Christmas outreach

Yesterday was our Children Church’s Christmas outreach, praise the Lord it went really well. About 200 kids came and we had a lot of fun with a clown, singing, dancing, and a sketch about the real meaning of Christmas. The kids did a great job, everyone remembered their lines and no one seem too nervous. At the end I gave a short message about the best present anyone can receive is the gift God sent us, His son. 30 plus kids came forward to give their lives to Christ, PTL! At the end we gave out snacks and a small present to everyone. The kids left in great spirits including all the children’s workers which is always a plus as these things can be very exhausting. Well, if I don’t get to write before, have a very wonderful Christmas!!!!

Nativity Scene

Speaking to the kids at the end

Christmas caroling

On Friday, Josh had his last day of FES (Field Education System). It’s put on by the Wycliffe mission and basically it’s where missionary kids from all over the country come together for two weeks of school (there are also sessions in August and May). Of course the kids love it and have a great time together. They’ve been doing a lot of Christmassy things the last couple of weeks and on the last day sang a bunch of carols for the parents as well as recite memory verses and other things. It was really nice and Josh had a blast. Now no more school till January :).

I'm back!!!

Yeah!!!! We're finally back online. We actually had Internet for over a week but been super busy. The Internet is still VERY slow but at least it's finally working. Lots has been happening this least month, hopefully I will be able to blog it all and put some photos on too. For one, my belly is a lot bigger, I've been feeling great, not tired at all, PTL! I'm in my last trimester now, March will be here before I know it.

My parents came in on Saturday for Christmas. It is soooo nice to see them and spend some time with them, the boys were so excited. They'll be here till the 27th, we're heading to the NW with them next week. They also bought a bunch of goodies for Christmas so it's going to be a good one this year with real Christmas pudding, lots of candy and even nuts:). I made bagels today for Christmas breakfast. Not very Christmasy I know but we love them and I don't get to make them that often so it is a real treat. Now we have to find for some cream cheese :). Well, I will write more this week and let you know what has been going on.

No internet :(

Just wanted to let you know that our Internet is down, actually the whole Internet in Cameroon is down, some fiber optic cable is broken or something, not sure when they will get it back up and running. So the only Internet we can use is a Satellite Internet cafe that is across the city so not very convenient... I will blog more once we have out connection back...

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Christmas is coming...

Had a really great children worker's meeting this Saturday. We were discussing our annual Christmas outreach and this year we are getting the kids to do a play plus a bunch of songs and choreography. I found a skit online but wasn't sure if the others would like it as it isn't the traditional Christmas story, it's a sort of set like a TV show, with a host interviewing a panel about their views on the meaning of Christmas. It's really funny and full of characters like Mr. know-it-all and Mr. humble. I read it aloud at the meeting and everyone was cracking up by the end of it. Think it is going to go really well, we start rehearsals this Sunday at Church. It is definitely going to be more of a challenge that previous years as we now have well over 100 kids coming to church and we also now have two services which will make rehearsals very interesting. But I know it will all work out as it always does. Please keep it in your prayers, our outreach is the 22nd of December, where we'll invite a bunch of kids to come.

 

Another interesting thing happened on Saturday. Out truck had been parked outside all day as Jake had gone out in the morning. Then I left for my children's meeting. It is pretty far, all the way across the city, about a 50 min. drive. The place we had it at is also a really bumpy road. I was at the meeting for 2 and a half hours and then came all the way home again. When I pulled into the gate our dogs went mad with excitement as usual. Then when I got into the house they were still barking and jumping around the car. Jake went out to investigate and saw there was a little kitten under the car on top of the spare tire. Poor little thing was trembling and it took us a good 10 minutes to get her out (plus a few scraches). Then we realized it was our neighbour's kitten and must have climbed up there in the morning and gone with me all over town! I'm so glad it didn't jump off somewhere in the middle of town. Our neighbours were really happy to see her again.

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Half Way!

Woohoo! I'm half way through my pregnancy, this is my 20th week! Seems like I've been pregnant a lot longer :). Feeling the baby moving a lot now, especially when I lay down to sleep :). Have my next checkup tomorrow.

swimming time

Had a lovely time in Douala last weekend. We got to hang out at the pool for two days, had great weather, it was so nice just to relax. We hadn't been swimming since before the summer so I was a bit concerned the boys might have forgotten. On the contrary, they did better than last time, I think Josh is part fish as he just swam all over the pool and it was hard to get him out. Seth swims well too, he just can't lift his head up to breath. I had to watch that he didn't go to far from the edge (he's fearless :). Unfortunately Jake's preaching engagement got canceled, but it was worth the trip anyway.

Our little diver

Birthday Boy

Josh had his 6th birthday on Tuesday, got to make him a nice cake. He had lots of fun opening up presents and reading cards from family. We gonna to celebrate it this weekend too as we go to the capital city and get to hang out at the pool all day (can't wait). We also told Josh that now that he is a big boy he had to give up his "blankey" which he's had since he was born. So far so good, he hasn't complained at all :)

Baby update

Had my ultra sound yesterday. Praise the Lord everything was fine, very exciting to see my little guy. The machine the doctor used had a tiny monitor and it was on a table behind/above my head so it was really awkward to see, it made me dizzy to keep looking at the screen (Jake got a good view though :). The baby looked great, everything's where it meant to be. The umbilical card was in the way so we didn't get to see what the baby was :(. I'm not sure if I'll have another ultra sound so it might be a surprise birth. The picture on the left below is of the baby's head. I'm not to sure what the one on the right is, I think maybe the spine.... anyway, I'm finally starting to look pregnant and my clothes are starting to get too small, all very exciting :)

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Traveling to the East

Jake headed out to the East yesterday with Elias (another BFL staff member). It's been the first big test for our new truck as it's rainy season. Jake called tonight and said the roads are super muddy (he sounded kinda happy :) and the truck handled them great and rides so smooth out there.  They're going out there to finish all the work on the school. It'll be so great to see it finished. He'll also be checking up on the clinic to see how work is going on that. Before Jake left I got to go through a bunch of clothes that teams had left here and send them with him. When we were out there in the summer most of the Baka tribe were asking for clothes so hopefully this will help them out a little. We heard about another Baka village of 150 that is about an hours hike into the jungle. So this time they're going to go with the Chief out there and see them. So please keep Jake in your prayers for safety in travel and that things will go smoothly while he's out there.

 

Last time we were in the East we met two missionary families that live about 3 hours away from Mbang. They're with World Team and their primary focus is to start a church amongst the Baka tribe. They speak the Baka language well and live close to a tribe of about 200. On our way back last time we stopped in at their houses, they're in the middle of nowhere, with solar power panels for electricity, a well with a pump for water, very cool. It's been great to get to know them as they know the culture of the Bakas so well and have great advice about working with them. Jake got to spend some time with too yesterday on his way out.

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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.

July 24th

The Baka chief brought a baby called Carlos to the property yesterday. Carlos is 2 but extremely tiny and looks under the age of 1. He isn’t actually a Baka but lives close to them. He had fallen into the fire and burned he foot, leg and his private area severely. It was really awful… they said it happen 4 days ago. Most of his skin was gone and it was absolutely filthy. I helped one of the leaders clean the wounds, the water was steaming of his leg as we put it on. We decided that Jake would take them into town to the clinic there. It’s only 5 miles away but they don’t have the money to pay for the bills and also they don’t speak French so it’s really hard for them (hospitals will not treat anyone here without payment first). So Jake took the boy and mother down and the doctors cut all the dead skin of and cleaned it up, they also put him on a drip. (it cost a total of about $30.00) They wanted to keep the baby over night so we explain that to the mother and thought she understood. But that night she was back here with the baby again, we will take her back today to get the dressing changed. It is amazing how they don’t understand the basics of keeping a wound clean as the mother tried to set the baby down in the dirt. I told she must keep the baby clean, that it is a serious wound. So once again there is a huge need for this clinic that will be providing help and also classes on basic hygiene. Please keep little Carlos in your prayers

July 21st

We had church on the property today as elections are going on and most churches were closed. About 30 Baka joined us and Jake and another leader preached. I translated into French and then a Baka Lady who understood French translated into Baka, it was pretty funny and took quite a while but I think/hope the message got across.

The Baka Chief came and told us that his 3 year old niece had died in the night and wanted to borrow a shovel to bury her. Jake went back to the village with them. It was really strange, the child was here the night before playing with the team and wasn’t sick at all. But in the night she started coughing and crying and by the morning she was dead, so sad. Everyone was mourning, it just emphasizes what a huge need there is for the clinic (and the spreading of the Gospel amongst these people of course), we’ve no idea what killed her. They buried her right beside their hut.

July 18th

Praise God we made it back to Yaoundé on Friday after being out in the bush for just over 3 weeks. I’ve been trying to keep track of all that has been going on whenever the laptop got charged up. Now I just need to sort thru it all and post it when it’s readable, hopefully I can have it all done in the next few days. Unfortunately we had our camera stolen when we were out there so I don’t have any pictures right now:(. The TMI team is coming into Yaoundé on Tuesday and I will get some from them and then post them.

We’ve got a really great team, 21 teenagers from all over N. America plus 4 leaders. One of the leaders was in Iceland with me in ’99 when I was leading a team there (he was on a different team though). Sure is a small world even though we didn’t remember each other:). They’re all really hard working and haven’t heard them complaining about the difficult living conditions. It’s been great to have some “American fellowship.” Each night we have devotions together, I’ve really been enjoying hearing some of the songs we are more familiar with. The stars are so amazingling bright out here, they just cover the whole sky, millions of them. We sing “God of Wonders” almost every night, it truly brings the words to life when you are staring up at God’s awesome creation.

Work on the clinic is going fantastic despite some delays because of rain. The foundations all dug and the rebar’s put in. We’ll be starting to lay blocks today. We were trying to make the blocks ourselves but after 3 days of trying and failing miserably we’ve finally hired a builder to do it and he is almost finished, a huge blessing!

From the Rain Forest

Well, I'm writing from the bush… Jake is heading into a town tomorrow to get building supplies and should be able to send out emails so hopefully this will get posted. We've been out here three days and we're having a great time. The team is really great and extremely hard workers… they've already got all the land cleared for the Clinic site so I think they'll get lots done. It is sooooo beautiful out here, butterflies everywhere; we have seen tons of hornbills, African gray parrots, and even monkeys swinging in the trees.  There are also LOTS of bugs, but we haven't got bitten too badly yet. Seth did get stung by a hairy caterpillar twice yesterday but he's fine, I don't think he will touch them again now. The boys are having a great time running around all over the place. They've also been playing in the sand pile for blocks with all the village kids. I don't think some of them have ever done it before but they are really enjoying it!

We walk 4 miles to church this morning, it was a great service, really African, women yelling and people dancing, only drums and shakers for instruments, it was a lot of fun, very different from  the city. We'll have a 5 mile walk next week to another churchJ. Well, need to end before the battery dies, I'll write more if I get the chance.

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Josh was in one of our friends wedding yesterday. Traditionally here they have a “petit” groom and a “petite” bride, who walk down the aisle first. Josh was the groom and his friend Leslie from church was the bride. It was a really beautiful and big wedding. Since it was on the 7/7/07, they had seven bridesmaids, seven groomsmen, seven page boys and seven flower girls! The newlyweds will be staying in our house while we’re out in the East for the rest of this month. Neither of them like dogs very much so hopefully everything is going to go alright with our 2 while we’re gone.

Not sure if I will get to blog again until we come back on August 4^th, sure I’ll have lots to talk about then!

smelly fish...

Today I had the privilege to speak at a regional children's workers retreat. My topic was using visual aids for teaching, which is definitely not a common practice in Cameroon. Most people just teach the kids, with nothing to show them or keep their interest. Teachers use the excuse that they can't get resources in Cameroon, which is partly true. So I taught on things that we can use here to help teach and make the Bible come alive for the kids, particularly homing in on the 5 senses:- bread and Fish for story of five loves and fish, perfume for lady that washed Jesus feet, sand for foolish builder etc. I think it went really well, at the end I taught the story of Jonah in three different ways, the first by pictures, next by acting it out from a Ninevehite's point of view and lastly I got the "Kids" (or in this case, volunteers) to act it out. I had a bunch of props such as a fan and squirted them with water (on the boat in a storm), bubbles for being under the water, and a blanket to put them under with a can of smelly sardines to feel like being in the belly of the fish. Everyone was cracking up, it was a lot of fun and I think I got the point across. Anyway, please pray that this will impact the children teachers in our region and that it will make a difference in their lessons.

Spraying my volunteers :)

Camping

We slept outside in our yard last night in our new tent (we bought it off some other missionaries). This was all in preparation for the team that's coming this summer. They'll be building a clinic out in the East and we'll all be sleeping out there in tents. We thought we'd better check the tent out and the boys have been longing to sleep in it. It's such a nice tent, for some reason I am soooo thrilled we have one of our very own (I've never had a tent before:).

The team that is coming is a Team Missions team, Jake and I went on a lot of these teams when we were teenagers. When I laid in the tent last night, smelling the bug spray and that nylony-tenty smell, I got that TMI feeling. For those of you who haven't been on a TMI team you have no idea what I'm writing about, but for those who have, you know exactly what I mean. Anyway, all went well until just after 4 in the morning, we were woke up by our rooster cock-a-doo-dal-dooling. It's not usually loud when we're in the house but it was extremly loud outside, I think he was right outside out tent too:). Anyway, I'm a bit tired this morning…. at least our rooster won't be out in the East with us. I'm really looking forward to the summer, it's going to be a great time. The team arrives on July 9^th and we head to the East super early on the 11^th. We'll be back around August 6^th.

Everything works together...

Last week Jake got in a "fender bender" (not an unusual occurrence in Cameroon) and our light got busted. He went to a few shops to try and find a replacement. On the side of the truck we have a Bread For Life sign. One of the shopkeepers was saying he wants some bread, it was a great opportunity for Jake to witness to him. He also invited him to church.  Well, on Sunday he showed up for the service and seemed to really enjoy so we'll see if he comes again. Jake's going to go and try and see him again this week too. I was a bit upset when Jake told me about the accident but God turned it around…"Everything works together for good for them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."

Jake had a carwash outreach with his youth group this week. They were providing free car washes in the center of town and handing out invitations to the church. They had over 20 youth show up to help and washed  over 40 cars. The youth had a great time and said they'd never done anything like that before. They had many opportunities to share the gospel with different people. Jake compiled a little video of it, so check it out in our Ski videos link.

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End of the Spear

Got the chance to see the film "End of the Spear" the other day. Really enjoyed it, great movie, an amazing story. Got me really interested in the Elliot's life and wanted to know how accurate the movie was. Manage to find "Shadow of the Almighty" by Elizabeth Elliot at the Wycliff Children's library. Only about half way thru it and enjoying it immensely! It's basically a compilation of Jim's letter and journal entries. He really was a man that was seeking and following the Lord with all his heart. It's been challenging me to spend more time in prayer and reading my Bible: he studied the Word, morning, noon and night, and always looked for an opportunity to share Christ wherever he went. One sentence in his journal really cut me to the heart. After speaking in four services and a radio program one Sunday, he came home exhausted and wrote "What glory to be weary for the work of the Kingdom!" Weekends for us are usually super busy, with youth group, monthly leaders and children workers meetings, different outreaches, two church services (sometimes I teach children in both), visits to the orphanages, etc. By Sunday evening I'm normally wiped out.  There's been times that I've complain but I will try hard to not to since reading what Jim wrote, it truly is a privilege and glory to be about the Fathers work!

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What an EGGcellent day!

Came home from church this afternoon and found our first egg! We got the chickens a few weeks back and have been waiting and waiting for her to lay and at last we got one! The boys were so excited! Josh is a bit upset that we are going to eat it though... he wants to keep it :)

Songs of Forgivness

Spent the afternoon at two orphanages today. A few weeks back, in a sort of contest, we encouraged the kids to make a song out of Lord's prayer and the two verses that follow it (For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins). It's all in the theme of "To Love is to Forgive" and they will be singing them at the "Day of the African Child" celebration this Saturday. So today, we listened to some of them and they are great! One is about 5 minutes long with a chorus and even an instrumental (they actually used they voices for this but assured us they would have a Keyboard for Saturday:). Another boy had made a rap! It is good to see them exercising their creative sides. Really looking forward to this weekend, it's going to be a lot of fun. Been working on decorations for the event all week too, finally found some crepe paper after searching in a million different shops, PTL, now all I need is some balloons...

Asked about Anna and the director didn't have a address or phone number of where she has gone to. He said I might be able to get it from Social Services though.... we'll see, think I'll just leave it in Lord's hands and see if our paths cross again.

The picture below is of some on the kids singing (Josh and Seth gave out stickers that they all seem to want to stick on their foreheads :P )

Just heard that Anna's parents came for her and her brother at the orphanage. It is great news but I'm kinda sad I didn't get to say goodbye. I'm not sure if she has gone back to the village or a town about 2 hours away as the details were a little sketchy, I will find out for sure next time I go see the other kids. Hopefully I can go and visit her sometime.

Some other encouraging news: The church that we work with, Yaounde International Chapel, has the vision to reach leaders of the country. We helped start it 2 years ago (Jake is youth leader and I'm children's director) and it's been going very well since then with about 300 people coming. When the church began we wrote letters and visit different leaders and invited them to the church. Anyway, the pastor told us the other day that the Secretary General of Cameroon had texted him saying that he had come to the church and wanted to meet with the Pastors. No one had recognized him when he came but it is great that he seems interested. So please keep him in your prayers. Most officials and leaders of Cameroon only go to very traditional churches, if at all, so it encouraging that we're seeing a breakthrough in that area.

3 YEARS!!!

Wow, I just realized we passed our three year mark being here.... I think we came here on the 28th or 29th of May, 2004 (I should keep better records :). Time sure has flown by, it is hard to believe how quickly it has gone. God has provided for our every need since we took the step if faith of selling our house, leaving Jake's stable income, and coming out here, it truly is amazing! What an awesome Saviour we serve! We feel this is where God wants us to be so we have no plans of heading home for now.

I also just finished by first year of home schooling Josh on Friday (wooohooo, clap for me!). I was pretty nervous when I started but I think it went really well, if I do say so myself. Josh is reading well, and enjoys school which is a plus :). I was so blessed to have some other missionary-home-schooling-mums around to help and encourage. The Lord knew exactly what I needed!

Anna and other things

I was at the hospital all Wednesday morning with Anna for her first prenatal check up. All went well, praise the Lord, it just took FOR-EV-ER! (7 to 11am). There was a lot of waiting around on hard wooden benches with no backrests (glad I'm not the one pregnant!). But everything seems to be fine with the baby, we go back on Tuesday to get the results of all the tests Anna had and also for her to have an ultra sound so they can determine a due date. Please continue to keep Anna in your prayers.

We had a children workers' meeting this afternoon. It was a little bit sad as my best friend in our church (Jocelyne) told me that her husband has found a job in the Extreme North of Cameroon and they will be leaving next month. We always have had a lot of fun together, our kids are the same age and she's trying to learn English and me French so we've both helped each other out a lot. I am going to miss her so much. But hopefully we will get to go visit them sometime at the end of the year.

There's also another family leaving next month, a missionary family that is heading back to the States after being here for 18 years with Wycliff Translators. They've been such a great help with children's church and they will really be missed. Please pray that the Lord raises up more people to help us with the work of 90+ kids, especially men as the family contained the only two male teachers we had.

Other than the sad news, the meeting went great as we prayed and prepared for our five day children's camp in August. Everyone had terrific ideas of things that we should do and I think that it's going to be an awesome camp. We put out the registration forms next week at church with a limit of a hundred kids, I'm sure it'll fill up fast. It'll be our church's first children's camp, so it's very exciting!

Children's workers from our church. Jocelyne is the one in blue crouched down by me.

To Love is to Forgive

We spent all Saturday afternoon at the orphanage with a group from our church. Our theme for them this year is "to love is to forgive". We're preparing for the Day of the African Child (June 16th) on which we'll have a big celebration with the 3 orphanages that we work with. The previous week we talked with the kids on the importance of forgiving other. We encouraged the older kids to write out letters to Jesus saying who they need to forgive. Some of the letters were extremely sad as they explained why they needed to forgive different people. They were very heartfelt. So this Saturday we taught them the story of Joseph and then spent time talking and praying with each child individually. At the end of our time we burned all the letters and we could see the joy in the children faces as many of them let their unforgivness go.

I really feel a burden for one 15 year old girl in particular. Anna just came to the orphanage with her small brother. She is from the village in the NW and only speaks pidgin English. Her parents sent her to Yaoundé a year ago to live with some relatives so she could go to school (very normal here). When she arrived the relatives put her and her brother to work instead of school. They beat her often and then told her she has to marry an uncle. She refused (she was only 14) and one day when everyone was out of the house, the uncle raped her. When the family found out she was pregnant she was sent off to social services and put into the orphanage. She is about 2 months pregnant right now. She says her parents don't know what has happened to her and we are trying to contact them now. Needless to say she has a lot of unforgivness. I asked her is she has accepted Jesus into her heart and she yes but I'm not too sure. She is very open to listen and a really sweet girl.

Anyway, I am taking her to the hospital this week as she hasn't been for a check up yet. She also has small amounts of blood come out of her ears and eyes (possibly from the beatings). So please pray for Anna that as I befriend and witness to her she will grasp the love of Jesus and allow Him to make a difference in her life. She is completely illiterate and doesn't speak French so she is sort of cut off from the other kids. Also pray that she has a healthy and safe pregnancy.

On a lighter note, we had singing and dancing with the children too, check out our new "Ski Videos" page and see Josh dancing African style :-)

(Talking with Anna)

Two new members of the family...

We had a visit from a couple in our church the other night and in the Cameroon tradition, they brought a little gift with them. It just happened to be two live chickens, more specifically, a rooster and hen! When she handed me the bag I was expecting some yams or bananas (much more common) but imagine my surprise when the present squawked at me :). It was very sweet as the family are extremely poor and it really shows the generosity of our brothers and sisters over here.

Our two dogs have been getting used to "Rocky and Ginger" (10 points for anyone who can guess what movie that's from), everything good so far. We're really hoping they can keep the bugs down in our yard, lots of ticks and cockroaches, (yucky I know). Josh and Seth have been having a blast with them and maybe we'll get an egg sometime soon too, who knows...

My First Entry...

Here's my first "blog" entry on our website; well actually it's my first entry ever, very exciting! It's just to keep anyone who's interested up-to-date on what's going on here in Cameroon from a Home schooling mum's point of view. Please feel free to comment or ask questions about anything I write. I don't keep a journal so this will be really helpful for me to keep track of what is going on in our lives and record all the awesome things we see God do on the mission field. So, we'll see what becomes of this blog…. I hope to post a blog at least once a week if not more… but no promises J.

Well, we just got back from a three day trip out to the East. It usually takes about 9-12 hours to get out there but due to no rain, no police checks points, no road blocks (all usual occurrences), repairs being done on the mud roads, and my husbands speedy but great driving we made it in a record 6 hours! Still a long trip for our 4 and 5 year olds but we kept busy with "I spy" (trees, clouds, and grass were very popular), "In my suitcase" and "paper, rocks, scissors." We saw some really beautiful scenery and lots of bush rats for sale on the side of the road (don't ask!).

The purpose of going was to check on a School that Bread For life is building for the Baka (Pygmy) tribe. Work is going really well and the roof is now on. We were hoping the walls would have been plastered but they had problems with the water well (gas leaking out of it?) so it had to be closed, thus leaving no water for cement. We paid for another one to get dug, 20 meters by hand, sure glad that's not me down the hole! Hopefully the school will be finished by July. We'll head out there again mid June to check on the progress. As absolutely no one speaks English out there it is always great for our French even though they have a very different accent from here in Yaoundé. Josh and Seth enjoyed playing football (soccer for all you Americans) with the local kids in the evening with parents coming out to watch. They are both getting really good at the game as they have lots of practice.

We also got to meet with the Baka Chief who, as always, was really friendly. His wife has had another baby since we were there last and looks very health beside some ringworm on his head. We encouraged the tribe to help out with the school building as much as possible and told them the good news of a Teen Missions team that is coming this summer to build them a Clinic. All in all, it was a great time and things are moving a long nicely out there. Can't want to get back out there again soon!

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