Don't you just love it when God makes Himself so visible that even old grandmothers such as myself can clearly see Him?  It happened once again when we were recently in Eyene for our monthly visit.  

But to back up a bit and put things in context, this is a tight month here at Shiloh.  That is to say, with ever increasing ministry expenses in Eyene, we're pinching every penny twice.  And we are counting on our Faithful Father to carry us safely through to the end of the month.  He always does.  

Normally we should be buying lots of bananas and letting them get over ripe.  Then we peel them and freeze them.  That's what we do every year in the month of October.  That way, when November rolls around, we are all set to begin making banana bread and freeze it.  The end result is that we are good to go in December when we visit all our neighbors.  Each family gets a loaf of banana bread and either a gospel tract or a portion of scripture.  We figure it's an opportunity to use our white skin for the glory of God.  If we just passed out tracts, few would take them.  But American banana bread (not a part of Cameroonian cuisine) handed to the neighbors by a white lady, well that's a different story.

Now you can understand why I've been wondering how we were going to be able to freeze bananas this month.  But the Most High God, the True and Living God, the God Whom we serve, is so everlastingly faithful.  

As usual, we recently came into Eyene through the village of Polo, and stopped to visit Jean Claude and his family.  We were eager to see that new little boy who was born while we were in the village in September.  Ndzana II had told them we would be coming on that particular day, so everyone was waiting for us.   The new baby is adorable.  He weighed in on his birth day at a whopping 4 kilos.  That's 8.5 lbs. which is a big baby by American standards.  It's enormously huge by Cameroonian standards.  They named him  Emanuel.  What a great, great blessing this new little one is.  And to be born into a godly family.  He is blessed beyond measure.  We had the joy of presenting them with baby cloths which the team had brought out to us back in July.  

It is difficult for us to adequately describe the life of a subsistence farmer to those of you who live in the Land of Plenty.   They work extremely hard, but it is nigh unto impossible to get ahead in life.  Never in their wildest dreams did Emanuel's Papa and Mama imagine that their baby boy would be wearing high quality, brand new cloths from America.  They were overwhelmed with our gift to say the least.  And they said their "thank yous" in the only way they knew how.

While Mama Chantal and big sister Nadine were exclaiming over each little outfit, Papa Jean Claude left the room.  Soon he called Nadine outside to help him.  And in they came, bearing a large regime of plantains.  They set it down on their dirt floor in front of Papa Jim and Mama Alice, and turned and walked back outside.  Soon they came again, bearing a regime of bananas, and then a basin of avocados, and then came tangerines, and  finally, papayas.  WOW!  We learned long years ago that you cannot out-give a Manguisa.  Don't even try.

Did you see what I saw?   The Most High God, the True and Living God, the God Whom we serve, gave us an entire regime of bananas!  That's way over and above the 4-5 hands of bananas we should be buying this month.  And He gave them to us in October.  Not September.  Not November.  But exactly on time, just when we needed them.  Great is our God and greatly to be praised!