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TESTIMONIES...

MARIAM'S STOLEN BABY

This is Mariam. She gave birth to her second child in a health clinic in Bamako. As it was a C-section, they took the baby away to take care of it, and take care of her. While separated, another woman stole her baby. She went to the police, but in a third-world country where half the population is under 15 and children are everywhere, stolen babies rarely get found.

One of her friends, a lady in our Bible-discovery group in Kungojan, invited her to the group and Mariam started coming. Then she got really sick, and the doctors told her she was going to die. She called on the name of Jesus and was completely healed.

She returned to the group and asked them to pray for her stolen baby to be found. And then our miracle-working God heard her cry. After 43 days the baby was found in another city 400 kilometers away. The thief had sent someone to Bamako to get a birth certificate for the stolen baby, and the official got suspicious. The lady was questioned and confessed and went to prison, and the baby returned to her mother.
Having experienced two huge miracles, Mariam has now become a follower of Jesus.

THE BLIND SEE

This is Eli. A year ago he gradually became blind. The doctors at the eye clinic tried to prevent and reverse it, but failed. He has medical papers confirming his unhealable blindness. His wife had to take care of him, while he was sitting at home all day long.

Paul has known Eli's brother, a catholic, for a long time and invited him to our events in the past. Eli himself was a Muslim. His brother asked Paul whether he could pray for Eli and so Paul came and prayed for him. A few days later he found out that Eli's sight was completely restored! Praise God! Next Monday he is going back to the eye clinic for medical confirmation. He has now decided to follow this Jesus who healed him.

TWO DAYS WITHOUT FOOD

This is Aminata. Four months ago her husband abandoned her and her two children, while she was pregnant with their third. They had not eaten in two days when Paul gave her a 50 kilo bag of rice. Thank you so much for making it possible for us to hand out rice to those in need!

HUNGER CAUSED BY COVID-19

This is Assitan. She is married with 4 children and pregnant with her fifth. Because of the Corona virus spreading in the country, all the Chinese nationals have left the country and the Chinese factory where her husband worked closed. They had nothing, no food, and no one to help them. Until Paul gave them a 50 kilo bag of rice.

There are so many more widows and families in need, so many more testimonies. We thank every one of you who has donated to help us buy rice for them. One 50 kilo bag costs 31€ or $34.

...AND CHALLENGES

STREET CHILDREN....

A lot of our neighbors are against us, and they’re always looking for ways to get rid of us or hurt us. One of the reasons is that the street children are in our neighborhood because of us, and the other simply that we are Christians. Most of the time it’s incidents with the street children spending the night on our base that cause problems.

Not long ago two of those street children stole money and a phone from a neighbor. When they were caught, they said they had hidden them on our base, and told them where. They are lucky they weren't killed, as is frequently done with thieves these days. Of course they were beaten up badly and put into prison.

As a result of their words, the neighbors gathered a crowd of over a 100 people with bats and machetes and came to our base to recover the stolen goods. It was 10 pm so Paul was already at home. The professional guard called Paul and his company and was able to hold them at bay until Paul’s arrival. Paul allowed a person to look at the spot the children had indicated, but nothing was there. When Paul talked to a police official later, that official said that we’re indeed responsible for the children spending the night on the base and would have to stop letting them sleep there to prevent problems like these. Obviously we have no intention of doing that, but it’s a delicate situation.

...AND OUR CHILDREN

Paul always tries to explain to the neighbors that it's the street children sleeping on our base doing stuff like that, and as we don't know them and they leave in the morning, we're not responsible for them. He tries to explain to them that our resident children don't leave the base (unless going to school) and are good kids. That argument was just shattered.

Bakary is one of the kids who have been with us the longest, and he has a very special place in my heart. When he was 3, his parents died and he ended up on the street, going door to door to find food. We took him in when was around 4 years old, and now he is 16 and doing great at carpentry school. He loves Jesus and has quite a calling on his life.

Now we're so very disappointed that it was Bakary whole stole a phone from a neighbor. Thankfully it was a neighbor who is actually favorable towards us, and who had appreciated Bakary so far, and I'm glad Paul was able to prevent Bakary from being killed, beaten or sent to prison. He sat down to talk with the neighbor and is paying him the value of the phone. Unfortunately this incident has increased the animosity towards us in the neighborhood, as news spreads fast. Thankfully it has not reached Bakary's workplace yet, where he is finishing the practical aspect of his carpentry training, and I pray it stays that way.

All our hearts are broken that Bakary would do something like that. He's usually a model kid, and he can't explain himself why he did it. He sold the phone cheap and spent the money.

Please pray for him, pray for Paul who has to deal with all this, and pray for our neighborhood for the spirit of hate to be broken and love to be poured out.

THE WILSON FIVE HAVE MOVED

And that is also the reason you have not heard from us in two months, and in reality I don't have time to write this newsletter as I'm surrounded by boxes and already go to bed at 4 am in the morning as I can only get stuff done at night.

We received the keys to our new apartment that is more than twice the size of the last one AND cheaper, at the end of June. On July 1st a lot of our (not immediately needed) stuff got moved over there. The first picture only shows the stuff along one wall at the end of that day.

The following weeks we continued packing up stuff. There were a lot of hiccups regarding the kitchen we had to buy and have installed, and in the end it was quite a miracle it was (nearly) finished on July 30th, only 3 weeks after buying it. There was no more reason not to move in, and so we did on August 1st, taking only what we absolutely needed with us. A week later we had a truck one more time to move the rest, after Randy had spent that week packing it up and getting it ready. A huge thank you to every person who has come to help these past weeks, and amazingly, most people came from outside Vienna.

For over 5 weeks I had been alone with the babies in the afternoons and evenings, as Randy would be in the other apartment either putting furniture together in the new place, or packing up stuff in the old. I was absolutely exhausted and sent out a cry for people to help me as I found myself surrounded by boxes and so much work and unable to do anything as I had babies to take care of. I was so glad God and his people heard my cry, and so we've had people helping, just playing with the little ones for a couple of hours in the afternoon, for the past 10 days, and that has been such a blessing and relief. It has allowed me to actually unpack a little, though it's pretty slow going and is still gonna take a while, so I'm still praying for people to continue coming to help.

If you can help in the afternoon some time, please let me know. I'd appreciate it. Randy has been putting furniture together, as it needs to be up first, before we can unpack all the boxes.

Having said all that, we're so happy to be in this big place. I now have a beautiful, big kitchen, we have a dining room, and the kids a huge play area and their own bedroom. We even have a guest room with two queen-sized beds, so you can come and help! Once it's all finished (whenever that is), it will be great!

THE LITTLE WILSONS

Tammy, Emmy, and Sammy are doing great. They just passed the 9 month-old mark (biological age), and their first birthday is coming up very soon. They had a big test of their physical abilities where Tammy scored the maximum number of points, and Emmy only had one point less, which puts them both far above average in their development. They have both been sitting and standing for weeks, and Tammy is even taking steps while holding on to things. Sammy is going to physiotherapy as the brain damage makes it much harder for him to learn all these motor skills; he's still working on learning to turn from his back to his belly and to crawl, and is making progress. He's become such a joyful little boy, and is now easier than the other two in many ways.

They just finished their 10-week swim lessons, and really enjoyed it and did great. Tammy was floating all alone with her swim rings at the end. All three are such a joy to us, and impress others with their friendliness and joyfulness, and we're told they are really easy babies. The hardest part is that the boys still need food at night, and that it takes a long time before Tammy falls asleep. And right now they want to be close to us all the time, crying when we walk away.

Samuel day 349                 Tamara day 352                Emmanuel day 349

QUICK NEWS

•        Title Deed - Paul has been working on getting the title deed to our land so that the government can’t keep trying to reduce its size or take it away from us. He was told it would cost us $12,000. Paul did not accept that amount and started negotiating, when the president fired all his ministers to put in a new government. So back to square one. Paul shared his frustration with the corruption in the government, even saying that sometimes he’s ashamed to be Malian. We were given the land for free, but for the title we need to pay! Please pray the amount goes down to a reasonable price, and for the finances necessary to pay it.

•        Back To School - This is the hardest time of year for us financially as Paul has to pay all the school fees for our 30+ children which costs us thousands of dollars/euros in the end, after buying school uniforms and supplies, and we simply don't have the money. This year we have lost donors due to Corona, and we have not been able to travel for the same reason, not making new connections or doing itinerant ministry for funds to come in. We surely need a miracle to pay for it all!

•        COVID-19 - Mali has had 2600 confirmed cases of Corona, and 500 people are currently sick. The curve has finally started to flatten a little. Even Paul now wears a mask in buildings when he's out and about, but more people are slowly coming to the weekly service again. Schools are planning to reopen early September.

•        Amadou - Our oldest Amadou has become an indispensable helper to Paul. At the end of this month he has his final exams at architecture school, and for now he'll become part of our staff to help Paul and with the children.

•        First-Grade Teacher - We are still looking for a French-speaking first grade teacher to join our team. There is such a need for a good, Christian school where the children are treated with dignity and learn something. Many of our Muslim neighbors would send their children to our school. Please pray we'll find a teacher!

•        Malian Director Paul - Paul always needs prayer, carrying so much on his shoulders, as he's been leading the ministry all by himself for so long now.

•        Political Situation - Tensions have been escalating recently, with calls for the president's resignation getting louder, even with the concessions he's made. Demonstrators have been killed by police, only fueling the fire, and regional powers are getting worried about the situation and how it's gonna allow the Islamists to take advantage of the situation. Please pray for calm and peace and a resolution to the situation. This is one of many news articles about the situation.

•       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.

...nothing will be impossible for you. (Mt 17:20)

Trusting HIM,

Claudia (& Randy)