Homeschooling

Great news about homeschooling. When we were in Yaounde I was part of the FES (Field Education System) that Wycliffe Translators organized. They provide all the curriculum, with 3 "school" sessions throughout the year where all the kids get together and do classroom school (plus lots of over fun stuff like plays and swimming lessons). Anyway when we moved to Bamenda I was still planning on going with them. But I was thinking it was going to be expensive; traveling to Yaounde 3 times a year plus the expense of staying for 3 weeks at a time.

Anyway, I recently found out that the Baptist Center here in town has a similar system for missionaries up in this area. I went and talked with the director on the weekend. It was really good time and saw all the curriculum they have. They use Gospel Light which is solid Christian good material. It's a little more expensive but it will work out cheaper in the long run. They also do the school sessions (only two though), one which starts on the 6th of August. So we've switched over to them and Josh and Seth will get to go to "school" for 10 days before we head over to England. Then when we get back, we'll get busy homeschooling. All very exciting. Oh also, the director comes for two weeks sometime during the school year to teach the kids and give the mum a bit of a break. Also helps her to see where the kids are at and if they need help in a specific area. Praise the Lord we managed to get this all sorted out before leaving, it never ceases to amaze me how the Lord provides for our every need.

Couldn't resist putting a photo of our Jude in. He is doing so good, sitting up all by himself now, drooling a lot so I think he's teething. Jude's favorite food: avocado and bananas (can you tell he's was born in Africa or what :)

3 weeks today!!!

Three weeks from today we will be having the joy of going through the Yaounde airport to fly to London. 3 weeks! AHHHHH: we've got so much to do in that short time. But I am super excited, it will be so great to see everyone again.

Since coming to Bamenda we've been looking for a church we can get plugged into. The last couple of weeks we've been attending a Full Gospel church that is only a few blocks away from our house. The pastor is very nice but the only problem is, is that they meet in a small room (20' by 20') and have the most enormous speakers in it, and of course they are up full blast (if you've been to Cameroon you'll totally understand). A lot of churches here seem to think that the louder the music is, the more anointed it is :D. So needless to say you can't even hear yourself sing and little Jude just holds on to me for dear life. They also don't have a children's church for the first service. So we tried another little Full Gospel church today, it's about 3 miles from our house. They are only 3 months old with about 50 people in attendance. They meet in a very small room. They have no instruments or speakers yet so it was super awesome. The worship leader had a great voice and it was all real Africa chants and everyone sounded so great, we really enjoyed it and was able to worship the Lord without bursting an eardrum :D. They also had kid's church during the praise and worship (a little unique) but the boys had a great time and made some friends. Josh got to close in prayer, he was excited about that.
There was a student preaching today so we haven't heard the Pastor preach yet but we'll go back next week and see. But we really felt welcomed and comfortable there so this is big praise. Once we get back from the States we can really get involved however. I loved to work with the kid's church of course.

Neighbourhood Kids

Some kids in our area finally came knocking at our gate last week (I was wondering what was taking them so long). Josh and Seth had fun playing with them (even though they are about 5 years older), their friends had a blast on the trampoline! Then yesterday and today our boys got to go out in the neighbourhood and play. They were gone all afternoon and had a great time with all their new buddies, it'll be a great way for them to pick up some pidgin English. I'm really looking forward to starting a Bible club up at our house when we get back from the States.

Need Tees?

My brother, (who was recently featured on my blog when he got baptised) just started up his own website with Christian t-shirts he designs. Pretty cool, check it out. I love the "Created" one!
www.cafepress.com/triumphantees

Boot Camp

We went out to the Teen Missions Cameroon Boot Camp the last couple of nights. It was a lot of fun, there are about 140 teens there, they sang (and clapped) their hearts out, a lot of fun! One of the youth from our church in Yaounde came too so it was great to see her. Jake spoke last night at the rally, he said it was weird not having a translator (it's English speaking here). It went really well though and about 10 kids recommited their lives to Christ, praise the Lord. The US team is doing great too, hoping to have them over for a meal once boot camp is over.

It's all in the name

Anyone fancy some Pee Bread? It's a Bamenda specialty! Let me tell you what it says on the label incase you can't read it, I wouldn't want you to miss a single syllable:

Pee Special Buttered Bread: Beware of Imitation - Delicious bread for the people
(And my personal favorite:) Pee leads and others follow

It actually doesn't taste too bad, still yet to find out why it is called Pee bread though.

Our little Jude

Yummy toes!

Big smile :-D

Jude had a pimple on his "posterior" (this is a family friendly blog after all) and I gave it a squeeze and out popped a worm, ahhhhh! It was actually super tiny (2 millimeters?) and it's what we call here, a mango worm. Our dogs get them a lot in their legs during the rainy season (they can get as big as your pinky) but we've never actually had one. Praise God that I found it when it was still super small. Someone told me that the flies lay their eggs in the clothes when they're damp on the line. We do have a dryer but we rarely use it to keep our electric bill down. But from now on all of Jude's clothes are going in it!

Yummy!

Here's the cake the boys and me made for Daddy's Birthday (July 4th!). It was more like a pink, white, and blue flag but still tasted pretty good. On the 5th we got to go hang out with some other missionary families and Cameroonians, played some vollyball (in a very muddy field) and then had a cookout after. It was a lot of fun and nice to make some new friends.

Wohoo

Yeaaaah, got internet back at last. The Antenna for our area was having some major issues, so yesterday we went up to the Catholic church (where the antenna'a fixed) to see if we could figure out the problemo. So it has this rickety old ladder (made from scraps of wood) to get up on the roof (at least 3 stories high) and then you have to climb up the roof that is covered in slimy moss to get to the steeple (at least another story high). It wasn't too bad going up but coming back down was tough, and heights don't usually bother me at all, but my heart sure was pumping on this one :). Anyway, we finally got it all sorted out and we're back online which made it all worth while. These last few weeks we've been checking plane tickets, car rentals in England, sorting out dates with friends for speaking/visiting, maps of distances to places... just things you can't use the slow internet cafes for. So needless to say, we're pretty happy.

OK, besides all the travel plans, been busy with the house, finally got the front room painted. Got a bunch of plantain trees pulled up in the garden too. We did find some little snakes in amoungst them (ahhh) and also this wierd looking critter. After checking it out on the web we now know it is a slow worm which is actually a legless lizard, and is good for the garden as it loves slugs, so next time we see one, we won't kill it (you learn something new everyday :D). Giant snails and bunches of other creepy crawlys are also residents here, lots to keep the boys occupied :).

Next week Boot Camp at Teen Missions Cameroon starts. Jake's going to speak Wednesday night at the rally, really looking forward to seeing all the 130 plus kids as well as the American team.

:(

We've had no internet for the last two weeks, kinda frustrating but hopefully will be back on soon. Have so much to write about. Will write more soon.

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