Saying Goodbye :(

Today marks the day that we have to say goodbye to our visiting friends who have been such a blessing with their presence and help to us!  Thank you to Terry Rushing for bringing this team out to our mission field.  Our family will miss Jacquelyn, and I Tom and I will surely miss Terry's expertise, help, fellowship and encouragement in the hangar and in the plane!  Here are a few pictures of some of the things we all did together.

Many (not all) of the people flown into Akwaya for dental, medical, and evangelistic work. 

Discussion at the airfield. 

The lake in Bambalang village

National Youth Day in Ndop

The Thebeau family

Visiting at the Thebeau's house

Singing a special in church

Chrysanthus and his family

Riding horses in Sabga

Mansfield Restaurant, Bamenda.

Birth of Amanavil Bible Baptist Church!

It was a real joy on Sunday to see the lasting fruit from the years of outreach in Amanavil, Akwaya by bro. Needham and Felix.  With the baptisms and organization of the believers, Bible Baptist Church was born on Sunday!  Here are a few pictures!

 

On Saturday, Terry and I flew out to Amanavil together so I could fly on Sunday and so we could see the baptisms on Sunday. We enjoyed seeing the activities happening there.  

I flew Pastor Ernest on Saturday from Amanavil, Akwaya, to Meyerim, Akwaya, so he could preach at Gateway Baptist in Akwaya Town. 

Some of the bridge work going on...

Sunday morning before the baptisms...

Felix preaching before the baptisms...

Baptizing Elias from Amanavil...

About 10 people were baptized on Sunday!!

Walking back to church for the completion of the service. 

Tom and I flew back and forth from Amanavil to Meyrim from around 12 to 6pm.  Here is Tom's landing in Sabga just before dark! 

 

This picture is from today.  Jacquelyn flew out in Tom's plane along with Dr. Carol for the medical clinic in Meyerim, Akwaya.  She spent two nights out there and experienced a good part of the outreach.  I flew her back today.  

In between flights...

In between flights I have been working on the plane with bro. Rushing.  Abby has been showing Jaquelyn around the quarter.  We also took our monthly trip to Bamenda with her. 

Annual inspection and some repairs

At the Mansfield Restaurant (our Bamenda favorite) with Jacquelyn

Chloe in Bamenda. 

David delivering a beautiful shelf/cabinet that he made for our parlor. 

Medical/Dental Evangelism phase 1

Last Wednesday, we bagan the first phase of flying out the teams for the Medical and Dental Evangelism outreaches in Akwaya.  These are used in support of church planting efforts primarily being led by national  missionary, Pastor Felix.  The first outreach was to Amanavil for the clinics, but this outreach also included building a bridge over one of the major rivers.  Those two events included flying over 20 people with their supplies and tools!!! 

We had the most perfect flying day in months...thanks for praying for that! 

Arriving in Amanavil with some of the team. 

One of my passengers, Benjamin, a good friend from Sabga, and a carpenter who helped on the bridge. 

We staged the flights out of the Mbingo hospital airstrip because of high tailwinds in Sabga.  During one of the flights away there was a bush fire that caught the airstrip on fire.  Ty Thebeau, Andrew, Spencer, and others helped put out the blaze. 

Departing Amanavil for Mbingo after dropping off a boy named Fabulous! 

Andrew and Spencer heading out to Amanavil with me.  They were my last flight of the day. 

Tom flew in the Thebeau family, and I dropped off Spencer and Andrew before heading back to Sabga about an hour before dark.  Some of you may remember a boy from our church named Clement whose mother and brother died leaving him an orphan.  He is in the orange shirt and now lives with the Thebeaus in Sabga. 

Wings as Eagles Team!

Wow...life has been super busy since the Wings as Eagles team arrived the end of January.  I have had a great time working daily with Terry Rushing, our ministry head in Oshkosh, Wisconsin!  Abby has had a wonderful time with Jacquelyn, our friend from North Carolina.  Two other young men came from Canada to support and help their friends the Thebeaus who are working nearby.  What a great Wings missions team!  Here are just a few pictures of their arrival:

Tom flew the entire team up saving them lots of driving!

Terry greeting the Thebeaus...

...our family with Jacquelyn

Terry got to work right away inspecting my plane in for its annual inspection...

Terry found some small cracks in the steel cage that needed to be welded. 

...yeah! I got my new EFIS replaced with another new one that works :)  

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.