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)!!

On Wednesday I had all the older girls from Helping Hands come over to help make Christmas cookies (plus our two wonderful cooks at HHCH). We all had a lot of fun and just about managed to fit in my kitchen. 

They next day the older boys came too to help decorate them. So I wasn't sure if I would do just simple frosting or go for royal icing. I decided with the latter and it worked out great! I have never worked with royal icing before but got the recipe from a friend (thank you Harmony!) and it turned out amazing. The kids got VERY creative!

 168 decorated cookies! They all did an awesome job and I think this will become an annual advent. We'll take our cookies with us when we head to another orphanage on Monday to do an outreach. The children will play with the other kids, sing songs, do a drama, and speak to them about the true meaning of Christmas. 

Our Christmas tree

Jake did it again, he found us another wonderful Christmas tree. Now here you can buy shinny, flimsy, cheesy, plastic trees imported from China for ridiculous prices or you can wait till Christmas Eve to buy a branch of pine tree from someone on the side of the road (which we used to do). But for the last few years we have been scouting out Chistmas trees, we usually ask someone if we can lope off the top of their cedar tree. It's not always picture perfect but it works. I can't stand fake trees and just love the smell of real pine. Well this year, Jake and the boys went out driving around neighbourhoods looking for a good cedar to chop the top off and found the one below. It was in someone's front lawn, already shaped! Bold Jake knocked on the door and asked them if they were willing to sell it. The man had a few of them so he didn't mind and Jake came home with it. It is more like a hedge than separate branches but it looks and smells great! We had a lot of fun decorating it (with the help of Claude) and putting our stockings up. Jude is really loving it, he keeps saying, "It's almost Christmas, Mama." 

The next couple of weeks are busy, I didn't realize how full until in church today we were trying to figure out what day we could have a leader's retreat for the new year. This week I'm still doing school with the boys but our Christmas schedule is as follows;

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Monday afternoon is normal; staff prayer meeting, Kid's Club and library at HHCH. 

Tuesday afternoon is Staff meeing. 

Wednesday afternoon I'm having all the older girls of Helping Hands come over to help me bake Christmas cookies (what for you ask?). 

Thursday afternoon the boys have French class like usual and then all the Children's workers from our church are coming over. We're going to be wrapping small presents and making Christmas hats for Saturday's outreach. 

Friday afternoon I'll be taking all the Christmas cookies down to the Children's Home so that all the kids can decorate them, should be fun (and messy!). Then in the evening we're hosting, "It's a Wonderful Life" party. 

Saturday afternoon we have our "Christmas Celebration" at church. It is an outreach to the kids and their parents in the church's area. Today after church we took all the older kids out in the quarters and we handed out invitations to children and parents. The kids had a blast! We are believing for 200 people. They'll be singing, games, Christmas drama, carols, snack, film, and a short message at the end (please keep it in your prayers).

Sunday after church I'm heading to a ladies cookie exchange, one missionary lady puts it on every year and it is always a really special time.

Monday: We head out to another orphanage that's about an hour away (with close to 40 children). This is going to be "outreach" for the children of Helping Hands. We want to make sure that they realize it is important that they reach out and be a blessing to those around them too and not always just be on the receiving end. So that is what all the Christmas cookies are for, to hand out to the kids there. We'll also be taking some of HHCH chickens with us too. The kids are going to hang out with them, play football, jump rope as well as sing some songs and do a drama. They are soooo excited (as am I!).

Tuesday is Seth's Birthday. Usually we get too busy to do much for him but this year I planned early. We are heading to the pool at a hotel just out of town with a bunch of friends for a few hours then back to our house for cake (he wants a dragon this year) and tacos. I can't believe my boy is going to be 9. 

On Wednesday and Thursday we're hoping to slaughter and process a pig so we can have sausage and a pork roast for Christmas (plus some lard for pies), yum!

Friday we have an all day retreat at church, prayer and planning for the new year. 

Saturday we'll be finishing up and last minute shopping and I'll be in the kitchen a lot, I'm sure.

Christmas day, our plans are still up in the air but for sure we'll be spending the morning at the orphanage, cooking breakfast, reading the Christmas story, and opening presents. Always a lot of fun to see the joy on the children's face.

And then, on the 26th we head to the beach to camp for 5 days with our good friends the Youngs (I'll be ready for a break!). This is probably going to be the last year we can go camping on the beach as a deep sea port is being put in at Kribi and they are tearing the whole place up, so sad! So that is the next few weeks in a nutshell. 

We are all missionaries. Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ, or we repel them from Christ. (Eric Liddell)

The thing I love most about the Sonlight curriculum that I use with the boys is all the missionary biographies they put in with the history books. Josh is study the Eastern Hemisphere this year and "Eric Liddell, Something Greater Than Gold" is one of the books that we just finished. I enjoyed it so much, I haven't been able to get it out of my head, I've been thinking about it all week. Now, I saw Chariots of Fire when I was a kid and knew that after Eric ran in the olympics he went onto be a missionary in China and died there, but that was about it. What I didn't know was that Eric was born in China since his parents were missionaries there. They faced many challenges with the different wars going on at that time. His family went on furlough to Scotland when he was six and Eric and his brother was put into a boarding school. His folks went back to China and Eric actually didn't see his dad again until he was 19! (his folks were hard core missionaries!). Eric actually played rugby for Scotland before he was a famous runner. I did know that he refused to run on a Sunday even with the chance of winning a gold. What I didn't know was that it seem the whole of Scotland was against him, calling him a coward. Yet he refused to give into the pressure, stood firm on what he believed, and won a Gold in another race anyway. He then became an absolute hero in Scotland which opened up the door for him to to spread the gospel all of the British Isles. He was this huge celebrity, at his prime, yet he decided to go to China and be a missionary teacher. He met his Canadian wife there.  After being there a few years the Japanese invaded China and Eric was asked to move to another area of China to help in a hospital and preach the gospel there. However it was too dangerous for his wife and daughters to go. So after prayer and consideration, he decided to head off and leave his family to enter this perilous province. He was robbed, shot at, and in constant danger yet manage to spread the love of Christ wherever he went. He and the other missionaries eventually had to leave as the Japanese took over the hospital.

They decided it was too dangerous for his pregnant wife and two daughters to stay in China so they headed back to Canada without Eric. Then Japan bombed Pearl Harbor causing Great Britain and the US to declared war on Japan. So of of course Eric along with all the other missionaries and people from the allied countries became "the enemy." Eric with about 1800 people (including Hudson's Taylor son) were put into an internment camp. They were pretty much left to look after themselves and weren't treated badly, they were even allowed to bring their own beds with them. Food was scare but no one was starving. Eric became "Uncle Eric" there to the many children and youth who he spent so much time with, teaching them, organizing sports, and keeping their moral up. He continued to show the love of Christ through his selflessness to those around him, bringing peace and joy. Six months before the camp was liberated, Eric got sick and died, it seems of brain tumor. He never got to see his youngest daughter, at least not in this life. Throughout the whole book it talks about how people just loved Eric, he was always calm, he never got angry, he always had time for people; a wonderful example of the love of Christ. Certainly a challenge to me! He was so dedicated to what God had called him to do. He could have returned to Canada when his family did but he decided not to. He took his calling seriously!

Now I am wanting to read some of the memoirs of the people that were in the prison camp with Eric, pretty fascinating stuff. My brother and his wife have named all his kids after famous missionaries (William Carey, Amy Carmichael, Elizabeth Elliott). If they get pregnant again, I'm going to recommend Eric Liddell, a truly amazing missionary!

So Much to be Thankful for!

Praise the Lord. Oh Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 106:1

It has been a lovely week; Tuesday was my Birthday and then of course, yesterday was Thanksgiving. On my birthday I slept in, had breakfast in bed, and was surprised with homemade cards and wonderful gifts from my boys. We had fun celebrating Thanksgiving yesterday too. It always makes me think back to my first Thanksgiving back in 1997. I had been in the US for a few months and I was invited to Thanksgiving dinner at some Staff’s house. That is where I had my first taste of a cheese log (and have been addicted ever since) and watched my first American football game. I really love Thanksgiving, it is probably the American thing that I have embraced the most (besides my husband :D). We had a get together at our house on Thursday with two other missionary families: our good friends the Dibbits, and another family that just moved to Cameroon, the Waites. Unfortunately the Waites were having some truck issues so Mark was running around trying to get it fixed and missed eating the meal with us but it was still a great time with good fellowship and way too much food! Then we had some more friends show up and had 12 kids running around the house and yard while us adults crammed pie into our already full stomaches. All in all a great day.

So I was just reflecting yesterday, I truly have so much to be thankful for, the Lord just continues to be so good to me. I notice that whenever I get stressed or disappointed, it’s when I’m focusing on myself and not the goodness of God. When I keep my eyes on Him, my heart is full of gratitude. So a few of the many things I am thankful for:

My wonderful Saviour, who loves me despite all me failures and selfishness. My Rock, my Refuge!

My amazing husband, who is truly my best friend and is always there for me (and makes me a cup of tea every morning!). He is the best dad to our kids and I love him so much.

Joshua, my dependable son, always loving, always wanting to please. My little peace maker. I love our time out in the garden together.

Seth, my little funny guy, always makes me laugh. Has such compassion for people and animals. I love when I play my guitar and he plays the djembe drum with me.

Jude, my little man, my little shadow. I love those quite times when we cuddle up and read books together all by ourselves.

My Jordan who brings such a joy to my life, I love all those hugs and kisses that she is so generous with and those cheeky little smiles

For all the dirt roads that have just been graded this last week in Bamenda. So much easier to travel around and easier on the truck

Our generator and water tower that keep us going through the frequent water and electric cuts.

Good friends, here and overseas, that encourage us and support the work that we do here.

Skype (and a reliable internet connection) so I can talk and see my precious family!

Thank you Lord!

All my goodies for my birthday

Thanksgiving Dinner

Farawa

Meet Farawa, another sweet boy we welcomed into Helping Hands Children's Home last week. In October the Lord blessed us with an amazing lady, Fransica, that is helping out in the HHCH kitchen. A fortnight ago her elder brother died and she travel to the village to attend the funeral. When she came back she told about the grandson of her brother who had just sort of been abandon since the funeral and wasn't being treated well by the family. Jake and Tim, with Fransica, drove the four long hours on rough, dirt roads to go and see him in the muslim village of Nsam. They first met the widow; now I'm not sure if this is a muslim tradition or a village tradition, but she is in mourning for 4 months, 10 days (I need to ask some friends about it). During this time she cannot leave her room and she can't even sleep on her own bed, she must sleep on a thin mat that is on top of rocks (see photo below). Also her roof is full of holes from a hail storm and they haven't been patched at all so she gets soaked when it rains. I guess this is to make sure that she doesn't forget her misery?! Poor lady! 

Farawa is about six years old (no one knows for sure) but is extremely small, not much bigger than our Jude. His mother died in June from a "sickness," (more than likely AIDS). They have no idea who the father is. Jake said the village was full of young girls that had babies with no husbands... kinda surprising for a muslim village. As you can see in the photo, Farawa's eyes are very yellow, or he has "itchy eyes" as they call it here. It is probably a sign of malnutrition but we will be getting him checked out by a doctor this week. He has never been to school but surprisingly, speaks quite a bit of pidgin English. Since coming to the orphanage, Farawa has fit right in. He had a tough first night but by the morning he was running around everywhere and getting into everything, he is quite the little character! He keeps asking when he is going to go to school. We will be enrolling him this week and as soon as we can get the uniformed made, he will start attending. Please keep little Farawa in your prayers that he will completely settle into his new home. Also he has always grown up in a muslim environment and is hearing about the love of Jesus now; pray that the Good News of Christ will really make an impact in his little life. Also pray that he will get a sponsor soon. 

Farawa's Grandmother 

Her hail beaten roof

The family signing paperwork

A beautiful little girl in Nsam

I have no idea what this is for but it looks vicious!

A little boy making bamboo stools. We buy these in town for 500cfa (about a buck)

A long day

Saturday was a long and tiring day but a good one too. About 10 days ago the Borns had a call from a friend, Philemon, out in the village of Benakuma. He told them that some twins (a girl and a boy) had been born there, that the mother had died, and that the family was struggling to look after them. We discussed it but HHCH does have a policy of not excepting children under the age of two as we are just not set up or have the staff to look after babies (we have made exceptions to this rule as Bena was 8 month old when we got her). Twins would be a huge responsibility but then later at our staff meeting we discussed it some more and felt that we should go and see them at least and assess the situation. Babies are generally a lot smaller here than western standards and especially twins. So on Saturday we were planning to head out to the village at 8. Some things came up and we didn't head out of town till 10:30am. The village is about a 3 hours drive on some very bumpy, bendy roads. It is always and adventure when traveling on dirt roads here, last time Jake went out there, they had to turn around about 2 hours into the trip as a truck had got stuck and was blocking the way. This time a bridge had fallen down and was replaced by logs and planks. The kids and I got out and walked across and let Jake brave his way across it in the truck. We also met the TMI director on the road (TMI has a rescue unit out there) and he informed us that one of the twins had died. 

 We finally reached Benakuma  and met up with Philemon. He told us that the family was actually in Benadae, another village about 40 minutes away (on more bumpy, windy roads of course!). My heart sank as I was starting to feel sick from the heat and being in the back with Jordan on my lap. By the time we got to the village I was feeling really rough. We walked down to the family hut and there was quite a crowd gathered to meet us. The Fon (Chief) of the village was there which always makes us happy so that he is in the know of what is going on. We met the father and got to chat with him. This is why we always make sure that someone from our team travels out to assess the situation as the story was quite different than what we heard through Philemon. Of couse the biggest one was that the girl had died a week after being born, even before we got the first call. Secondly we had heard that the mother had been alive for a week and that the father wasn't around. But the mother actually died a day after giving birth as she never delivered the placenta. She was very young, only 17; such a sad end to her young life. Medical help in these villages is so basic if not non-existent. The father is around, they were newly married and these was their first children. Obviously he is very distressed about losing his wife and then his daughter. His sister has been helping to look after the baby boy. Sometimes people will find a wet nurse but they didn't do that. They hadn't even named the baby yet as they were not sure he was going to make it. We asked what they had been feeding him and they said formula. We asked do they have some now, and they said no, it ran out a week ago. So they have probably been feeding him "pup" a corn mealy drink that they often give motherless babies here (certainly not what newborns need). So we discussed with the family and they basically said that they don't want the baby to die like his sister and that they can not provide for him (formula is $5 a can, usually impossible for people to buy enough for a baby). So we decided to bring him into the HHCH family. We have encouraged the family and especially the father to come and visit as much as possible and told him we will be calling him frequently. They decided to name him before we left, Godwill. As it came time to say good-bye, it was really hard for the father and sister. We really hope that they will come and visit soon or at least call. 

One the ride home we didn't hear a peep out of little Godwill, he just slept and slept. We brought a bottle and formula with us and Sara fed him half way home. I was super sick on the way back, the heat just really got to me, and we had to stop at least 5 times for me to throw up. At one point I just wanted to lay down in the dirt road and tell Jake to come and get me tomorrow. I felt bad cause we were already running late, we didn't want to keep little Godwill out on the bumpy roads longer than necessary, and it was getting dark. Thankfully I started to feel better about half way home and we could get going. We made it home about 7:30 at night. The Borns took little Godwill home that night and we will switching back and forth taking care of him till we are sure that he is gaining weight and thriving. We think at HHCH he would be "over" loved by all the girls :-D. Everyone did get to meet him on Sunday and today all the girls kept asking me when Godwill was coming to stay. WON will be hiring a girl to be a care giver specifically for Godwill. 

So far, Godwill has been doing well, he has started sucking well and keeping down his formula. He is 3 weeks old, and 4 pounds exactly. We'll be keeping a chart of his weight gain. So please keep this little life in your prayers, we are so grateful that the Lord has entrusted this little life into our hands. 

The village where Godwill comes from

Godwill's Father

Precious little Godwill (pink for girls is a western mindset :D )

Jordan greeting some new friends

Volunteers

Last month we had a young lady, Breanna, come and volunteer for 4 weeks. She is from Oregon but her aunt and uncle are pastors of a church in Kansas. My good friend goes to that church and she shared our newsletter with them, and they passed it onto Breanna, who has always been interested in coming to Africa. So she wrote us a while back and asked if she could come out and help out in anyway. We can always use volunteers over here, no matter how short or long, so we told her to come on over. Breanna just fit right in to our family and was such a pleasure to have. She helped in the house, at the children's home, wherever needed. In the morning she assisted me with homeschooling, in the afternoon she helped out at HHCH with kid's club, library time, tutoring the kids, etc. We are so grateful that she was willing to give up a month of her busy life and invest it in the lives of our kids. We're pretty sure she had a great time too. We can ALWAYS use more volunteers (hint, hint!). The photos below are of her time here. 

Breanna and Marvelous

At the seamstress' where she got a few African dresses made

Helping build the dog cage at HHCH

Knocking down the old toilet block

Keeping Jude entertained (he is really missing her!)

Beautiful hikes on the weekends

Breanna brought a gift for each of the children

We went and got pedicures together!

Breanna and Dorcas

Breanna got her hair braided twice

It took us four hours to take it out and she had quite the 'fro!

I made pepperoni!!

You can't buy pepperoni in Cameroon and since the Skis LOVE it, it is always something we bring back with us and ration out. Or if someone asks what they can send, pepperoni is usually on the list. It's so good on pizza, in a sandwich, or in a breakfast burrito. Well, my cousin, on her blog,  recommended a recipe for pepperoni (http://tammysrecipes.com/tammys_spicy_pepperoni). Now, we have been making our own pork sausages for quite some time (breakfast, bratz, and italian) but I have never thought of making pepperoni  before. I've always assumed that it would be a huge, long process with lots of ingredients that I couldn't get. But it's actually pretty simple. I had all the ingredients beside the mustard seed. I ground my own beef and crushed my own spices and it turned out great! I didn't having curing salt, which apparently is what gives the pepperoni it's red color, but regular salt worked fine. The sausage tastes amazing and the texture is great too. This is definitely something I will be making monthly. Yes, one less thing we need to ship over here now! Now if I can just master mozzarella chesse I will be able to make a "true" home-made pizza.

Bible School class

For the mid-terms of my Children and Youth Ministry class, I got each of my students to give a 5 minutes presentation of a bible story as if the class was a children's sunday school class. Children's ministry is often the least thought about and planned part of a church here. Even when new church buildings are put up, rarely are classrooms put in for the kids, and they end up out back sitting in the sun or in some small room. They are given a tiny budget and usually don't have enough benches to sit all the kids (which is usually a lot as familes are generally big here). I have really being stressing the importance of children in the Kingdom and also the importance of being well prepared when teaching them. One of my focuses this term has been on getting creative when teaching children. It is very rare for Children's churches to have even a picture of a story that is being taught let alone some sort of object lesson. Of course it is hard to get Bible curriculum and pictures that are so easy accessible to us in the West. So I was trying to show them to use things around them. A few weeks back I presented the lesson of Jesus feeding the five thousand, and I brought a basket with some bread and fried fish (something everyone has in their house). I also taught The Good Samaritan and brought some bandages, plasters (band-aids) and an empty wine bottle. I was showing them that with a little planning and thought, despite the fact that we have limited resources in Cameroon, one can make Bible stories come alive to children.  I also encouraged them to not always just narrate the story but tell it from a different perspectives of one of the characters in the story. And of course, to teach a lesson, not just a story. They all did amazing well and each one came up with a unique way of presenting the story, I was very happy. We also had a lot of laughs!

Cynthia teaching the story of Abraham and Isaac

Justine teaching on the Good Shepherd. She also brought in a keyboard and we all sang a song of rejoicing at the end. 

Matthias got our attention by doing a puzzle at the start

Emmerencia got her class mates to help her act out Jesus healing the blind man

Sister Agnes taught on Jesus changing the water into wine and brought along yummy juice for all to taste

Mable brought a Picture bible with a drawing of Zacchaeus in it. 

Goodness assuming the role of David

George brought in some of his own helpers!

Goodness was really nervous but did an AMAZING job

And Jacob was very creative as he made a tomb and when he pulled a string,  up popped Lazarus!

Currently there are two children's workers in the class. I am really hope this will encourage many of the students to get involved in their churches, neighborhoods, and schools, to start reaching out to the youth of this nation.