The freezer is filling up.

     three mango pies

     two pans of lasagna 

     meatloaf

     five packets of tortillas

     and of course my three dozen oatmeal cookies

Tomorrow I'm making creamy pumpkin soup out of squash.  Don't tell anybody.  It's our secret.

And the list goes on.  It's almost like Christmas baking.  Each day Francis and Doris fill the kitchen with wonderful odors that waft out all over the house.

Today at breakfast we noted that two weeks from today we will be boarding a bus, with the team from America in tow, and we'll be heading out to the village.  We realized that we need to spend more time together in prayer for this important event.  While we've each been praying on our own over these months of preparation, it is time to lift our voices in a chorus of intersession.

We committed to pray:

     * for safety for the team as they take that long trip out here, and that their luggage           would arrive with them. 

     * for safety for all of us a we travel here in country

    * that the chief would not be drunk and that he would follow through on his committment to come to see the Christian movies we will be showing

    * for a real turning to the Lord on the part of the villagers.  We are longing for a spiritual break through.

    * that someone on the team would feel God's call on their life for missions

 So if you are in the area, come join us for a time of prayer each morning after breakfast, around the table.

We attended three different churches and then met back at Shiloh for Sunday dinner.  Spaghetti with a mango cobbler for dessert.  They raved on and on about how good the food was.  Ate like there was no tomorrow.  We finally figured out they have been eating Cameroonian food all week long.  Though they come from Holland, they found American cuisine to their liking.  And the change was quite welcomed.

Doris returned home to discover that her cousin, who had been visiting from Daoula, had left the house with some of her things!  She took two wigs (Cameroonians love their wigs) and all her best dresses. Included in that were three new dresses that my friend Sophy had given me some years ago.  I was saving them for a wedding.  So Doris had them packed away against the day when she and Ebogo marry.  Well, God is able to provide more and even better dresses for her.  He can do all things.  This thirty year old cousin calls herself a Christian, though she does not know the Lord.  She has lost the right to enter Doris's house ever again.  What a sad situation.  But how many times does this happen in the culture.

Tonight Jim and I are attending the biggest event of the year at the U.S. Embassy.  This is their annual Independence Day celebration.  The event is for the diplomatic corps.  All ambassadors, government big wigs, and tribal chiefs will be there.  And little old us.  We are the only missionaries on the permanent list.  It's a miracle that we ever get invited, but to be on the permanent list is a high, high honor.  The food is fantastic, the entertainment top flight, and the guests cultured and lovely.  Soon it will be time to get all dressed up and head off to the embassy.  We are honored to be in attendance.

Yesterday we realized that we have two and a half weeks left before the AIM Team arrives.  We've been scurrying around getting the place in order.  Doing all those extra things you do when company is coming.  Francis was at the market today to do the first of the shopping.  It rained up a storm while he was in the market.  Came home soaked to the skin.  It was dry here all day.  Tomorrow he and Doris start cooking and filling the freezer with things for the team to eat.  Sidney was doing more landscaping.  We will be so spiffy when they arrive, they won't recognize us!

Here we go again.  The Eyeglasses Saga, part two.

Egogo, who wears glasses, sent me to the best eye doctor in town.  An ophthalmologist in fact. And he sent me to the best (and highest priced) place in town to get the glasses made.  Two weeks later I'm back to pick them up.  It is EXACTLY the same as the bad shop.  Can't clearly see the distance and simply cannot read letters of any size.  Oh well!  They are going to send them back to get them re-done.  Yeah, right.  Like that's going to work.  Then I will go back and reject them and fight to get my money back.  I give up.  If this does not work out, I'm going to suffer along until we get back to the States and NEVER think of glasses in Cameroon again as long as I live!

I sat next to him in church.  Yes, that was me.  I really was in church.  First time in a month and a half, two months.  He took copious notes on the sermon, sang every song with enthusiasm, and in general, was happy to be there.

Lots of us have been working on him.  Witnessing to him since forever.  I had a study with him every Thursday night for quite awhile.  He was always interested, but not a believer.

He gave his heart and life to the Lord three weeks ago.  Been going to the Friday night Bible study.  But this was the first that he has made it to church on Sunday.  So glad I was there to sit next to him. And to keep right on praying for him.

Shiloh is full.  Every room has from one to three people sleeping in it.  And there is a left-over person sleeping in the living room.  On a mattress.  On the floor.  It gets like this sometimes.  

We filled two tables for dinner tonight.  Lasagna with mango pie for dessert.  Our guests devoured the food.  A great success.

Off to bed.  Recuperation time. We start all over again tomorrow.

She said we had been a big help to her.  She is grateful.  When she came to Shiloh she could hardly walk.  Talking was difficult.  All she wanted to do was sleep.  Sleep and eat and take her medication three times a day.  But gradually she has recovered.  And now she is going back to her son's home in much better shape.  We thank God for being able to help out in this small way.

My dear friend Mama Helen is here with us now.  When she arrived I hardly recognized her.  She is in very poor health.  The doctor says she must rest.  So she has come here to eat three meals and sleep most of the rest of the time.  We love her dearly.  Today she was talking about how difficult is was to become a widow with young children.  Francis, her oldest son, was only 12.  She had four older girls.  She had a 2 year old girl and a baby on the way.  Number ten.  She was only 40 years old and had been married for 20 years.  She really suffered.  Of course that was all before she knew the Lord.  She turned to the marabou and he gave no lasting help.  She's sixty now.  Been walking with the Lord for ten years.  He is her all in all.  She suffers much from poor health.  But we are doing our part to strengthen her. 

It makes me laugh to think about it.  I found out that you can buy rich potting soil from the young men who raise plants for sell.  There are many of them along the roadside all over the city.  So we went to one and bought two larger gunnysack type bags of soil for only 5.000 F ($10)  Then we took them home, dumped them out on the ground and began adding things.  We added two bags of ash from our burning barrel, a wheelbarrow load of soil that we had mixed with compost, and various and sundry pots of soil.  These were well mixed.  Next we began filling all our new pots.  We bought large ones at the suggestion of a friend with a green thumb.  She informed us that our plants would prosper if their roots had more space.  When we began transplanting our plants to the bigger pots, you could almost see the smiles breaking out on their faces.  After placing our new pots in strategic locations in front of Shiloh, we returned to our pile of soil.  We filled two gunnysack type bags with the leftover soil.  And I'm still laughing. 

It's a sad, though all too common, story.  Joseph, our night guard is also an electrician and electronics technician.  Guy, our assistant, hired him to do the electrical work on a house he is building.  He gave him 150,000 F ($3,000) to purchase the rest of the wiring for his house and all the outlets and switches.  Joseph went to town, purchased these items, and hired a man with a poos-poos to transport them.  They were trying to cross the street in heavy traffic.  The man managed to get across, pushing the poos-poos, but Joseph was blocked for awhile.  When traffic cleared and he got across the street, the man, the poos-poos, all the wiring, the outlets, and the switches had evaporated into thin air.  150.000 F gone, just like that.  There is absolutely no recourse for Joseph.  It's a major loss for Guy.  Welcome to Cameroon.

It started last night.  Bad stomach cramps.  Eventually figured out that I had picked up food poisoning.  It was a rough night.  Rougher day.  But things are starting to calm down now that evening is coming on.  Only the occasional stomach cramps left.  Lessening in strength, duration, and frequency.  Trusting tomorrow with be a normal day preceded by a normal night.  One can always hope.

Things got real screwy yesterday.  Electricity still off.  Our landlord came with a professor.  Silly me, I thought this was the leading electricity professor at the top university in Cameroon.  Turns out he teaches at the  high school level.  Seems to be a relative of our landlord.  Without so much as testing wire number one, he declared that all the wiring in our house is bad.  It is the wrong kind and installed in a bad way.  Very dangerous.  Fire could break out at any moment.  Burn the (cement block) house to the ground.  Burn all our treasures.  Serious problem.  But not to worry, he could save the day.  If our landlord were to pay him a mere 4,000,000 F he could remove all the wires in the house and replace them with new ones.  It would take a month to do the job, but he would be willing to tackle it.  That's $8,000 in U.S. money.  Slightly overpriced.  And couple that with the fact that the wires in the house are A-OK.  Jim tried to put in his two cents worth, but his expertise was not valued.

So today Jim asked Joseph, our night guard, who is also an electrician, to come and help him with more diagnosis.  They had already spent one day on the problem.  Sure enough, before long they discovered the problem.  And Joseph was able to fix it without spending one dime on the project!! The landlord was quite impressed and says he will not let the professor continue with his plans.  We don't know what will happen when he finally learns he is out 4,000,000 F.  Don't want to be around for that one!

So we have lights all over the house.  Fans.  Washing machine works.  Printer.  Computer.  Charging phones.  Do you know how many things depend on electricity?  It was only by using a generator that we kept from loosing a lot of frozen food.  Long live electricity!