Sunday, November 1, 2015

Greetings from rainy Buea, Cameroon!   Today has been a day to learn patience and to wait on God’s timing.   It’s also been a time to just sit back and de-stress.   It started out raining again.  We are at the end of the rainy season here, is my understanding, although we had understood when this trip was planned that rainy season would be over.  Guess not!    Anyway, after our usual omelet breakfast we made sure all our luggage was packed up, taken to the front desk and placed in a locked room for us to pick up later this afternoon.  We were scheduled to make our way to another town tonight to do soccer games and JF showings in two villages around that town for the next two days.  But first we had church service in Tole today. 
Cyrille was to pick us up at 9:30 as the morning service in Tole started at 10a.m.  But, true to form according to African time, he arrived about 9:45 then took us to a little gas station quick store to pick up some “snacks” in case we got hungry because he wasn’t sure when we’d make it anywhere for lunch.  Then we headed out of town toward Tole.  Now, Tole is probably less than 20 miles away but because of the roads and because Cyrille’s car needs some engine and brake work it usually takes a little bit of time to get there.  Once we turned off the main road the stony, dirt, deep-pitted road takes a good 15 –20 minutes to drive the one mile to the church.  It was very foggy in Tole.  Of course, when we arrived there were several people waiting for us but Cyrille had to take some time to talk to some of them.  As the only missionary in the entire country and without an established ministry team he is always busy on the phone talking to one person or the other as he develops and builds a small core of faithful Christian leaders to help him.  By the time the service actually started it was 11a.m.  We had lots of energetic singing and prayers before Cyrille brought the message/lesson.  There was a nice group of people there but several had traveled in from other villages to help with the JF showings in Tole.  There were three new men, however, and a couple of new small children.  One of the men was the Village Chairman, who came in quietly toward the end of the singing.

1. 

Now, I must backtrack a little.  I wrote on Friday that we had gone to visit the village chief.  That is correct, but what I didn’t know is that we didn’t meet the village chief.  We visited with the village chairman.  So when I kept hearing people call him “Chairman” I asked Cyrille and Humphrey about it.  It seems that all villages have chiefs.  And all have chairmen.  The chief is the head of the community and cares for the people.  His word and decision is final.  But, there is also a chairman.  He is the business person.  Sometimes it is family, sometimes not.   In this case it is family.  The chief is the second born son of this family.  The chairman is the first born.  Apparently the elder chief, their father, made this decision based on the temperament, etc. of his sons.   The third son is the one I met at the soccer game on Saturday who quizzed me on some things.  Apparently he has no position.   Anyway, the chairman came, gave some offering, stayed until the very end……which was about 2 p.m.
After the message, of course the three of us had to stand and say a brief word to the group.  And then Cyrille had to talk about the shoes that Johnnie brought (Shoes That Grow).  Then we gave the 6 or so kids a pair of the shoes and took pictures and visited and stood around waiting for the rain to stop.  Finally around 3 pm we left the village.  We were supposed to go do some sightseeing to a waterfall and the oldest Catholic church in Cameroon but the rain and heavy fog stopped that.  So, we came back to Buea where we went further up the main road in town….up the mountainside to a monument celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the nation of Cameroon.  50 years was in 2011 but the monument is important here.  Then back down the mountainside to guess where????  Our “favorite” restaurant to eat….you guessed it!  The same chicken and rice meal we’ve had the last two days.   And, it was especially made for us because the restaurant isn’t normally open on Sundays but they came in just for us.

After eating we went back down to ETA Palace Hotel to pick up our luggage.  Now, the car Cyrille has is not great big and he was very, very worried about getting our luggage in it and getting us in it and getting all of us to the next location.  We could not take all the shoes and the two duffle bags of balls, etc. so we made sure we had enough shoes for the villages we’d be in the next four days (Cyrille wants to make sure they get taken to only the kids that really need them since there are only 50 pair) and two soccer balls and the hotel agreed to keep those bags locked up until Cyrille returned to get them at the end of the week.  We stuffed and stuffed and got everything in……..and waited.  Apparently we were waiting for Samuel to arrive to drive us.  I guess Cyrille doesn’t like to drive at night outside of the city.  Eventually, Samuel arrived and we waited….and waited.  It was now dark and after 7 p.m. and still raining off and on.  Finally, Cyrille came over to us and told us there might be a problem.  It seems that the chief of one of the villages we were to visit either on Monday or Tuesday has changed his mind.  Although there is no unrest in the area Cyrille thinks it might be best to be safe and not go there at this time.  So rather than go to that area at this time we are staying in Buea for the next two nights.  Monday will be a sightseeing day, if not raining, and a day of further training for the local JF team.  Then on Tuesday we go early to the place we were to be on Wednesday and Thursday, spending an extra day there.  Our motto comes in handy here:  Blessed are the flexible for they shall bend and not break.  
It’s been a day of waiting.  But, it’s been a day of God’s goodness.