Do you ever think about what you would do if you somehow got a million dollars?  Not winning the lottery.  That wouldn't do.  Somebody decided to just give you a cool million.  What's the first thing you would do?  I have a sister who would probably go on another cruise to somewhere or another.  Buy a fancy house?  Or a luxury car? 

So here's what I would do.  I would make a list of all the Cameroonians (the godly ones) whom I could help with a million dollars.  Then I would start down the list and help them one by one.  Buy cars for various ones who could really use them in their respective ministries. Build houses for certain God fearing pastors.  And other godly ones.  Help widows set up businesses.  Maybe pay school fees for a few orphans.  I can think of at least two churches that need buildings.  And there are certain Cameroonian missionaries whose ministries are struggling.  I could certainly help them.  The list is long.  I wouldn't run out of ideas before running out of that million dollars.  

But it's not likely to happen.  Now in our lifetime.  So what are we going to do with the little  we have?  Go on a smaller trip?  Buy a more modest home.  A VW bug?  Or invest it in the Kingdom at our level, where we live. Something to think about.

Today was our monthly shopping day.  Francis and Dorothy did the market shopping part of the work.  They went into town with Donald, the younger brother of Francis.  My friend Bear wanted to go shopping with me so we went into town with Eric.  We went to a number of stores I hadn't been inside of for some years.  Mid day we stopped and bought hamburgers, fries, and milk shakes.  Not quite like MacDonald's, but close.  She had never been to the hamburger restaurant, so she learned something new.  The fun part is always processing things when we get back home.  Our pantry is stuffed to the max.  So is the fridge and our big upright freezer.  This will hold us for the month.  We're feeding a big group three meals a day and two coffee breaks for a week starting the end of this week.  They will put a dent in our groceries!

They stayed at Shiloh on two separate occasions back when they were just here for short term mission work.  We hit it off right from the start.  While they are ten years younger than us, we are nevertheless lumped together as older ones.  Great people.  Lots of fun.  They have been everywhere.  Done everything.  Been missionaries for years and years.  Leaders for lots of teams of young people on short term trips in countries all over the world.  And then they came out here for good.  Settled in not far from us.  We do all sorts of things together.  They are the ones who drag us out of the house to all the events at RFIS, the mission high school.  We went to a Valentines dinner together.  Several plays out at the school.  She's the one who dragged me into the Cooking Club.  But now they are leaving Cameroon for good.  She has health issues.  He has an elderly mother.  We don't know what we are going to do.  Nobody can fill the hole they are leaving behind.  They are irreplaceable.  In their mission.  And in our lives.  Who will drag us off to things now?  We'll just be stuck at home, bricked in to our room.  No social life.  It will be terrible.  The life of a missionary is a life of "good byes".  But this is a tough one.  We feel it deeply and they haven't even left yet. 

Born and raised in Daoula, he spent the first seventeen years of his life there.  Daoula.  Hot, humid, wet, muggy, mosquito infested Daoula.  And never once in those seventeen years did he have an encounter with malaria.  Until now.  After living in Yaounde nearly a year.  Started with a headache three days ago.  By this morning he was sick.  Real sick.  We sent Guy with him to a local clinic.  The doctor took his temperature and would not let him come back home.  It was too dangerous.  He could easily go into cerebral malaria which is deadly.  Or have a seizure.  Our loose consciousness.  He put him on an IV drip.  Theirry is back at Shiloh now, better but very sick.  And he has to continue the treatment.  But he's leaving tonight for Daoula and his summer vacation.  Fortunately Pastor Israel, his pastor, is coming to Shiloh for an overnight.  He will take Theirry back in his car early tomorrow morning. 

She's filling in for Doris who is on vacation this month.  I gave her a mountain of ironing to do today.  She just as well get started.  It's going to take her all day today, all day tomorrow, and it may spill into a third day as well.  Four hours later Dorothy was all finished!  When I exclaimed over her speed, she reminded me that this is what she does.  She's a tailor and as such does a lot of ironing of the things she sews.  It's more than that.  She's fast.  And Doris is slow.  Maybe she can light a fire under Doris??  It's just a thought.

Her landlady informed her about three months ago that she would have to move out of the little boutique she was renting for her business.  And thus began the search.  Eventually she found some land for rent in a good location.  There just wasn't any other option.  So now she was searching for a container for sale.  Just before joining us in Eyene for the Bible Conference she found one.  It was a small one.  Just the right size.  It had an extra roof overhead plus electricity.   She told the lady she would buy it when she came back from the village.  Meanwhile another lady came along with a promise to buy on a certain date.  However the date passed and she did not return.  On Monday when we got back our friend went to pay for the container.  While she was there a man in a swanky car drove up.  He told the lady he would buy it and began pulling his money out of his pocket.   She removed her for sale sign and told him it was not for sale.  He became very angry and wanted to know what kind of game this was.  She let him know that our friend had just paid for the container.  He left in a huff and it was clear to all that God had saved the container for our friend.  What an amazing God we serve!

We came back in from the village on Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning I found myself in the dentist chair.  It was a two and a half hour ordeal that left me exhausted!  By the time I got back to Shiloh I could barely climb the stairs to our bed.  And I've stayed there ever since.  That first afternoon and night was pretty rough.  But a search on line did not reveal any medication that I could take other than pain meds.  Today I have been weak and have slept a lot, but am ending the day on a better note.  I hope to be back in the saddle tomorrow.  There is plenty to do after being gone from Shiloh for nine days.  Our suitcase has not even been unpacked yet.  Little by little, we will get back to normal though.