From the Rain Forest

Well, I'm writing from the bush… Jake is heading into a town tomorrow to get building supplies and should be able to send out emails so hopefully this will get posted. We've been out here three days and we're having a great time. The team is really great and extremely hard workers… they've already got all the land cleared for the Clinic site so I think they'll get lots done. It is sooooo beautiful out here, butterflies everywhere; we have seen tons of hornbills, African gray parrots, and even monkeys swinging in the trees.  There are also LOTS of bugs, but we haven't got bitten too badly yet. Seth did get stung by a hairy caterpillar twice yesterday but he's fine, I don't think he will touch them again now. The boys are having a great time running around all over the place. They've also been playing in the sand pile for blocks with all the village kids. I don't think some of them have ever done it before but they are really enjoying it!

We walk 4 miles to church this morning, it was a great service, really African, women yelling and people dancing, only drums and shakers for instruments, it was a lot of fun, very different from  the city. We'll have a 5 mile walk next week to another churchJ. Well, need to end before the battery dies, I'll write more if I get the chance.

---

Get a sneak peak of the all-new AOL.com.

Josh was in one of our friends wedding yesterday. Traditionally here they have a “petit” groom and a “petite” bride, who walk down the aisle first. Josh was the groom and his friend Leslie from church was the bride. It was a really beautiful and big wedding. Since it was on the 7/7/07, they had seven bridesmaids, seven groomsmen, seven page boys and seven flower girls! The newlyweds will be staying in our house while we’re out in the East for the rest of this month. Neither of them like dogs very much so hopefully everything is going to go alright with our 2 while we’re gone.

Not sure if I will get to blog again until we come back on August 4^th, sure I’ll have lots to talk about then!

smelly fish...

Today I had the privilege to speak at a regional children's workers retreat. My topic was using visual aids for teaching, which is definitely not a common practice in Cameroon. Most people just teach the kids, with nothing to show them or keep their interest. Teachers use the excuse that they can't get resources in Cameroon, which is partly true. So I taught on things that we can use here to help teach and make the Bible come alive for the kids, particularly homing in on the 5 senses:- bread and Fish for story of five loves and fish, perfume for lady that washed Jesus feet, sand for foolish builder etc. I think it went really well, at the end I taught the story of Jonah in three different ways, the first by pictures, next by acting it out from a Ninevehite's point of view and lastly I got the "Kids" (or in this case, volunteers) to act it out. I had a bunch of props such as a fan and squirted them with water (on the boat in a storm), bubbles for being under the water, and a blanket to put them under with a can of smelly sardines to feel like being in the belly of the fish. Everyone was cracking up, it was a lot of fun and I think I got the point across. Anyway, please pray that this will impact the children teachers in our region and that it will make a difference in their lessons.

Spraying my volunteers :)

Camping

We slept outside in our yard last night in our new tent (we bought it off some other missionaries). This was all in preparation for the team that's coming this summer. They'll be building a clinic out in the East and we'll all be sleeping out there in tents. We thought we'd better check the tent out and the boys have been longing to sleep in it. It's such a nice tent, for some reason I am soooo thrilled we have one of our very own (I've never had a tent before:).

The team that is coming is a Team Missions team, Jake and I went on a lot of these teams when we were teenagers. When I laid in the tent last night, smelling the bug spray and that nylony-tenty smell, I got that TMI feeling. For those of you who haven't been on a TMI team you have no idea what I'm writing about, but for those who have, you know exactly what I mean. Anyway, all went well until just after 4 in the morning, we were woke up by our rooster cock-a-doo-dal-dooling. It's not usually loud when we're in the house but it was extremly loud outside, I think he was right outside out tent too:). Anyway, I'm a bit tired this morning…. at least our rooster won't be out in the East with us. I'm really looking forward to the summer, it's going to be a great time. The team arrives on July 9^th and we head to the East super early on the 11^th. We'll be back around August 6^th.

Everything works together...

Last week Jake got in a "fender bender" (not an unusual occurrence in Cameroon) and our light got busted. He went to a few shops to try and find a replacement. On the side of the truck we have a Bread For Life sign. One of the shopkeepers was saying he wants some bread, it was a great opportunity for Jake to witness to him. He also invited him to church.  Well, on Sunday he showed up for the service and seemed to really enjoy so we'll see if he comes again. Jake's going to go and try and see him again this week too. I was a bit upset when Jake told me about the accident but God turned it around…"Everything works together for good for them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."

Jake had a carwash outreach with his youth group this week. They were providing free car washes in the center of town and handing out invitations to the church. They had over 20 youth show up to help and washed  over 40 cars. The youth had a great time and said they'd never done anything like that before. They had many opportunities to share the gospel with different people. Jake compiled a little video of it, so check it out in our Ski videos link.

---

See what's free at AOL.com.

End of the Spear

Got the chance to see the film "End of the Spear" the other day. Really enjoyed it, great movie, an amazing story. Got me really interested in the Elliot's life and wanted to know how accurate the movie was. Manage to find "Shadow of the Almighty" by Elizabeth Elliot at the Wycliff Children's library. Only about half way thru it and enjoying it immensely! It's basically a compilation of Jim's letter and journal entries. He really was a man that was seeking and following the Lord with all his heart. It's been challenging me to spend more time in prayer and reading my Bible: he studied the Word, morning, noon and night, and always looked for an opportunity to share Christ wherever he went. One sentence in his journal really cut me to the heart. After speaking in four services and a radio program one Sunday, he came home exhausted and wrote "What glory to be weary for the work of the Kingdom!" Weekends for us are usually super busy, with youth group, monthly leaders and children workers meetings, different outreaches, two church services (sometimes I teach children in both), visits to the orphanages, etc. By Sunday evening I'm normally wiped out.  There's been times that I've complain but I will try hard to not to since reading what Jim wrote, it truly is a privilege and glory to be about the Fathers work!

---

See what's free at AOL.com.

What an EGGcellent day!

Came home from church this afternoon and found our first egg! We got the chickens a few weeks back and have been waiting and waiting for her to lay and at last we got one! The boys were so excited! Josh is a bit upset that we are going to eat it though... he wants to keep it :)

Songs of Forgivness

Spent the afternoon at two orphanages today. A few weeks back, in a sort of contest, we encouraged the kids to make a song out of Lord's prayer and the two verses that follow it (For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins). It's all in the theme of "To Love is to Forgive" and they will be singing them at the "Day of the African Child" celebration this Saturday. So today, we listened to some of them and they are great! One is about 5 minutes long with a chorus and even an instrumental (they actually used they voices for this but assured us they would have a Keyboard for Saturday:). Another boy had made a rap! It is good to see them exercising their creative sides. Really looking forward to this weekend, it's going to be a lot of fun. Been working on decorations for the event all week too, finally found some crepe paper after searching in a million different shops, PTL, now all I need is some balloons...

Asked about Anna and the director didn't have a address or phone number of where she has gone to. He said I might be able to get it from Social Services though.... we'll see, think I'll just leave it in Lord's hands and see if our paths cross again.

The picture below is of some on the kids singing (Josh and Seth gave out stickers that they all seem to want to stick on their foreheads :P )

Just heard that Anna's parents came for her and her brother at the orphanage. It is great news but I'm kinda sad I didn't get to say goodbye. I'm not sure if she has gone back to the village or a town about 2 hours away as the details were a little sketchy, I will find out for sure next time I go see the other kids. Hopefully I can go and visit her sometime.

Some other encouraging news: The church that we work with, Yaounde International Chapel, has the vision to reach leaders of the country. We helped start it 2 years ago (Jake is youth leader and I'm children's director) and it's been going very well since then with about 300 people coming. When the church began we wrote letters and visit different leaders and invited them to the church. Anyway, the pastor told us the other day that the Secretary General of Cameroon had texted him saying that he had come to the church and wanted to meet with the Pastors. No one had recognized him when he came but it is great that he seems interested. So please keep him in your prayers. Most officials and leaders of Cameroon only go to very traditional churches, if at all, so it encouraging that we're seeing a breakthrough in that area.

3 YEARS!!!

Wow, I just realized we passed our three year mark being here.... I think we came here on the 28th or 29th of May, 2004 (I should keep better records :). Time sure has flown by, it is hard to believe how quickly it has gone. God has provided for our every need since we took the step if faith of selling our house, leaving Jake's stable income, and coming out here, it truly is amazing! What an awesome Saviour we serve! We feel this is where God wants us to be so we have no plans of heading home for now.

I also just finished by first year of home schooling Josh on Friday (wooohooo, clap for me!). I was pretty nervous when I started but I think it went really well, if I do say so myself. Josh is reading well, and enjoys school which is a plus :). I was so blessed to have some other missionary-home-schooling-mums around to help and encourage. The Lord knew exactly what I needed!