain tasks, as their school year only starts in October. The primary focus of their education is French as well as Math, but I also teach music, science, English, and Malian culture. There are now six students left, and they are all our resident children. Normally, Adou would be in 4th grade, and Sarata in 6th grade, but I teach them all 5th grade. Even though they all attended the second best school in Mali before ours, their level is still not up to 5th grade, and I sometimes have to go way back to bring up their levels. It may seem that we're actually a second or third grade class, but grasping and understanding what is being taught is invaluable and will allow us to move on faster later.

Our semester is only 6 weeks long, and we're in week 3 right now. I feel like we've already covered a lot of ground, though it might take us longer than a year to cover the whole 5th grade material. When Randy and I leave on our trip end of August, I will leave them a lot of work to do during our absence that will hopefully cement all they've learned so far further.

We usually end class around noon or 12:30. At 4 pm the first three kids come back to work on the three computers we have, and then at 5:30 the other three come to work for 90 minutes, doing educational games to improve their Math and French skills in a fun way.

I'd like to bring three more computers to Mali so they can all work on one at the same time. If you have a laptop computer that works well and that you don't need, please consider donating it to our school.

OUR SCHOOL'S FUTURE

I'm currently their teacher, and honestly, I love teaching with a passion, more than anything else, and give my all to do it. However, I have many other responsibilities as well, so that I have my days are very long and tiring right now.

Also, my heart's desire is for our school to be able to start a first grade class, so that the kids don't bring in the baggage from their previous schools but get an equal start. I want to continue with our fifth grade, but I'm praying God sends us an elementary teacher from France so we could start that first grade as soon as possible. That's one of the reasons why we'll spend three weeks in France in September, and if you know anyone in France that we should meet, or any church that we should connect with, please let me know.

AROUNA (13?)

Just over two weeks ago we added Arouna to our family. This is his story:

Arouna was born somewhere in Côte d'Ivoire, he doesn't know where. When he is six years old, his parents send him and his younger brother to an uncle in Bamako where they both start going to school. In sixth grade - around April or May 2015 - they get kicked out of school because of missing payments. Instead, his uncle signs him up as a apprentice to a motorbike mechanic. However, his aunt sends him out every morning to sell her merchandise, so that he can't go to the mechanic's. Every night when his uncle gets back home, he beats him up for not having shown up, not knowing that his wife was sending him out to do her business. After two weeks Arouna has enough and runs away. He ends up at the bus station, where he begs for money to survive. He hears about us, but decides to make his way north to Mopti where he ends up working for a fisherman. After a couple months, he wants to return to Bamako, and the fisherman pays his bus ticket to do so. Arriving in Bamako, he decides to find us as he had heard that we treat children well. All he knows is that we are near the hill and that we have a water tower. So he asks around until he shows up at our base on March 29 of 2016. His faithfulness and sweet spirit gets him noticed, and so two days before our primary school started he became part of our family, just in time to also be in our school.

We are still trying to get a hold of a family member of his to get their permission for him to stay with us.

Arouna already has a sponsor, but 6-year-old Casimir (Paul's youngest half-brother) is looking for a half-sponsor for $30 or 20€ per month. Please contact me if you'd like to sponsor him.

NEW TEAM MEMBER DAVID

It was over four years ago that Mali had a military coup that threw the country into turmoil and that it still has not recovered from. And that's how long it's been since we had volunteers with us that stay for longer than just a few weeks.

Not having volunteers has made a big difference for the worse, as our children spend much time unsupervised, which has dire consequences in many ways. It has bothered me all those years, but now we've decided it simply can't go on like this.

We made our need known and voilà, David just joined our family to be the one watching the kids. David is from Guinea, university-educated, Bible School trained, and from a non-charismatic background. Last night he moved into a room on our base, and today it's his first day making sure the kids follow the schedule and supervising them to do what they need to do and not do what they're not supposed to do.

We prayed for weeks before employing him, and it feels very good and right to have him here. I liked him from the first moment I saw him. Please pray for him, and pray also for us in this new season, that we'll be able to adjust to this new situation in our family, and that it all works out for the best and His glory.

QUICK NEWS

•        Our Health - Please pray for Randy's heart that has not been the same since his botched infusion. We're looking into getting him checked out while in Austria.

•        Bible School - We've recently finished our second trimester, and both Boubacar and Joseph passed. The third trimester will start after we return from our next trip.

•        Construction - We're still waiting for the estimate of how much the next building will cost that our new construction manager is working on. We need those rooms as dorms as well as for our elementary school.

•        Government Papers - We should have papers for three entities. Our church papers burned in the fire, and it takes time and money to get them again. Our mission papers (the first ones we got) need to be renewed every year, and they just would not do it. And thirdly, the children's center's papers could only be deposited after we got our church papers, and they're also being processed right now. Please pray that we'll have all three papers soon, as they said we would.

•        Summer Programs - Four of our boys are currently across the border in Burkina Faso with Youth With A Mission. Two of them joined their outreach team, while the other two are part of their dance team.

•        New Car - Our new 13-seat Toyota Landcruiser is leaving Austria any day now to make its long way to the port of Dakar, and from there in a container to Bamako. It is supposed to arrive some time in September, just in time before school starts in October. Through favor and connections we've just received word that the government will exempt us from having to pay the $12,750 or 11.250€ customs normally due. PRAISE GOD!

•        Florentin - Flo got a new heart valve in Europe three years ago and has recently been having issues including water in his lungs. These last few days his condition has worsened again to the point that he had to be taken to hospital today.

•        Randy's Trip - Randy has been gone for the past two weeks, traveling to the US for his youngest daugther's wedding. I'm very much looking forward to his return Wednesday night. Please pray for safe travels and no issues upon arrival in Bamako.

•        Sept-Nov - While our US schedule is full (see on the left) we still have some openings in Europe (also on the left). We're looking forward to seeing many of you again and making new friends and connections. Please pray for open doors and divine apppointments, and especially for God to send teachers to our school in Mali.

•        Partners - We're looking for monthly financial partners as we only have 41% of our budget covered by regular monthly donations.

•       Volunteers - Do you want to come change an orphan's life? Do you want to heal the sick? Preach the gospel to those who've never heard? Come to Mali for a season and let God change your life. No language skills needed, but French skills are helpful.

Train up a child in the way he should go [teaching him to seek God’s wisdom and will for his abilities and talents], even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov 22:6, AMP)

Loving HIM,

Claudia (& Randy)