July/August pictures...

Akwaya Outreach

Life during the last month has been a blur, but I wanted to take a minute to thank the Lord and give some highlights at least from the Akwaya outeach.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for the two-week Akwaya church planting outreach.  Thirty-one Americans came over to join with over 70 Cameroonian believers and missionaries already on the ground here.  Three of the Americans are still here helping with some of the follow-up and seeing continued open doors.  As for some numbers, there were over 1,000 professions of faith, over 200 baptisms, and over 20 new baby Baptist churches organized!  My group was led by Pastor Chrysantus and were able to charter Bible Baptist Church and Fellowship Baptist Church both in Akwaya on the border with Nigeria.  On our team was my brother Chris for one week when we tag-teamed and I joined for the following week since I had a lot of flying to do for the other teams.  Also, that helped keep some order in our home of two families :)  Ben Lineras from America was on our team along with four other from our Ndop church, two young men from the Bible institute in Akwaya Town, and at least four or five adults and some boys from three other church in or around Akwaya!  Our team was diverse but truly unified in the mission!  Over 150 made professions of faith in Christ for salvation, but due to family and church persecution only a handful followed the Lord in believer baptism though many came to watch.  Pray for those on the verge of decision for baptism to join with these new Bible-preaching churches.  Pray also for men to be stable and grow to be leaders.  Pray for the strong-holds of alcohol and man-made churches which teach works-salvation and traditions of men (infant baptism) to be broken. 

Saying Goodbye

The hardest part about visitors coming to Cameroon is saying goodbye at the end of their trip...especially when someone is here for almost six months. Chris and Laura were visiting long enough to make a small chapter in our life. It was a half year to remember and will not be easily forgotten! We hope you have a safe trip back to the USA! 

(They should be in Brussels now. I saw them off in Yaounde last night...Ben was flying his little airplane nonstop for the few hours I was there and was super excited to go back and see Grammie. He was non stop talk for the last few days!)  

Two week Church Planting Outreach

For the next two weeks there will be over 100 missionaries of all kinds (Cameroonian, American)flying, driving, and trekking in the SW region of Cameroon preaching the gospel and chartering by God's grace 20 new churches.  Tom and I began the flights yesterday, continued today, and will keep at it tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. There are 31 Americans visiting being lead by Pastor Gillmore from Wisconsin. 

Today, Tom and I were able to fly team number 4 out to the Ballin airstrip. This is the my team consisting of my brother Chris, Ben from the states, and members from our Ndop church.  Today at the airstrip the team joined up with believers from a church located near the airstrip.  They plan to trek to the target village, sleep there tonight, and hold a service tomorrow morning.  The week will be filled with evangelism, discipleship, and key truths needed to charter a church of new believeers on Sunday when they will hold the first baptisms.  Please pray! 

Friend Day 2015

We had a tremendous Friend Day today at Believers Baptist Church in Ndop. There were over 225 in attendance with 10 children and 5 adults making a decision for Christ. Many in attendance were first time visiting friends including a number of civil servants from the town. Our members did a wonderful job serving the Lord, the community, and each other. Happy Mother's Day to our friends in America as well as a congrats to those graduating. 

Our visiting preacher and his family, Pastor Felix, missionary to Akwaya. 

2015 Missionary Family Camp/Conference

We were truly blessed with an awesome  family conference this last week, being daily challenged about living Christ's life. Our fellowship with missionaries from around Cameroon and two families on a survey trip was tremendous! Many thanks to the Needhams for hosting and to Pastor and Mrs. Barth for coming to give the Word! 

Rainy or dry?

Saturday I flew Joshua from our church out to Ballin to join an outreach. It was a very interesting day for weather, but I managed to dodge the rain and enjoy tons of cloud variety. Then today, I canceled my flight because the sky was so hazy from harmattan, about 2 miles max. The weather is bouncing back and forth from rainy to dry season. 

Also, Chris made it back today from the church planting outreach near Ballin. 

Joshua on Saturday's flight. 

Bamenda, Ballin, Bamunka, etc.

So many places start with "Ba" here. Here are a few pictures of the last few days. 

A day in Bamenda shopping with Chris' family. 

Looks like tornado damage but it was on purpose. Tom is getting a new "zinc" roof on the visitor bungalow. 

A team drove out to a village near the borders of Nigeria and Akwaya yesterday. Today, I flew out several more team members to Ballin, the closest airfield. Ty, Chris, David Harness, and a team of Cameroon brethren are out there planning to baptize some believers, constitute a new church and win more souls...pray for them. 

Bamunka, home sweet home. The mountain is called Ngoketunjia, and is the name of the Division of 13 villages that we want to reach with the gospel near us. 

Easter week

We have had a good few days of ministry and fellowship. 

Wednesday church with Chris preaching and the Sanderlin cousins in the front row. 

Inviting one of my friends to church 

On the way to Ndop after a lunch with the Thebeaus. We had a good church service Friday morning. 

Partner

Elias is often my evangelism partner. He hardly complains though it is hot in Ndop. We found a cool bridge in our area yesterday. 

Happy Easter to everyone! 

Flying with my bro

Chris and I left the house about 6am today. I stopped at the gas station after Ndop and after getting one of the three containers filled for my plane the station ran out of gas! I had to drive back into town to another station for the rest which lost me 20 minutes drive time overall...so much for waking up early; I could have snoozed two or three times :) 

We finished the journey over what used to be a road and prepared the plane. Chris drove to Felix's mom's house and got a load of cargo for Felix. The flight was beautiful today- no chance of rain but the visibility went down from 10-15 miles in Sabga to 5 miles over Akwaya with haze. 

Felix and a friend picked us up at the airfield and we went to Akwaya town, about an hour hike or in our case a fifteen minute fun filled off road adventure! 

I taught the guys today reviewing some aspects of preaching and constructing their sermons. Pray for these men who are studying the Word and preaching Christ in Akwaya. 

I got to drive one of the motorcycles on the way back. This was my first time driving a dirt bike in Akwaya and was very fun! 

The flight back included another passenger and was enjoyable. It was a good day with my brother beside me!

Tech schools in Cameroon

I had a great time this morning at an "open door" day for government technical schools of our region. It was hosted by a school near our church where two of our members teach. I even saw an awesome chair that the carpenter students made; it flips open to become a step ladder and is meant for library usage...perfect idea! 

Teachers Constantine and Fidelis

Step-ladder chair

Today, my kids also enjoyed a quill pen I made for them from a turkey feather!

And of course, Caitlyn and Abby are doing well! 

Caitlyn patiently receiving visitors :)

There were many more visitors, but I hope this gives you an idea! You are welcome to come visit too!