Last Day With Our Team

We just had a sweet time with all of us together, reminiscing about our time here up in Ndu. We took turns telling a high and a low from our time and giving words of encouragement. It's always fun to see how God brings people together on mission trips. You spend day in and day out with people who you aren't normally used to being around, and in our case people have to spend time with my whole family. I feel our team was very united and that is a result of many prayers. I was in tears earlier today as I thought of what a blessing it has been to be with these other women and how much I will miss them.

Tomorrow we will move out of this home and into our little yellow house. It will be a much quieter evening without the laughter of having 9 people in one house going a little loopy. This has been such a nice place to stay, but during supper I went into the kitchen and a mouse ran across my slipper. I was very calm about it because it happened so fast I think I was in shock. So now I'm thankful to be moving to a kitchen with a cock roach and away from my kitchen with a mouse. I will miss all the cupboard space.

Pray for our team as they travel that rough road back to Bamenda and then on to Yaounde' the following day. Pray for us also as we transition into serving for the next 2 months without the support of a team. We have met the other missionaries and they are so supportive in helping me to understand all the ways of Cameroon.

Today our friends the Schroth family bought a chicken and had it slaughtered. Levi and Kyle were so excited to watch the action, they even took my camera to record it. I arrived shortly after the chickens neck was sliced and Levi was close to tears. He has a very tender heart and it was just too much for him. I think he also felt some empathy since it wasn't that long ago that his own neck had been sliced open and it brought back bad memories. Even tonight when we were doing our "High and Low" game he couldn't mention the chicken experience.

I'm so thankful for this experience, even if some of my blogs may sound like I am complaining. In truth, I have many emotions that go through me as I am experiencing life in Ndu, my blog is just my place to process the good and the bad. I will not sugar coat it and make you think it is "easy" - I think everything is harder here. I would love a hot shower, but for now I am thankful for my Norwex cloths. You get so dirty here even if you try to stay clean. Be thankful for the cold snow in MN... that is if you have any yet.

African Church

We went to an African church this morning.  There are several within walking distance of us but we chose this one because they gave the sermon in English (sort of) and their services are only 2 - 3 hours long (which is short in this area of the World).   We joined some other English speaking white people and the 20 of us looked a bit like a parade heading down the path to church.  The walk was very dusty and I ended up slipping on a steep part of the path.  The dust is a lot like baking cocoa in its consistency so it puffs up with each step you take, blowing back on anyone walking behind you.   We left our house at 9am knowing the service was scheduled to begin at 9am.  We figured that we would arrive just in time after our 10 minute walk there, however we arrived just after Sunday School started (which usually starts at 8am).  The church building is much like a big pole barn with simple hard wooden boards with backs for pews.  There are 4 - 5 different adult classes going on at one time in this big open room making it very difficult to concentrate.  We chose the class lead by the Pastor because it was partly in English.  The gist of the class was that there is more to our salvation then having faith in Jesus, it needs to show itself in our actions.  Before we knew it the church was filling up and church was beginning.   The Pastor spoke in English, Pidgeon and Limbum, making it hard to follow but still interesting.  He spoke on having God as our friend, using the account of Abraham from the Bible.  He was very thorough about the responsibility we have to call God our friend.  The concept of this is different in this culture because people are not generally friends with people who are higher or lower than them in their "class".  Obviously no one is in the same class as God and yet He says we can be His friend.    The music was fun - they sing out the verses first and then the congregation sings back.  At the end everyone dances, walks to the front to give their offering and then farmers bring their crops to the front as their gifts and offerings.  The service ends as they auction off the food from the front of the church.   Cool experience!

The rest of our day was very relaxing.  We got to go to the Rundus family's house for fresh roasted coffee.  There are 3 other missionary families that work at the Seminary full time from America- one of them is from Minneapolis (Bethleham Baptist - North Campus).  There is also a family from Canada with boys my sons ages who are here until the end of February.  It was fun to meet all of them and see how we can encourage them.  Our hope is to come alongside them in whatever way God shows us.

Pray for our team as people are wrestling through the emotions of not being able to do enough for all the needs that are here.

We Made It!

Thursday morning at 445am our family walked out our front door on the way to the airport.  Arriving at MSP airport, we were met by a stubborn UA employee who did not want to even consider that she could be wrong and we might actually be allowed 2 bags each.  I asked for a manager but she was the manager, so I paid the $350 and we were on our way.  I offered to pray for her because it seemed she was having a rough day but she refused.  We did talk to the travel agent and they are taking care of the bill problem, since it was booked under a special code for a contract with Wycliffe Associates.  We then flew to Chicago O'Hare airport, where the most exciting thing was their cool toilets.  You wave your hand over the back of the toilet and it automatically puts a clean plastic sheet around the toilet lid - awesome!  After hanging out there for a few hours we hopped on a plane to Newark, NJ - this is where my immediate family met 4 other girls from our team.  One of the ladies asked Levi how he liked his first time flying and he replied "It was pretty good, except I would have liked more leg room."  We thought that was pretty funny since he is only 4' 11''!  On this flight I sat by a woman who I thought looked familiar.  After talking a bit, I found out she is a missionary with Wycliffe in Papau New Guinea.  I felt like this was a divine appointment and peppered her with questions about the mission field.  I wanted to know how she KNEW that this is what she was called to do.  We had a great time and it turned out that I had seen her on one of the training sites for Wycliffe that I had been looking at in preparation for our trip.   Finally after flying all night, and watching free movies and getting lots of food (highlights for the kids) in a really nice plane we arrived in Brussels Belgium where we connected with the rest of our team (7 more members).  Everyone was pretty beat at that point so the layover was spent just hanging out with people napping in all kinds of places.  The last leg of our trip brought us to Yaounde', Cameroon where we arrived in time for a late supper here on Friday evening at the Wycliffe training sight.  There were a few other people we met along the way who are also making their way to Cameroon to do different missions work.  It has been a long day and I am beat - just thought I would update everyone that we are all okay.  EVERY SINGLE piece of luggage made it here!!! Praise God - My family alone had 20 pieces.  We have so many tools and gifts for people that couldn't be replaced - we couldn't be happier.  The kids enjoyed traveling... the rest of us endured it.  Tomorrow morning we have an orientation and can spend the day hanging out here in Yaounde' before we leave to go to Ndu.  That will be another adventure since it takes 2 days to drive there:)  We were surprised to be met at the airport by our friends Shelley and Gaston Kingue and their boys - they have been in another country in Africa and we did not think we would get to see them.  Everyone seems to be in good spirits.  I will be feeling better once I have my luggage repacked.  We mixed up everything just in case all the luggage didn't make it, then we would at least have something for all of us.  Now I just want to have all my things in one place.  You should have seen our van loaded with all our bags - Crazy!

Perfect fit for Drew

Going on a missions trip is always a lesson in flexibility.  You may go into it thinking you have an idea of what you will be doing and it won't look anything at all like you imagined.  That is part of the excitement of it all.  I'm a planner so this is not easy for me.  It's interesting because you send your information out of all your skills and talents and then you wait.  Every now and then I get an email that lets me know that they are working on what we will be doing and give me just a hint of what is to come.  Drives me crazy as I try to read  between every line to see if I can eek out just a tiny bit of  information that isn't being said.  In the end, I'm left trusting the people in charge - most whom I have never met.


As the days get closer to our departure I have had to ask a few questions about the plans for our family.  A little over a week ago, we still needed about $3000 in our account.  This was a lot of money to have to take out of our savings.  We could do it but it would leave us with very little upon our return.  I emailed to find out more specifically what we would need to pay for housing while in Cameroon.  The email I got back just made me smile at how well God takes care of us.  Found out the housing where we are going (Ndu) is half of what we were thinking.  That was a savings of $2000!  Shortly after this we were given gifts in person and more deposited into our account.  Financially it is all falling into place - Praise God!


The other cool part of the story is also evidence of God's hand in this whole journey.  Our family has been part of an AWANA program at Faith Baptist church in Minneapolis.  Over the years we have heard about missionaries that they support in Cameroon and their church has also sent short term mission teams to Cameroon.  I was thinking about one family in particular that homeschool their children and work full time as missionaries in Cameroon.  In one of my emails to Wycliffe I asked if we would be able to get gifts to this family from their support church in Minneapolis.  I was informed that we probably wouldn't see them because they lived in the mountains but the gifts could be sent on to them. 


 I guess within an hour from that reply, the person in charge of our assignment received a request from the Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary (CBTS)  in Ndu.  The request was for a job through Wycliffe Associates to do construction work - mainly concrete.  My husband has been finishing concrete for 20 years.  It ends up that this is the same place the missionary family I had just asked about lives and works.  She too saw this as God's hand and forwarded our name on to  Eric Hagman, the Africa Area Director of Wycliffe Associates.  Eric and his wife Tracey were long time members of our home church before moving to Africa, not to mention good friends of ours.  Eric immediately replied that our family would be a perfect fit for the job.  I still don't know what part I will be playing while in Ndu but I'm convinced it will fit me just as well as this job fits Drew.  


This kind of thing makes me so excited.  It's obvious that God cares about the details and was working out the pieces to the puzzle far before I ever even had a thought of actually going to Cameroon.  Now here we are just one month before leaving and a few more pieces are revealed to me.  I have no doubt we are right in the middle of God's plan for us as we prepare to live for 10 weeks in Ndu.

Provision My Way

Yesterday I shared how God has been providing for us in some amazing ways over the years, but more specifically leading up to our trip to Africa.  I am an idea person, so when we first started realizing just how much this trip would cost, my mind started thinking of different ways to make it happen.

Earlier this year "Minute to Win It" was in town looking for people to be on their show.  We don't even watch the show usually because it is on Wednesday nights and we are at AWANA on Wednesday nights.  A few times we have caught the end of the show or watched it on some of the free Wednesday nights we had.  If you have never seen the show, the contestants do all kinds of crazy games/competitions and each time they successfully complete the challenge they move up a level.  Each challenge has a dollar amount and you can win lots and lots of money.  When I heard about the local auditions I shot them an email.  For whatever reason, I got a reply email with an invitation to audition with my family and a VIP pass so we could move to the head of the line.  I was so excited and completely sure that God was going to let us get on the show.  I figured we could give God glory since we had a good reason for wanting the money.  It would also be a quick and easy way to have all the funds we needed and maybe some leftover too.  I liked the idea of an easy solution to our money dilemma.

Things got crazy around here for a while.  We checked out the "Minute to Win It" web site for all the different challenges that had been done.  We set up stations so we could practice all the different games.  I have to admit, I was terrible at all of them.  I was too impatient to bounce a pencil in a cup or get a cookie from my forehead to my mouth.  I wanted to get on the show because it sounded like an easy way to get to Africa but I really didn't want to practice so that I would be ready.  Thankfully, my kids were great at almost every challenge they tried. Although they were having trouble getting a playing card to lodge itself into a watermelon by throwing it from 3 feet away.  I'm still finding cards in random places in my basement.  I was feeling a little nervous because we wanted to be good examples since we were using our money for missions.  All the competition brought out some pretty ugly parts of our character and we hadn't even left our home.  We laughed a lot too as we stacked Oreos on our foreheads and did other crazy stunts.  We put everything else on hold as we worked on our training, not knowing exactly what would be expected of us at the auditions.

The day of the auditions finally arrived and we headed out to the furniture store where auditions were being held.  Our 10 page application was all filled out and we had our matching shirts to boot.  The store was overflowing with people and once inside the door the line of contestant hopefuls wound and wound throughout the store, they would have a long wait ahead of them.  With our pass we awkwardly walked past all these staring eyes to the front of the line.  Everyone else had only one page applications so we felt pretty good about our chances.  The "audition" was over in about 30 seconds and we were walking out the door.  That was very anti-climatic but we were all so thankful that we were not part of the crowd waiting all day in line to have the same experience.We never heard from "Minute to Win It" again.  All that practicing for nothing except to annoy me whenever I find another ping pong ball, or card, or cup with holes in it, in a cupboard or under furniture.  It was kind of a waste of time in the end.

Thinking about that experience showed me just how easy it is to get our eyes off of what God intends for us and that which is fun or will make life easy.  I wanted to "win big" for a good cause but in doing so I would have missed so much.  The people who have been praying for us for months probably wouldn't be, since most of these people knew what we were doing from our support letter.  Our family has been so touched by the sense of community we have had knowing people are investing in us on our journey, both financially and through prayer.  Practicing for "Minute to Win It" would not have prepared us for what we will be doing in Africa.  However, working on remodeling the house that we helped "flip" was great preparation for all of us (since we will be doing construction projects).   We have had lots of opportunity to work together as a team and support one another.  Our character has grown as we have had to work harder than we ever have before and persevere to the end.

"God's ways are higher than our ways" and I've found that to be true.  We are winners!  My faith has grown leaps and bounds this year as I've seen first hand God's faithfulness.  My kids wanted to be on "Minute to Win It" because they have never been on an airplane.  They will get to be on an airplane for a VERY long time and God used our hard work, along with big and small gifts and lots of prayer from our friends.

God's Provision

As we are coming closer to leaving for Africa, I am in awe of how God is providing all that we need.  The idea of having enough money in our bank account to pay all our bills (house,insurance, utilities) while we are away and having enough for 5 of us to travel was overwhelming to say the least.  It was the "mountain" that had to be moved in order for this dream to become a reality.  It was also the sign that we would know this was God giving us these desires, because if He was not behind this trip there would be no way that we could make it happen.  It has been a faith journey from the very beginning, but to be honest, that journey began with our family long before this mission trip.

Back in the late 80's, when my young marriage failed and I found myself parenting alone, I realized I could not make it on my own.  I saw for the first time how my decisions and selfishness had got me to a place that was very hard.  For the first time I really understood my need for a Savior and surrendered my future to my Lord Jesus Christ.  I had a lot to learn along that road (and I am still learning), but it was the best decision I have ever made.  As a single Mom, things were tight even though I had a full time job with good benefits.  One day I was reading in Malachi where God is talking about tithing and it says to "test Me in this".  I had no money and didn't even know how I was going to pay my house payment that month.  I chose to take the Bible at it's word and test God in this area.  I tithed that next paycheck and had a peace and a security that I had not felt before.  In addition to that, God provided in so many amazing ways that my faith was strengthened.  I know some of you will read this and say that Malachi is in the Old Testament so we don't need to follow the idea of tithing the first 10% of your income.  I'm not here to debate, I'm here to tell my story that God has been faithful and my experience is that he really has provided all that I have needed.  As New Testament Christians, I believe that it's all God's money anyway, we should be giving at least 10%.  I did go through a short time when a well meaning Christian advised me that God didn't intend for the poor to have to give back to be provided for.  That time was a time of worry and anxiety and I will not go back to that type of thinking.

When I met Drew, one thing that attracted me to him was his conviction and practice of tithing.  I knew that most marriages struggle because of money issues and this was an important foundation for both of us.  We have been married for over 18 years now and Drew has been in seasonal construction for all of those years.  We have had years of plenty and especially in the past few, years of lean.  God has been our provider through them all.  As long as I have my eyes fixed on Him and not on circumstances, my heart is at peace.  As soon as I take them off my real source of income, I get anxious, worried and filled with doubt.  My friends know that most years as winter approaches I start to get worried and have to remind myself that God has never let us down.

Last year's winter season had Drew feeling very anxious.  The season before his income had dropped quite a bit from previous years and we didn't have as much money in the bank for the long winter as we liked.   This was also right about the time that I brought up our whole family going to Africa.  A couple of things happened that helped calm his nerves, and had nothing to do with us getting more money.  The first was when we started praying for Africa, we were reminded of all the ways God had provided for us in the past.  We also realized how it was out of our control in many ways.  The second was that Drew had a lead part in a musical that the kids were in at the church where they had attended AWANA.  The part was a bit cheesy but most of his lines were directly from scripture.  For an hour most days he would go over and over the lines from this play, which was all about taking our burdens to the "Rock" of our Salvation.  Something about saying these truths out loud day after day, transformed my husband.  The timing of this musical couldn't have been more perfect.

Once we made the decision to move forward with our trip to Africa we still had no idea where the money would come from.  Knowing many of you have hearts for missions, we sent out support letters for those who may want to partner with us on this adventure.  That has been humbling and encouraging to see so many people come up along side us and help make this happen.  We are so thankful for the gifts that have come in.  We have received large sums from anonymous givers and some from names we don't even know, as well as from our friends and family.  The Bible talks about faith without works being dead and we have worked hard this year to do our part.  A friend had been talking for 2 years with Drew about "flipping" a house together but the right house just never came along.  Right in the middle of us trying to find a way to make this work, the perfect house came along that our whole family could work on.  We appreciate the fact that he would take the risk to have us work on this huge investment.  It was hard work but has provided all that we need to pay the bills while we are gone.  Ellie and I have sold Norwex products and cleaned houses together.  The boys have done lawn work and other odd jobs to pitch in for the expenses coming up.  Drew has had many side job opportunities, almost more than he has time in a day to do.  Drew's sister gave us a laptop that we can use to stay in communication while we are away.  It has been so cool for all of us to see God's hand in providing opportunity as well as money for our needs.

My faith has grown so much this year and reading this makes it look as if it all came right when I thought it should.  We have had deadlines along the way for expenses and I don't think we have had enough in our account for any of them.  As each deadline has come (like for airline tickets), we have prayed like crazy for God to show us what to do.  In the end, we felt at peace and went forward with the purchase not knowing if all the funds would be there or not.  Each time at just the right moment (but later than I would have preferred), the money has been there.  I'm embarrassed to say that I still have moments of doubt even after seeing God's hand provide time after time.  I don't want to be so stressed that I can't see where the last money is going to come from, or if we will have enough in our savings for all our bills after paying out what needs to be paid. I feel so unworthy of all these blessings that have been showered down on us.       

I'm amazed at God's patience with me.  Even this weekend as I was once again praying and asking (and even doubting a little), a number of random people came up to us and gave us gifts of $100 each.  I'm like a little child that has to see and touch to believe.  Lord help me in my unbelief as we continue waiting on you!

Wilson

At the bridge

Who is Wilson??

Wilson's Home and Family

In 2005 Marie and I (Drew) went to Kenya on a 2 week short term mission trip to Kenya with Wycliffe Associates.  We went to a property they owned and were turning into a retreat/conference center.  Imagine your church or work is having a weekend retreat and renting the facilities of a YMCA camp or a church camp a little ways out of the city, that kind of place just a short distance outside of Nairobi. Then the facility could be used to generate income instead of just being an expense.  About a 1/4 mile down the road from the compound entrance was a little stream. most of the year cars could drive through it to go to the conference center. During the rainy season however, the stream was too deep, and too wide.  That turned a 1/2 hour trip to and from the city into a much longer trip.  In the African countryside, when the main road is shut down, finding another route is a little more involved than just going the other way around the block.  Not good for a retreat center business.

Having a background in concrete,  I was assigned to work on the little bridge.  They had hired a number of local men from a small nearby village to accomplish a lot of the construction that had been going on and the guys were mostly working on the bridge at this point because it was the most labor intensive thing happening. These guys had done an amazing job of hand hewing rock faced block out of small boulders(with hammers and chisels) and building some beautiful dorm buildings. Apparently however, no one had formed concrete up in the air. (Except the regional construction manger who had an engineering degree - but not the time to stay on one project.)  It's one thing to stake some 2" X 4"s into the ground and pour a sidewalk.  The wall that is behind Wilson and I in the "At the Bridge" picture however, would weigh about as much as 8 or 9 Chevy Suburbans.  To hold this much weight up in the air, you need to know what you're doing. Especially when the materials you're working with are what we would have used in America about 100 yrs ago.  The trip planners were happy "a concrete guy"  was on the trip that could form the first vertical wall and hopefully teach some one else to continue after the team left.

Last Day

Now we get to Wilson. Wilson(first name) was one of local guys working at the compound.  We met the the first day I worked on the bridge and hit it off from the start.  Wilson is also a believer and frequently would say "It is written . . . ."  and quote scripture, simply as a part of his normal everyday self.  He was filled with a joyful outlook on life, was encouraging to be around, and was a diligent hard worker.  Wilson was married and had 3 kids.  He invited Marie and I and a few others to his home to see his house that he was so proud of and meet his family.  When we got there we were warmly welcomed and noticed a few things as soon as we approached  and entered. First, Wilson's house, which was very nice by the standards of the average persons dwelling, is most easily described as a concrete block single car garage.  Second, when we entered the house we immediately could not miss the scripture verses written in chalk near the top of the walls all around the house.  Have you ever met someone who says "Jesus is my everything" or  "His word sustains me"??  I've often wondered how many times that's just Sunday morning Christian talk. Do they really mean it??  What does that really look like??  Travel with me to Kenya and I can introduce you to the real thing.  His name is Wilson.  Wilson was incredibly thankful for God's provision for his family.  Wilson made about $3 or $4 a day at his full time job with which to provide for that family.

Back to the bridge.  Seeing that Wilson and I hit it off so well and knowing his hard working diligence, Wilson basically got assigned to work with me on forming the wall.  Wilson, like many people (even 10 yr olds) in Africa can converse in 3 languages Swahili, English, and the  local tribal language.  And we can think we are so smart if we know 20 words of Spanish.  He hadn't, however, been to college or had any real form of what we would call "higher education".  But Wilson was a "sponge" for learning.  Forming Concrete "up in the air"  is basically a real life lesson in the physics of  masses and forces.  If a 20,000 lb section of your wall (and the lumber holding it) blows out or falls over it can get really expensive fast and can really injure someone.  Wilson and I were side by side for several days, and I did all I could to teach him about the foundation principles of containing that much mass and that much force.  To try and get him to follow the domino effect of "This is exerting force there, and it's traveling through this to that, so we must also brace here . . .    When you pour  the concrete,  watch here, if there is a weakness, it will be the first place to move . . ." and so on.  So much information, so little time.  Such a deep friendship, so little time

There were other things to be accomplished before Wilson and I formed the wall and I had to leave just a few work days before the pour.  I was actually really bummed to not be there for it.  I was told by e-mail that all went well and the forms held.  I was also told that Wilson, who learned in a week what it would usually take me a whole season to teach someone,  got what to him was a pretty big raise and was made the main forming guy for the rest of the project.  That was 6 years ago and in our fast pace american life that we live, I haven't inquired about Wilson for a few years.  Last I heard he was still a trusted foreman type employee who was joyfully thankful for a full time job that paid him for a days work what we could spend for a "lunch on the go".  He was still a living example of "Jesus is my everything" and "His word sustains me".  So little time, so much impact.  I still haven't figured out who's life was impacted more. Wilson and his family's, or mine?  Probably mine.

Why Africa?

The whole reason I've started blogging is so that I can keep people informed about our activities in Africa.  I figure that I better know what I am doing before we set out or it might not happen.  That being said, I'll give you a little background on our decision to take our family to Africa.

  

Back in 2005, our church had a team go to Kenya to work with Wycliffe Associates.  Eric and Tracey Hagman are missionaries in Kenya and our trip was in part to support and encourage them because their family was originally from Evergreen Community Church.  Drew and I were on that team and it really was life changing.  There is something about working alongside these people who had very little, yet more joy than I could even imagine.  It was inspiring and humbling to  listen to them thank God for all their riches and quote scripture knowing they were truly Words of Life.  I realize in a 2 week trip you get the "honeymoon" version of what a country is like but we were determined to return to Africa.  As we talked we decided that when our kids were old enough we would come back to Africa with them so that they could experience this first hand.  When Chris was younger we had gone on a mission trip with him to Honduras and found that to be a very worthwhile investment.  So our plan was made and life went on.

Fast forward 6 years, to January 2011.  The economy has been in a several year slump and we are feeling it.  Drew works in seasonal construction and has to worker harder than ever for less money than ever.  We're doing okay but it's definitely by the grace of God and we surely don't have EXTRA.  One day as I was praying for our friends in Africa while walking on my treadmill this thought came blazing into my mind.  "If you are ever going to take your kids back to Africa like you said, the time is now."  It was that clear.  Being the logical one that I am, all I could think was - That would be impossible.  Right about then, the song came on with the line "He can move a mountain..."  Wow, did I believe that God could move a mountain?  I felt really challenged by that thought as I prayed more about the possibility of us taking our kids to Africa.  In my mind, I pictured just the 5 of us going and staying near Eric and Tracey.  I thought the kids and I could work at Heshima with Tracey, and Drew could do construction with Eric.  We had been there before so it didn't seem too risky.

Once I had this great idea figured out in my head I went upstairs to talk to Drew about it.  Now here is what I love about this man.  He could have laughed at me or said "No way" or just ignored me.  He looked at me and said "Wow, that would be great.  You're right, there is no way we could do that without God making a way for us to.  I think we should pray as a family for 2 weeks and see if we still should move forward."
So we prayed and prayed (all 5 of us) for 2 weeks.  At the end of the 2 weeks we sent an email to Eric to see if it would even work.  He copied our email on to Michael Wahl with Wycliffe Associate (Volunteer Coordinator).  We laid our plans before the Lord and he took our willingness.  Michael called us right away and said it wouldn't work for us to go to Kenya but would we consider going to Cameroon?  Cameroon sounded almost as good, since we had another couple from our church moving there.  Then he asked if we could get a team together...Okay.  This wasn't really what we had in mind but our good friends Jon and Julie Sybrant agreed to co-lead a team with us.  There are 16 people in our team!  We thought we were just dipping our toes into the water to see if there was a need and suddenly things are happening.  We still had no idea where we would come up with the money.

Well, I'm here to say that God really can move a mountain when it is part of His plan.  We had prayed for things before that just seemed to go on empty ears after years of laying it before God.  I don't know why this is so important to Him or even why he would chose to use me and my family - I'm just along for the ride.  With each step of faith we have taken on this journey the money has come in at just the right time.  We have been blown away with the generosity of people, some we don't even know!  The more we planned the clearer it became to us that we should stay longer than the team.  There are a lot of projects going on in Cameroon and we have the time.  The biggest expense is the airline tickets so in our mind we might as well get our moneys worth and stay until mid-March.  Since making this decision to stay 10 1/2 weeks I have heard a few different speakers talk about the 6 week point being very difficult in a new land.  I really believe this is going to bring us closer as a family and cause us to cling to Jesus in a whole new way.

Change is hard

I tried doing a blog some years back and never got very far. Today I'm attempting it again and I'm coming up with the same frustrations. I've kept a journal for years - it's so easy, pick up a pen and write whatever comes to my mind. I thought this would be the same but honestly it has taken me so long to get to this point that my mind is empty. The only reason I'm willing to not scrap the whole thing is because I have had so many requests from friends to keep them posted on our journey to Africa. We leave in 10 1/2 weeks - hopefully this will get easier before that day comes. I don't really think we are all that interesting but I do know that we will be in need of prayer. My hope is that I can keep the interest up enough that we will have an army of friends lifting us up in prayer. I have no idea specifically what we will be doing in Africa - being flexible is part of the journey. We will be doing construction work of some kind. Actually, they don't need us to do the construction work, there are many local people that would be capable. We are really going to serve alongside those who have given their lives to advance the Word of God into the language of the 180 people groups of Cameroon that do not have the Bible in their native tongue. Our hope is that we can encourage even one family that has given up everything to live without regret, fully surrendered to the call God has put on their life. The full time missionaries are the real heroes. In 10 1/2 weeks we will return to our home, to our comfy life.... but then what? I want to live my life without regret. What will that look like for us?