First Church Service

Phew, it's been a crazy couple of weeks! So much to blog about, just need the time to do it! We had a great home school session with other missionary families and we start regular home schooling tomorrow morning! Yay, can't wait! My first read-aloud with Josh is William Wilberfore's biography, looking forward to that. Anyway, hopefully this week I'll be able to catch up on my blog all that has been going on (all good stuff!).

We had our first service this evening for Calvary Chapel Bamenda (a Full Gospel Church). It was kinda of a trial run before the big kickoff next weekend. Friday and Saturday we'll be holding outreach meetings in a hotel and then Sunday morning will be the official opening of the church, very exciting. Yesterday I was asked if I could lead praise and worship and was told that the pastor's wife would be there to sing with me, so I said no problem. When I got to church I found out it would just be me! Oh well, I think it went pretty well anyway, it always amazes me how the Lord opens up doors for me to sing and play guitar even though it is something I'm not great at. I guess He is continuing to stretch me and take me out of my comfort zone. I'll be helping out with the worship group for a while but my main focus at the church will be developing and training a strong Children's leadership team. Jake is in the church leadership, he led the service today and did a great job. Please keep this all in your prayers, we love seeing a church come together from the very start though of course it's not always easy. Praise the Lord there is a solid, dedicated leadership in place already!  

Leading worship (our close missionary friends, the Dibbits, are in the front row)

Josh was our little picture taker, I think he must have taken at least 50!

Jake leading the service. The church is starting out in a house and we're believing we'll expand in the next few months. 

As promised, here are some photos of summer school at the Children's Home. It's going really well. Since all the older children are at Teen Missions (coming back on Thursday), there are only two classes right now. Main focus is reading, writing, and spelling. 

This is Jeremiah, he and his wife run an A.C.E. school in Ghana (looking at the possibility of starting one in Cameroon too)

The older boy is Jackson who lives with Jeremiah's family in Ghana. He is 15, a very sweet young man.

The little girl is their daughter Hannah, who is three going on 30, she is so smart! Her and Jude have been having a lot of fun together. They also have a 5 month old boy, Jonathan.

The older girl is 15 year old Myriam who is from Ivory Coast but moved to Ghana to go to school there. She is a lovely girl and a great help. She is a whiz a pictionary (we've been playing that with them a lot)!

SCA (Homeschooling co-op) went well this week, the boys are having a lot of fun with all of their friends and learning lots. Jude and Jordan have been doing good too, but by the end of the afternoon I'm beat! I enjoyed sleeping in till 7:45 this morning, I really needed it! On Thursday it was "crazy hair day" so Jake had a blast styling the boys' hair. One more week of SCA and then we start regular homeschooling, really looking forward to it.

Needless to say, the Josh and Seth both have very short hair now :-D

School

Just a quick post, SCA, the homeschooling co-op I'm a part of has started... so that will be keeping me busy for the next two weeks. There are six missionary families participating, with a total of 19 kids. It is a lot of fun, and the boys are having a blast. Will post some pics soon. It has been a challenge to have all four kids dressed, fed and out of the door by 7:30am but we are doing it, it's good to be getting back into a schedule again and it is making me go to bed early (always a good thing!). 


Also summer school started at the Children's Home yesterday. They will have three weeks of teaching. Our missionary friends came all the way from Ghana to help out, such a blessing! Please pray that our kids will get a lot out of it these next few weeks. I'll be posting some pics of that too, probably this weekend. 

In Douala

Sitting in an air condition room at the Baptist Guest house in Douala, munching on Milka Chocolate, yum! My husband knows what makes me happy :D. 

Yesterday we made it safe and sound to Yaounde. Our wheel did start smoking about half an hour into the 6 hour trip but after pulling over, letting it cool off and checking it out, all was OK... Jake thinks it must have been some oil on the brake pads as we had some work done on it a few days ago. So when we got to Yaounde, Jordan got her passport photos taken, then we headed straight to the air conditioned, diaper changing table equipped, American Embassy (it is seriously just like stepping into the US, they even had a movie playing and a kiddies play area). It took a good hour and half to get all the paperwork filed (registration of birth abroad, passport, social security number) but glad we've got it all done and out of the way. We spent the night with some close missionaries friends who have just returned from furlough. It was great to catch up and we stay up way too late talking and laughing. After a hearty breakfast we headed to Douala where we are right now. Lots of time in the car but the kids all did great.

We have a missionary family arriving today from Ghana who are going to be doing summer school at the orphanage for the month of August. There is no Cameroonian Embassy in Ghana so they couldn't get visas there. We went to immigration here and got them a letter saying they could get a visa on arrival. Well, Tim and Jake went to pick them up 7 hours ago and they are still not back from the airport! They are giving them hassle about the visa thing, so frustrating! But it looks like it is all going to work out and they should be here soon (they have two little kids, so no fun for them after flying then being stuck in a hot airport). Anyway, it is a huge blessing they are coming for the month. 

Tomorrow afternoon Josh flies in... can't wait!! The guest house here has a pool so we'll spend the day in that till we need to head to the airport, so looking forward to a nice relaxing day and then getting to see my boy!

In Douala

Sitting in an air condition room at the Baptist Guest house in Douala munching on Milka Chocolate, yum! My husband knows what make me happy :D. 

Yesterday we made it safe and sound to Yaounde. Our wheel did start smoking about half an hour into the 6 hour trip but after pulling over, letting it cool off and checking it out, all was OK... Jake thinks it must have been some oil on the brake pads as we had some work done on it a few days ago. So when we got to Yaounde, Jordan got her passport photos taken, then we headed straight to the air conditioned, diaper changing table equipped, American Embassy (it is seriously just like stepping into the US, they even had a movie playing and a kiddies play area). It took a good hour and an half to get all the paperwork filed (registration of birth abroad, passport, social security number) but glad we've got it all done and out of the way. We spent the night with some close missionaries friends who have just returned from furlough. It was great to catch up and we stay up way too late talking and laughing. After a hearty breakfast we headed to Douala where we are right now. Lots of time in the car but the kids all did great.

We have a missionary family from Ghana coming in that is going to be doing summer school at the orphanage for the month of August. There is no Cameroonian Embassy in Ghana so they couldn't get visas. So we went to immigration here and got them a letter saying they could get a visa on arrival. Well, Tim and Jake went to pick them up 6 hours ago and they are still not back from the airport! They are giving them hassle about the visa thing, so frustrating! But it looks like it is all going to work out and they should be here soon (they have two little kids, so no fun for them after flying then being stuck in a hot airport). Anyway, it is a huge blessing they are coming for the month. 

Tomorrow afternoon Josh flies in... can't wait!! The guest house here has a pool so we'll spend the day in that till we need to head to the airport, so looking forward to a nice relaxing day and then getting to see my boy!

Lots going on!

I've been trying to write a blog for at least a week and just have not been able to! Lots going on. The WON bible school will be opening the first week of September. Jake and Tim have been going around churches in town promoting it, plus doing all the set up of the new place. So haven't seen to much of him the last two weeks. I've been getting everything set up for homeschooling starting in two and half weeks (going over grade four lessons, it's starting to get tough!). Also SCA (Sonlight Christian Academy) homeschooling co-op starts on Monday for two weeks, I'm just assisting music and art this time (phew) plus helping out in nursery and doing the opening devotion. It will be great to have some fellowship with other missionary families.

Tomorrow we head to Yaounde (6 hour drive) to get Jordan's passport sorted out, then we head to Douala (3 hour drive) to pick up Josh on Saturday (woohooo!) and then come back to Bamenda (5 hour drive) on Sunday to be at the kick off program for SCA at 4pm. This will be Jordan's first big trip so keep her in your prayers, she's not a big fan of her car seat! Btw, she is 8 weeks today!!

A big praise it that all the money was raised for the much needed pick-up truck! God is sooo good. Once we got the money in, Jake found an even better truck than what we were looking at before for the same price. It is a super nice little Nissan. We got it less than a week ago and have already used it a bunch, including hauling a pig! It's also a great run around vehicle, it is going to save us a lot on our petrol bill compared to out big truck! Praise the Lord! A few photos below:

Our new little Nissan

Carrying tables and chairs for the Bible school

Moving sand for construction project