Friday, November 19, 2010

Greetings from Lassin! We're all alive and well.

Dear friends and family,


Here's the news from Steve's perspective. Producing "It Is Written, New Beginnings" Bible videos in the Noone language for the Noni people is going great. Today, 'we' completed number 9 on 'facing the judgment'. The other lessons have been on the soon coming of Jesus, creation, the validity of the Bible, the origin of sin, Jesus as our savior, salvation through Jesus, and now the good news that Jesus is our defense attorney at the judgment.

I still need to prepare tomorrow's sermon, but the house is clean, and have taken a HOT shower!!

Yup, a hot shower. Not hot water from a bucket. No sir-ee. Ya see, we (ALL of us- story to follow) went to Kumbo last Tuesday. While in the big city, I just couldn't resist the desire to buy 36 meters of 25mm PVC pipe, and 40 elbows (a bit more than 100 feet of ¾ inch pipe). Wednesday, I assembled it into a series of 'U' turns that resemble the road to Kumbo, and put it up in our rafters above the bathroom. After a small modification so that the water could actually flow through the thing, we are now taking hot showers! Being a missionary in the remote mountains of Cameroon is now a luxury experience.

"ALL of us". If the news gets out that we're going to be driving to Kumbo, the car fills to capacity in no time. Now "capacity" is a matter of opinion. If you are from Cameroon, then 8 adults and 1 youngster was nearing capacity; room for 2 more. But if you are from 'the states', then sitting in the back of the little red station wagon for 2 hours while riding over roads that bring back memories of roller coasters may be a push; never mind the scenery is absolutely beautiful. Coming home, we sat aside 18, 2 meter pipes, 3 jugs of gasoline (for cooking or driving), several boxes of supermarket treasures like 'noodles', a few pineapple (season's about over),
5 back-packs, and each other. No break-downs, no flats, and only light rain. Would we do it again? Sure, but we may be more quiet about 'when'
(December 20).

Speaking of dates, Carol is about to turn a year older and enter a new decade on November 25.
So. Remember how so many of you sent her 'Birthday text messages' last year? I'm sure that she would love it again! By November 24, use Iridium.com, 'send free text message' (top center of the home page), and send to 8816 (filled in already) 31672129. Put your name in the 'return email' box, type in a greeting or condolence, and make her day! Thanks!

Again, thanks for keeping us in your prayers. We love occasional text messages too.

Steve & Carol Rose

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Lassin Update - Rated B (for bugs)

Tonight seems to be the night for critters in the house! First of all, Jessica was washing dishes, put her hand in the pre-rinse bucket,
and almost pulled out a HUGE drowned cockroach! Did I mention Huge?
It’s the size of cockroach that Shey John at the store in Lassin says will wake you up when it runs across your face in the night!
Aaargh!!! That’s also what Jessica said! (or something to that
effect!) Then a rat / mouse ran over my toes this evening as I was sitting doing more dishes! Yikes! Kataya thought it was so funny that she tried to trick me into thinking the mouse was close by again!
It was funny! Anyway, I got her good and she jumped at least 2 inches! So that was even funnier! Then Kataya discovered about a
million baby spiders on the bench/couch. They must have just
hatched! A little later we found a tiny frog on the floor not far from the door. Now he was cute. Where was Steve? Well, he ducked out of the house when the mouse was running about—something about a Bible study with Franklin—yeah, right!

Anyway, we’re having fun with the gang. School is going well. 78 students at my last count. I had to ask two students to stay home from Class 1; too young/ immature / just not ready for school I had a cool experience with one of my students lately. Julius is repeating Class 1 again, and this year he is doing so well. I don’t regret holding him back for a moment. Anyway, we were inspecting students for jiggers on their feet, and I noticed that Julius had a terrible case of athlete’s foot fungus between almost every toe! -- in addition to a few jiggers. Last year we found 10 jiggers on just one of his toes! Poor kid! No wonder he walks so slowly! So I brought some anti-fungal cream to school and began treating his toes. It was a bit painful for him to have me wash and dry his feet and then apply the cream, but he was a good sport. I also went to his house three times on weekends to continue the treatment. Now it has been two weeks tomorrow, and his fee t look sooo much better! What was so touching was that a few days into the treatment, Julius was carrying a picture poster of Jesus to my room to hang up (Up until a day ago I have had to remove all items from my room at the end of the day to store in the only lockable room.

The carpenter Franklin recently came and installed the window latches on the insides and with one of Eric’s old combo locks, I now have a lockable classroom!) As Julius was carrying the poster, he kissed the poster and started singing “Jesus loves me!” Wow, I don’t know if it had anything to do with the extra attention and care he was getting, but I like to think that it solidified in his mind what Jesus’ love looks like! Today Julius was running home like he had wings on his feet! I think he is enjoying more comfortable feet.

Love, Carol