Canning

I got my mum to put a  pressure cooker and a bunch of canning jars in our truck when we shipped it. I've never canned before but it seems that I'm always cooking up stuff that would be great to do a whole bunch of and then can so I have it for a few months (salsa, sauces, fruits etc.). So, yesterday I had my first go at it and fortunately I didn't blow myself up :). I made a bunch of BBQ sauce up, canned it and now have BBQ sauce for the months ahead, so cool. I really want to try making some dill pickles as Jake and the boys absolutely LOVE them! I managed to find some Dill seed so as soon as that grows I can go ahead and make some.

 

I also got to cook using the pressure cooker, I made a beef stew. Meat here is generally really tough and has to be cooked and cooked. I do have a crock pot but with the electric frequently going out it's not always the best solution. So I threw everything in the pressure cooker, boiled for 12 minutes and voila! I had the most delicious meal! The meat was sooooo soft, I'm hooked, I can see I'm going to be cooking with my new gadget all the time now.

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New church plant

Our church now has a sister church in the capital city, Douala. It started a couple of months ago and is doing really great, praise the Lord! They now have 70 people attending, they're holding services in a hotel and the manager just got saved so that's a huge blessings. They invited Jake to come and preach on the 14th of October. They don't have any children's ministry going yet so I'm going to get together with some members that are interested and see if we can get something going for the kids as that's really important. Please keep it all in your prayers. The boys are excited about going as we get to stay in a Guest House that has a swimming pool, we're going to head down early on a Saturday (about a 3 hour drive) and spend the day at the pool and then head to church on Sunday. I'll be a nice family outing as it is Josh's Birthday that week too.

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More parasites...

Josh had a cough for a couple of weeks, it was kinda weird because he wasn't congested, had no fever, and wasn't acting sickly at all so I wasn't too concerned. But it just didn't go away and it was starting to keep him up at night so I took him to the doctors. After examining him, she said that it must be worms as they're was no sign of bronchitis, asthma, etc. She said that the worms in your stomach, go up into your lungs to lay eggs, and then when they hatch, they make you cough, and then, (this is the really disgusting part) when you cough them up, you swallow them back down into your stomach again.... sooooo gross. We usually all get "dewormed" every 6 months but hadn't done it since coming back from being out in the East (that's probably where Josh picked them up). So we're all taking the medicine now and Josh's cough is all but gone, praise the Lord.

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Baby news

Finally got to have my first doctors appointment, last week. We've been so busy lately and then Jake was gone for a couple of weeks getting the truck out of the port, we just haven't had time to get to see the Dr. So I was super happy I finally got to go. His name is Dr. Balimba, he's the Dr. that most other missionary ladies use. He has a private practice at his home and it's really nice and very clean. He is an older gentlemen and knows what he's talking about so it really put Jake and me at peace about having the baby here. The checkup went great, praise the Lord, everything is fine. My due date is March 8th. I'm 16 weeks along and next month I might get an ultrasound and possibly find out the sex. So we're really happy about the whole baby situation, only thing now is to remember to take my vitamins everyday... I'm so forgetful :).

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no internet access!!!

well, so much for coming back with vengeance on my blog this month... we've had no internet access for a week as the provider is updating something or another. Before that we were three days without electricity so we couldn't even get on our computer, it's almost like we're living in Africa or something :)

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Encouraging report

I was really encouraged at church on Sunday as a man came to visit me from another church. I spoke at a conference a few months back for Children's teacher on the importance of visual aid. This man said he was there and ever since that time he's been challenged to make his messages more interesting and to use visual aid in each lesson. He showed me a big poster he' drawn with a picture of a tree with the fruit of the Spirit on it. He also said that when he taught on the promise land he brought milk and honey in for the kids to taste... he gave me lots more examples of what he has been doing and how the children have really become involved and excited about children's church. He is enjoying teaching a lot more as he feels the kids are really getting the messages now. I don't write this to toot my horn but to give glory to God that He is touching the hearts of leaders in this country and a change is happening because of it.

 

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Quote of the week...

We were doing devos last night with the boys and read about Moses as a baby and how God protected him. At the end, we ask the boys how does Jesus protect them. Seth replied that if there are monsters Jesus can beat them up :). We almost died laughing... at least he's got the right idea....

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Orphanage visit

We went the orphanage yesterday. A lady that came on a team here last year that renovated the orphanage, collected a bunch of clothes, school supplies, medicine and shoes for the kids. She shipped them over here in our truck. The children were really happy to say the least! That's why I think every Christian should at least go on one missions trip in their lifetime as it open their eyes up to the needs that are in the world and it motivates them to do something about it. God is good!

(Got to hand out some candy too)

I'm back!!!!

Well, after my long hiatus I'm finally back online. Jake's been gone for almost 3 weeks and he took our cellphone that we use for emails and Internet. So I was unable to read, write emails and get on our web site. Felt a little bit cut off from the rest of the world (what did we do before email??). Anyway after neglecting my blog for so long I am hoping to come back with vengeance and really get my blog full to over flowing this month. So much has been going on, Kids camp, children's church, new school year, new truck, still got lots to write about our time in the East...oh yeah and me getting pregnant..... so I will catch up, I promise.

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July 28th

The bugs have been pretty bad lately my arms are covered in bites. Praise God it’s not mosquitoes but these sort of horse flies. I was cleaning Seth’s feet the other day and notice a hard dark bump and though it might be a corn or calluse. Then that night Jake said his foot was hurting and he had the same thing, so we realized it was a worm or a chigoe. I cut it open with our letherman and out popped a little sack with a worm inside, soooooo disgusting. Jake actually had a total of 9! We got Seth’s one out when he was sleeping and Josh had one too. I came in second with 3 J. The team also had a bunch, some in their hands too. The pastor told they are in the dirt… so we’ve been making sure we have clean socks on every day and wash our hands a lot.

The Baka came over last night and taught us a song. It was so great as we got to learn a little of their language. It was also difficult as they are very soft spoken and the language has very soft sound so trying to get them to emphasize a word was hard but I think we did pretty good. Here’s a few words in Baka (I have no idea if the spelling is right).

Komba – God,

Kombanga – our God

Djoko - good

Jesu – Jesus

We had a camp fire again tonight and the Baka came to practice the song with us again. We roasted marshmallows and they joined in and seem to really enjoy them. The chief liked his extra crispy! It is so wonderful to build a relationship with this tribe, they are so friendly and open. We really praise God for the opportunity to be out here for a more extended amount of time as the longest we had been out here before was only 5 days.