Death is so final.  In the U.S.  In Africa.  Wherever, whoever, whatever age you are.  There is no going back and having a second chance at life.

We just received word that a Cameroonian man whom we know has died.  He will be buried this Saturday out in his village.  He worked for our former mission for ten years.  I was his last boss.  Sadly, it was discovered that he had been stealing from the mission for many years.  One of my first jobs when we arrived out here in 1991 was to participate in an investigation into this suspected theft.  Another lady and I did all the research and unearthed the fact that he had stolen a great deal during the last five years of his employment with the mission.  We were too sickened to dig through the records of his first five years.  We didn't want to know. As his direct supervisor I was part of the group of six who had to confront him with all that we had uncovered.  He declared that "the Judgment Seat of Christ will reveal my innocence."  And yet his guilt was all there in black and white.  He had to go.  

It was a dreadful way to begin working in a new country.  While not new to missions, we were new to Cameroon.  The better part of six months later, with the coaching of another, this man wrote a letter to the mission detailing all that he had stolen.  Amazingly he confessed to everything we had uncovered.  His motives were not pure however.  He had mistakenly been told that the mission would certainly hire him back if he were to "tell all".  This did not happen.

Fast forward to 2018...27 years later.  Sadly his life ended without his ever coming to know our Lord and Master.   How tragic.  For him Eternity in Hell has already begun.  There is no going back and having a second chance to accept our Savior.  Death is so final.  And we ache all over when we think of him.

It's amazing how God works.  He's in all the details of our lives.  

We learned from Dorothy that when she has to go to her relative's house to spend the night because Shiloh is full, she joins them on a double bed mattress.  There is her sister's 20 something year old daughter, 15 year old daughter, and 5 year old granddaughter, all sleeping on their double bed mattress on the floor.  So when Aunt Dorothy shows up she gets to sleep cross way on the bed, down at their feet.  

When we learned of a missionary family leaving Cameroon for good who was selling their queen size bed frame and mattress for an incredibly low price, we jumped at the chance to buy it.  We thought we would be buying it for the three sardines.  When Dorothy learned of our plans, she immediately claimed the bed.  She said that she would tell her nieces that it was her bed but they would get to use it, too.  

Today when we picked up the bed, we brought it first to Shiloh.  Papa Jim wanted to set it up and check it out.  He wanted to be sure there were no problems with the bed before it went to the nieces tiny studio apartment.  So he and Dorothy set it up on our side porch and she laid down on it to try it out.  Was it ever comfortable!  As she was getting up off the bed she told us that if there was a way to enclose the side porch she would turn it into her bedroom.  That way she wouldn't have to be moving from one room to another inside Shiloh, depending on the needs of our guests.  Sometimes she even moves to the living room floor and sleeps on a single bed mattress.  And sometimes it is off to sleep with the three sardines. After much discussion and considering the pros and cons from every angle, we have come up with a way to make a make-shift bedroom on the side porch for Dorothy.  She is delighted, excited, overjoyed, and ecstatic, and is certain she won't sleep a wink as she dreams of having her very own room.  And we are going to bed in awe of the Almighty.  Once again He goes before us, providing for us in ways we could never imagine.

On Thursday little Samuel was sent home from school.  Turned out he had come down with malaria.  On Saturday his mother Ingrid and baby sister Blessing both contracted malaria.  And now today, Monday, big sister Deborah is in bed, sick with malaria.  Francis is the only one in his family who is well.  Somebody has to stay upright.  

Last night Joseph came to work not feeling too well.  In the middle of the night he spiked a temperature which broke a few hours later.  He's not at work tonight.  He has malaria.  

'Tis the season.  That's right, the long dry season is officially underway.  It's a time when many people get malaria. 

We are in the midst of decorating Shiloh for Christmas.  One of our guests came back into the house this afternoon, saw a tree being decorated in the living room, and said "Long live the decorations!"  He's a professor at a local seminary and has stayed at Shiloh many times over the years.  We've never known him to be demonstrative before.  He gave us a good chuckle.  Tomorrow we are going into the library to see if we can decorate that tree.  We're saving the really big one which lives in the dining room for the last.  We have a group coming on the 29th so our goal is to have the house completely decorated before they arrive.  In addition to the three trees, we have four nativity sets, red bows for our giraffe to wear, poinsettias, garlands for the stair banister, and other festive things as well.  By the time we are finished decorating, Shiloh will be at her prettiest.  And Shiloh will remain breathtakingly beautiful until January 1, 2019.  "Long live the decorations!"
 

Cameroon culture is about as far from American culture as you can get and still be on the same planet.  In some ways that is.  Of course there are similarities, too.  But if one is going to move between the two cultures one must learn some basics about the major differences, or it isn't going to work.  We have a friend who has just won the visa lottery.  He has an opportunity to go to America and ultimately get a green card.  This is a young man we knew briefly twelve years ago.  He was approximately ten years old at the time.  Now he is back in our lives via email (he's living outside of Cameroon, studying to become an airline pilot) and he's making every mistake possible.  Since we cannot sit down and talk face-to-face with him, we are not able to accurately discern what kind of person he has become.  There isn't that give and take that is so vital to relationships.  I know that in these modern times of social media, people don't really worry about deep relationships, but we are old fashioned.  Frankly we refuse to keep up with the modern trends when it comes to superficial relationships.  So here we are with this young man writing to us several times a week.  He's our new best friend.  His English is limited so we are not always sure exactly what he is trying to say.  And now after less than a month of this, he has started asking us for money for this, that and the other thing.  You can do that in his culture.  It's not offensive.  There is a way to handle that direct approach in the culture without breaking the relationship.  His requests could be genuine, or not.  There is no way of knowing since we cannot talk direct to him.  It is very easy to get sucked into his pleas for financial help.  Been there, done that.  But we are much more cautious today as a result of many bad experiences.  We have no intentions of responding to his every request for money.  Now that we have learned he has won the visa lottery, we are choosing to give him advice on how to function in American culture without being offensive.  That is all the "help" that we are giving him.

Happy Thanksgiving!  We've had a wonderful time with our friends around the table.  The food was extraordinary, the fellowship uplifting, and the pies to die for.  We went upstairs for a thanksgiving service in the library after stuffing ourselves with turkey and dressing and all the trimmings.  We focused on our Lord and all He has done for us this past year and beyond.  We talked about His mercy and the many ways it impacts our daily lives.  We sang a number of wonderful hymns and enjoyed a variety of special music, including a flute quartet.  And then it was back downstairs to feast on four kinds of pies.  Yum!

  

One of the high points of the day was a pint size pumpkin named Miracle.  She was her mother's eighth child and had a twin brother.  The mother died in childbirth.  The family could not keep her, so a fifteen year old pregnant sister and her father took she and her brother by boat across to Nigeria to an orphanage.  Sadly, part way across the river the father and the brother drowned.  She was saved by her older sister and brought back to her village.  Her family still didn't know what to do with her.  When our friends learned of her plight, they took her into their hearts and home.  She has the biggest eyes and the biggest smile.  She is a delightful child.  They promptly named her Miracle because her life is one big miracle.  

 We will eat breakfast together in the morning (including waffles) and then our friends will travel back home to Bafia.  They are missionary refugees from the village of Sabga, up in the mountains above Bamenda.  Everybody is busy learning French and asking God how He wants to use them now.  After they leave we will pull out the Christmas decorations and officially begin the Christmas season.  We have three trees to put up this year.  Fun!

Many, many years ago, when we got married, I knew how to boil water.  Oh, and I could also make a Thanksgiving dinner from scratch.  That's right, everything from the turkey and dressing to all the pies.  

When my oldest sister was nineteen  she asked our mother if she could make the Thanksgiving dinner all by herself.  Our mother was not a cook so she was happy to turn the chore over to someone else.  The following year when my middle sister was nineteen our mother let her know it was her turn to cook the Thanksgiving dinner.   This was now our family tradition.  So that next year when I was nineteen of course it  was my turn to cook the big Thanksgiving dinner.  I pulled out all the stops.  I cooked for an entire month and froze things.  I made place  cards and menus.  I posted house rules and made everyone dress for the occasion.  I invited relatives.  You see, I was trying to impress everybody with my new found skills.   I had inherited my mothers cooking skills, or lack thereof.  My meal was a smashing success.   But I still didn't like cooking so reverted back to boiling water.  Period.  

To this day cooking is still not my thing.  Except for Thanksgiving dinner.  I just love preparing that feast.  So we are having lots of fun getting ready for the big event on Thursday.  We are right on schedule.  It should be a smashing success.  

Dorothy is soooooo happy to be home.  She is embracing all of us.  Today she got word that the village where the wedding was held was attack by the government. They flew over in a helicopter, dropping grenades.  It is a dangerous place to be.  She has no plans to return any time soon.   

We spent the day getting ready for Thanksgiving.  We've got lists of things to do each day in order to be ready on time.  We are having a grand time working and visiting and preparing for a wonderful feast. Now it is time to take our tired bodies to bed.

She arrived back home around 8 p.m. tonight.  We have been praying and praying and praying for her the whole time she has been gone.  And she came back with a story to tell.

Dorothy left Shiloh 4 p.m. last Tuesday.  She caught the night bus to Bamenda and arrived safe and sound the following morning.  Some were trying to get cars up to the village where the wedding was taking place (not her parents village) but she decided to wait until the morning.  But on Thursday morning taxis were simply not going that far.  She managed to get as far as four corners in Bambwi.  She was with four of her younger cousins.  They decided to start walking since they could not find a car going their way.  So they walked and walked and walked and finally arrived at Mbingo Baptist Hospital.  Dorothy was worn out by that time and called it quits.  They all agreed that she should not continue.  They kept hiking and finally found a moto to carry them into the village.  They arrived just as the wedding was breaking up, so they missed the whole event.  But the bride was glad that they had tried, and she knew that Dorothy had made the grand effort, too.  

While at Mbingo Dorothy discovered that a pastor who was a close relative of her late husband had died and was going to be buried there the following day. But her main concern was getting into Belo to visit her elderly mother.  Eventually she found a car that would take her to the entrance of the village but no farther.  She discovered that all cars and motos were charging double on the price.  When she arrived in Belo she was shocked at what she discovered.  How quickly the jungle had reclaimed the village.  Tall grass (taller than her head) was growing everywhere, even into the road.  Cars could not drive through the grass.  She began walking up the mountain on the paved road, but mostly she was walking on grass.  It was not easy.  Finally she arrived at her mother's house.  

The next morning she discovered that a young lady had died and the body was being brought back into the village for burial.  She walked down to the compound to see if she could help.  When she arrived the word reached the family that the girl's father had been killed by the Ambazonians.  In fact they killed five other young men too.  There was a war going on between them and the military.  The military managed to find and kill a man the Ambazonians called "Colonel".  He was their big leader.  He was the one who had killed a pregnant military lady at the last check point before Mbingo along with another military officer some months ago.  The officer was a child of God.  The military has been searching all over the mountains for the Colonel, and now they had him.  They took pictures of his body to show the General in charge of that area. He confirmed that this was indeed the Colonel.  So they shot him some more and cut his body into pieces.  They did all to prevent the Ambazonians from getting his body for burial, but in the end they captured the remains.  

Meanwhile Dorothy ran back to her mother's house for safety.  A lot of fighting was going on.  She said they were using automatic guns.  Finally a shot penetrated the walls of the house.  Dorothy was very disturbed by that.  She told her mother that she needed to get out of the village.  She is causing all of her children to worry.  She has no business staying in the village.  Her mother said that she didn't like it that Dorothy came to visit her.  It was too dangerous for a visit.  But she personally is just fine.  They will not kill her because she is an old lady.  Their war is not with her.  Dorothy pointed out that if the bullet had entered the house lower down, the mother would be dead.  But she would not hear it.  She is confident that she alone is safe because she is old.  She does not want her children coming into the village any more.  So Dorothy remained pinned down in her mother's house all of Friday.  

Then on Saturday morning at 6 a.m. she began walking out of the village.  She joined a group of others who were trying to get out any way they could.  They took trails through the forest and finally reached Mbingo at 11 a.m.  Dorothy went to every car and asked for a ride to Bamenda.  Nobody wanted to take her as it was not safe.  Her husband's relative was being buried at that time.  She learned that the cars travel in a caravan for funerals and will not take off alone.  Finally someone suggested she talk to the driver of the hearse.  Once the body is removed for burial, the hearse will return to Bamenda empty.  She made arrangements with the driver to leave immediately for the city.  She had to pay an awful price to get out, but she was happy to do so.  There were five of them who squeezed into the back of the hearse.  Finally she arrived safely in Bamenda, spent the night at her brother's home, and took the bus to Yaounde this morning.  

She is just so glad to be safely back home at Shiloh.  She's exhausted, well traumatized, and regrets that she tried to go to the wedding.  I told her to sleep in in the morning, but she is eager to get back to work and back to normal.  She said the guns were the worst.  The people up there have gotten used to guns going off any old time, but she does not want that to become normal for her. 

You should have seen the celery in the market today.  It was fantastic!  Normally we get these spindly things that are a sorry excuse for celery.  But today they were perfect for making stuffed celery.  Which is why I needed them.  We were contacted yesterday by a group of five adults and one baby to see if they could stay here at Thanksgiving and share the meal with us.  So of course this necessitated a quick run to town for turkey and all the trimmings.  I went to three stores to find little packets of walnuts for the Waldorf salad.  That comes from my families Thanksgiving dinner.  The turkey is not a butterball admittedly, but it is better than nothing, which is what every other store was selling.  It came in from France and will have to suffice.  I may add a chicken just to be sure.  We are going to have apple, pumpkin, mango, and lemon meringue pies.  Yum!  I can hardly wait.  Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday.  You cannot celebrate the day with anyone but Americans.  So Happy Thanksgiving all you Americans!

I've been praying for her for several years and today we got to meet her.  Ezekiel brought his wife of less than two weeks over to meet us.  She is from his village and is just lovely.  She was a student in Bambwi, but her school closed down because of the fighting.  But God brought her a husband instead.  And yesterday a miracle happened.  They were granted visas to go to America.  That is an unheard of gift from God.  He was in the states two years ago when Daniel got married, so he can easily get a visa to go back.  But for her, that is really an impossibility.  They reported that over twenty people were applying for visas and only five were granted.  So you see, it is not automatic.  You pay an awful fee to apply and then get turned down.  We are very happy for Ezekiel.  He is a lovely brother in the Lord who works for a group of missionaries.  He is often here at Shiloh.  And now he comes with wife.

Today was my monthly cooking club.  We had a man demonstrating for us today.  This is the first that a man has been in attendance.  He taught us how to make a recipe that he sort of made up.  He calls it pork  and prunes in cream sauce.  He added a couple of tablespoons of whiskey and let it catch on fire.  It was all very exotic.  The alcohol all burns off but it gives a nice showy effect.  I think I will pass on this one!  I can see myself burning my arms and my eyebrows and then all my hair!!  We'll stick with nice tame things.  But it did taste good.

Yesterday we went into town to update our immunizations.  We went to the Louis Pasture Center first and were able to get meningitis injections.  They were very expensive, but the good news is that there is a new kind of shot that is once for life, so that's the last we will ever have to have.  Then it was on to the Red Cross to get typhoid vaccinations.  This has to be repeated every three years.  Typhoid is pretty awful so we don't mind the inconvience.

Today I went across town to the dentist.  I had a 40 year old filling fall out of my mouth last month.  Since there was no pain associated with it, I was able to wait until we could fit this into the budget this month.  The dentist removed the part of the filling that was still in the tooth and put a provisional filling in.  I will return on Monday for the actual filling.  Forty years from now I plan on being in glory, so this should be the last time I have to deal with that particular tooth. 

So I guess we've had our thousand mile check-ups.  We should be good to go now until the next breakdown!

She left at four this afternoon and already Shiloh seems empty. Dorothy has only been with us for five months but she has worked her way into our hearts and our lives.  She is such a valuable worker.  She does so many little things to make our lives easier.  For example, she is always up by 5:30 a.m. so she lets Joseph out the gate at 6 a.m.  That means we get to sleep in.  And she is here after four when everyone goes home, so she opens the gate every time until the guard comes back at 6 p.m.  She makes early breakfasts for our guest.  And then she gets breakfast started for our team.  She takes the cloths off the line after hours if they haven't dried by quitting time.  And the list goes on and on and on.  But her niece is getting married this weekend and she wanted to be there for the event.  First they will go into the village to pay the bride price, or in this case, receive the bride price.  The following day they will go before the mayor for the civil ceremony.  And then there is the church blessing.  Dorothy will get to see lots of relatives.  And her mother.  She wants to see her again and sit down for a long talk.  She asked for an advance on her salary but we gave the money as a gift.  Not necessary to pay it back.  Just before she left I gave her additional money so she could buy food on the trip up to Bamenda.  She was overwhelmed.  Told me I was a good mother.  We gathered in the living room for a time of prayer for Dorothy.  You see, it's not just safety on the road for this long and sometimes dangerous trip.  There is still a war going on up in the North West Region.  They were burning houses and crops in her village once again last week.  But her brother has advised her to keep phoning the family to see how things are.  If at any time during her trip they tell her that fighting has broke out again, she will get off the bus and come back to Yaounde.  We wish her the best.  She has earned this time off.  And she needs to connect with family and friends and her mother.  But we are eager for her return.  She is so very valuable.

When it comes down to it, it's a clash of culture.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  Don't know if others are seeing it that way or not.

Last Friday Charles Wesco was buried in a private, by invitation only, event.  However both his church and the funeral parlor were inundated by phone calls.  People were insisting that they had to know when, where, and what time he would be buried.  The church and the funeral parlor politely invited them to the memorial service that was held at 1 p.m. today at his church.  But this was not satisfactory news.  People insisted that they had to be at the burial, too as they were family.  Cameroonian family that is.   Mind you, they did not know Charles Wesco.  Had never heard of him prior to his death.  But they are family.

 Here in Cameroon it is very important to see the deceased.  Or at least a picture of him in his casket.  And to attend the burial is extremely important.  They need to show their respect and the family needs to see them there.  A memorial service is outside of their cultural norms.  It just doesn't cut it.

So these Cameroonians were viewed as obnoxious and rude by Americans.  But really, it was just a clash of culture.  In the end they had to content themselves with the memorial service.  While we haven't heard, I am sure they were there in number.  In fact the word went out on social media that all Ambazonians should attend in order to prove that it was the Cameroonian military that killed Charles.  How that would prove anything is beyond me.  Hopefully they were not disruptive.

This morning we served breakfast to two guests at 7:45 a.m.  At ten a.m. a family of five left Shiloh to return to their home.  We then cleaned the three bedrooms they had occupied last night.  And throughout the day we have washed six loads of laundry.  It's Sunday.  The day of rest!

Last time we saw him he was an eight year old kid with an older and a younger brother.  Now he's 20 years old!  It was amazing talking with this young man.  We remember him very well, now that we see him.  We worked with his parents briefly, doing evangelization in the Manguisa village of Nkolinga.  He has grown into a strong believer.  It was delightful talking with him.  We did wonder how we might use him in the future in Eyene.  Maybe he would be able to help us with another Bible conference.  It remains to be seen what God has in store for us.  

And the older and younger brothers?  The older one is learning to fly planes.  He is in the final stages of his training and doing very well. The younger one is seventeen, living at home, and going to school.  All are walking with the Lord. 

Bits and pieces:

• Four people (two couples) have returned to the U.S. to attend Charles Wesco's funeral.  One of the missionary men will speak at the occasion.
• The week long conference ended today.  It was a very productive time.  Five people are staying over; two for one night and two for two nights.
• We turn Shiloh right around.  A smaller group comes in tomorrow afternoon.
• An airport official was directed to Shiloh today.  He was seeking housing for friends who are returning to Cameroon for the wedding of their son/brother.  A lady and her three adult children will spend twelve nights with us.  People come to Shiloh through all sorts of contacts.
• Dorothy is going to the NW Region on Tuesday for her nieces wedding, Lord willing.  If the roads are open and travel is permitted.  We will certainly miss her.  She is the backbone of Shiloh.  But she will come back.  This is not permanent at all.

He called me Mama Alice.  Asked about Papa Jim.  Wanted to know if we still had Shiloh.  And were we still going out to Eyene and Polo to evangelize?  Inquired about Guy and Emil.  (That dates him...Emil has not worked with us for more than ten years.)  Kept insisting that I knew him.  I supposedly know his father and mother.  But he was just a boy the last time he saw us in the village of Polo.  Talked about going around with me and Elie who later died.  Said I took his picture.  Yeah, everything is there.  The right names.  The right places.  But WHO IS HE???  Well he is so excited to be back in contact with us.  He's coming over to visit on Saturday.  Maybe we will know him when we see him.  Hope so.  He will be super disappointed if we have completely forgotten him.

It was kind of sad really.  The phone call came mid-day.  One of Francis's older sisters phoned to say that their brother Christophe's wife had just delivered a baby girl.  It was the first that anyone knew she was even pregnant.  No communication.  No opportunity to share in their joy.  Nobody praying for her through the pregnancy and particularly during the delivery.  Nothing.  It's as if they don't count.  Which frankly, they don't.  The family is mighty awful tired of this kind of treatment.  The new mother has yet to visit any of her in-laws.  She saw the ones who attended the wedding at the wedding.  Period.  What a sad state of affairs.

Go on line and look up Charles Wesco February 5, 2017 if you want a blessing.  This is a message he preached just 21 months before he was ushered into the presence of his Lord.  He had some powerful things to say, more so in light of how his life ended.

She's quite a gal, this Dorothy of ours.  She didn't get much education, though she is very smart.  One of her brothers has a doctorate.  She is smart enough to have earned one, too, given half a chance.  But she is the one the mother took out of school to help her at home.  So her formal learning stopped.  But she is learning every day.  Soaking things up like a sponge.  She's a type A personality.  Always seeing things to do.  Always jumping in and doing things.  You just have to show her something once.  And if she needs to be corrected, she catches on immediately.  She's quick to please.  Works until she drops.  Does not know when to quit.  Truly, she is the most like me of anybody I know on either side of the Big Pond.  At her husband's funeral many people talked about her and how well she took care of him during his five years of illness.  She treated him like a king and never once complained.  She has laid up much treasure in Heaven.  And she is Heaven bound.  She loves the Lord with all her heart and serves Him fully.  She's a real treasure.  We did nothing to deserve her.  We were not looking for her or for anybody for that matter.  God just dropped her in our laps and we don't know how we ever made it without her.

He phoned to thank us.  Said they had been praying for this very thing.  Last weekend he paid the bride price.  Lots of missionaries were there.  Including the man who had just three more days of life before a bullet would usher him into Glory.  Charles and his wife and their eight kids were at the event.  Things went south after the missionary lost his life.  Lots of missionaries fled the area.  They're down here in Yaounde or in Bafoussam.  So when he went to the mayor's office for the civil ceremony yesterday, and when he had the church blessing today, no missionaries were around.  But God was there and He blessed their wedding.  And now our gift of 25.000 F arrived.  Exactly what they had been asking God to provide.  What a great faith builder for this young couple as they begin their life together. 

The cat and the mouse are very good friends.  They scamper through the tall grass all day long.  They hunt for food and share everything they find.  One day they realized that food was getting scarce.  Finally they were down to their last yam.  They had learned that there was plenty of food on the other side of the river, so they decided to carve their yam into a canoe.  The cat and the mouse entered the canoe.  The mouse began paddling hard.  Finally the mouse was so hungry that he began eating the yam canoe.  Before long the canoe began filling with water and sinking.  The mouse gave a mighty leap and landed on the river bank.  The cat did the same.  But the cat was very angry with the mouse.  He shouted at him and said that if he ever caught the mouse, he would rip his head off and eat him.  So the cat began chasing the mouse and that is why cats chase mice to this very day.

Mr. Tortoise was good friends with Mr. Pig.  One day Mr. Tortoise asked Mr. Pig if he could barrow a large sum of money.  He promised to pay it back on a certain day.  So Mr. Pig loaned him the money.  When the day to pay the money arrived, Mr. Tortoise did not have any money saved up to give Mr. Pig.  He discussed the problem with Mrs. Tortoise and together they came up with a clever solution.  Mr. Tortoise lay on his back and Mrs. Tortoise used his stomach for a grinding stone.  When Mr. Pig arrived she told him that Mr. Tortoise was not at home but would be back later.  The following day Mr. Pig returned but it was the same.  He found Mr. Tortoise not at home and his wife using her grinding stone.  The third day when he returned, Mrs. Tortoise told him that Mr. Tortoise was not at home while she calmly continued using her grinding stone.  Mr. Pig was so mad that he picked up her grinding stone and threw it into the forest across the street.  Mrs. Tortoise began crying with a loud voice.  Mr. Tortoise picked himself up off the forest floor, brushed off the dirt, and calmly walked across the road to his house.  When Mr. Pig saw him, he began demanding his money.  But Mr. Tortoise said he had to talk to his wife first.  He asked her why she was crying.  She explained through her wailing that Mr. Pig had thrown her grinding stone away.  Mr. Tortoise told Mr. Pig that he would pay him everything he owed him just as soon as Mr. Pig returned his wife's grinding stone.  So the pig immediately began rooting through the dirt in the forest.  And that is why pigs are rooting in the dirt to this very day.

These are stories which are taught to children in their schools.  They are very entertaining and well known in Cameroon. It provides an interesting natural explanation for behavior that can be observed.

In the end we decided to hold the baptism on Saturday afternoon.  It's a good thing we made the change.  It was raining on Sunday morning.  We baptized both Romeo and Theirry's fiancee Rosalie.  Jim preached on Sunday and then again on Monday evening.  We learned that in reality, Mama Jean had never been baptized herself, though she said she had.  Turns out that her former church preaches that the time for baptism has past.  It is not for this age.  Strange!  

We also stumbled onto the fact that Jean Claude and Chantal have never had the church blessing.  He paid the bride price and they had the civil ceremony.  So we discussed a plan for taking that final step.  Chantal would like to be baptized in conjunction with the church blessing.  They are going to save money as they sell their annual cash crops at this time.  Then sometime after the first of the year they will have the church blessing.  We hope that takes place before we return to the U.S. in mid-July.