It was her Mother's Day gift.  Two sons.  One in University in the States.  The other going into his Junior year out here in Cameroon.  They came up with the idea.  Send Mom to Shiloh for the weekend.  Dad kicked in some money to be sure, but it was all from them.  She arrived at 3 this afternoon and will stay until Sunday afternoon.  She's loving holing up in her room and being quiet.  Eating the evening meal with us and lingering over dessert.  Then it's off to her room to watch a movie and read a book.  It's a mother's dream gift.

Princes Angel and I went to the market today.  We were looking for fancy things for me to wear to the Independence Day celebration hosted by the U.S. Embassy.  I have a fancy dress but wanted to find accessories.  I stumbled onto a lovely necklace with matching earrings.  They were second hand which made the price very low.  They have rhinestones and compliment the rhinestones on my dress.  From there we found some nail polish and polish remover.  Then some silver shoes and a little purse.  On the way back we stopped and bought some ice cream. What a treat!  It was a very hot day so we needed some cooling down. When we got back home we polished our toenails.  Princess thought she had died and gone to Heaven!  On Monday we will polish our fingernails.  The event is on Tuesday.  I've been trying out various hair styles.  Haven't settle on the best one yet but there is still time.  Guys don't have to go through all this nonsense.  They just shave, put on a suit and tie and are good to go.

Went to the Embassy this morning.  Turned in Dorothy's application to become a domestique in the home of someone with the Embassy.  Learned they pay between 80.000 F and 100.000 F.  Considered applying myself!  If we had found a job for her in the mission community she would have received 40.000 F or maybe only 30.000 F per month.  So she's on the list now and we wait and see what God will do.  Also learned a good neighborhood for her to try and find housing.  It's five to ten minutes away from where the diplomatic community lives, so it's a good location.

Also got our invitation to the annual Independence Day celebration. It's being held at the Hilton for security reasons.  With the tension between the president and our ambassador we have to be careful.  This means the invitation list has been cut in half.  The amazing thing is that our names are still on the list.  We're looking forward to a good time.  My friend Felix promises me to introduce us to the Ambassador whom she works for.

Had a long talk with Felix.  It was her lunch break.  She's normally very busy.  Talked about how much her marriage has improved since her time at Shiloh.  And the changes in her husband as well.  Her changing has impacted him for good.  She looked terrific and clearly is is a much better place.  Her husband is trying to find a job. So we are praying for him.

Told me that her sister is looking for a place to live in our area.  I put her in touch with a family near us who has an apartment for rent.  Don't know if it will meet her needs or not, but the location is good and so is the security.

About an hour ago a good friend of mine phoned.  She works with the U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon.  In chatting about various things I mentioned my friend Dorothy who is here from Bamenda because she has been run out of her village.  I asked if there was any way of finding domestique work for Dorothy through the Embassy.  She gave me detailed information on what to do.  So I asked what the likelihood would be of her actually finding work that way.  My friend assured me that her changes are very good.  New people are always coming and always looking for house help.  WOW!  Wouldn't that be great if we were able to help her find work that way?  We keep on praying.

It's amazing when we can clearly see God at work.  Take yesterday for instance.  It actually started the day before. I decided it was a good day to cook up three types of dried beans plus pressure cook a chicken.  So I made one bean recipe after the other and put the chicken in the fridge to cool down.  Saturday morning Dorothy and I decided to try our hand at homemade chicken noodle soup. Then we went outside to work on our little herb garden.  It had been a long time since we harvested anything so things were looking kind of scraggly.  We have endive, a type of lettuce we grow as well.   Dorothy harvested it, cleaned it, and cut it into small pieces.  In the afternoon we received a phone call about a sick man needing a room for he, his wife and his doctor.  And they wanted to eat both the evening meal and breakfast today.  Since the chicken soup was ready, we just made some herb bread and a salad with our already cut lettuce.  It was a very easy meal.  Then today the professor who had arrived in the middle of the night wanted an evening meal.  We thawed out our chili that had been made on Friday, ate the second loaf of herb bread, and made a lovely mango cobbler to go with it.  Again, a super easy meal to prepare.  Tomorrow we are going to cook up a large sack of red beans  that Dorothy brought down to us from the North West.  One never knows when the next unexpected company will show up.  It was an easy weekend in spite of the unexpected meals.  God is so faithful.

She and her sister-in-law traveled together.  They left Bamenda by bus last night, arriving in Daoula this morning.  From there the sister-in-law took another bus to Buea while she caught the bus to Yaounde.  Sadly, while on the way to Buea her sister-in-law's bus came across a grisly scene.  The resistance army had captured a military man and killed him with knives and machetes.  Now they were cutting him to pieces much as one would cut up beef.  It was a sight nobody should have to look at.

She's with us here at Shiloh for an indefinite period.  We are helping her look for work. There is nothing for her to do in Bamenda.  Many people have fled their villages and swarmed into the city.  And so she is here hoping to find something.  We are helping her look, but don't have much hope of turning up anything for her.  She's a dear friend.  Wish we could hire her to work for us. But it is not possible.  We don't have the work and we don't have the money.

Of all the librarian jobs it has to be my least favorite.  Boring, tedious, time consuming.  And easily put off 'till later.  But today I buckled down and it's half done.  I'm going through the list of authors and comparing them with the list of books in the library by categories.  Finding lots of mistakes.  When this job is finally done we will have an accurate record of each book we have listed by authors.  There are times when someone asks us if we have any books by this or that author.  It's a quick and easy reference.  The tedium continues, but one day (soon?) it will be done.  And then I can move on to more interesting tasks.

 

As she dashed onto the Chicago - Boston Southwest airlines flight, she was among the last to board.  The only seats left were in the middle.  She selected an older man to sit next to.  He looked friendly.  Before long they fell into conversation.  When he discovered she was from Cameroon he told her he had friends who lived there.  She said she was from Yaounde.  So were his friends!  He told her a bit about our work.  Gave her our contact information.  And so it was that through this chance meeting with a pastor, she was now sitting in our living room at Shiloh.  We had a delightful visit.  In the end she broached the subject of her Bible school in Denmark sending out a team of students on an evangelistic trip to help us in the village.  God alone knows how this chance meeting will turn out.

They arrived from the airport at 8:30 p.m. and immediately sat down for a hot meal.  Doris had prepared a yummy calazone for the main dish.  We ate it with a salad and a new yogurt-mustard salad dressing.  If you're not familiar with calazone, look it up on line.  It's not a complicate recipe and will quickly become a favorite with your household.  And then we topped it off with a to die for mango pie with our own frozen mangoes from the village.  

The occasion?  A son was returning.  The only son of missionaries up in Bamenda area had gone to the U.S. for college and seminary and was now coming back home to Cameroon.  Two years ago he picked up a wife who is a real charmer.  They are headed back to the village where he spent all his growing up years.  They will spend a year learning the local language along with pidgin, which he is already fluent in.  And then they'll work with his father for a year before settling on a ministry of their own.  The wife's older sister came out with them and will spend a year working with a Christian radio station in the same village.  It's good to have our MK's come back to their parents ministry.

She got married yesterday and graduated out of Theirry's class today.  Or she would have, except she has moved to Daoula with her new husband.  His Sunday School class is for students 17 years old up to 30.  At which time you advance to the men's group or the women's group, if you haven't already graduated out by marriage.  Young people don't think about marriage until they are 25 years old or older.  It's just not done.  And for a young man, it simply does not enter his mind to think about his future wife.  Right now he's getting an education and preparing for life.  Time for finding a wife later on.  It's not a bad system, really.

It happened two nights ago.  He was coming up to one of Yaounde's many roundabouts.  This one is not far from Shiloh.  A vehicle squeezed him out of his lane and into another vehicle.  There was a crash, broken headlights, mangled front of his taxi.  Fortunately he was not injured.  Even more fortunately the other car decided not to press charges as their car did not suffer even a scratch.  He drove to his brother's house which was near by.  Then he went home for the night.  The next day he drove his taxi to the mechanics.  The repairs will cost 200.000 F.  But he's so grateful to be alive and well.  And he sees more clearly than ever that God has his hand on his life.  And he keeps walking deeper and deeper into our Lord.

They're spending tonight at Shiloh.  Said they needed a change.  Doris and Princes Angle.  Little Piglet for short.  She's three and lots of fun.  I've just come  back from my monthly retreat and they're going back home tomorrow.  I really think they didn't want Papa Jim to be all alone while I was gone.

I had a grand time.  Slept 10 - 11 hours each night.  Took two hour naps interspersed with an hour of reading my Bible or a good book or eating a bite.  And then right back to bed.  It was grand.  The internet was down where I was which gave me more time to sleep.  Came back home rested.  It was great and very repeatable.  Next month.

Widowhood. It can hit at any time to anyone.  Death of a husband can happen suddenly by heart attack or car accident, or it can creep up slowly over the weeks, months and even years.  Suddenly you are a widow.  Your biggest source of income has disappeared.  And if it was a slow, lingering death, a lot of your money went away as well.  A number of women are pregnant with what is now to be their youngest child.  And there are all those other mouths to feed as well.  And educate.  Often education is impacted or even stopped.  The younger children have lost all possibility of going abroad for the education their older siblings have enjoyed.  And of course there are the social implications.  So often the deceased husband's family moves in to claim all his assets.  The new widow has little to stand on.  The chance of remarriage is slim to non-existent.  In fact in 27 years we know of no widow who has remarried.  For widowers it is different.  They can and will easily remarry.  In fact the vultures start circling around after waiting a decent interval.  Especially if he owns his own home, has grown children, has a car, and maybe is newly retired.  But women will be alone until the day they die.  That's just the way it is in this culture.  And it will be a struggle to the end.  There are a few exceptions.  Women who hold on to the house and have a good job, maybe with the government.  But they too struggle without a spouse to help with all the big decisions and share the load of raising the children.

Yesterday we bought a lovely table and ten chairs from a  family that is leaving Cameroon for good.  It was made by the same carpenter that made our main table and will replace a clunky old one we have wanted to get rid of for a long time.  We're giving it to Francis and family.  They are ecstatic.

Late last night Senator Paul, our good friend, arrived for a couple of days.  He's here for political meetings and to meet with a German NGO.  He's a dear brother in the Lord and we always enjoy having him with us.  Sadly he was not reelected to the Senate.

Our first day in the village we went into Jean Marie's village for a visit.  Jean Marie, the father, lost his mother.  Numerous family members were sitting around outside condoling with the family.  We were in a group that contained Jean Marie's uncle.  He was drinking but seriously drunk already.  He tried and tried to pick a fight with us.  These people really need the Lord.

In the morning we just have to take showers, get dressed, pack the frozen food into the ice chest,  load the car when it arrives, and take off.  We're hoping to be out of here by 9 a.m. at the latest.  Papa Jim and Mama Alice are off to Eyene for three days.  We will meet Damien out there.  He's buying a wheelbarrow and bringing it out with him.  There is a lot of dirt to move around on the property to better control drainage.  This will make the job easier.  

We'll have Bible studies both Monday and Tuesday nights.  Either Monday or Tuesday during the day we will visit Jean Marie (the father) in his village.  His elderly mother has died.  We will not be able to be there for her burial on Saturday, so we will give him our contribution for the burial expenses and our condolences.  And of course we will be visiting Papa Pollycarp and Mama Clair in their home at least one time.  We will be announcing a baptismal that will take place during the Bible conference.  One person is asking to be baptized.  Others may want to join him.  Damien will conduct a baptismal class.  Papa Jim is planning on building a simple portable baptismal.  The idea came from Uncle Jim.  He was a pastor for many, many years and came up with an efficient model that uses just two barrels of water.  It will be perfect for the village.  

We'll be back home by Wednesday afternoon. Doris and little Princes Angle, who is out of school for the summer, will be holding down the fort.  Francis is on vacation this month. 

Our pastor's wife came to visit today.  Brought a gift of a squash.  We talked about many things.  She told how the women's group is doing.  Reported that at Christmas time they did a project at a home of the aged near here.  Took gifts of soap and other needy things to the elderly.  These are all people whose families have abandoned them.  She talked about the choir and how she has had to remove a couple of members whose lives are not adding up.  Instead of growing the choir as she dreams of doing, it is shrinking.  But she would rather have a small group really committed to living godly lives 24/7 than a large group that is weak and ineffective.  Then we discussed the state of affairs for Papa Alphonse, the blind man whom we help.  The lady who pays his rent has not paid for 3-4 months.  Apparently she has kept the funds for herself.  In the end, his landlady kicked him out.  He curls up each night on the front porch of the local chief's house.  We discussed ways to help improve his living situation.  Lord willing something will work out soon