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EASTER OUTREACHES

In December of 2004, I did the first party for street children and about 80 children came. From then on, we put them on for Easter and for Christmas every year, and the number of children increased to over 2000. From the very first one, we would give the children not only candy and a meal, but also clothes and shoes. It soon became the tradition to give every child a pair of shoes, and sometimes we'd have stuffed animals and toys donated to us as well. It's only been possible to continue giving away shoes to this big number of children due to the generosity of the German NGO CCARA who's been financing most of the shoes, and we are very thankful to them.

This Easter we only had 1100 shoes, as we did not have the money to buy more. That was enough for one village, but not the capital plus 3 villages. We had to make the hard decision to not hand out shoes at the capital, as the villages needed them more. And then we had to pick one village over the other two. Paul chose the remote village of Sebela, where the children would not get shoes otherwise. He just told me how impressed he was with the people in Dara (see next story) that they did not complain, were not jealous, but blessed the village needing them more.

On Easter Sunday we put on the party on our base in Bamako. As Paul has made sure everyone knew that there were not going to be shoes this time, less than half of the usual number of kids came, just under 1000. We'd bought and boiled (but not colored) 1000 eggs that we then numbered. Every child coming onto our base received a paper with a number, and for the first game, they had to find the egg with their number among the eggs hidden on our property. Not an easy feat with 1000 eggs! The first ten to succeed went on to the second game that then had one winner receiving the big prize.

Then all the kids went inside the dining hall for a time of singing and praising God, followed by Paul explaining the gospel from beginning to end, demonstrating what happened to Jesus on the cross with the help of a child. He then asked them questions to see if they had listened and prayed a prayer of commitment with everyone to start a life with Jesus. Then every child received a drink and was invited to stay for a meal.

A week later Paul took 1100 shoes to the village of Sebela, and the children (and parents) heard the gospel and were very thankful for the gifts.

VILLAGE TRANSFORMATION CONTINUING

Since we started the church in Dara in 2008, we've seen countless testimonies of what the Lord has done in this little town, reaching top leaders as well as the least of them. I've shared many, many stories with you. Maybe you remember the village chief's son who had just finished building the biggest mosque in the whole region and then became a believer, which was a huge scandal. Seydou was the influential builder who made that project a reality. He has built all the mosques in the region, traveling to Saudi Arabia regularly to receive the funding for those projects.

We now have many Bible discovery groups in the region, and Djeneba, one of Seydou's relative, had become a believer and was a part. When her husband died, she came to live in Seydou's household. She started talking to Seydou about Jesus and inviting him to the group, and so Seydou kicked her out. During the night, he heard a voice calling his name, "Seydou! Seydou!" He woke up and heard the words, "It's Jesus. I love you." It happened again the following night, and the following, every night for a whole week. Three times he also saw a person in white. He thought he was being harassed by spirits and went to see the imam who confirmed his assessment and spoke koranic incantations over him. He also gave him verses to recite at home to fend off the spirits. He was reciting those verses back at home, when he heard the voice again. "Seydou, Seydou! It's Jesus. I love you." Then he had a dream, where he was talking to Paul. And so he came to see Paul and talked with him. Last week, he decided to become a follower of the Jesus who loved him and who had called him.

Paul is also asking you to pray for the imam's salvation. He came to our shoe distribution at Christmas and even helped for a short time. Last Sunday he visited Paul to talk to him, even though he knows that he should not be seen with him. He's very open to the gospel.

SUMMER IN THE USA

It is now pretty much certain that the vaccine mandate for non-US citizens to enter the US ends on May 11th. That means that we're about to book our flights to the US, the tentative dates being June 28 to September 20. It also means that I'm about to start planning our itinerary, hoping to visit our supporting and no longer supporting churches (casualties of our long absence) and see as many of our friends and supporters as possible. If you'd like us to come to your city or church, please contact me. We'd also be thankful if there were people to host us in their homes. As of now, we're looking at coming to Mississippi, Denver/Colorado Springs, Harrisburg, California, Kansas City/Topeka/Wichita, Augusta, Nashville, and are open to adding more stops to our itinerary. It is going to be the triplets' first trip to the US, where they'll finally get to meet their American relatives.

QUICK NEWS

•        Daily Blog - If you are not on Facebook but would still like to read my (nearly) daily blog about our life (with the triplets), including pictures, you can do so on our website. Go to https://h2tni.org/blog/.

•        The Triplets - The children attend several classes a week - PE, music, dance, piano and swimming, and they enjoy them all. In addition, Sammy has physiotherapy and speech therapy every week. In September he's going to start attending a special kindergarten. As for me, I teach English, French and German online every free minute I have, and are available to any of you needing lessons for yourselves or your children.

•        Healing Needed - I've had a latent eye condition all my life that became acute a few months after the triplets' birth, during the first lockdown. It makes me go cross-eyed, causing double-pictures and headaches if it goes on for a long time. It has made life difficult and also embarrassing in the past 3 years. Please pray for healing.

•        Construction - In July we finally received our building permit we'd been trying to get for years. First our builder waited for rainy season to end to pick up construction again, then he told us that he'd already spent our money so he needed to finish other projects first. Now he said that he's about to get paid for a project and is going to start bringing materials and equipment to pick up work on our fourth building again. We're still waiting for that to happen.

•        Child Sponsors Needed - We still have two boys, Dem and Mery, who've been looking for a sponsor for a long time. Also, Joseph has lost his half-sponsor and is hoping someone will step in. A sponsorship is 50€ or $60 per month, a half-sponsorship is 25€ or $30.

•        Security Situation - The jihadists are now doing attacks all over the country of Mali. Just recently they attacked a checkpoint and police station in a town near Bamako, where one of my grown-up sons lives. Paul got to talk to him after the attack. They have also targeted us personally which is why we cannot return to Mali for the time being. Mali has turned away from Western Europe and has turned to Russia. The Wagner group now operates in Mali instead of the French, and they have committed terrible atrocities that are just as bad as the jihadists'.

•        Malian Director Paul - Please pray for Paul who carries the full weight of the work in Mali on his shoulders. He has gone through a season of discouragement that was ended when Seydou became a believer.

•       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.

For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. (2.Cor 6:2)

Loving HIM,

Claudia (& Randy)