Still catching up on August

We're currently parked in a Walmart parking lot (halfway point to Portland, OR) and finally have some decent internet (thank you, McDonalds!). Just had an awesome time in the Midwest visiting family and friends and then spent two amazing days at Yellowstone National Park. But I will get to all that later, first let me catch up on August. 

Early August we spent a week at my folks' time share in Pidgin Forge, TN. It is a sort of cabin resort up in the Smokey mountains; it is absolutely beautiful up there. Let me show the week in pictures:

My parents got to spend a couple of days with us and spoil the kids before my dad flew out to India. It was lovely to spend some relaxing time with them.

The massive water park right on the property

Fun on the lazy river (we spent a lot of time in there!)

The kids got to handle some cool birds that were there

We took a 5 mile hike up to Cave Alum... and we saw a black bear on the way! My first ever sighting of a wild bear!

We wanted to do at least one of the many fun "touristy" things with the kids, but if you have ever been in that area, you know everything is pretty expensive. I had been looking online at prices for the aquarium and saw that they had a discount for homeschoolers. We decided to check it out and when we got there, they reduced he cost from over a $100 to $42. We were pretty pleased with that but then as we went to pay, the cashier told us that someone had just paid for our tickets. With puzzled faces we turned around and there was a lady we had met in Africa a couple of years back. Her husband is a doctor and had volunteered at the Baptist hospital in Cameroon for a few months. They have 4 girls and came to the homeschooling co-op that we are a part of. They are a very sweet, in-love-with-Jesus family. Once we leant them our vehicle so they could go to the beach but in broke down on them while there! We've always felt bad about that but they were very gracious. Anyway, they are now living in Kentucky and she had just come down to Tennessee to have some mother-daughter time with one of her girls. She had spied us walking down the street from a restaurant and decided to follow us. It was so great to see her! And really, what are the odds that we would meet her?? It was totally a God thing, a little nudge from my Father, letting me know not to sweat the small stuff, He can cover the cost of us going to an aquarium :D. 

The kids LOVED it!

I had the Caridigans' Lovefool song going through my head all day after this :D

Awesome memories!

Next blog post: Missouri!

Meeting Cameroonians in Nashville (of all places!)

Mid-August we visited some close friends in Nashville, Tennessee. We first met Rachel in Cameroon many years ago and she still has real passion for the country. When she moved back to the states, she reached out to the Cameroonians in her area of Nashville. Interestingly enough there is around 60 Cameroonian families living in that region. Rachel set up a Helping Hands Children's Home fund raiser one night while we were there. Many Cameroonians came (even some from our home town of Bamenda), it was so awesome to hang out with them. It's amazing how the African culture has such a hold on me, I felt right a home with them, speaking French and pidgin English, talking about places that we have all been too, complaining about how much we all miss good roasted fish (with the head on off course), and just feeling so at ease. I must admit I was a little nervous to start off with, I didn't want any Cameroonians to feel like we were "exposing" their county with some of the pictures of extreme poverty in their country that we showed. But on the contrary, everyone was so encouraging and thanking us for the work that we do in their country (I had a few tears in my eyes that night!). 

One of the coolest testimonies of the night is that there was a Cameroonian man there, a professor of mathematics. He is from a tiny little village in our province where we have quite a few children in our orphanage from. In fact he is related to the pastor that helps us a lot in that area and Jake has stayed in his house while in that village! Of course this opened the door for a great conversation and friendship. We are hoping to see him when he comes to Cameroon next time (as well as many others). 

Professor Samuel and his beautiful wife

Jake also got to meet a friend he hadn't see since high school. I posted about the fundraiser event on Facebook, and come to found out, she and her family lived close by Tennessee (and who said Facebook was useless!). It was neat to meet her and her family.

We praise the Lord that the fundraiser night was a great success and over $3000 was raised. This is all going towards a much needed 30-seater bus for the orphanage ($12,000 total needed). Also many new contacts were made, we always get excited when we see Cameroonians helping Cameroonians! We appreciate all the hard work that Rachel and her family put into the event, to get the word out about the orphanage and the needs it has. 

One Cameroonian family invited us for dinner one night. They made cassava and ndole (a traditional meal), which we have really been missing, it was soooo good! It was cool to see that they still decorate in typical Cameroonian style and had the TV blaring away while eating (you have to live in Africa to understand). It was just the Cameroonian fix that we needed! 

Some of our new Cameroonian friends

Presentation table

Jake sharing