Home schooling and other things...

We're into our third week of homeschool, and so far so good! I must admit I was a bit nervous about how to schedule all the boys in during the morning now that Jude is in Kindergarten. Seth has matured a lot over the summer and he is much more independent now (it's amazing the difference between 4th and 5th grade!). So the mornings have been going better than I expected. 

Here is how a typical school morning goes chez Schilinskis: We start at 8am, Josh and Seth start on devotions and then Math and LA (which they can do by themselves). I begin devos with Jude and then get all his reading out of the way (science, history, read-alouds, poems). Then Jude starts on his workbooks and he is all done by break at 10:30. After a quick snack (and a cup of tea for me of course), I start reading with Josh (history and read-alouds) and then do the same with Seth. We are usually done right at 1pm and if the boys have any workbooks to finish, they do that after lunch. They are also doing Typing Instructor and  the French Rosetta Stone on alternate days. Fridays are our fun days with art, music, and sports. I'm seriously going to try and get them to the pool (which is a at hotel in town) once a month so they can keep improving on that (especially Jude who still isn't swimming independently yet).

Here's the curriculum we use for those home schooling mums who are interested; Saxon for Math, Sonlight for history, Abeka for LA and spelling, and I've started using Apologia for Science this year with Josh, which I am loving (and Josh too!). Then they have some work books as well: Wordly Wise, Map skills, MP Phonics. I am absolutely ecstatic about being back into a schedule with the kids, it just makes the whole household run much smoother (I've even been running/exercising more consistently). I even got to spend a couple of hours in the garden this week. My poor garden has been severely neglected the last two month and for any of you that know me, it is one of my favorite pastimes.  I feel like I am back to the garden I had when we first moved into the house (ok, maybe it's not that bad) but I have a lot of weeding and pruning to do. 

As some of you may remember, we always kick of the home schooling year at Sonlight Christian Academy (the missionary co-op we're a part of). It is two weeks of devotions, classes, sports, art, etc. with about 10 other missionary families.  The kids had an awesome fortnight and so did I as I got to hang out with good friends that I don't get to see too often. I had a lot of fun teaching the Kindgarten class Math and LA (only two students), as well as helping out with sports; Presidential fitness testing and american football (I was a big help with that one). The theme this session was Scotland. An American family who is very "into" Scotland taught the kids about the country. Their son played the bagpipes which was pretty impressive. All in all it was a blessed two weeks to start the school year off with. 

Jude's first day of school! 

Josh looking very Scottish (he is 1/8 Scot after all)

Jude and his buddy in math class

Fitness testing

Crazy Hair Day

Another crazy hair day

A lesson on a famous Scottish battle (against the English of course!)

Art class

My close friend (missionary in the East) came over so we could make a cake for her son's birthday (she helped me with Jude's earlier this year)

We went with a Scottish theme, came out so awesome 

So happy that Jordan had another little girl in preschool this time, they were inseperable

All of the home schooling mums; a group of amazing women and a great source of encouragement to me

Some of the delicious food from our "Mother's Tea" (of course scones were on the menu!)

Where to start....

So much for the summer being a bit of a break. It has been absolutely nonstop since school finished in early June. I'm not complaining, it has been an awesome couple of months, just very full. We start up homeschooling again on Monday and I cannot wait to get back into a "normal" schedule again. So here is a quick overview of the last few months since I have severely neglected my poor little blog.

We had Audrey Blake volunteering and staying with us for six months since December. 

Early May Heather Yoder arrived from South Carolina for five weeks to volunteer.

Mid May our great friends from Iowa (Eric and Carrie Falk) came for two weeks to hang out and see the work the Lord is doing here (our house was pretty full at this point!)

At the end of May all HHCH kids finish school and move onto the next grade. Seven of them will be starting secondary school in September!

Early June we headed to the beach for a night before Audrey and the Falks flew home. Unfortunately a lot of us got sick so it wasn't as much fun as we were hoping.

Heather flew home mid June and we had two strange weeks of only having our family in the house (first time in over year). 

HHCH kids had the opportunity to sing at the American Embassy's July 4th celebration in Yaounde. First time for most of them to go to the capitol city, they all had a blast. 

I started summer school at the Children's Home in the mornings. Not easy trying to keep 28 keeps kids busy at the same time, but they are great children and we managed it. 

We opened up a 3rd Helping Hands Car Wash in town (all profits go towards the orphanage). 

At the start of July the Eisenhuth family (Chris, Audrey, Kaylee & Dylan) arrive to stay with us for a month to help out wherever needed (especially summer school, yay!).

Early July a team from Biola university volunteered at the orphanage for two weeks to help out with summer school (they made it so much fun!). 

Mid July 15 of the HHCH children headed to Teen Missions for six weeks of missions camp.

End of July the Eisenhuth's flew back home and my Dad and his friend (Larry Conner) came to visit for 10 days. 

We celebrated Faith Bible College's first graduation!!! Six people were commissioned back into their churches with a deeper knowledge and understanding of God's Word, so exciting.

Last week Faith Bible College had a three day pastor's seminar that my dad and Larry spoke at.

A couple days ago my dad and Larry flew out :(.

We had the US TMI team over for dinner two nights ago and Jake drove them down to the airport today. 

So all together, I just figured out Jake has driven the 5 hour trip to or from Douala (where there airport is) 14 times in the last 3 months.... praise the Lord for a reliable vehicle! And this is on top of all the other normal busy ministry stuff that we do. So as you can see, I am ready to be back in a normal schedule!

We do feel very blessed to have so many people coming to help out and who are interested and supportive of the work over here. Please join us in prayer for more full time staff. Since our collegues resigned at the start of the year, we often feel overwhelmed and Jake is pretty much going non-stop. We are praying about bringing a Cameroonian pastor as full time staff to coordinate the Bible school. This would free Jake up tremendously. Keep us in your prayers please, thanks!!!

Some photos of the last couple months

Heather and Blessed

Our kids that completed primary school this year!

Carrie and Eric

Eisenhuth family

Sunday hike

Jake's July 4th Birthday cake

Third Car Wash

Jordan's birthday Cake (one of my favourites!)

Movie night at our house

Summer school

My dad and Jake at Faith Bible college's graduation

Our beautiful graduating students!

Mathias and Pastor Larry

French Hostages

For those of you who may not have heard, on February 19th, a French family that worked in Yaoundé (the political capital city of Cameroon) were vacationing in northern Cameroon. They were visiting the Waza National Park; a dad, mum, 4 kids (ages 5-12), plus an uncle. Early one morning their vehicle was stopped at gunpoint and they were kidnapped. Later Boko Haram, an Islamist group, claimed they had taken them and were making demands for prisoners to be released in Cameroon among other things. This family is friends with two of our good friends in Yaounde; their kids went to the same school, hung out together, run races together, etc. So this was the closest I had ever been to something like this, where it was personally effecting people that I know and love. Cameroon is a relatively safe country (compared to our neighbors) but we still have to take precautions. We have bars on our windows, we have guards dogs, we try not to travel after dark, etc. In the North were Islam is stronger, people have to be even more careful. Personally, we have never felt threaten or in danger in all our nine years here. 

For the "white" community, hearing things like this does stirs up worries and fears.  We were actually discussing going to the precise spot next year for our family vacation. The French children were almost the exact ages of our kids and it is hard not to picture yourself in the same situation... how would I be feeling? how would Jude and the rest of our children handle those sort of circumstances? what are they going through at this exact moment? Through it all we just decided not to be led by fear (worry wasn't going to help anyone anyway, right?) and just lean and trust on Jesus for their safety. We lifted them up in prayer every night and encouraged our kids to do the same whenever they thought of them. I know that hundreds/thousands of other people were praying for them too.

During the first few weeks after their capture, a couple of youtube videos appeared of the family surrounded by mask men with machine guns. They were increasingly looking more thin, drawn, and worn.  For the last month there had been no new news of them and I must admit I was starting to wonder what was going to happen to them. How were their faring? The North of Cameroon is extremely hot and they had mentioned in a video that they were suffering from the heat and they didn't know how much longer they could hold out.  France had declared (and rightly so) that they would not negotiate or pay a ransom for the family.

Then on Friday, exactly 2 months since they were taken, we got news that they had been released!! I told the boys and everyone in the house at the time and we all hooped and hollered and offered up thanks to the Lord ( I also shed a tear or two). Aside from being extremely thin, they had been unharmed. They flew home on Saturday and we are just so thrilled that this story had a happy ending. I know they will have a lot of recovering and healing to do, but still, I get a skip in my heart every time I think of their release. We do serve a mighty God!

I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8

If you want to read more about it all, click below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22213125

The little things (or not so little things)

Since we shipped a 40' container this time we had plenty of room to bring things back with us. Normally when we're back in the States we have to be concerned about every ounce as we are so tight on space. Walking around garage sales was torture as things were so cheap yet we had no way of getting them over here. Well, this time we didn't hold back, we went garage-sale-crazy and people gave us a ton of stuff too. Here's a list of some things I'm really happy and grateful that we brought back to Cameroon.

20ft step ladder: Jake had made us a wooden ladder which I couldn't use as I could hardly pick it off the ground let alone get it upright as it was so heavy. In the States we found the step ladder at a yard sale and toted it across the country on top of our RV which was highly embarrassing but totally worth it. I can now trim all my bushes, change light bulbs, and paint the ceiling without the risk of breaking my neck by standing on piled up chairs.

American size refrigerator: My fridge here in Cameroon was on its last legs as we bought it secondhand over eight years ago. The thermostat was gone and it couldn't get fixed so it was on timer which never really worked; everything inside was either frozen or spoiling. We weren't planning on shipping another one but a few days before the trailer was shipped we still had extra space. We ran around for a morning looking at different appliances on sale and finally found this one at Best Buy of all places. It was super cheap as it has a scratch on the front and it was a display model. I stilled hummed and harred about spending the money but Jake insisted that we get it. I am sooooo pleased we did, it has been such a massive blessing. We have lots of people over all the time so I need to stay well stocked with food. It is also awesome to have a top freezer (my last fridge didn't); we can have cubed ice now (if we make ice in our deep freezer it tastes like the dog's fish in there). Little things like ice make life much more pleasant! I thank the Lord for the fridge each time I open it. If we had bought it here it would have been at least triple the price (if you look closely you might see your picture on it :D)

Chainsaw: Someone blessed us with their chainsaw. Jake has had his eye on one for a while now and he's enjoying choppping unwanted trees and limbs down in our yard. I have to watch him or we'll be treeless in a moment! This is proving HHCH with plenty of extra firewood too. 

Larger generator: Someone also gave us a much bigger generator than what we had before. Our last one would either run the fridge or freezer and a couple of lights. The new one can run both appliances, the washer, hot water heater and my tea kettle (makes this English women happy!) without any difficulties. This is truly helpful for when we have those long power cuts of a few days at a time. Our old one is heading down to the bible school so they can have lights and the projector on nights that the electric goes out.

Popcorn seasoning: Jake's cousin bought us a ton of popcorn seasoning. Popcorn is probably one of our top snacks here as corn is cheap and abundant. We generally sprinkle sugar or salt on it. Well, life has become a little brighter with the discovery of these little shakers bursting with flavour. I thought ranch was may favourite till we popped open the jalspeño one the other night. Only downside is that we're eating popcorn most nights now!

Flossers: need I say more?!

Cooking supplies: Jake's mum took us Christmas shopping and I picked out nuts and different chocolate chips (toffee, white, dark, light, mint, etc) as my pressie. So nice to be able to make yummy chocolate chip cookies or throw a couple of handfuls into homemade ice-cream. Also lovely to have almonds to toss on top of our salads or into our granola. 

Grinder and sausage stuffer: this was donated by our butcher friends along with lots of other butchering supplies. We plan to open up a butchers by the summer as another WON business to provide steady jobs and bring in extra income for the orphanage. Of course we wanted to test out the new grinder and sausage stuffer before we train someone on them. The grinder was so quiet and fast (15lb a minute!) and the sausage stuffer made the whole process incredibly quick. I think back to 4 years ago when we did 80lb of sausage meat by a hand grinder, now that was a workout! 

Handing out clothes at HHCH

Since the container came in, we have been sorting and boxing up all the clothes that we're donated for the orphanage. It has been quite the project, let me tell you! Last week I went through all the older girls closets at HHCH, took away things that were spoiled, passed garments down, and give out new clothes. It was a lot of fun, girls sure do love clothes! This afternoon I finally got a chance to sit down with the boys and go through their clothes. It was a different story with the boys, they weren't quite so willing to give up their old-stained-tight-clothes, but they were excited to get some new duds too. 

Godwill looking smart in his new church clothes

Nestor's muscle shirt. This was a big hit!

So what are we doing with all the stained, stretched out, old clothes you ask? Well, I am making my first rag rug with them! I youtubed it and am on my way to a beautiful rug. Once I have mastered it (or at least can make it look like something that resembles a rug) I plan on teaching the technique to the girls. It will be a good skill for them to know, it will give the orphanage some floor coverings, and who knows, maybe we could sell some to generate some extra income for the Children's Home. I'm thinking a rug made from scarps of African material would be pretty awesome!

Blessings and Aruna were also busy this afternoon, they got a fence up around the new tomato garden that has been put in the front. The guard dog, Samson, loves to lay in the cool soil so a fence was in order. Jake got them started and told them he would be back in an hour or two to help but by the time he returned they were all finished. 

Looking good!

Sweet Farawa!

Tahirih and Blessed

Godwill ready to work on the farm!

Jake literally being "petted"

Audrey

Meet Audrey, a young lady that is volunteering with Win Our Nations Cameroon for six months. When we were back in the States we got an email from her explaining that she had seen our website and that she was interested in coming to Africa to help. She is a friend of a friend; that is how she initially heard about us. Audrey had a bunch of confirmations about coming to Cameroon and one of the biggest ones was when she went to meet the missions director of her church to discuss her trip. Audrey found out that we were good friends with the director. In fact, she was a leader on a mission trip that Jake took to England back in '96. It sure is a small world! As we could not get the same exact flight on the way back to Cameroon in December, we met up with Audrey at Brussels Airport for a few brief minutes before we were herded into different parts of the plane. Then we were reunited on African soil about nine hours later. 

Audrey has been such a blessing to have here. She is a preschool teacher by profession so she is great with kids. Everyone at the orphanage absolutely adores her. She is such a hard worker and I don't think I have heard her complain once (being a farm girl really helps!). It is a blessing to have an extra pair of hands around the house, she helps out a ton with our brood (particulary Jude's preschool). I do feel sorry for her sometimes as Jude and Jordan are constantly at her door when she is in her room. 

At the orphanage, Audrey is tutoring three specific children that are struggling in school. She is also doing some preschool with Blessed and Godwill, our two youngest. The girls at HHCH have LOVED the sleepovers that Audrey's had there. She is also helping out at the youth group at church and has even had the opportunity to assist another missionary family with their kids for a week in a village. She is willing to try anything!  

And above I appreciate the spiritual maturity of this young lady, she has a real deep and intimate relationship with Jesus. She has been fearless in her street evangelism and the love of the Lord shines out of her. She has already hit the half way mark which is hard to believe as it feels like we just got back and are still settling in. We are planning on spending a few days at the beach before she flies out on the first of June. 

You can check out her blog below:

http://www.audreyincameroon.blogspot.com

Out in a village

Helping out with my christmas cookies that go out to our neighbors.

Audrey was also a massive blessing when the container came in. She pretty much solely sorted the hundreds of books that were donated; whether they went to the orphanage, bible school, church, etc. She organized most of the clothes too. I would have to tell her to go to bed at a 11pm at night!

So, having said all that, we are ALWAYS looking for more volunteers/interns... whether for a month or a year. There is never a lull in work here and we can always find you something to do. 

New Library Books!

The last few weeks have been super busy as we just finished our missionary home schooling co-op, Sonlight Christian Academy. It was an awesome two weeks where about 7 missionaries families came from all over Cameroon to the Baptist Center here in town, and us parents taught the kids different subjects. I had the privilege of teaching LA to the 3rd and 4th graders, helping out in music class, and instructing the dolphin swimming class (I got a lovely tan!). As always the kids had a fantastic time hanging out with all their friends and having someone else other than "boring ol' Mum" teaching them. It was also very tiring as we are out the door at 7:30am and not back till 5:30 most nights (I was hitting the sack at about 8:30pm). So it is nice to be back to normal schedule again. Pictures will be coming soon. 

Today I finally got the chance to take down the hundreds of children's books that were donated to the orphanage while we were back in the States. It was a lot of fun to sort through them all and then get them up on the shelves. Of course the kids were very happy to have some fresh reading material and library time went extra long today. 

We filled almost another whole shelf up today. A massive thanks to everyone that donated books! And this isn't all of them, I pulled some of the bible story ones out to use at our church for kid's club. 

All these books have been donated over the years. I'm thrilled that even outside kids are now coming in and borrowing them. In a culture where reading it not a normal pastime, it is great to see kids excited about books.

Library time comes right after out weekly kid's club at the orphanage. Karen Jackson, a Wycliffe missionary in town, has been helping out with the younger class. She brings lots of children from her neighbourhood, it is great to see HHCH so full. 

We have been working on the rubbish system at the Children's Home. When we left in June there was a massive hole in the back yard that had been dug to throw trash into. When we got back it was more than overflowing. There is a truck that comes around once a week to pick up trash but you have to be at the  side of the road as it passes to hand them your rubbish. So it is not the most reliable system, but at least there is something. But now we have a three bucket system; compost, scraps for the chickens, and fire. It has taken a bit to drill it into everyone but it seems that it is finally working and the kids are sorting their rubbish accordingly. The compost is overflowing and giving us plenty of good, rich soil to add to our farms.

A few weeks back we turned all the compost of the last 6 months.

32 bags in all!

We trying something new, using inside-out tires as planters for herbs and spices

Today we have a bunch of tomato plants, garlic, leaks, and onions sprouting. Looking forward to our first harvest!