It's a Shiloh tradition.  Our own invention.  Francis starts early, baking banana bread and putting it in the freezer.  Then at the end of the year (today) we walk through the neighborhood, giving the bread along with a gospel track to our neighbors.  It's a nice tradition.  A good way to meet people we might not otherwise connect with.  There were several new neighbors this year.  There always are.  We live in a transient neighborhood with many small studio apartments.  In addition we have several half finished large houses life Shiloh.  Good place for squatters to live.  Or refugees who are legitimate live-in guards.  And so we meet them and then spend the rest of the year waving at them as we go out and about.  One man (obviously an old timer) told us we were the only ones who give him a gift on New Years.  New Years is an important time of the year in the culture.  Actually more important than Christmas, though that is changing as the West slams into ancient traditions.  So we put smiles on fifteen faces today.  We like that.

"I'm staying at Shiloh on a personal retreat," the pastor said, talking on his cell phone.  "Shiloh is the best place."  He's right.  And the best time of day, in my opinion, is breakfast time.  

Take today for instance.  We delved into God's Word to read some from the book of James.  We talked about the importance of our faith being put into action.  People should be able to tell that we are God's children, not just by the words we say, but by the way we live.  God should be a natural part of life, like breathing.  When everything goes wrong, we need to continue to cling to Him.  It's not a good time to give up.  It's a great time to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him.  The discussion was rich and challenging.  We always leave the table ready to face the day, determined to make it count for eternity.

Grandchildren.  The rewards of old age.  Lots of fun and no responsibilities.  We highly recommend them!  

We are blessed with eleven grands.  Three teens.  One baby.  And all sorts of others spread out between.  Being away from them is the only hard part about being missionaries, living out here on the Dark Side of the Moon.

But God is faithful.  He has blessed us abundantly with many grandchildren here in Cameroon.  You would love them all.

Grace is oodles of fun.  She just makes you smile to look at her little round face.  Her eyes crinkle when she smiles, which is most of the time.  She's full of life and can't wait for the next moment to arrive.  She's bouncy and little and cute.  Grace is all girl with ribbons and bows and pink frills.  She loves dolls.  But people are her favorite.  She calls us Grandpa and Grandpa and usually is bouncing when she sees us.  She's in nursery school now and she just turned three.  She breezed into class the first day, took a look at all those new friends, and was in her element.  The teacher had her hands full with this pint sized magpie, until she pulled Grace off to the side and explained that we come to school to listen and learn.  Our little sweetie morphed into the model student.  She's the one who comforts the other children when they are crying.  She gets them to line up and obey the teacher.  This girl is going places.  We are so glad God blessed her with Francis and Ingrid for parents.  They are up to the task.

Baby brother Samuel will be one in January.  He is her polar opposite in every way.   Even in the hospital when she was born, Grace was not interested in sleeping.  There was way too much to see and do.  But Samuel is placid and content to just watch life go by.  He's the last kid on the block to do absolutely anything.  He's quiet and serious.  Life is just about perfect when viewed from Daddy's arms.  Samuel has been a sickly baby, but is finally picking up.  He is now eating as if to make up for all those months. 

Then there is Guy's girls.  He and Marie are not able to have children of their own so they have been given girls to raise.  One from each side of the house.  Marie's sister gave them little Marie to raise when she was two years old.  She's four now and fits in their family perfectly.  Then Guy's brother gave them their youngest girl a few months later.  Persil is a couple of months younger and several inches smaller than little Marie.  The girls are very different, but fast friends.  They are both girly girls, too.  They love dolls and fancy dresses and purses.  When they come to Shiloh they head for the toys.  Mostly they are after our two cabbage patch dolls.  They can sit on our little chairs by the hour and chat with each other while taking care of their babies.  They are good little mothers in the making.  Guy and Marie have been teaching them scripture.  The girls can rattle off whole chapters of the Bible.  

Then there are the three children who call us their white grandparents.  Not to be confused with their two sets of black grandparents.  They are studying English in school and can say things like "Good Morning" or "Good Afternoon".

And there are many other little munchkins who call us their grandparents.  They bring a lot of joy, and help fill the hole in our hearts as we miss those eleven that live on the other side of the Big Pond.

He heard it first from Donald.  Francis immediately contacted Mama Helen for details.  Their little sister Carine had gone to the store to buy cooking oil and other small things for their meal.  She took a moto since it was too far to walk.  That's a motorcycle taxi.  On the return trip someone tossed a barricade across the road and the moto had to stop.  The man made both the driver and Carine put all their valuables on the ground, including her few groceries.  Fortunately she only had 1.000 F on her, but they got her phone too.  The thief told them he needed to have Christmas too.  

This is an all too common story.  November and December are the months when crime increases in the city.  I've never been able to figure that one out.  People stealing from other people so they and their families can have Christmas.  It makes no sense at all. 

 We are praising God that Carine was not violated.  It could have been so much worse.

Sitting at a lovely restaurant, letting the ocean breezes flow over us, we learned why we had been invited to spend Christmas our friends.  Four years ago they came to Shiloh immediately following their honeymoon.  They spent a couple nights together and then the wife went back to Daoula to work.  Meanwhile the husband was house hunting while holding down a good job in Yaounde.  On weekends he would visit her or alternately she would visit him.  We became close friends.  Early on we showed them Facing The Giants, a Christian DVD.  They shared with us in that relaxing restaurant setting that the DVD had changed their lives.  The mantra from the movie "If we win we will praise the Lord, and if we loose we will praise the Lord" became the foundation of their marriage.  In every thing and in every way they would allow God to be God and do as He willed. Eventually they realized they were dealing with infertility issues.  They choose to cling to God and not allow pressure from their families to upset them.  "If we have a baby we will praise the Lord, and if we remain childless we will praise the Lord" was the cry of their hearts.  It became very practical for this couple.  But then after four years, they discovered that a baby is on the way.  Only their mothers know.  But they wanted to pull us into their secret.  After all, it was at Shiloh they learned to trust the Almighty, no matter what. And so we are praising the Lord with them!

They left with joy in their hearts and smiles on their faces.  It's the biggest event of the year here at Shiloh.  They were all there, our employees, their spouses, children, and family members living with them.  We were fifteen this year.  Our annual Christmas party runs on Cameroonian time, which means we started an hour late.  But we're not in a hurry so it does not matter.  When the last ones arrive we all file upstairs to sit in a circle in the library by the upstairs Christmas tree.  Papa Jim reads to us from God's Word and reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas.  Then it's time for everyone to present their gift to us.  Early on we established the tradition that each family would sing to us.  Sometimes they sing in French and sometimes in their tribal language.  Even the little children join in.  It's a precious time.  Next we go back downstairs to have a feast.  Our menu is a three course traditional American Christmas dinner.  Next chairs are put in a circle around the downstairs tree and we distribute gifts.  One way or another we manage to find out what everyone wants in advance, so there are lots of exclamations of delight.  Dilen, the fourteen year old nephew of Francis received one of Papa Jim's old tool boxes, loaded with neat tools.  He was overjoyed to say the least.  Romeo, the 27 year old brother of Doris received a new French Bible.  He spent quite a bit of time reading it while we waited for the taxi to take everyone home.  In addition, each family received a large sack of food to transform into Christmas dinner in their homes.

Early tomorrow morning we will leave Shiloh and fight the traffic for an hour to arrive at the bus station.  We are traveling down to Daoula to spend Christmas with a dear Cameroonian couple.  We are very close to this young couple so look forward to a good time.  I won't be able to blog until we get back.

May you enjoy this special time of the year, and may you focus on the One Who was born so long ago to show us the way to the Father.

He was bringing the devotional yesterday at our 10th anniversary celebration of Shiloh.  He turned to the Bible to show us where the name came from.  What it stood for.  Then he told about his own experience at Shiloh.  One thing he shared stood out to me.  He said he always found Shiloh very clean.  It's true.  It has always been our policy to have the house company ready.  People can drop in at any moment.  We have to be ready for them.  But then he want on to say that even our toilets are always clean.  And that's what struck me.

I got to thinking of all the different toilets I have used over these nearly 25 years we have lived out here in Cameroon.  In the early days, when we took the bus up to Bamenda in the Northwest, we stopped at the village of Makininin which is the half way point.  We filed off the bus and had a half hour to eat and use the non-existent facilities.  That's right.  We got to use the great out doors.  Jim and I would walk out of the village a short ways to the first field we could find.  Then we would try to find some bush or anything to hide behind.  It wasn't our favorite activity, but necessary.  Finally some entrepreneurial individual built a public restroom.  We now pay 100 F to get a strip of toilet paper and the privilege of using the facilities.  The place is never really clean.  There are no toilet seats in any of the stalls.  Probably wouldn't want to sit on them if they did exist.  The toilets never were the flush variety.  But there is an over-sized plastic barrel of water in the hallway with a dipper cup for flushing.

We were staying in a village once that had a pit toilet out back.  It was surrounded by battered old sheets of metal roofing.  The whole thing was rickety.  Once I reached out to hold on to the wall to help pull myself back up and nearly pulled the whole thing down on top of me.

Another village, another pit toilet.  This one was very shallow.  I quickly learned why that was not a good idea.  I could see all these maggots boiling just a few inches blow the unsteady logs that I was straddled over.  It was pretty gross.

Once we stayed in the dormitory at a Catholic mission.  While we had our own bedroom, we had to share the bathroom.  A group of teenage guys were also there, so we shared a bathroom with them.  It was easily one of the dirtiest toilets I ever used.

Then there was the pit toilet with the riser made of cement.  Missionaries lived in that compound.  They had a system whereby if the toilet seat was hanging on the nail at the entrance to the circular hut, it was safe to go inside.  But when the toilet seat was missing, the bathroom was in use.  They had a serious cockroach problem so they provided a long handled toilet brush.  We removed the plank over the toilet, swept cockroaches away, put the toilet seat down, and were good to go.

We have visited many middle class Cameroonians who have what is called a modern bathroom.  That means there is inside plumbing but it does not work.  I've never been in one with a toilet seat, unless it was broken and laying against the wall.  The toilet handle is always broken.  And there is no water in the tank.  Usually the tank lid is off, too.  Again, we find the barrel and dipping cup for flushing purposes.  

Truly, our toilets really are clean.  They stand out in their field.  No wonder they deserved mention during our 10th anniversary celebration.

But I got to thinking about our lives.  We all clean up pretty good on the outside.  Put on fancy cloths.  Perfume or aftershave.  The question is, what are we like on the inside?  That part of us that mostly stays hidden from others?  Are we pretty gross?  Or have we invited the only One Who can transform us to come into our lives and make us His own?  

So how's your toilet?  Just wondering.

He arrived at Shiloh before noon.  He wanted to make reservations.  For tomorrow.  For his honeymoon!  He did mention that he knew we would probably say "no" and he realized it would take a miracle for this to work out.  But we serve the God of the impossible.  It DID work out.  And we said "yes".  While I was consulting with Francis to see if we could provide the meals, he texted his friend who had put him in touch with us to say he was getting the reservation.  His friend of course told him he must have misunderstood me, or I misunderstood him, or something was wrong.  There was simply no way he could get a reservation for a honeymoon at Shiloh at the last minute like that.

We have never taken reservations for a honeymoon just the day before.  In fact we require that people make their plans at least a week in advance.  Two weeks is preferable.  But it was like this:  

• We had reserved the whole house for out-of-town guests who might need to spend the night. As it turns out, there is only one person who has made a reservation for Saturday night.  Of course there could be surprises, but that certainly leaves a room for the newlyweds.
• As for the meals, Francis has made mountains of food, and felt confident that we would have plenty left over to serve to this couple.  We had food on hand for their other meals, too.  It would work out.
• We were so well organized (due in large part to everyone getting sick) that I actually had time to prepare the room for the honeymoon.  We always decorate the room and provide them with a food basket.  We also give them a gift bag of toiletries because every newlywed couple forgets their comb or some other necessary item.  Their heads are in the clouds!

It helped that he talked about a miracle.  We like watching the God of the Impossible doing the impossible around here.  He told me that their wedding preparations had been a whole series of miracles.   This was just one more. 

 

I have vivid memories of that night.  My boyfriend had asked me to go on a walk with him.  We were Bible school students.  Walking fit the budget perfectly.  I walked alongside this tall, handsome, lanky young man as we crossed the street and went up into the hills.  Walking slowly on the sidewalk we began noticing the lovely homes all around us.  And then we stopped in front of one of the nicer ones.  The occupants hadn't closed their drapes yet.  Seated around the table eating a meal, they looked like something right out of a Norman Rockwell picture, depicting the American dream. We discussed how, if we became missionaries, we might never own a home like this.  As we stood there, looking at the American dream through that window, we deliberately and intentionally gave up the prospects of owning our own home.  We gladly made that sacrifice in order that others might learn about our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 But God...we read in His Word "Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.…"  It's true.  It's really true!  We are living proof of that.  Not only do we own an earth sheltered house that the boyfriend turned husband built for us, but today we live in a lovely two story, five thousand square foot home.  We have balconies and porches galore, six bedrooms, five bathrooms, a large 2,000 volume library, a spacious living room that seats 30, and a dining room where sit-down dinners are served to 30 people.  We have marble floors and plaster ceilings.  This palace we are living in is indeed a hundred times more than the house we were looking at in the hills across the road from our Bible school.

Joseph is working tonight.  Normally it is his night off.  But he requested to have Sunday night off instead.  His father has called a family meeting and he must be there.  The family head of any family can call a meeting whenever they want to.  Attendance is not optional.  They meet to address problems and solve problems. 

We can have family meetings, too.  Normally we have a meal and a meeting with our team and their spouses before we travel.  We formally turn over Shiloh to Guy.

But on Feb. 6th of this year we had a family meeting via an email.  It was after the big theft when Doris and Joseph almost lost their lives.  We were in America.  Guy had been keeping us informed.  Things were tense.  Nadege, Joseph's wife was mad at Doris because she gave the drink containing the drug to her husband to drink.  Doris was barely speaking to Joseph because he let the three grandmothers in the house. And nobody was listening to Guy as he tried to bring order out of chaos.  It was time to address the problem.  And so we wrote the following:

"Dear Doris, Joseph, and Nadege, plus Guy,Francis,  and Donald,
Greetings from America.  It is time for me to sit down and talk with all of you.  Papa Jim and I have kept quiet until now, but I cannot keep quiet any longer.  We are not happy with how you are behaving as a result of the horrible incident that we have all been through.

First of all I want to talk to Doris.  I do not blame you for not being happy with Joseph for opening the gate without permission.  What he did was wrong.  And I will talk directly to him soon.  But Doris you must forgive him.  You don't have any other choice.  That is what God wants you to do.  You are to love your enemies, do good to those who do bad to you.  Joseph is really NOT your enemy.  We are to forgive others so God can forgive us.  And if you do not forgive him, eventually you will become bitter and then you will no longer be useful for the Kingdom.  So forgive him.  It does not matter if he deserves to be forgiven or does not deserve to be forgiven.  Forgive him out of obedience to God and for your own sake.  Even if he never asks you to forgive him, you need to forgive him anyway.  You are the stronger Christian.  Don't let the devil pull you away from God.  We are in a battle.  The enemy hates us.  He wants to destroy everything we are doing for our King.  Don't let the enemy use you.  That is all I want to say to you.  Never forget that we love you very much.  And Guy will be replacing your salary if he has not already done so.  You will not suffer financially because of the theft.  We are counting on you to be godly.  Don't disappoint us.

Next I want to talk to Joseph.  What you did was very foolish.  We have told you many times that if someone comes without our knowing they will be coming, you are never to open the gate after dark without letting us know who is there and we will take the decision about opening the gate or not opening the gate.  You do not have the authority to do what you did and you know that very well.  You do not have the authority to give people a tour of Shiloh.  That has never been a part of your job.  You do have a responsibility to guard us against thieves.  If you had followed our clear training, you would not have had to suffer almost to the point of death.  None of this would have happened if you had only done your job.  Many, many people would fire you for what you have done.  We are not going to fire you.  But we want you to understand that when your boss tells you to do something or not to do something, and then you disobey clear directions (and Joseph whether you remember it or not, each of us have told you this several times) God calls that sin.  The Minister of Labor calls that a "faut grave"  (Sorry I do not spell French) and they would support us firing you.  But we are even more concerned about what God has to say.  You need to admit that you have sinned against God and against Doris in particular, and against all of us.  It would be very good if you were to confess your sin as sin and ask forgiveness of each of us, but especially Doris.  Your sin almost cost you your life.  Obedience to the authority God has put over you gives you great protection.  Disobedience leaves you exposed to all sorts of problems, as you now know.  Removing you from your job is the farthest thing from our minds.  But we do want you to learn this difficult lesson and never forget it for the rest of your life.  God has given you another chance at life.  This incident could so easily have cost you your life.  God wants you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him.  I am going to be very blunt with you.  You are a child of God, but you are a baby Christian.  It is time for you to get serious in your walk with God and to begin to grow up in Him.  Don't waste this opportunity.  Don't remain a baby Christian.  Run to Jesus.  Let Him transform your life and make you ever more useful for His honor and glory.  Joseph we have been praying for you in this area of your life since before we left Cameroon.  We are expecting great things from you.  Do not disappoint us.

And now a word for Nadege.  I am personally very disappointed with you.  You are acting like a child.  You are a mature adult.  You are a Bible school graduate.  You are without excuse.  You have no business being upset with Doris for giving the drink to your husband.  You are upset with her in an attempt to cover up the very real sin your husband committed.  You are acting like an unbeliever, not like a child of God.  Nadege you must forgive Doris for what she did.  Everything I have said to her about forgiving your husband applies equally to you.  You have no other choice.  If you do not forgive her, you will not only ruin your own life, you will ruin our ministry at Shiloh.  We cannot permit you to do this.  Let us be very clear on this, if you choose to continue to harbor bitterness in your heart towards Doris, you will eventually be responsible for your husband loosing his job.  We do not want that to happen, but you can force us to do that.  Be very careful.  Please Nadege, we are begging you, run to God.  Confess your sinful feelings towards Doris as sin.  Then turn to Doris and forgive her for what she did.  She was not sinning as we understand it.  She did something very foolish, but we do not see it as sin.  But you are sinning when you have a rift in your relationship with her over this incident.  Another thing we want to talk to you about is Guy's authority during our absence.  We made it very clear in our family meeting and dinner before we traveled that HE HAS FULL AUTHORITY.  We have complete confidence in him.  When he contacted you and told you the doctor wanted Joseph back in the hospital, you have one choice.  You must submit to Guy's authority in this situation.  You do not have the right to undermine his authority.  I don't care if Joseph is your husband.  You are out of line.  Please my sister, I am only talking to you very sternly because I love you.  I desire the very, very best for you.  Don't run away from discipline.  Accept this correction in the way it is intended.  Grow from this experience.  Become more useful for the Kingdom.  Be an example of godliness to all those around you.  Let your light shine brightly.  Don't waste this opportunity that God has brought into your life.  Please don't disappoint me any further.

Donald.  Dear Donald.  How we praise God for you.  Thank you so very, very much for being willing to fill in for Joseph.  We know this is not the kind of work you would choose to do, but we are so grateful that you are willing to serve our Master in humility.  You are a strong example to us.  We love you more than ever.

Please, each of you, don't do anything to make Guy's burden greater.  Pull together.  Start acting and looking like God's precious children.  Stop acting like the world.  Look for ways to help Guy. 

We love each of you and we wish we were with you.  In fact we would love to get on the next plane and come home, but we cannot.  We continue to pray for you.

With all our love and our prayers,
Papa Jim and Mama Alice"

 

The results were immediate and  long lasting.  Joseph stood and said he wanted to ask Papa Jim and Mama Alice to forgive him.  And our whole team, too.  But mostly he wanted Doris to forgive him.  Next it was Doris who stood and asked Joseph to forgive her.  From that day onward they both have grown enormously spiritually.  Guy was so grateful for the change in everyone.

 

Maybe you should try a family meeting when problems arise.  Just a thought.

You should have showed up for breakfast today.  It was just Francis and myself at the table.  Jim left early to go to Bethesda Hospital where he volunteers twice a week.  He fixes their medical equipment for them and they love him.  Doris is sick.  Guy was in town trying to rent chairs for our big party on Saturday.  So it was just our cook, Francis and myself.  We lingered at the table for an hour and a half.  The discussion was rich.  We talked about the importance in putting God first in your choice of a mate and in every aspect of your marriage.  We swapped stories of marriages that we know where things have gone very wrong.  And then we talked about other marriages that have been brought back from the brink.  So many girls are desperate to get married and will make all sorts of compromises to achieve their goal.  They ignorantly think marriage is the be all to end all and that having kids is a prerequisite to happiness.  Little to they realize until it is too late that marriage to the wrong guy is a living hell.  We both agreed that there is a great need for instruction on how to be married, after you say "I do".  So many make mistakes that, though small to begin with, can end in divorce.  

There was the pastor who wanted his new wife to attend all the meetings at church (and they had one meeting or another seven days a week!) plus keep house, do the market shopping, wash cloths and iron them, have nice meals ready for him when he comes home, etc.  She came to me just desperate.  They had been married 3 months and 9 days she said, and she didn't know how she could keep it up.  To top it off, she was pregnant.  We began praying together once a week (we don't live in the same town but we can talk to the same God at the same time and thus be united in prayer).  I've been phoning her regularly to check up on her and to encourage her.  We always knew that if nothing else worked, we would invite this dear couple to come to Shiloh for a marriage retreat.  It would be our gift to them.  But she phoned a couple of days ago, filled with joy.  She reported that things are going so much better now.  Her husband has changed.  He's learned that his wife cannot do everything at the church and everything at the home, too.  So often it's just ignorance.  A lack of teaching and training.  And so few good role models.

We could tell lots of stories about marriages we have helped.  We try to get to them before they are in trouble.  We also do pre-marital counseling.  Everything is always rosy and wonderful.  We try to bring them into a more realistic position.

In January I will be speaking to a group of couples at a local church.  We've been planning this for the past five months.  I'm looking forward to having an open and transparent talk with them.  People are always surprised that Jim and I still struggle in our marriage.  Nobody is perfect.  Not until we get to Heaven.

Well it's Sunday night and we have electricity, water, AND internet connection so it's time to write some more.  Sorry about yesterday, but we do live on the Dark Side of the Moon.

Yesterday morning we took off for a yard sale put on by a group of missionaries each year. It was a fifteen minute walk from Shiloh.   We had lots of fun, saw lots of friends, and came home with some useful goodies.  Doris hit the jack-pot as she is the same size as a missionary who was selling off a lot of dresses.  Francis found a pair of new shoes for his little girl for just 1.000 F.  Guy found a lovely quilt.  Someone gave Doris a free necklace and a headband (Pocahontas style).  She was thrilled.  People don't realize how little things can mean so much to a person.

When we got back home Guy took off to help his brother.  Arestid was "knocking on the door" yesterday afternoon.  It's the most scary part of the whole engagement, getting married process.  It starts with finding a girl you want to spend the rest of your life with.  He found a lovely young lady who is a strong Christian.  He brought her to us and very formally introduced us.  She's beautiful  But then a date is set and the man brings some of his family members, along with the "head" of his family, to visit the lady's family.  They come bearing a large bag of rice, wine, and lots of other food.  Money has been sent on ahead to the future mother-in-law.  She will buy special food and a group women relatives from their side of the house will cook a meal.  The gifts are brought into the house and set down in front of the father, or the male head of the family.  Then everyone sits down opposite each other and the grilling begins.  The girls family can ask any question they want.  At a certain point the girl herself comes into the room.  She is very shy and beautiful and does not say a word.  Finally her family head stands up and declares that they will accept to give their daughter to this young man in marriage.  Next comes the presentation of the "dreaded list".  The list is the official list of everything the family wants for the bride price.  They can ask for anything at all.  Unfortunately now days it gets pretty pricey.  Then they eat a meal together and the man's family leaves.  Soon they will have their family meeting to decide who will buy what item and when they will again meet to bring all the gifts together.  Once everything is gathered (and it can take months) a date is again set with the girls family.  Then a larger group of both families will gather for the paying of the bride price.  We might be invited to that event.  We were barred from knocking on the door as our white skin would have upped the bride price considerably.

Today things were quiet at Shiloh so I got to go to church.  I walked the fifteen minutes to church as was blessed as always.  We are so grateful for our wonderful church.  It's all in French so you probably wouldn't understand it.  One of the songs was "You are my delight" which describes my relationship with God perfectly.  I delight in Him in every way.  During announcement time we were told that the most important announcement is that Jesus Christ is coming back soon.  We were instructed to go back to our houses and get everything ready.  He's coming soon to take us Home to Heaven.  It may be today.  During the pastoral prayer he told the Lord "We have sinned.  We have rebelled this week.  Wash us, purify us, make us fit for You."  Can't you see why we love our church?  Jim stayed home to guard the house.  It's not safe to leave Shiloh empty.  He has a hard time hearing the French message as the acoustics aren't that great, so he guards and I attend church.  But often we are both at Shiloh serving others.

I trust your Sunday has been a blessing for you.

It's the 11th of December, 2015 and I am sitting down to start a brand new blog.  It was someone else's idea, but it seemed like a good one.  In fact, maybe this will satisfy my former sister-in-law and current friend.  She's been after me for a long time to write a book about our life.  But we've been too busy living it to take the time to do that.  She has even saved  all my old letters.  Amazing!  So this blog is dedicated to her in the hopes she will be semi-satisfied with my efforts.  Not a book, but close.

Today is an ordinary day.  In fact this blog is about an ordinary missionary serving an extraordinary God.  Our lives are made up of a series of ordinary days.  

We have electricity, water, and internet connection today so we're off to a good start!  In the land of plenty where you probably live, you would consider those things some of the basics of life.  But for us out here on the dark side of the moon, we consider them pure luxuries. Did you know that with electricity you can iron?  But it takes electricity and water to wash cloths.  Well, we could go back to washing by hand, but who wants to do that!  And without internet we cannot communicate with you.  

Solange came this morning.  She wanted to talk with Doris.  I think she's scared of me.  I'm pretty white.  But she told Doris that she is on her treatment (she has AIDS) and is doing much better.  She first came to us when her baby was so sick.  And then the baby died.  We gave her the money to go out to the village and bury her baby.  But her relationship is with Doris.  She wanted help starting a small business, selling lettuce and other small things. She asked for 30.000 F and so we gave it to her.  We have helped countless women start up small business over these last 24 years.  By the way, 30.000 F is about $60.  We will start buying our lettuce from her and wish her the very best.

Shiloh, our spiritual retreat center, is full.  Before one of the groups in the house leaves today, another man will arrive.  So we've asked one person to move out of their room at noon.  He was very agreeable.  Then we will  clean the room and be all ready when the next person comes in.  We also have a couple of seminary professors here in the house.  They are teaching at a seminary that is walking distance.  The seminary is from Bangui, Central Africa Republic.  With the war, they had to relocate here in Yaounde these last few years. The professors have lots of students visiting them so we are opening the gate all the time.

The house is all decorated for Christmas.  It's a pretty time of the year here.  We have a 7.5 foot tree that someone gave to us several years ago.  It adorns the dining room and is lovely.  Then we have a five foot tree that we bought from a missionary family that was returning to Canada.  It is in the library and is decorated with fun decorations from German, given to us by yet another family leaving for good.  In addition we have four nativity sets. My favorite one was made by a Muslim artist.  All the wise men are dressed in traditional Muslim robes.  Even the baby Jesus looks like a scrawny Muslim baby. And of course the cattle are long horns.

Well I have other things to do today so will slip quietly away.