Monday, February 29, 2016

The Napoleonic Code.  Guilty until proven innocent.  You can languish in prison for a long time, waiting for your case to come before the judge and your guilt or innocence to be determined.

Francis has been phoning his brother Christoph from time to time for a long time now.  The call never goes through.  Maybe his phone isn't working?  He often phones Christoph's pastor.  Always the response is the same.  Christoph is fine.  He's busy.  No problem.  And then Mama Helen came to visit.  Of course she wanted to visit her son Christoph, too.  So the family piled into a taxi and went across town to his place.  They discovered he no longer lives there.  The neighbor told them that he has been in prison for three months.  What a shock!  Francis phoned his pastor who met them at the Kondengui Prison.  It's actually not far from us.  We've been inside that prison before.  It's a terrible place.  They were able to visit with Christoph and learn his story.  He's a pastor but drives a taxi in order to earn a living.  One day the taxi was stolen.  The owner had his three drivers arrested and put in prison.  Let the court system find the guilty.  

Today Francis left work early to go to the prison and try to sort out the problem.  His brother could spend five or even ten years in prison, waiting for his case to be heard.  The family does not have the means to pay bribes, nor do they want to participate in that type of thing.  Just as Francis was getting ready to leave Shiloh a friend from another town phoned just to see how he was doing.  When he learned Christoph was in prison, he immediately gave Francis the phone number of a man who works at that prison and can help them.  In order to visit your person in prison you have to pay money to the guard at the gate.  Once you are inside you have to pay another person to go and get your family member or friend.  And so it goes.  But with the  help of this friend of a friend, things should go better for them.  Francis wants to visit the owner of the taxi too, and plead for mercy.  He would like to try and release his brother just as soon as possible.

Christoph has lost weight.  The prison provides one slim meal per day.  The living conditions are deplorable.  He is not able to contact anyone, thus three months passed without the family learning where he is.  But Christoph is an evangelist.  He believes that God has put him in prison for a reason.  He spends all his free time sharing the gospel with his captive audience.  He knows he will remain at Kondengui just as long as God wants him to be there.  He is buying up this opportunity for the Kingdom of God.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

When he was five years old his family fell apart.  He and his siblings entered the foster care program.  At the age of eight he was in his fifth foster home and really didn't belong anywhere.  He ultimately was in nine homes before he graduated from the foster care system.  None of his foster families were church going people.  But as a little eight year old boy he was living near a church.  One Sunday he decided to visit the church, thinking that the church people would take him in and show him love.  Unfortunately it did not happen that way.  As he trudged back down the hill after church he told himself that God was not in that church, and he never went back.  Then at the age of 21 he told God that he was going to give Him one year to prove Himself to him.  If during that year God revealed Himself, and if God was worthy of this young man's respect, he would serve Him for the rest of his life.  He quit his job and hitch hiked all over the nation during that year, searching for God.  Near the end of the year God revealed Himself to the young man in a powerful way.  He began attending a street church called The Burning Bush.  He grew in faith and soon went off the Bible school.  It was there that he met his wife and they joined missions and came out to Cameroon.  

What an amazing God we serve.  We love our ministry here in Cameroon.  We get to hear stories like this all the time.  The God we serve can transform the most hopeless of situations, for His honor and glory.  He does it all the time.

Friday, February 26, 2016

I just love it when she comes to visit.  She is hands down my favorite lady in all of Cameroon.  She is so strong in her faith, she puts me to shame.  But she also encourages me to keep on walking with God, trusting in Him, no matter what.

Mama Helen had married young and had lots of children.  It was not a good marriage.  They were middle class people, living in a large house.  She had her own business and was pregnant with her tenth child.  And then her husband dropped dead from a heart attack.  There had been no warning.

The sorcerer arrived in the picture and frightened her to death with his tales of how each of her children were doomed to die, one by one.  Only he could save their lives.  It would cost a considerable sum of money of course, but her children were worth the sacrifice.  There were many visits to the sorcerer and much money changed hands.  Then when the business had to be gotten rid of and the house sold, they finally moved to another town.  They owned a smaller house there.  She began farming, living hand to mouth.  When all the money was gone she finally broke with the sorcerer.  She had lost all faith in him.  The years went by, hard years with not enough food to go around.  

As the children grew up they left home and began making a life for themselves.  Christoph, one of her sons, came to know the Lord.  He immediately thought of Mama Helen and all his brothers and sisters.  But they did not want to hear about this new God he had found.  The persecution was fierce.  And it went on for six long years.  Finally she realized that her son had found something. She needed what he had.  She gave her life to the Lord. Very shortly thereafter Francis put his trust in the Lord, too.  Mama Helen's mother began persecuting her.  "It's normal" she says.  "That's what I did to my son."  She keeps praying and believing that one day her mother will leave her traditional religion and come to know the living Lord.  

The enemy of our souls despises Mama Helen.  She has had so many things go wrong.  Many times her life has been at risk.  But always she clings to the Lord and moves forward.  Her faith is breathtaking.

Today she told about her trip down to Yaounde to visit her children.  She had told Francis that she would take the night bus.  And so when her bag was packed she asked a neighbor man to help her carry it up to the road where she would get a taxi.  He took the bag but then he disappeared.  She quickly realized that her bag was stolen.  She phoned Francis and he told her to wait until the morning and take the first bus out of town.  About an hour later there was a knock at the door.  It was the neighbor man, urging her to quickly come up to the road and get a taxi to the bus.  He said her bag was waiting for her there.  Sure enough, when she arrived at the road, her bag was sitting right there!  She realized the man had take her bag, looking for money.  By the grace of God her money was not in her bag.  He did not take a thing.  She declares that it was God alone Who protected her and brought her safely to her son's house.  

We could write a whole book about Mama Helen's stories, and each one ends with her giving praise to God for the wonderful way He takes care of her.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

She's up at 5 each morning.  Her brothers come over from their little studio apartment next door.  She has the bigger place with a kitchen, living room, bedroom and private bathroom.  Their day starts with devotions.  Since she's the strong Christian and it was her idea, she is in charge.  Nearly every day she stays after work to study and prepare for tomorrow's devotions.  She is very concerned about her brothers.  She wants more than anything that they would all walk well with the Lord.  Her other brother, Romeo does know the Lord.  But he's a pretty young Christian.  Their little brother Herman does not know the Lord.  But he is interested.  He is going to a church with a friend, but she wants him to start going to a better church.  One where the gospel is preached.  Romeo is in a good church.  None of them will go with her to church as they were told by the family some years ago that Doris was in a cult and they don't want any part of it.  But little by little they are getting to know who she really is in Christ.  They like what they see.  

They went through the book of Proverbs, the book of wisdom.  She wanted them to learn about God's wisdom and how it applies to the lives of young people.  Now she is teaching them about baptism.  They were all baptized as babies.  She wants them to understand what it means to be baptized after one joins God's family.  

They like her Bible studies.  Everyone is learning and seeing the value of being in the Word.  Maybe someday soon Herman will give his life to the Lord.
 

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Shirt tail relatives.  Not a common term where I grew up.  But we used it all the time.  We had a number of shirt tail relatives.  We knew them, knew their history, knew how they fit in the family.  But a lot of my friends growing up didn't know what they were.  We always had to explain "This is my mother's sister's husband's niece on the other side of the house."  I went to school with one of my shirt tail cousins.  We finally gave up and just called ourselves cousins.

For the uninformed, a shirt tail relative is not a blood relative.  They do not fit on the family tree.  But they are related through a relative.  Like my cousins cousins on the other side of the family.  Or my son's brother-in-law.  Or my brother-in-law's wife's parents.  And on an on it goes.   One can actually enlarge the family circle significantly through shirt tails.  

It was a shirt tail relative that changed everything for me.  I've been struggling through each day for two months now.  Barely out of bed for any time at all.  Hardly out of the house.  Went to Mbingo to see the doctor.  He couldn't find any cause for my extreme fatigue. Consulted with a doctor who was staying here at Shiloh when I came back to Yaounde.  Had more blood work done.  Nothing showed up.  In desperation I turned to one of our shirt tail relatives.  She's become quite the expert on a certain aspect of medicine.  Very well read.  We trust her judgment.  Sent her my lab results.  Received an immediate suggestion to tweak my medication.  Followed this advice.  Within two days the results started showing up.  

Day four (today) I was out of bed at six to let the guard out.  It's been a long time since I had the strength to do that.  Then I went to the kitchen to begin making bread for our guests.  Wow!  When did I last have the ability to do that?  Back upstairs for a shower.  Then it was time to make a luscious potato soup.  The bread was formed into eight round balls and set out for the final raising.  When they came out of the oven, golden and smelling so yummy, I cut the tops off each little round loaf.  Next I scooped out some of the bread, making a bread bowl for the soup.  Our guests went wild over their little soup bowls with the yummy soup.  They liked the rest of the meal, too.  

I am so grateful that our family stretches out to include the shirt tail relatives.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

This has to be the all time worst honeymoon in the history of mankind!  The couple eventually arrived at midnight plus 30 minutes.  We had given up on them and gone to bed several hours earlier.  Joseph showed them to their room and they began yelling at him!  They didn't like their room.  He didn't know what to do, but would not disturb us.  (Long live Joseph!)

Everything was ready for their breakfast, but we chose not to cook the eggs or make the coffee until we saw the whites of their eyes.  It was nearly ten when they came out of their room.  And they were not happy.  I found them giving our cook a piece of their mind, so I intervened and he quickly slipped away.  I finally told them I did not appreciate their insults.  They were free to leave if they wanted to.  They declared their intention to leave, but would come back another time to finish off their honeymoon.  I set down some conditions that they sort of agreed to.  After more verbal abuse they settled down to wait for breakfast.  Francis reported that they ate everything in sight.  Then they packed up and drove off into the sunset. We all agreed that it was the wife who was a real piece of cake!  Happy landings!

Monday, February 22, 2016

The surgeons left Shiloh at 3:30 this morning and we have not heard from them again.  So all's well that ends well.

It is after 8 p.m. and the weirdest honeymoon of all time has not begun yet.  If you read our blog from a month ago you will recall the man who came and booked his honeymoon and then phoned back a couple of hours later to apologize.  He was almost frantic that I forgive him.  He had been engaged to one lady and then met another one.  He said he didn't want to be married to the first one.  But he needed me to forgive him.  I never could figure out what was going on.

Then two days before the honeymoon was to begin the soon-to-be-bride phoned to say their plans had changed and they would come on Tuesday afternoon and not on Monday afternoon as planned.  But now it is Tuesday evening and there is no word from them.  We have put their meal away.  It's too late.  Actually since our big robbery last year we don't let guests arrive after 8 p.m. unless they are flying in from the U.S.

Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Public transportation out here is, in a word, unreliable.  We learned years ago to not clean a persons room when they left Shiloh if they were taking the train or plane.  That is to say flying on any one of the numerous African airlines.  Things are cancelled at the last moment.  Or they overbooked and you don't have a seat.  We wait until after they should have taken off before we consider they have really vacated their room.  It is not uncommon to receive a call wondering if our guest could stay another day.  Or two more days.

We were not surprised when the surgeons phoned from the airport asking for their room back.  Just one more night they said.  Later that turned into yet another night.  They are still with us, hoping to get out of here on Monday afternoon.  We are not holding our breath.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Well they've all gone now.  Except for the three doctors from Brundi who are busy eating lunch.  They have an afternoon flight back home.  Shiloh was full of surgeons all week long.  They have been in town for a big conference at the congressional palace.  

And of course the lights, water and internet are all working just fine!  We have spent the whole week being without one or the other.  These doctors were real troopers though.  Coming from all over Africa they were used to making do.  There were no complaints.

We are turning the house around and getting ready for the next honeymoon.  This is the man who was so strange.  His bride phoned last night to change their arrival date from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon.  They are doing their best to go down in our history as the strangest honeymoon ever.  We don't know for sure, but suspect she might be from France.  Her broken English was not typical of a French speaking Cameroonian, trying to speak English.

Life is never dull!

Thursday, February 18, 2016

They have been at it again.  The neighbors are encroaching on her property once again.  Thankfully there is a good neighbor who keeps her informed.  Doris and her brothers inheritance is under constant attack.  When their mother died in a car accident in France the family moved in.  It's a story as old as the Bible.  Widows and orphans always have been vulnerable to uncles and other family members, trying to take advantage of them.

First the family decided that Doris should be the representative for the mother's estate.  So her aunt helped her get a passport. The thinking was she would have to go to France to settle the affairs.  When it came time to pick up the passport, the aunt graciously offered to help her out.  Unfortunately her intentions were not honorable.  She stole the passport, hoping to use it for her own daughter.  When we came into the picture a few months later, we helped Doris get a new passport.  The stolen one was put on a list.  If it is used either in Cameroon or in France, the user will go directly to jail.  

One day a lady whom they call "Aunt", but is really a friend of their mothers, arrived at the bank posing as her sister.  She had false papers "proving" she was the inheritor.  The bank ushered her into the president's office.  He was in the process of completing paperwork to give her the mother's funds when an employee came into his office.  She announced there was another "Aunt" with another set of papers "proving" she was the inheritor.  The president invited her into his office.  When the two women saw each other a screaming match broke out.  Each insisted she was the true inheritor and the other was an impostor. The upshot of it was that the president had them thrown out of the bank and each barred from ever returning!

At this point it became imperative that Doris establish her legal right to the estate.  It would be a simple process of her coming before a judge with all the major players in the family and everyone declaring she was the one.  However with each person trying to get their hands on the funds, this was not an option.  They had to take the longer and more complicated route of Doris and her brothers declaring that she was the one they had chosen to be their representative.  During this time one of her three brothers died.  This further slowed the process down.  None of the family realizes that Doris has now been declared the legal head of the family and the only one with the right to touch the funds.   She has had to hire a lawyer to take care of paperwork on this side and the French side as well.

Since the mother's car was struck from behind by a bus, there is a large settlement from the insurance company.  The family understands this and that is what they are after.

They have tried one means after another to convince she and her brothers that they must take possession of the house.  They do not realize that the wheels are in motion to claim all the funds in France.  They think these children have no means to finish the house, so they are coming up with one scheme after another.  Their intention is to make the house livable and then sell it.  Of course the funds would mostly go to whichever family member manages to convince these orphans to follow their particular scheme.  Dorris has been in meeting after meeting over this.  She stands strong and her brothers remain united with her.

Nobody realizes that one day the money will be released to Doris and she and her brothers will then finish off the house.  It is in a good location, though too far out of Yaounde to be practical for them.  However the Catholics have built a school right across the street from the house.  It will be operational in another year.  This will be an ideal location to be used as a rental house for school teachers.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

The internet is back on so we are back in the blogging business.

The house is spilling over with surgeons!  They are in town for their annual Pan Africa surgeons meetings.  These are held in various member countries so it is a real honor to have them in Cameroon this year.   These surgeons are being housed all over the city.  Their meetings are being held at the Congressional Palace and is the biggest event going on at the moment.

One of these doctors is a good friend of ours.  He consulted with me when they first arrived and recommended some blood work, and thus started another adventure.  Life is never simple out here.  Monday found me at Centre Pasture, the best lab in town.  I took a number and settled in for the long haul.  Four hours later my number was called.  That meant I could advance to a bench in another location and begin a half hour wait.  Then it was my turn to go into one of the five little rooms where money is collected.  My particular exam cost 13.500 F ($24).  They told me to return on Tuesday before 7 a.m.  Two people stressed that I must be there before seven.  So I was.  Only to be told that my particular exam would not be administered until 8 a.m.  Many little children were getting vaccinations. Their screams could be heard everywhere.  OnDe little girl looked to be about three years old.  She was so darling.  She came out of the room with her little band-aid covering the injection site.  She held that arm out stiffly from her body as she bravely marched out with her daddy.

Promptly at eight I went into one of the little rooms and had two small vials of blood removed from my arm.  Then I was told to return at 2 p.m. tomorrow to get the results.  I'm praying that I will have everything in hand to show our doctor friend before he leaves when the week is over.  

Did I mention that nothing is ever easy here?
 

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Well, Wednesday morning started early with a hot shower!  Amazing!!  We did not eat breakfast in the canteen as we wanted to get an early start.  We were all eager to get back home.

We phoned Pastor Eugene as we drove out of Mbingo and agreed on a meeting place.  He too was coming down to Bamenda for the day.  Thirty minutes later we arrived at the junction where we were to meet and a few minutes later he drove up.  Guy and I jumped out of the car and greeted him warmly.  It had been some time since we had seen each other.  Eugene was happy to finally meet Guy's wife.  We gave him an envelope containing money from aprons we had sold for his wife.  And we got to see his car.  We had helped pay for that car.  We used to sell a lot of aprons at the U.S. Embassy.  But things have changed now, for which we are sorry.

Back into the car and off again to Bamenda.  It took us some time to find a place where we could find something to eat.  But finally we went to a bus station and had eggs and tea leaves. The roads in Bamenda are dreadful so it was slow going when we were once again on our way.  But eventually we left Bamenda, climbing to the top of the hills and starting back down to the lowlands and Yaounde.  About a half hour out of Bamenda we stopped again at a roadside stand to buy produce.  The region is very fertile and prices are good.  We stopped several times and filled the trunk and car up.  And then Marie began seeing rats for sale alongside the road.  That's right, rats!!  Turns out she grew up eating them and loves them.  I asked her if she had ever fed us rat before.  She assured me that she had not.  But I still wasn't sure I wanted to eat at her house again.  I began taking a survey and discovered that everyone eats rats.  They were large (about the size of a cat) and dead.  (OH ICK! was all I could think to say!)  After stopping several times and buying the larger rats, we cam upon some young men selling porcupines.  Turns out this is another favorite.  You live and learn.  One of the porcupines was fairly ripe, as we discovered after it was purchased and in the trunk of the car and we were again southbound.  Well in about 30 minutes we arrived at Makenene for our bathroom break and meal stop.  Guy bought plastic bags and double bagged his porcupine, which cut the odor considerably.  

When we crossed the Senega River the weather dropped noticeably.  About two hours later we arrived back home, tired but happy to be back.  Thankfully we had both water and electricity at Shiloh so I headed for the shower.  Jim had a meal waiting for me.  After eating and catching eachother up on all that had happened, I headed off to bed.  We had talked by phone each day, but there is nothing like a face-to-face.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Tuesday morning I was up at 7, took that cold shower, and arrived at the doctor's office for my  appointment at five to eight.  He ordered some blood work so I went to the lab.  So here I am, sitting there with a needle in my arm, filling up these little viles with my life's blood, and suddenly a mouse ran across the floor, up the wall, and disappeared behind a desk.  I mentioned it to the lab tech, but he didn't seem to care.  I guess we just live in harmony with nature.  I tried to visualize this scene at YOUR lab...but it was impossible to bring it into focus.

I waited around for a long time when the tech walked through the waiting room and told me it would be at least an hour more.  So I hunted up Eric and we went off to the canteen for breakfast.  This time I specified tea leaves with my eggs and bread.  I felt pretty smug about learning the local jargon so quickly.  But alas, my smugness was short lived when my tea leaves turned out to be Ovaltine.  Fortunately it was good, so all's well that ends well.  

Back to the waiting room where I found all my new friends, still waiting patiently.  Before long the doctor came along and told me to go back to my room and he would phone when the results came in.  So I did.  It was time for a nap.  Two hours later I woke up hungry and ready for a late lunch.  I phoned Eric and we went back to the canteen. I ordered cornchaf which turned out to be red beans and corn.  All corn here is what we call field corn in the U.S.  It's tough and chewy but you get used to it.  I had actually had cornchaf some years before but had forgotten what it was.  And this time my tea leaves turned out to be real tea made from real leaves.  

From there I went to see what had happened with my lab results.  The doctor had just received them so we sat down in his office to discuss the results.  They were inconclusive.  In the end he decided that I was getting older, and that was that.  All that way to discover that I am getting older!  Since I didn't agree with the diagnosis (I mean I AM getting older, but that does not account for the endless fatigue) so I decided to go back home and do research on the internet.

Guy and Marie had better results that I did.  They were given a program to follow and one more test to do in Yaounde.  We were glad we had gone to Mbingo for their sake.

We all met back at the canteen at 7 p.m. for our last meal.  Then off to bed with plans to get an early start in the morning.  We were heading back home.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Eric arrived at 7 a.m. and we loaded my bag into the car.  Off to Guy's to pick he and Marie up.  And then we headed to Santa Lucia where all four of us traipsed inside to buy breakfast.  Between the deli bar and the bakery we each found something appetizing.  By 8:30 we were across the city and heading out.  Before long I fell asleep.  Didn't even see the Sanaga River.  And that's the way the trip went, sleeping for a couple of hours, awake for awhile.  We traveled without incident.  We arrived at Makenene around 11:30 and stopped for lunch.  That's where the pay toilets are.  With the semi clean facilities.  No toilet seats of course.  We each settled on something for lunch and bought drinks.  Thirty minutes later we headed back to the car.  About an hour later we arrived at Baffoussam where the roads were terrible.  Millions of serious pot holes.  We wove in and around them, avoiding as many as possible.  Eric said we were dancing with the road!  He learned to drive taxi in Baff. so knew the area well.  He told us that in those days you could travel from Baff. to Bamenda in 25 min.  Today it takes 2 hrs. and 30 min.  Quite a change.  Back when he was a little boy it took four days of serious travel to get from Bamenda to Mbingo Baptist Hospital.  Today it is a 30 min. drive.  Bamenda is a good sized city in a bowl, surrounded with high mountains.  The roads improved as we climbed out of Bamenda, and in no time at all we arrived at the hospital.  It was 4:30 p.m.  How long does it take to drive to your doctor's office?  

We discovered that Guy and Marie had rooms in the guest house, but there was nothing for us.  But we were able to find two available rooms in the new student hostel.  Everything was lovely and well thought out.  But the execution of the plan involved the usual issues.  For example the toilet ran 27/7.  The shower dripped all the time.  Sometimes there was hot water and sometimes there was only cold.  We took showers either way.  My door would not close without being locked.  And the bathroom door was too large for the opening.  I saw a couple of months worth of tweaking that Jim could do, if only he were available.  Since we didn't have reservations to eat at the guest house, we went to the canteen.  They offered such delectable menu items as cornchaf, water ero, foo foo and jama jama, ah-choo, and on and on it went.  I ordered tea.  It didn't take me long to discover that tea was simply the act of drinking something hot.  I needed to specify "tea leaves," "Ovaltine," or "Nescafe."  Tea leaves contained enough leaves to read your future.  But it was hot and tasty.  At 8:30 p.m. we each headed for our beds and a good nights sleep.  Our doctor appointments were for 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning.  I'll be back Wednesday evening.  In the meantime I'll be off line.  

I'm heading up to Mbingo Baptist Hospital.  It's a nine hour drive.  We are hiring a car to drive us all the way this time.  I'm too weak to ride the bus.  Guy and Marie are going with me.  We all will have doctors exams.  For myself I have been under the weather for nearly a month and a half now.  I cannot get my strength back.  It's time to see a doctor and find out what is going on.

Jim will hold down the fort.  With Francis.  And Doris.  And Joseph at night.  They will be super busy with people coming and going and with making meals.  There is a group of top executives from a mission that will be holding meetings and eating meals here for three days.  

Until I return...

Saturday, February 6, 2016

The house has been full in these days.  In fact overflowing.  Last night and the night before we had people sleeping in the living room on the couches!  This morning we made breakfast for seven people.  Two guests had already gone their separate ways, one to Central Africa Republic and the other to Maroua.  We've been turning the rooms around pretty fast.  How we thank God for water and electricity so we can do laundry.  It takes a lot of sheets and towels to run a spiritual retreat center.

Friday, February 5, 2016

We're thinking about food and menus in these days.  How to make eating at Shiloh more exciting and inviting.  It's paying off big time.  We're getting rave reviews from our guests.  They call us a 5 star restaurant now!  Can't say we've earned all five of those stars, but maybe at least three.  It really does not add much to the cost.  Just a few tricks here and there.  First off, we make sure we have four courses.  That in itself makes it fancy.  Then we go all out on the place setting.  We use pretty place mats on top of a table cloth.  It defines the space for each person.  Cloth napkins are a must.  Napkin rings, too.  And our fanciest dishes.  If the same guest is eating multiple meals, change the dishes around.  We have numerous sets.  And use crystal and good silverware, too.  Then we start with a soup course.  We have this terrific chicken soup recipe that we developed several years ago.  It's easy, economical, and we make up a big batch and freeze it.  We make it two or three times a year, depending on how many meals we are serving.  Garnish is important.  We use chopped home grown chives on top of grated cheese.  And we serve it with homemade sour dough french bread and butter.  Filling but not terribly expensive.  We also serve homemade tomato juice which is a bi-product of our homemade tomato sauce.  We add salt, lemon, and fresh ground pepper corns.  Just a dash of cayenne pepper spices it up a bit.  We serve a small glass.  Just enough to give a lift to the soup and bread course.  Then it's salad.  We do a great tossed salad complete with our own thousand island dressing.  We invented the recipe years ago because it was not available in town at any price.  We've actually become well known for it.  Then the entry.  Something good and filling.  Maybe it's lasagna, or spaghetti, or chicken pot pie or enchiladas or a whole list of other possibilities.  We top the meal off with the dessert course which is most often fruit.  We are blessed with a good variety of tropical fruit.  Or if we are short on any one kind of fruit we resort to a yummy fruit salad which is always a hit.

And there you have it.  But we are thinking of adding in homemade bread bowl soup. One recipe of bread (normally two loaves) makes eight bread bowls.  We could serve a wide variety of cream soups.  We are thinking of serving that tomorrow night if we can find the time to make the bread.  Phone ahead to make reservations for a meal.  Our table tends to fill up pretty fast at certain times.  But we would love to wow you.  It's fun.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Birthdays, anniversaries, special days.  Today is Dan and Julia's special day.  21 years ago we gathered together at a church in Tucson, AZ to witness them say their vows to each other.  How quickly the years pass by.  Twenty one years later they have seven kids, two cats, and a dog.  But they are still at the same location.  They are the stable ones in the family.  Someone has to be.

How well we remember the wedding of our oldest.  People dubbed it the wedding of the grandpas.  Julia's grandpa gave the wedding sermon.  Dan's grandpa had the  opening prayer.  And his other grandpa had the closing prayer.  There was a great grandpa and another grandpa in the audience if memory serves well.  

The bride was radiant, the groom was handsome.  They were so young.  Only 23 and 21.  But they had been dating for seven years exactly.  He took her to a young people's Bible study at a local church that first date.  The former youth pastor returned to Arizona to do the honors.  He told us about their dating conduct.  They were exemplary.  

What will the next 21 years bring?  Surely they will be grandparents long before then.  Probably the nest will be empty.  Odds are the nest will be in the same location.  They love their land and are perfectly content to live out their days there.

Congratulations!  We are proud of you and proud to be your patents.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Eric.  The very name brings a smile.  Because he is always smiling, always cheerful, always looking on the bright side.  He's our favorite taxi driver and a strong believer.  Today we spent the entire day together.  Guy is on vacation so Eric went into every store with me. He's very protective, quick to open doors and carry packages.

We got to talking about his relationship with our Lord and he told me an interesting story about his life.  His father, a Catholic, married his mother, a Muslim.  They had three children.  Eric is sandwiched between two sisters.  The marriage was not a good one.  Eventually the mother left the home and took up with another man.  She had a son with him who turned out to be a very violent and bad person.  But back when Eric was growing up, because the mother was a non-practicing Muslim and the father was a devout Catholic, it was the father who took charge of the children's religious upbringing.  Mom never joined them at church.  She had no use for God or for Allah.  

Eric said he always had an interest in God, even when he was little.  He was searching for more, confident there was more to God.  So when he was an adolescent and someone invited him to their church, he was eager to attend.  It was there he heard the gospel for the first time.  It tugged at his heart.  He knew this was what he had been looking for all these years.  Eventually he gave his life to the Lord and everything changed for him.  Then his older sister found the Lord and is a strong and vibrant child of God to this day.  She has been a great encouragement for him.  The younger sister has no serious interest in God.  At one point Eric felt convicted about his half-brother so invited him to move in with him.  But it didn't work out.  The brother's life was just too different.  Nevertheless Eric had several opportunities to share the Lord with his brother.  He feels good about that.  At least this young man knows the way, if he ever decides to come to Christ.

Eric eventually met his wife in church and they were married.  His father died and three years later his mother also died.  Eric and his wife have never been able to have children.  It has been seven years.  But he has a wonderful attitude.  Eric says that God knows why and it is just to keep on following Him.

Every time we see Eric he always says this is a wonderful day because it is the day the Lord has made.  Or he might respond to the "How are you?" question with "Fantastic!  God is in control.  I have no complaints."  He is an encourager and a dear brother in the Lord.