Falls Baptist/BCM Cameroon/USA Team to Akwaya

The majority of the team from the Falls Baptist Church and BCM team arrived safely last Wednesday, while Pastor Gilmore and his son arrived safely on Friday.  They all "enjoyed" a long bus ride to Sabga, a day of rest, and then flights in our small planes out to Akwaya!  Praise the Lord, everyone is now safely in Akwaya trekking, distributing over 2200 whole Bibles, and giving the gospel in close to 30 villages.  Some of the villages have good churches started by Tom Needham and Pastor Felix, while others have had a few opportunities to hear the gospel.  I believe that still others have not yet had an opportunity to hear how much God loves them, that he sent a Savior, and that they can be saved from sin and hell by trusting completly in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  The Falls team joined forces with Cameroon nationals and missionaries as they went out to Akwaya to preach and teach.   Here are a few pictures of the team as they start their journeys in Cameroon:

 

 

 

June Happenings

I hope you enjoy a few pictures of the last few weeks before the next few weeks get really busy.

A team from BCM/Falls Baptist Church arrived yesterday.  We are getting ready to go up and greet them.  I plan to sleep in the hangar tonight and wake up early tomorrow to help fly the team out to the bush.  Tom Needham and I plan to transport about 40+ people and their gear over the next few days.  So, please pray for health, safety, and for good weather. 

 Elias had a bad night breathing, so we took him to the hospital the next day.  He was diagnosed with asthma.  We have wondered about this for a while now, but now at least he is diagnosed and able to get some relief.  After taking the meds and inhaler, he is doing much better.  They are standing on the hospital airstrip that I sometimes deliver patients to, so it was kind of like showing them where I work!  Going down to the airstrip was Elias' reward for being good for the doctor :) 

 Chloe's new favorite pose.

 

 

Tom and I at the Bamenda airport, where we will soon be basing our operations to take the team out to the bush airstrips. 

 Camp Joy basketball court almost done!! 

 Visiting a deaf girl and her grandmother in our town. 

One of my friends visiting church. 

Anniversary!

 

Abby and I had a great day for our anniversary a few weeks ago. The Needhams watched our kids as Abby and I hiked to the top of the mountain that overlooks our town. We then went out to eat at our sole restaurant in town. It was a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

On the way down we got to witness an approaching storm on the right from which we tried to run away to the left.  The rainbow was an unexpected surprise!  The rain ended up stopping about where you see it and went on to the other side of town...we only got a few drops on us! 

Family Camp 2013

 

We had another great missionary family camp in Sabga. This year Pastor and Mrs. VanderHart from Iowa came to challenge and encourage us all. They are from one of our supporting churches and were a great blessing!

With Pastor and Mrs. VanderHart at the conference

 

With bro. Winch early in the morning at the Cowboy Coffee Corner.  I ordered a 26 cup cowboy coffee pot for the conference this year and worked great over the gas stove! 

 

Pastor VanderHart preached for our church on the last Sunday that they were here.  We already miss them and really had a very encouraging time with them! 

Friend Day 2013

Our Friend Day was a great success this year after careful planning, lots of inviting, and much prayer! Over 112 people packed out our building and the gospel was clearly preached.  Pray for our continuous follow up. 

 

 

Bearing Precious Cargo

For the next few weeks, bro. Needham and I will be gradually flying several thousand Bibles to Akwaya. There are 99 villages in the Akwaya area, and our long term goal is to get a hundred Bibles to each village. A missions team from Falls Baptist is going to help start. Tom and I are getting lots of Bibles out there ahead of the group coming in June.

 

Our first load of Bibles went out on Monday. 

 

Thank you to Bearing Precious Seed from my home church in Oshkosh for your labour of love for The Lord and souls in providing the Scriptures that we have always used. These Bibles open so many doors of opportunity!

 

I love serving in Cameroon! Please pray for safety and spiritual fruit! 

Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalms 126:5-6 

Government School Teachers

Today, my family had the privilege to distribute Bibles to the teachers of the largest Government bi-lingual high school in our division (kind of like a county).  There are over 3,000 students and over 100 teachers.  Praise the Lord we were able to give 85 English and 21 French Bibles to these teachers as well as a few Fulfulde John/Romans.  Please pray for these teachers and for the students of this school as we continue to find ways to get the Word of God into the hands of our community.

Bamenda: bi-monthly adventures

I generally go to Bamenda twice a month, once with the whole family and once with Elias.  Today, Elias and went together to shop for Abby and look around town!  It is almost an hour and a half drive these days, but we make the most of it.

Our first stop is usually meat.  Today, the meat was especially red (that is good), but I noticed that it was still twitching!  Now, that is fresh meat!

Next, we went to see my friend who is a coffee executive making the best coffee in the country from beans right in our area.  We had breakfast together and he introduced me to an espresso type of coffee they are now making...I didn't know how much I would like it!

After most of our shopping, I dropped our weed-wacker off for repairs at the shop of one of the main motorcycle guys in town.  I test drove a used Honda 600 Translap that he has been telling me about.  It was really nice.  I would really love to buy it as I had to sell my first motorcycle before our furlough.

We left Bamenda with most of our mission accomplished (no dog food in town that I could find) and started the long drive back.  Elias fell asleep after Sagba and was jolted awake a few times as I swerved to miss a pothole or drove through one.  The rode is definitely the worse it has ever been from Sabga to Ndop.  Here is a picture of repairs going on to the gutters in the road that were ripped up in a storm a few years ago.  All in all it was a good day in town.

Elias and Elena always love pointing out this waterfall as it re-appears every year around April or May.

Return to the Palace

Thank you to everyone who prayed for our arduous trip to Bum and for the spiritual mission we went to accomplish. I think that many prayers were answered along the way.
It was a 10 hour day on Tuesday as Chrysantus, Louis, and I left Ndop close to 8 am. The roads were very good compared to before and there are many places where earth moving machines are widening or fixing the road. We stopped twice on the way to visit with people we knew and once to see a large tea estate. We also stopped in Bum to see the airstrip that is waiting for government approval.
On Wednesday we gave some of our gear and gifts to 4 palace boys then arranged for 3 motorcycles to carry us and the remaining gear including a generator and film equipment. They saved us a two hour walk but still had to drop us off short of the palace. We trekked the remaining distance up a stony mountain trail with backpacks, generator, and a big box.
We were received very well in the palace that made me its messenger in 2010. Many heard the gospel through two films and preaching during our two days and two nights. Many responded with faith trusting in Christ!
The Fon accompanied us back down down down as walked the entire distance in 2 hours back to the town where we left the car. We arranged for some more clearing of the airfield as the grass and bush are now growing. Pray for quick government approval!
We enjoyed a beautiful drive back on the rest of the Ring Road. We had small incident in Bum that resulted in a breakdown near home. The good thing about it was that the mechanic trusted in Christ the next day! Thanks for praying!