Friday, January 29, 2010

Dear family and friends (these lines blur so much since each is true of the
other)


We got an SMS from our friend GKP reminding us that we have not sent you an update for a while. True. Sorry. There's much to tell.

Carol & I are doing well. Our nest feathering has progressed nicely.
During January, the bathroom plumbing to septic tank was completed, the shower floor drain installed, and shower floor concrete was poured. No more carrying dirty water out of the house after showers. The overhead shower plumbing was completed. We now have 80 liters of water sitting atop a bathroom wall. The sun heats it to a refreshing 70+ deg F by afternoon.
What's left? An indoor commode would be nice someday. I also plumbed a drain for a sink; the sink can definitely wait.

Food: here's a typical breakfast. To prepare for about a week's eating, I mix and grind: an 8oz glass of dried 'pumpkin' seed, 2 glasses brown rice, 2 glasses soy beans, 3 glasses corn. This is stored as a dry powder, then cooked like oatmeal and eaten with dry, powdered 'Soy Good' and one to three
6 inch bananas on top. This is chased down with slices of fresh local pineapple and papaya. Last market day I bought 4 green pineapples for about 50 cents each. Later, I couldn't resist 2 more that were a beautiful golden color. Carol did not fuss about the prospect of having to help eat 6 pineapples in one week. They were about 6 inches tall by 4.5 inches wide.
They all taste about the same; really good.

School: 20 students in grade 1. Carol's doing such a wonderful job! Those kids are learning English so much better. She also found a way to enhance their kindness to each other. A certain number of pebbles are placed in a can after a peaceful walk to school, more pebbles for a peaceful day at school, and more for the walk home. If a heated tussle breaks out, pebbles are removed. When the can is full, she rewards them with a fun activity.
It is working so well. God, she and Naphtali are making such progress in all aspects of these children's growth.
Talk about an opening into the homes of our community, we are having bible studies in the tailor Moses' home now; parent of 2 of 'our' kids.

School renovation: 75% of the walls of the school have been torn down and rebuilt beautifully; straight, plumb, proper brick and mortar composition, interlocking walls at all junctions, redesigned wall layout for greater structural rigidity. The brick laying aspect of wall renovation is complete now. There are a few more tasks to complete on the walls before we begin the redesign and replacement of several roof rafters & ceiling joists.

The result of the remodeling is a 4 classroom school; up from 3. It will accommodate all 6 grades of primary school. Previously, it would have required two grades per room to achieve this. We feel that grades one and two would be served better by individual rooms; especially because our first graders begin at 5 years old (cultural pressure).

Wall plastering and concrete floors can wait a year or so. Carol is not too keen about this prospect though. Something about permanently dirty floors bothers her.

Work at the school is being carried out by Gregory. He hired a neighbor man to help him perform brick work. Both Naphtali and Gregory told this neighbor that he should 'get his son off the street' (quiet, single lane, dirt road between towns) and send him to our school. The neighbor took the advice; number 20 is a nice little fellow. God works through brick work too.

Franklin the carpenter has helped us tremendously from his shop in town. We spent about 6 hours planning, designing, and calculating the wooden items needed for the school. It looked like this: imagine sitting down on low bamboo stools with Joseph in his mud-brick carpenter shop in Nazareth, ankle deep in wood shavings, Toshiba laptop running an Excel spreadsheet. We determined how much eucalyptus lumber was required to build 45 desks; each desk will hold 2 students, 15 desks per each of the 3 new rooms. We did the same for window shutters. Note: we don't use glass here. Window shutters are opened in the morning for light and breeze, and then closed after school for security.

Hang on. While writing this letter to you, I was pleasantly interrupted by a knock at the door. The time was 2:00 PM and 'Godhead' had arrived for his first Bible study with me. I have seen this man who works as a nurse at the Baptist Health Center of Lassin for several months. He has expressed an interest in Bible studies, but never had the time. Today, while gardening, I saw him again and invited him. He agreed to come at 2. Since we will be returning to the 'states' in May (for the summer), I decided to show him the "Most Amazing Prophesy" 10 episode series by Doug Bachelor. Lesson 1 was on the prophesy of Daniel 2. I weighed the necessity of this message. This man is a Baptist and believes that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Perhaps, for the sake of time, we could skip this one. Somehow (Providence) I decided to show it to him. Of course, the story discusses the (not so) 'wise' men of Babylon who were unable to ask the 'gods' to tell them the king of Babylon's dream. During the presentation, we discussed that those 'sorcerers', as Godhead called them, were not really able to tell the future. After one hour and forty five minutes of watching and pausing for note taking, the study ended. Then Godhead said, "I would like to take a few minutes to tell you who I am." Note: he has always seemed like a fine man, but after this comment, he had my full attention. This smiling young man said that he had grown up in another subdivision of northwest Cameroon in a small town, the son of "polygamist", the son of his father's first wife (of 3). "My father is a traditional healer.. (medicine man) People come to him to tell them the future. My father is a sorcerer. He lives in Douala now. When I come to visit him, he will try to pressure me into joining him in the rituals of inquiring into the future. Now, I will have to decline his request to join him in this." (This message of Daniel 2 was absolutely vital and applicable to this man today! Can God work or what!!!) As Godhead left, I was still reeling by the significance of telling the whole story, by the power of God to 'tell the future' and work RIGHT NOW.

By the way, don't you love the names of my friends? Godhead, Divine, Blessing, Mercy, Godlove, Godfree, Naphtali, John, and Isa (Jesus in Aribic).

Woodwork continued. There are 32 window shutters to make, 4 large teacher's desks, each with 3 shelves below, fully enclosed below with locking doors.
I'll spare you further details, but we calculated the quantity of lumber and its dimensions. We did a rough calculation of cost. All this week was a sawyer with a large chainsaw has been working on this order.

Money: I sure hope that it is appropriate to tell you how much you have donated to this project since we began it; if it is not, I'm sure to learn why later and never do it again. You have donated roughly $1,100! This is a big deal. This will purchase all the lumber required to completely outfit grades 2 through 6 with desks, window shutters and teacher's tables (about $900). The remaining funds will help with the labor to plane this hand sawn lumber, and construct the items.

Just a note regarding small gifts: If you gave $2, it would still be enough to buy the six screws that will fasten a desk seat, occupied by two wiggly second graders, together so that they do not crash to the ground. It all matters.

Our goal of being ready to provide classes 1 through 6 next year appears on schedule as far as facilities are concerned. Guess what we need next?

Teachers. Four of them. We'll be ready by God's ability. We are going forward as if the teachers were already arranged. What else can we do? We are in Good hands!

I'm locating temporary rental housing for next year's teachers now. I'll just tell you that they are in good neighborhoods; far from train tracks.
If you are, or know an adventurous and rugged individual looking for a place to work with God, and be stressed and blessed more than you can imagine (no kidding), get in touch with our daughter Julie (juliebirdie@gmail.com) and fill out an application with GMI (Gospel Ministries International).

Thanks for your prayers and SMS notes,
Steve & Carol
Lassin, Cameroon

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Note from Carol:

ATTENTION! Teachers needed urgently for the 2010-2011 school year! This is the adventure of a lifetime! This year we have 20 eager young students who love to hear about Jesus and other Bible characters and who love to learn new Bible songs. We would love to enlarge the school next year with grades 2 and 3 (maybe through 6th), but it will be impossible without volunteers helping. No teaching experience necessary, but a love for Christ, love for children, and a flexible, positive personality is a must! (there will be a local teacher’s assistant for each classroom) Email our daughter Julie at Juliebirdie@gmail.com. She will get us in touch.
Dear friends!

We have had a bit of excitement lately. On January 6, Carol came home from school and announced that the roof over the construction area (classrooms 3 and 4) had shifted to the East. Naphtali had noticed and told her that it needed to be braced. He and I drove to the school to brace it. It had in fact shifted about 2 inches. The pressure from the stable portion of the roof and the hand of God were all that kept the school safe. Let me paint a mental picture: 60 x 40 feet of sheet metal roof was supported by only one wall while the other 3 walls had been ‘scattered’ and were in process of being rebuild. The remaining wall was supported by portions of two internal walls, but these were not up to the task. Oh yes, the rafters were supported vertically by strong eucalyptus poles, but the lateral support was ‘a bit shy’. A photo will come some time.

The progress on the school is exciting. We should be able to provide the entire primary school education (class 1 – 6) – provided we have teachers. Know any?

Next bit of excitement… Our church family would like to build a church on a piece of land of its own. We’re renting and this is mostly good, but land for a church could also provide other benefits such as a nice location for gardening and teacher housing- close to town and closer to the school. This is not really an expensive proposition as the Fon of Lassin has promised to give us land. Labor for bricks and other things is reasonable, roofing is ‘expensive’, but all-in-all a church is the next logical step after the school is completed. Housing is last, as for now our rental house is fine- we have a shower with a concrete floor and a drain piped to the septic tank! We have one more bedroom that will provide two lucky people a place to stow their stuff some day. Bedroom number two is occupied by Nadia, from Australia, an ‘Arise’ graduate, and energetic bible worker. We are happy to have her with us in the home and in the community.

I would love to discuss finances in concrete terms, but it is enough to say that God has provided well.

Last note, I said that your gifts were not tax deductible. Well, if you hand them to my dad, they are not. If you give them to Gospel Ministries International, then they are. My dad has been a big help with facilitating transfer of funds! Enough talk of money. Continue to keep us in your prayers. We do the same for you!

I must tell ‘one more story’. We received two boxes containing 12 new church hymnals! Thanks WR & PR! You should have seen the faces and heard the squeals of delight from our church members. How nice it is for each person to have one. Last night, Wednesday, we had mid week meeting. Naphtali and Franklin each had a hymnal. Flashlight in hand, they read and sang the hymns that they chose. The two kerosene lamps lit the room enough to see the 20 or so children, but the hand ‘torches’ were required for reading. Don’t get any ideas about lighting, we’re happy.

Love from Lassin,
Steve & Carol