Harmony

I like to think this says something good about us as people, and as pet owners.  Our dog, cat and bunny enjoy each other.  Or at least can stand each other.  The cat thinks the bunny is fascinating, and often tries to eat the same vegetarian diet, but just doesn't get it.  The bunny loves hopping around and over the dog, often stopping to nap on the dogs neck.  And the dog and cat, I've just noticed the game that they play every day.  The cat's version of it is "Try to get past the dog and into the school room to nap while the kids are doing school."  The dog's version is, "Can't let that cat in again today,"  but they aren't ever mean to each other. 

Day of Worship

Half way through our retreat at Breath , we had the opportunity to hike in the mountains above Grindelwald, right across from the Jungfrau. We took a cable car up quite a ways, then got out and hiked to two lakes, where we had a picnic lunch with our group. We were in awe of God's awesome creation, and we kept "wow"ing the view.

We had the option of going further, to the top of these hills, but we weren't sure our kids would hold up. We seriously hiked well over 5 miles and weren't sure how much more the kids could handle. Still, we were so close to snow. So close. The kids agreed that they wanted to try to make it to where they could touch the snow, since we haven't seen snow for a couple years. In this picutre, Nathan is pointing to the first snow spot where we trekked.

We threw a few snowballs, slid down the snowbank (by a surprising accident at first, but then for fun), froze our fingers numb, and packed a bag of snow to take back down the mountain to show those who didn't quite make it as far as we did.

The farther we hiked up the hills, the bigger the mountains across from us seemed to grow. It was simply breath taking (and not just because the air was getting thinner). We kept reminding the kids that this would probably be a once in a lifetime opportunity. They enjoyed every minute of it. The boys loved straying off the trail and walking the crest of the hills. We praise God for this awesome time we had together as a family. Our awe and gratitude was a true expression of worship to our mighty, loving Creator.

Breathing

I'm waiting for the words to come, to describe our time here in Switzerland. Hopefully I'll be able to more clearly communicate in my next post. It's easy to worship amidst the beauty of God's creation.

Get Well, Asher

This picture is from last week, the first day we realized Asher was sick. The kids were driving me crazy inside the house, so I announced that it was time for them all to go outside and play for a while. About a half hour later, I looked out into our veranda and saw Asher sound asleep on top of a trunk. He was wearing a dress up shirt from Brianna. When I snapped the picture, he opened his eyes and said, "What? You told me I couldn't stay inside but I was really tired."

We treated him for malaria starting on Saturday. He doesn't have the high fevers anymore, but he is still looking pale and has little energy. We are giving him vitamins and "reconstituant du sang" (I think it's basically iron) to build him back up. We are still waiting for lab results from Tuesday when we took him to the clinic, hopefully we'll hear this afternoon.

We are leaving on Tuesday for Switzerland for two weeks. Pray that whatever this is clears up before then.

New Quilts

Yes, sometimes we actually need quilts here. It can get cool at night (in the 60s...but that's cool when it reaches 90 during the day).

The boys were so excited to have new quilts. We ordered them from a Cameroonian lady in Mbingo. The colors are a little brighter than I imagined, but they turned out great. Now we're going to pick out fabric and colors for Nandry.

Anyone want to place an order? And then you could come visit us when you pick them up!

Isaiah 53:5

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."

Tiny

Jenn, our our teammate who is a nurse, brought home a baby yesterday from a Baka village called Lousu. The mother died about 2-3 weeks ago, and the baby is maybe a month old. The family doesn't really have the means to take care of the baby to bring her back to health. They are basically waiting for her to die. Jenn decided (after much prayer) to bring the baby back here for a week and see what some milk, vitamins, TLC and prayer can do. Nandry and I watched this teeny little girl today for a few hours. She weights under 3 1/2 pounds and is all skin and bones. Can you imagine?

Pray for wisdom and peace for Jenn as she makes decisions and takes care of this baby. Pray for the baby, that God will use this little life to bring Himself glory.

Sending off...

On Wed, May 30th, we sent off three Baka guys on an evangelistic trip to a village called Nkolbikon. Their names are Samba, Nestor and Philip. Samba & Nestor are very strong in the Lord and have shown a desire to serve Him for a long time. Philip is Samba's nephew and is still maturing, though does show signs of desire to serve God. We were thrilled to see them go on their own to do God's work. I've been talking to these guys for quite a while about my dream of seeing them and many others taking God's Word to other camps which have never heard. I've often explained to them that we (the missionaries) cannot do this work alone - and that, in fact, they can do it better than us. They know their own language and culture far better than we will ever know them. With the strength of the Holy Spirit, they can do mighty things for God.

About two months ago they came to me to tell me that they were ready to start going to other camps. I asked them if they wanted to go by themselves or for us all to go together. They said, "You can come if you want." :-) The one thing they asked for was a couple of bicycles to ride to the camps. Samba has partially crippled legs. He can walk but long distances are difficult for him. Nestor said, "Even if you could just get one, for samba, I could walk." I explained that if we got bikes, they would only be fore ministry trips - not just to ride to town whenever, or they would get messed up too quickly. I also explained that since they would be for mission trips, they wuold be available to any Baka evangelist who was ready to go share at a distant village - not just for them (Samba & Nestor). They readily agreed.

I was able to purchase three bikes a few weeks ago. This was their first time to go out without me or my teammate, Barry, to help. The plan was for them to share a Bible story on Wednesday and Thursday nights with me showing up on Friday. Then we would share together Friday and Saturday nights. Things went really well and we left a SABER digital audio player, with all the Bible stories on it, for the village to continue to listen in between our trips out there. Samba and Nestor's plan is to head to another village called Nkoumajop in two weeks to start haring the stories there. We have yet to share any stories there. I told them that they were going to do this one wihtout me. They've told me that htey want to continue to visit Nkolbikon and Nkoumajop once-a-month, alternating every two weeks between the two, continuing to share the rest of the Bible stories. This is a good beginning to the church multiplication that we have envisioned since day one. Please pray for Samba and Nestor and for God to raise up others like them, to take His truth to ALL the Baka people.

Note: Used bikes are expensive here. We payed $110 each, and still had to do some work to repair them. If you desire to support this project and help pay for one of these or others in the future - please contact us.

- Nathan

Happy Birthday! Yee haw!

We celebrated Asher's 7th birthday yesterday with a team party. His actually birthday is today, the 28th. Asher wanted a cowboy and indian party...so we did the best we could with not much time to plan.

We had a shooting competition with nerf guns. Brianna, Nathan and Vicky (the intern from Quebec) won for being the sharpest shooters of the bunch.

Asher shared his party with Heidi, our agricultural specialist. Her birthday is on the 30th, but we thought we'd lasso two horses with one rope...and some of our team wasn't going to be around or the actual birthdays.

The cake turned out extremely well, though going into it I was sure it would be a disaster. I made a marshmallow frosting, a recipe I'd never used before but it turned out great and spread wonderfully over the cake.

We surprised Heidi as well with a little cake with a Mountie on it, which we created by modifying one of Asher's cowboy figures. When one of the kids asked what a Mountie was, I answered, "It's almost Canadian for 'cowboy', eh?" We even played pin the hat on the Mountie, since we currently have 3 Canadians on our team.

Eating the cake (and home made ice cream) was the highlight for Asher. Nathan serenaded us afterwards with a rendition of The Old Chisholm Trail on his guitar. Singin' ki yi yippi yippi yay!

Most Creative Crazy Hat

Asher got a prize on Crazy Hat Day during our last week of our SCA home school session in Bamenda. I call the hat "Motivation By Mars". The judges were two random french guys, who stayed at the Baptist Rest House and had breakfast with our group in the morning. Lucky them! Nandry also got a prize for messiest hat, she taped strips of paper and such all over her cap. The french guys though it was funny.

Crazy Hair Day

We are having a great time in Bamenda for our two week school session with other families in the Sonlight Christian Acadamy program. Last week we had Crazy Hair Day, and all the kids had some really cool doos. Though, I'm partial to our kids...here are some pics.

Nandry got a prize for the most Sci-fi with two flash sticks in her hair.

Boaz got a prize for the tallest hair (which was before the judges noticed it also spelled out his name).

And Asher was our jumper cable man. All the electricity coming out of his body is enough to get your motor going.

Tomorrow is Crazy Hat Day. I think Nandry has already created a hat, I'm not sure what we'll do for the boys.

My Arms Are Stronger

1 foam mattress

1 sleeping bag

1 travel pillow

4 sheets
5 blankets
1 pair of pj's


This was the pile of laundry that I washed and wrung out by hand one morning while we were in Moloundou. These had to be soaked in buckets and scrubbed with a brush on a concrete slab. How did all of this get dirty? It happened in the middle of the night. Boaz was sick and was having belly issues. He threw up during the day and was having the runs. So, that night when we put Boaz to bed in our tent, we made sure a bucket was right next to him. The kids were sleeping so their heads were towards the side of the tent and their feet met in the middle, right next to where I was sleeping. I piled 2 extra blankets in the middle of the tent, by their feet in case anyone got cold in the middle of the night I could easily throw another blanket on top of them. Well, around midnight Nandry was standing over me saying, "I need to throw up!!" In an instant I dove across the tent to the bucket that was near Boaz' head...but didn't make it back in time. Nandry threw up right in the middle of our tent. Right where all of our bedding met, right where I piled those extra blankets, right where Boaz and Asher's feet and legs were.

Nathan took Nandry outside to clean her up and wash her hair out. I sat there in the tent just staring at the mess, making sure the boys didn't roll over and get more of it on themselves (they were both sound asleep, thankfully). As I sat there, I realize that was the most strategic place Nandry could have thrown up, to make sure everything had to be washed. Amazing! I was taking a count of the things that didn't need washed and that included 1 sheet, 1 blanket, 1 small blanket, and thankfully 4 travel pillows and 2 foam mattresses.

After getting it all cleaned up, with the rest of our team asleep, or pretending/wishing they were asleep right next door in their tents, we piled all of the bedding up outside on the porch of the directors house and went in to their guest room which was off the side of their house. One of our teammates let us borrow an extra blanket, and we took our still clean pillows, (1 1/2) blankets and sheet. The guest room had a full size bed with a foam mattress on it, so we put down a sheet and the boys and I slept sideways on it, with my legs hanging over the bed. Nathan and Nandry slept on the borrowed blanket on the tiny space left in the room on the concrete floor (it was a very small room). Fortunately, once the door and window were shut, the room kept cozy warm and we didn't need any covers, and actually had to open the window a few times to let some air in.

Also in the middle of the night, maybe around 2am, the rest of our team was driven out of their tents by an ant invasion...they fled to the Abbott's car but after the horn got beeped in the scramble, they ended up invited to sleep on the living room floor of the director's house.

Then...after all the wash was done, and hung up to dry, guess what happened. It rained, though it was dry season and 3 weeks early for the rains to start. So the picture up above is actually all the bedding that I washed, hung up, then took down and piled on the porch while we waited for the rainstorm to pass.

Did I mention that our 3 kids weren't the only ones sick and throwing up? Add in the Abbott's 2 kids and a couple of us adults and there you have it. Fun trip, though some of it we definitely wouldn't want to repeat.

Want to Hear About Our Trip to Moloundou?

Moloundou, is 2 days away from where we are currently (more about the roads later).

What's in Moloundou? electricity (sometimes), running water (during certian hours of the day), people speaking Baka in the market (where vegetables are scarce), no fuel stations, at least one restaurant, a couple of churches, friendly people and not so friendly people, and a Baka Bible Institute.

Our team traveled down to Moloundou to visit the Bible School, and encourage and be encouraged by the believers there. Few ministries to the Baka are done in their own language. Usually it's done in French, often translated into Baka. We felt privilidged to bring everything we brought, from Bible teaching, lessons on Bible storying, to agriculture and health topics, all in the Baka language!

We camped outside of the director of the school's house, and ate most of our meals with his family. His name is Wanko, Jean-Pierre. He is not Baka and not originally from the area but is excited to encourage the Baka and teach them the Bible. We were excited to hear about how God is working. We were also able to share and compare difficulties of ministry to the Baka as a unique people group.

We had 3 days where the program was turned over to our team. The school consists of 9 Baka men, some of them with families, some of them single. These men are from all over the southern forest region. They have shown a desire to follow Jesus and want further training.

Barry, using a Saber Digital Player loaded with Baka Bible Stories, taught about Oral Bible Storying as a way to take the message of the Bible back to their villages.

Jennifer spent time with the Baka wives and kids, surveying them to find out more information on their medical knowledge and their needs.

Heidi brought some fruit trees from her nursery and gave them to the school. She also spent time gathering information from the students on what the biggest needs are in their communities.

Stay tuned to hear about our truck and tummy troubles, our Sunday service at Mbangoye, camping at Lobeke forest and other interesting adventures of the Baka team!

Agreed?

Any one else see the resemblance?

More Traveling Pics

I always like to travel with the camera handy, you never know when there will be a perfect photo op.
Seems kind of randomly packed. Oh, and I JUST noticed what it says on the bumper (time will tell)!!!

This seriously made me gag. The whole back seat and trunk loaded with slaughtered cow parts. There were 3 or 4 guys in the front seat. I don't know how they could stand the smell!

Visitors!

We had an amazing time hosting Kevin & Lainie McWilliams from Columbia, SC here in Cameroon for 2 weeks. Kevin, one of our CIU professors, came over to speak for our annual CMF conference in Bamenda. It was SO GOOD to catch up with them and share our lives in Africa with them. After the conference we headed out to the beach for a few days to relax before they flew home.

Lainie and Nandry had a tea party out in the ocean, in the waves. Thanks Kevin & Lainie for blessing and encouraging our family with your love!

Joko be a Yesua = Good Jesus party!

Christmas party at Mayos, our village. A bunch of pics...a few words. Go ahead and ask questions.


Games, balloons and a water balloon fight

Family photos

Face painting

Singing and Likano (Baka style story) of Jesus' birth

Sizing for flipflops for all the kids

Giving gifts of rice and groundnuts.

Our hearts were full of joy as we celebrated Christmas with our village. We are praying that this year, in 2011 many will have a full and clear understand of Christ's love for them.

Lala's Deli

I guess this isn't really that exciting, but it was a highlight for us. Whenever we make a trip to the city, we splurge on some things we don't normally have, like sliced ham and cheese. Add it all on a huge loaf of bread (it was originally 3 1/2 feet long), with some mayo, italian seasonings, tomato, lettuce and pickle...and for the gluten free version, try it with rice cakes.