It's been a  very, very interesting week here at Shiloh.  We have been providing housing for a dozen people who have flown into Yaounde from literally all over the world.  They are part of a much larger group who have come to Cameroon for their church denomination's bi-annual mission conference.  We love it when this group takes over Shiloh.  Two years ago they housed the Cameroonian missionaries to the United States here at Shiloh.  This time they gave us people from four other countries.  Some spoke Portuguese, some spoke Spanish, some spoke French, others spoke English, and we even had three who spoke Russian.  

Papa Jim and Mama Alice discovered that there are still some Spanish words, and even entire sentences buried deep in their  memory banks.  So we could limp along with the Spanish speakers and carry on limited conversations, to their surprise and delight.

While we enjoyed each and every person, probably the Russians stood out to us the most.  They shared with us that their language has many, many references to God embedded in everyday usage words.  For example,  there is the word for Sunday.  We would say, "I'll see you on Sunday."  But in Russian you say "I'll see you on the day Jesus arose from the dead."  Imagine that!  And then when someone gives us a gift, we are supposed to say "Thank you."  But a Russian says "Glory to God!"  They told us that in this post Communist world, one shares the gospel by simply using their own language.  "Let me tell you about this 'Jesus who rose from the dead,'" is a wonderful lead into the gospel.  Amazing!  Simply amazing!

It turns out that our Russian brother is a professional photographer.  He told us that he cannot permit his picture to be taken. There is always a risk that his picture might show up on social media, in some newspaper somewhere, or in a magazine.  If that were to happen, he would immediately loose his job.  You see, he is one of the photographers who is invited into the Kremlin during big state events.  He must remain anonymous in order to keep his position.  And yes, he has photographed Valdimir Putin many times.  Interesting.  Very interesting.