Leader's Retreat

Last weekend we headed up to Mbingo for our church's leaders retreat. It was a little bit hectic as it was scheduled three weeks ago but was canceled the night before. Then we found out about this one 2 days before so we had to take all the kids as we couldn't  get a baby sitter. But it all worked out great (the boys went hiking) and we all had a lot of fun. It was the first retreat since the church started in 2010, the day and a half was just not enough time. We had lots to pray and discuss about. But it definitely was a team building time. Something we  talked about a lot was the importance of discipling/mentoring new believers. Really got me thinking, who am I discipling right now? I have lots of people that I'm friends with and encouraging but is there someone that I am really discipling? So there are two ladies from church that I am going to be focusing on, will be doing a weekly bible study with them, spending time with them, praying for and with them. 

Jake, myself, Mary, Marthe (Pastor's wife), Celstine, and Pastor Titus

Pastor Titus helping with dinner :D

Helping out as well

We love Mbingo, it's soooo nice! Good times!

Horse adventures

Had a long day today, so long in fact that when I was wondering at 4pm why I was so hungry, I realized that I hadn't eaten anything all day! But it was a productive day. We were expecting Social Service's delegate to come to the children's home at 8:30 this morning. I was scrambling to get as much of school done as possible before Jake called me to tell me they were there. As WON is going through the process of registering as a NGO in the country, this is all part of the evaluation the government does. It was a very good meeting and I think the delegates were impressed with what they saw at the orphanage.  And I must say HHCH was sparkling, they kids did a great job of making sure everything was neat and arranged. We got done just before noon. I rushed back to the house, to get ready for our next meeting with another branch of the government that is doing something like a background check on the WON staff and checking to see that we are really doing what we said we are doing. We headed there just before 1 and were in the office for a good couple of hours. Lots of questions about our education, qualifications, workers, properties, churches we attend, etc. It was long and draining to say the least. Now that this interview is over, this branch will be visiting the various aspects of WON (HHCH, Car Washes, Bible School) to see they are doing what we're say they're doing. All in all, I think it was an excellent interview. Even thought these meetings are tiring it is exciting that the registration process of WON is moving forward (it can take up to 7 years!). 

When we got back Jake and the boys headed up into the hills tonight to camp out under the stars. We give the horses back at the end of this month so this might be one of their last opportunities to go for a long ride. I know they will have a lot of fun together. When we told the boys that the horses were going back they both cried, I was a little surprised to tell you the truth. The horses are a lot of work for them, as we make them do everything. They are up at 5:45am to feed them and take them down to the pasture (about a mile away), then they have to pick them up each evening. There is lots of mucking out to do, lots of feeding, grooming, spraying, etc. but they really have enjoyed it. So looks like we will be getting at least one horse when we get back from the States at the end of the year. 

Of course Strider had to go with them too

The boys are all set

And they're off (making memories with Dad)

I on the other hand, decided to head down town with Jude and Jordan, who I hadn't seen all day, and went to Prescafe, a lovely little cafe (the local hang out for all the peace corp workers). They do the most amazing mango smoothies! So it was really nice to have a little bit of alone time with Jude and Jordan. I am really hoping they will sleep into at least 6:30 tomorrow so I can have a bit of a sleep in. Then planning to have a relaxing morning in the garden, yay!

Another missionary biography: William Carrey,

We just finished yet another missionary biography for school as we study India this month (I love Sonlight curriculum!). This time it was on William Carrey. I have been looking forward to reading it ever since I got it last August. Truth be told, I couldn't have told you a single thing about William beside that fact that he was in India and said, "Expect great things for God, attempt great things for God." My nephew is named after him so it is high time I learnt a little more about his life. It was a pretty incredible book, he sure was a dedicated missionary and had his fair share of trials and tribulations (and then some!). 

Interesting facts about William's life:

~From the time he went to India at the age of 31 until he died at the age of 72, he never returned to his homeland of England (wow!)

 ~First "official" missionary to India

~Married three times as he outlived his first two wives (he waited a whole 6 months to remarry after his 26 marriage to his first wife, all I can say is Jake had better wait longer than that if anything happens to me!)

~His five-year-old son died on the mission field, plus another son when he was a young man

~Took seven years to see his first Christian convert

~Had to rebuild his mission from the ground up numerous times due to fire and floods

~Is responsible for making sati (the burning of the widow with her dead husband) and infanticide illegal in India (William Wilberforce assisted him with this back in England)

~Loved flowers and being in the garden (a kindred spirit!)

~Two of his children were also missionaries to India

When I read these missionary bios, I always wonder at their extreme dedication.  For example,  his first wife went a little batty after the death of their child. Then she completely lost it after many sicknesses and disappointments (she never wanted to go to India in the first place). She was confined to a room and died in that state years later. In that same situation I think I would want Jake to take me home. Of course it wasn't so simple to get back in those, but I kinda doubt Carrey would have left India even if it was easy. He had a goal and stuck to it. Williams mind was on things above, not on things of this earth. He family did suffer because of that though. I think he did need to have a little more balance in his family life.

One thing that did make an impression on me is that the same struggles he faced 200+ years ago, missionaries still face today (Ok, maybe not so extreme); sickness, lack of funds, disunity in his team, lack of help with the workload, depression, lack of support from home country, loneliness, visa issues, craving news from family, disappointment, lack of response from the nationals, opposition from the government. Now I'm not saying I experience all of these but the spiritual battle on the mission field really hasn't changed all that much. Praise God air travel, emails, etc. allow missionaries to be a lot more connected to family and friends nowadays. 

We still have two more bios to read before the end of the school year, Mary Slessor (no idea!) and David Livingstone, so be prepared of another missionary bio post in the not too distant future. 

Egg Incubation

We have a very productive egg farm at the children's home with 20 hens and a cockerel (rooster). We average about 17 eggs a day. This gives the orphanage 12 flats of eggs a month plus we sell about 6 flats. So it provides extra protein for the kids, makes a little money, and helps train some of the children how to care for animals. This little project has been going on for almost a year now.

A couple of months ago some missionaries that were heading back to North America donated a lot of amazing things to the children's home. They had lived out in a village and were well set up. HHCH received a welder, table saw, tons of tools, a milk pasteurizer, and a butter churn just to name a few. There was also a egg incubator (with an egg turner included) which is really an answer to prayer. Laying hens aren't exactly cheap here and we had a few die straight away from the first batch (the stress of moving to a new place?), which cut into our profit quite a bit. Hatching our own would be a lot cheaper, safer, and would give us as many chicks as we want. We had been searching online how to build an incubator but it didn't look too promising as the heat has to be at a very stable temperature (100 degrees to be exact). So I was totally thrilled when I saw one in all the stuff given.

  Well, our hens will be about done with egg production in October (then they'll be Sunday dinners for the kids) so it is time to start incubating eggs. I have a great book called, The Family Poultry Flock, that has all the important information. I have been learning lots. For instance, did you know that eggs can be refrigerated and then put in the incubator? Or that if the incubator is too hot, the chicks will hatch out a few days earlier than recommended or if it is too cool they will come late? We decided to have the incubator at our house the first time to see how it goes (we have a generator if the electric goes off). This morning, Josh and I loaded up the incubator with 38 eggs, wrote down all the details, and now we will wait and see (it is a great science project!). In five days we will begin candling the eggs (that's holding them up to a strong light for all your laypeople),  check they are developing and get rid of any that are not. Then in 21 days, we should have a bunch of fluffy, peeping little chicks. We will have to wait 23 weeks till they are mature enough to start laying eggs though. I'm praying our first batch won't all be males!

If you've had any experience incubating eggs, I'd love to hear any tips or advice. 

It is sitting right on our shelf next to our board games

The automatic egg turning is awesome, it saves us from having to do it three times a day

Baptisms.... African Style!

We had a wonderful afternoon as Josh and Seth plus 19 people from the Children's Home were baptized. Our church announced two weeks ago they would be doing baptisms so we asked the boys if they would like to make that step. We also talked to the older kids at HHCH and some of the staff that hadn't been baptized yet. Josh and Seth were very excited to be get baptized as were most of the kids at HHCH. It was a bit of a challenge for some that had grown up in more traditional churches and had always heard about baptism as more of something one has to earn than just do. Some of the staff had some pressure from their families not to do it as they weren't being baptized in the church they had grown up in. We decided to have a bible study at our house yesterday to make sure that everyone understood exactly what baptism is and isn't. I had a lot of fun teaching it and answering some interesting questions... I think a lot of them were shocked when it was pointed out that in Acts everyone was baptized as soon as they were saved. Praise the Lord at the end when I took down everyones name to give to the pastor, they all signed up, very exciting! I love it when the Word of God breaks down the traditions of man. So here are a few pics of the day:

Bible study yesterday

This is the area where most Full Gospel churches baptize. It is a small stream that they dam up to make a baptismal. It certainly isn't the cleanest stream I have ever seen but we did pray over it before we started :D.We had a lovely time of singing before the baptism started.

Quite a bit of rubbish scattered around

Seth and Pastor Titus (no idea what is floating in the water)

Big smile, we are so proud!!

Josh's turn

Yay!

Mirander going under. I must admit I had some tears in my eyes as I saw our HHCH kids being baptized. It is so amazing to see the joy on their faces.

Norbert, we have seen him mature in the Lord so much this last year.

Our wonderful pastor, Titus

Two weeks of fun schooling

The start of February marked the beginning of Sonlight Christian Academy (SCA), a missionary co-op that we're a part of. The theme this year was occupations.  The kids enjoyed visiting a printing shop, bakery, and radio station plus having talks from a vet, and property managers to name a few. The boys, as always, had a great time hanging out with their friends and having someone else other than mum teaching them. I always enjoy it too as it is a great time of fellowship with friends that we don't get to see very often and I get to teach kids that aren't mine ;). It is such a blessing that this happens only 10 minutes away from our house, some missionaries have to travel two days to get to it. 

Right now I have the organizer of SCA, Elsie, teaching the boys for two weeks (all part of the academy). It has been so nice, I have got an awful lot done in the last week; laundry baskets are empty and I don't have piles of folded clothes stacked on my night stand, can't remember the last time that happened! I've spent some time out in the garden too, heaven! I am looking forward to getting back into normal routine next week though, 12 weeks of school left... then we hit the road.

Some photos of the highlights:

At the printing press

At the bakery... I love the tennis shoes sitting on top of the baking sheets (we buy bread from here all the time :)

The finished project, sure is good!

An afternoon with Pilot Eric of Jaars

Pretty cool!

Seth learning what physical therapist do

Jude's B-day celebration

Jordan had a lot of fun in preschool with her buddies

My little class, I enjoyed teahing them math and language arts

Swimming lessons in the afternoons (with some fun time as well)

Teaching survival skills

One of my favorite activities of the weeks, "mother's tea." A time where all the mums come together, share, encourage and pray (oh and eat too). 

Occupation themed closing program photos: Seth was a butcher, Josh a footballer, Jude a cowboy, Jake a missionary explorer, and I was a baker (we just needed a candle stick maker)

I have totally been neglecting my poor blog, I know. It's late but I just wanted to get something up, so I won't ramble on too much. We just finished two weeks of Sonlight Christian Academy, a missionary home schooling co-op we're a part off. It is always a blast but also a lot of extra work. It is never easy to get 4 kids out of the door at 7:30 in the morning and to have the little one's schedules all mixed up. This time it was extra busy as WON just opened a second car wash the same week (I'll blog about that soon). Jake was out the door at 6am so I lost my helpmate. But praise the Lord it all worked out well and the boys learned a lot and enjoyed hanging out with friends. I had a lot of fun teaching math and language arts to the k thorough 2nd graders. I had a MASSIVE amount of fun going to the pool everyday and teaching the dolphin class breast stroke, front crawl, etc. I got a lovely tan! I will post pictures of the two weeks soon. 


Something else that has happen in the last two weeks is that the rains have come. After a long, dry, three months, they are a welcomed changed! I have been amazed at how our parched, dusty, brown lawn and plot has been transformed into a lush, green garden in such a short time! The Lord quicken to me the verse in Isaiah 58:11, "And the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places. And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." So thankful that in the dry and difficult times, the Lord is there continually refreshing me. It is visual reminder to be in His Word, prayer, and meditation to stay fresh and living!

Day with Jordan and random rambling

It is almost midnight but I was determined to get a blog up today and it looks like I might just make it. Jake took all the boys to Douala (5 hour drive) with him today to pick up his step-mum, Heidi. She is coming to visit for 10 days, we are really excited. I believe it is her first time out of the US so it is definitely going to be an adventure for her. Heidi is the one that got Jake interested in missions in the first place, so she is in a way responsible for us being here in Cameroon. So they'll all spend the night at the Baptist guest house, and then should be back here tomorrow by mid-afternoon. So I had all day to myself and Jordan, a real delight. I can't recall that I have had any special alone time with Jordan, I have really treasured today. We had a fun watering the garden together, petting and feeding the horses, eating lunch out on the verandah, and just being silly. All I can say is that Jordan certainly is "something else." Words can't express how much she means to me. Right now I'm laying in bed with her right next to me, her warm little hand on my arm as she sleeps, awwww. And it was incredible how my house stayed clean and clutter free today and how little dirty dishes there were! And man, getting ready for church tomorrow is going to be a cinch, I might even manage to get mascara on! 

Anyway, I also got caught up on most of my emails today, got the guest room all ready, washed lots of laundry, and started on our newsletter. The newsletter is going to be mostly about our upcoming furlough in June. It has got me thinking about it and I am finally starting to get excited about coming back. Of course it is always wonderful to be back and see family and friends, eat familiar food, and generally get spoiled by everyone. But it is also a lot of work and stress traveling with little ones, trying to manage a household with out your own house for an extended amount of time, and the challengages of homeschooling on the road. And like they say, there is nothing like your own bed. When we got back from furlough 3 years ago I never wanted to see another airplane again! But I am over it now and starting to really look forward to seeing everyone (especially a new nephew and niece I have never seen) and driving around the country, sharing what the Lord has been doing in our lives. One thing is for sure though, we're really going to miss our precious kids at Helping Hands, the longest I have been away from them is 10 days so six months is going to be a little different! 

We're back!

So we had an awesome time at the beach with our good friends the Youngs, very relaxing. Of course it didn't come without a few hiccups. Our exhaust fell off (again!) on the way there, thankfully we found a welder that quickly fixed it. The first night it rained (we were totally caught off guard) and our tent and foam mattresses got soaked. It was so warm so we just slept on wet mattresses till morning. 

What I love about this beach is that it is out in the middle of nowhere, you're only sharing the beach with a couple of fishermen in their dugout canoes. There is no cell phone reception, so even if your house burns down, you're not going to hear or worry about it till you leave. You have no choice but to relax.

New Year's eve was spent around the camp fire eating smores (with really Hershey's chocolate!), playing charades, strumming the guitar, singing worship songs, and sharing funny stories. A lovely way to ring in 2012! And on New Years Day we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants  on the way home, for shrimp, pizza, and ice-cream bars! My kinda way to start a new year.  Sadly, they are building a deep sea port literately a stone's throw from the camping site so this will be the last time we can go camping on the beach, at least in this area. So sad! And on the way back the wheel fender half fell off. We couldn't find anyone with a rivet gun so Jake just bungee corded it up. Always an adventure! I have put an album up on Facebook if your interested. Anyone can view it, even if you don't have an account. 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2675180113662.130955.1080983117&type=1&l=94cdd959fa

A few other photos of the kiddos... We got the boys saddles for Christmas, some missionaries were leaving and they had had horses. These are beautiful western saddles, so we didn't want to pass the opportunity up. Well, we finally got a chance to put them on the horses yesterday. Take a look at the photos below to see how it went:

With a saddle:

Without a saddle!

Josh was not comfortable in a saddle! It's so funny, his pretty much only ridden with just a blanket. Hopefully he'll get used to it soon (wow, the dry season sure is hard on our lawn!).

I just finished learning about the Mongols and Genghis Khan with Josh in school. The boys decide to build their own Mongolian "Yurts." Obviously the beach wasn't enough camping for them. They were pretty cute!

(I know, Jude's feet are filthy! We haven't had much water lately)

2012 resolutions

I know some people don't agree with new year resolutions, reasoning that if one wants to change something, they should do it now and not wait till "tomorrow". Personally, I  really like them, having a set goal really helps me, and gives the boost that I seem to need sometimes. Last year, my resolution was to lose all my "baby weight". I plowed into food right up to December 31st and then just went for it in the new year. I've lost a total of 26 pounds this year (got to my goal weight!). I've been exercising regularly and not drinking so much soda (not getting pregnant helps a whole lot too!), so I'm super glad I set that goal for myself.


What are my goals for this year? Well, here are a few:


~Reply to emails as soon as they come in and then delete or put the email in a folder. Our inbox currently has 1906 emails in it! And I do procrastinate when it comes to emails, thinking I'll write back in the evenings, but then I'm usually too tired in the evenings to get on the computer and do much, so then I forget who I need to reply.


~Guard every word that comes out of my mouth. "He who is slow to anger, is better than the mighty; And he who rules his spirit than he who rules a city. Proverbs 16:32." This is especially for my kids, when I've had a long day, and they're whiney or bickering, it's so easy to get frustrated! And that's when it matters the most, right?


~Run a half marathon if not a full marathon when we're back in the States


~Practice typing on my typing instructor (it's actually Josh's). I'd like to get up to at least 60 words per minute, I'm up to about 40 right now :(. Ten minutes a day!


~Not to get agitated or stressed out when we travel back, no matter how obnoxious the flight attendant might be, or how unhelpful the airline may be, I'm just going to smile and let it slide (I can feel my heart pacing already!) 


So there you have it. As alway, I'm asking the Lord for the strength to carry through, so thankful for His grace upon my life! 


We head to the beach tomorrow to go camping for a few days, sooo excited. I have tons to blog about with so much going on this past week; hopefully I'll get to post about it all when we get back next Monday. Happy New year to you all (or Happy Happy as they say here)!!