Amanavil

I flew to Amanavil on Thursday and Friday in preparation for our major dental/evangelism outreach there next week.  Pray for clear weather, good running planes (2 of them), healthy pilots (three of us), and for God's hand on the workers (about 20 or more).  I'll post more details of the week as it goes by.

I flew supplies into the Amanavil field and then flew Felix over to another airstrip to get some other things.  After returning to Amanavil, I flew Benjamin back to Sabga.  Benjamin was smoothing out the Amanavil airstrip for several days in preparation for all the flights next week. 

This is just a bonus picture.  One of the Needham's visitors brought Elias a toy helicopter that Elias has slept with for several nights! 

Bangolan

Several from our church did an evangelistic outreach and survey of a village in our division that we have never visited.  Bangolan is about an hour plus away from here and would seem to be inaccessible by car in the event of a heavy rain shower.  The road in spots was destroyed from last years rain but was easily passable in the dry season.  One bridge had collapsed (and a house nearby as well), and the planks on the temporary bridge were very insecure even coming up and banging on our car! 

The village itself is composed of Islam, African Tradition, Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, and others.  The people were very careful to make sure we were not JW's before they would even speak to us!  We met some in the palace, a pastor, medical workers, students, taxi drivers, motorcycle guys, and market workers. 

The people enthusiastically received the New Testaments we brought, and we distributed about 1,000 of them.  Here are a few pictures.

 Chryanthus preaching to a sick lady

 Visiting the palace

Distributing Bibles in the market

Babessi

Chrysanthus and I drove down the dusty Ring Road to Babessi on Thursday for some follow up and New Testament distribution.  We had not been there for almost a year I think.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that portion of the Ring Road actually under construction to begin putting black top down.  The widening and grating already cut our time on the road down in half to about a half hour. 

Once we were heading to a house back in the quarter, I saw something that I had to stop and see closer.  The tree that was being sawed into planks was a palace tree, usually the biggest and oldest in any village.  They were sawing into planks with nothing but a chain saw.  Very interesting to watch.  The two men were thrilled to take their own New Testaments from us.  We distributed about 180 New Testaments in the middle of town in about 10 minutes.  Pray for the Word of God to have free course in these open hearts.  We were able to witness to several people throughout the day. 

Trip to Yaounde and Christmas pics

Here are few Christmas pictures to show you all some of the things that you sent to the kids. 

 Chloe digging into Christmas breakfast before the time! 

 On Monday, Abby, Elena, and I took a trip to Yaounde, our nation's capital.  Tom Needham flew us there, we hired a taxi for the day, and finished passport paperwork for Elena and I at the U.S. emabassy by mid-afternoon.  We were flying home by 4 pm!  Thanks to the airplane that was a one day trip instead of a three day trip.Chloe and Elias stayed at the Needhams to play all day.  

Ready for takeoff!

This is the first real playground we have seen in Cameroon.  I guess it was prep for McDonalds when we come home.  I am sure that our kids don't really have any memory of America except from pictures. 

 Elena was so excited about this playground that she kept talking about how she was going to tell Elias all about it.  Elias will have to wait until we get to Yaounde again! 

Flying home to Sabga

 The kids running to meet us after we landed. 

Happy New Year!

We hope your first week in 2012 has been great.  Ours has been a great time to rejoice, reflect, plan for the future.  The very first day of the year, we baptized a young man in our church! 

 The water is a bit low during dry season :) 

 All three of our kids need to learn to swim...they love playing in water anywhere! 

 I think we need a church bus or something! 

 Trying to fly in dry season is a bit challenging...its not easy to see the ground sometimes.  This week the whole Akwaya region was covered by several thousand feet of smoke and harmattan that made for a challenging flight in the smog. 

One of our Gendarme friends came for a visit this week!