Here we are, ready to head back out to Eyene.  We can only wonder what we will find.  Will anyone show up for the meetings we have planned?  Will Papa Jim have the time to finish putting on the roof of the lovely new front porch/church meeting room the team built?  Will Mama Alice collapse from sheer exhaustion?  Aren't old grandmas supposed to sit in their rocking chairs and reminisce about the good old days?  Maybe someday I will be old enough for the rocking chair.  For now, we keep on keeping on until He comes to take us Home.

We all took two days off work to rest and recover from our time with the team.  Myself, I slept twelve hours straight the second night.  Now we are trying to get the house back in order.  And we are preparing to go back out on Saturday to hold the first official church service.  Papa Jim will continue working on getting that roof on the porch/church room.  Eric, our taxi driver, told us today that he was praying for us the whole time we were out in the village.  He felt it was his responsibility to support us in this way.

Life continues here at Shiloh.  We have three rooms occupied tonight and tomorrow the remaining two will be full.  Never a dull moment here.  But that's the way we like it.

Today has been delightful.  We all walked to church this morning.  Terri, the driver who always takes us out to Eyene, came with us.  He made the declaration that he is going to be in church every Sunday from now on.  What a thrill to see our new brother in the Lord start to take hold.  (See our recent prayer letters for details.)

It was my joy to introduce the team to Papa Alphonse, the blind man at church whom we help from time to time.  He is such a dear, sweet man.  He was thrilled to shake their hands and blessed each of them in turn.  

We invited Romeo to come back to the house and join us for the noon meal.  We were twelve for lunch.  Then we spent a blessed time together with the team and the four of us from Shiloh who spent the week with them in Eyene.  We debriefed our time in the village and all that God had done.  We finished our time together by going around the circle, telling each one in turn what they meant to us and how they blessed us.  

The water has been off since before we returned to Shiloh yesterday afternoon.  It is still off.  This means that the team has not had showers since they left their homes in Tucson, Arizona a week ago Friday.  We can only take sponge baths in the village, and we're taking sponge baths here at Shiloh now.   Oh well! 

In just  a handful of hours we will be heading out to the village for the week.  No blogs until we return.

It's been a roller coaster ride all the way. The enemy clearly does not want us to take this trip.  But we are on the victory side so move forward in the strength of the Lord.

See you in a week.

She's a wife.  And a mother.  Three young sons.  She arrived at Shiloh at 11 a.m.  Worn to a frazzle.  Took a nap.  At noon she was out on the balcony eating lunch.  Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, buttered carrots, salad, papaya, and coke.  Then it was a nap.  This evening she found our piano and spent an hour entertaining us.  Now she's back in her room for the night.  Tomorrow it will be breakfast and then on home.  Shiloh exists for moms like her.

It arrived last night.  Took nearly a week.  And who knows where it had been in the meantime.  Surely someone was making money off it.  But nobody ever said it would be easy to get money out here in Cameroon.  That's why they call it an unsafe banking country.  It wasn't until Dan went to our bank in the U.S. and discussed the problem with them that the funds finally showed up here.  If they hadn't shook the branches, the money probably still wouldn't be here.

We've paid the rent.  Paid wages for our five employees.  Did a massive shopping.  Francis is busy cooking up a storm.  The freezer is getting filled up.  We know beyond all doubt that this is all about our plans to go out to Eyene to bring the gospel once again to these people who are lost in their sins.  Why else would funds that the team sent not arrive in a day as normal, not in two days, but in nearly a week, and that after some effort on the other side of the big pond.  Just a reminder that we are in a battle.  But we are on the winning team, so we move forward by faith, trusting in the All Sufficient One.

How many times have we stood by the casket?  How many times have we wept as we knew the fate of the deceased?  How many times have we begged God to never again let a Manguisa die in their sins?  But this time it was different.  This dear Manguisa lady had accepted the Lord as her Savior a scant year before dying.  And this time we knew for a certain that she is in Glory.  And one day soon we will join her to spend eternity around the throne of grace.  We can hardly wait.