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The village chiefs of Darala, Paul, Falani and Darani.

VILLAGE OF DARALA

We first started Christmas and Easter Parties with distributions of shoes and clothes for street children in Bamako. As time went on, more and more children came until we've had over 2000 come to our base in Bamako. Once we started planting churches in villages, we started distributions there. The village of Dara where we have seen true transformation has had the most shoe distributions, but we've also done two in the village of Darala. Paul also preached the gospel to the hundreds of children (and adults) gathered, and some influential people became believers. The village chief heard about it and was very curious and wanted to know more about this gospel. He kept calling Paul and asking him to come to his village, but for some time Paul could not find the time to go there. A few weeks ago he finally did and even spent the night there. They spent hours talking together, and before he left, the village chief and his wife said they wanted to become followers of Jesus, so Paul prayed with them.

VILLAGE OF FALANI

A few years ago an influential man of the completely unreached village of Falani asked Paul to come to tell him more about Jesus. Up to that point that village had refused to listen to any Christians bringing their message, and so all groups trying to start a church there had failed. That man gathered 80 people around him to hear the gospel that Paul took to them, and a Bible-discovery group was started. As time went by, more and more people became believers, and their lives started to change. The village chief started noticing those changes as a few of the new believers were part of his advisory board. The two things that struck him were the joy that they had and the tight-knit community they had formed. He became curious and invited Paul to his house. Paul came to his house to talk to him several times. Every time he prayed for him before leaving. He experienced a few healings, including his prostrate that did not need the intended operation any more. He is also good friends with the village chief of Darala and had met with him after his conversion, which accelerated his own journey to become a follower to Jesus. He finally told Paul that he was ready, and so they prayed together.

But this is only the beginning of the story. He was so excited that he made the decision that his whole village of several thousand people needed to hear the Good News. He had a meeting with the village chiefs of the area to discuss his decision. That including not only the village chief of Darala, but also of Darani, a neighboring village. That village chief is also very interested in the gospel and is going to invite the people of his own village to be a part of the event. They are renting a sound system so that thousands of people that could potential gather can hear, when Paul proclaims the gospel of Jesus. Because of a referendum going on right now, that event has not taken place yet but will probably be scheduled for early July. We are asking everyone to pray for it, especially as the Muslims are not happy at all with what's been going on and could potentially look for ways to interfere.

MALI'S DARKEST DAYS AHEAD

I've been deeply burdened for Mali by the news I learned yesterday. It was already clear that it was only a matter of time before this was going to happen. The coup leader now president of Mali had already kicked out the French and brought in the Russian mercenary group Wagner that commits acts that are just as atrocious as the jihadists'. Now he has announced that the UN peacekeepers also have to leave the country. Not only do they keep the jihadists at bay, they also ensure that the millions of Malians in need of humanitarian aid actually get it. Paul is convinced that this means civil war for Mali, as there won't be anything stopping the jihadists and Russians any more.

Read a news article here.

OUR TRIP AROUND THE USA

We're leaving Austria on the 28th of June and are spending the first week with Randy's family before hitting the road with a rental car to visit as many friends and supporters and churches as possible. You can find our tentative schedule on the left, but those dates are not set in stone, and there are still a lot of unknowns. And so we are starting our journey by faith, not knowing where God is going to take us exactly. Because of our financial situation, I'm hoping that we can find brothers and sisters who are willing to open their homes to us so we have a place to sleep. We're still looking for housing in Harrisburg, Wichita, Pleasanton, northern and southern Los Angeles and Nashville for now.

Please pray for our trip. We'll be driving over 8000 miles or 12000 kilometers. On June 28th we'll be flying from Vienna to Chicago, have a really long layover there, and then take a plane to Memphis. We pick up our rental car there and then have a two-hour drive to Bellefontaine, the village where Randy is from. On September 19th we'll leave the US for Austria again. You can keep up with where we are and what we are doing on Facebook or on our blog.

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 Wilson Five - 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 am available to any of you needing lessons for yourselves or your children. On May 14th I celebrated my 50th birthday.

•        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.

•        New Tires Needed - With our truck on the road all day long and often carrying heavy loads of rice to people in need, the point had once again come where the tires could not be repaired any more but needed to be replaced. We had no choice but to pay the $2,200 or 2.000€ for four new tires, even though we did not have the money. Paul would otherwise not have been able to distribute rice to the hungry people waiting or the gospel to the spiritually hungry. Please help us with this expense if you can.

•        Construction - Last year 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, Mery and Joseph, who've been looking for a sponsor for a long time. It would be a full sponsorship of 50€ or $60 per month for Mery, and a half-sponsorship of 25€ or $30 for Joseph (picture).

•        Security Situation - The jihadists are now doing attacks all over the country of Mali. 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 sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. (Luke 9:2-4)

Loving HIM,

Claudia (& Randy)