Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Cameroon. God has been so good to us. We do miss you all! Please pass on our greetings to all our friends wherever you are.

We are settling into Lassin even more. By this I mean we are becoming more comfortable, not only in the place where we live, but also with the people.
It is very exciting to work with people who are listening to the Bible studies and those who are coming to church. We think there are probably many out there who would come but perhaps are just waiting to be invited.
We had one new visitor today and one repeat visitor who Steve is studying with during the week. Praise the Lord!

We are very excited that we will be picking up a Bible Worker in less than three weeks. Nadia comes from Australia but has been in the U.S. attending ARISE, a Bible Worker training school. She has an interest in the Muslim population here, and we are anxious to reach them as well as others.

Steve has been busy supervising work at our house and busy arranging for work to be done at the school during Christmas vacation. We decided we needed all the floors in our house to be concrete (three rooms and the hall were dirt) and to make the indoor bathroom/toilet usable, especially because we are planning to have other workers staying with us. We also will be completing/improving Classroom 2 at the school. Part of the work includes walls that need to be replaced and then plastered. The school is truly in a beautiful spot; the school children just love it. They are having a wonderful time there-the stream is nearby and we send them down there to "carry water" for the school. In the surrounding "bush" there are fruits they pick and eat by the dozen-a bright red fruit called dinjee, guava, and raffia fruit. The cows come to visit about once a week. It is a neat place even though the walk is far; but they usually manage that just fine even when it is hot.

We have 19 students at the school now, and school is going fine. We have had a few students contract malaria. Some of them have been able to continue coming to school in spite of it or perhaps only miss a day or two.
The students are learning English quickly. We have had one or two students
come to school without eating breakfast. That can be uncomfortable for them and a challenge for us teachers. One boy cried inconsolably for quite a bit of our walk to school. Come to find out, he was just hungry. Fortunately when we arrived at Naphtali's house, he understood the problem and gave the child some food to eat. The child was quite happy after that. The students are looking forward to participating in Youth Day in February where all the Lassin schools will get together and march in a parade, sing, and perform.

God has been very good to us in so many ways. Our translator, Naphtali, has been one huge blessing. The school building (Classroom 1) was almost ready when we arrived. Our local neighbors and church members have been so welcoming and friendly. Best of all, God has been working on our own characters; yes, we really needed it! Praise God, He hasn't given up on us, though. Steve and I are growing in God's grace, and what happiness He brings! Keep praying for us. We still have many blind spots that need to be revealed to us, but God is faithful and able to work mighty changes.

Please see our blog: Lassin.blogspot.com for pictures and more stories.
We try to update it weekly.

We love you all,

Steve & Carol Rose