Faith Bible College

Last night completed the second week of Faith Bible College. We have 8 people registered, we were hoping for at least 10, but 8 is still great! The school holds evening classes at an office space WON is renting in town. They have classes from 5-8pm, Monday through Thursday. Tim is teaching a class, we also have two local pastors teaching classes. Jake is teaching the Foundations class on Wednesday's night. He has been studying a lot lately, I love seeing my husband reading and studying the Word! It's also bringing up lots of Bible/theology questions and talk in our daily conversation, love it! 

The first week was a little tough as there was no electric in the whole city. This week was a lot better as they had light and could use the projector. Next semester I will be teaching an elective on Children's Ministry, really looking forward to it.

 

Jake teaching (yes, it's cold here right now!)

 

Tim teaching by candle light

Home School

For anyone interested, below is a list of the curriculum my boys are using this year. Josh is a lot more independent in 4th grade, and Seth can do much more by himself now that he is in 2nd. Teaching’s been a lot easier than last year so far (I know, I’m only in the third week). We start at 8am and we’re all done by 1pm (with a 20 minute break at 10). We do four days of regular school with Friday as our fun morning. We do art, PE, music, and usually some science project (more work for me but the boys love it).

This year we switched to A Beka Language arts as that’s not one of Sonlight’s strong points. The difference is AMAZING. The A Beka workbooks are great and Josh (my little math and science dude) is doing so much better already with creative writing and grammar. It was like pulling teeth to try and get him to write an interesting story or poem last year. Sonlight’s history is wonderful though, I think I enjoy it more than the kids. I never studied American history before so I’m learning along with them. Sonlight does have a LOT of reading (history books, plus read-alouds) but I cherish cuddling up on the couch and reading with the boys.

Jordan does great, I feed her right before school and then she’ll usually sleep most of the morning. Jude on the other hand is at the stage where he is wanting to be a part of everything so I am trying to come up with creative ways to keep him occupied so he’s not distracting the boys all morning (anyone know a good play doe recipe?). So here’s the list:



Grade 4:

Sonlight Core 4 history (American history part 2)

11 read-alouds

18 readers

Saxon math 5/4

Sequential Spellings (2)

A Beka Developing good health workbook

A Beka Understanding God’s world (science)

A Beka Languae arts (God’s gift of language A)

A Reason For Handwriting (D)
Word Study (E)

Wordly Wise 3000

Map skills for today workbook


Grade 2:

Sonlight Core 2 history (World history part 2)

15 read-alouds

21 readers

Saxon math 2

Sequential Spelling (1)

A Beka Health, Safety, and Manners

A Beka Enjoying God’s world (science)

A Beka Languae arts (2)

A Reason For Handwriting (B)

Word Study (B)

Explode the code 4, 5, and 6

Map skills for today workbook

Orphans in need

Jake and Tim went to the village of Nwa with Tom Maher of Teen Missions. We have four orphaned children from that area, we saw such a need out there as there's so many orphans and children in desperate situations. Teen Missions is looking into the possibility of starting a rescue unit there, where they would help feed, cloth and school children in need (and of course preach the Gospel to them too). They had a great trip on some really bad roads (they even had to use the winch to pull up a car that had fallen down a hill). Praise the Lord for the Land Rover! 

Truck that had got stuck

So if you have a queazy stomach you might not want to scroll down to the pictures below. On the way back they saw some kids walking down the road and noticed that one had bad looking feet. They stopped to talk with them and saw that they girl's feet were severely infested with chiggers (little parasite worms) and what also looks like fungus and infection. I don't know if you remember but we had two children that came to us like this (not quite as severe); they were from this same area. It is really just from neglect as chiggers are relatively easy to dig out. Anyway, they found out they're orphans living with their blind grandfather and grandmother. They don't know who their father is and their mother has abandoned them. It looks like they are being neglected. We're hoping to go there soon so we can talk with the family and find out if they want to keep them. Their aunt was with them who is actually a nurse! I don't know how she could not have done something about the poor girl's feet. We said we wouldn't be getting anymore orphans till we had our current children fully sponsored but this is a pretty extreme case; these kids have basically been abandoned and not cared for, so sad. Please join us in prayer for these precious children, that we can help them in some way, whether bringing them to the Children's Home or just getting her some medical care. We did leave them some money to go get medical help but who knows whether they'll use it for that.

So here is the older sister with her little sister (maybe six years old). She can not walk and she also has chiggers all on her knees as she crawls everywhere. They said that she is disabled, but we're not sure if this is because of the chiggers or not. That would explain why she has been so neglected as disabled people here are often treated like second class citizens.

From this picture is does look like her foot is a little deformed, not sure though.

This must be so painful, look how swollen her toes are. The kids that we have who had bad chiggers made a full recovery in a couple of months even though some of their nails are a little crimperly (if that is a word). There other younger sister was not with them.

Here is the grandfather's own child, who has a pop belly from malnutrition (not underfed though)... she was walking around with no clothes. 

Full days!

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth; just a lot going on right now. WON's Bible school starts next week so registration has been going on the last couple of weeks. All the kids at HHCH start school next week, been making sure that they have everything they need (shoes, backpacks, socks, etc.). Jake traveled out to a village today and will be back tomorrow. Our friends from Ghana left this past weekend, went for a hike with them their last day. Had a LOT of visitors (Linda Maher is here with me right now). The new church plant we are assisting with had it's first official service on Sunday with two days of meetings before (I was leading praise and worship). Praise the Lord, the church went great! I started Kid's Club and library time at HHCH again this week.  Things should be slowing down a bit next week. We are in our second week of home schooling, it is going so well, the boys are a lot more independent now and I am actually managing to get laundry done in the morning plus homeschooling, wohoo! Anyway, I hope to post about all this things in a bit more detail soon, but no promises. I just praise the Lord for His love and goodness, He is always there for us. We had a great sermon on Sunday, the speaker was talking about how we're meant to be as little children to enter the kingdom of God. I have always though of this as being honest, loving, innocent. The preacher put it in another perspective I really liked, about how a child will always run to his Father in times of trouble, always trust his father a 100%, reaching his hands up to him, knowing that he can't do things by himself, great stuff! Ok, I need to go take a shower, feed the baby and get to bed. 
Ohh I posted a cute video of Jordan on facebook, check it out at:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1495217535335&ref=mf

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