Oct 8, 2010

Dear family & friends!

Here's what's up in Lassin for the last couple weeks.

The school is going really well. There are 18 or 19 first graders, 15 fifth graders, 22 second graders, and about 20 in the 3rd - 4th grade combination class. The teachers seem to be doing a great job of maintaining order and communicating. Last Wednesday I saw Jessica get her 2nd grade class seated after lunch and working quietly on a project by herself. Her assistant, Naphtali, had gone to teach the Noone language at the government high school. Nice work Jess!

Kimberly has the desks in her room arranged very neatly with colored name papers on each. She uses chalk board and iPad to teach her kids.

Carol provides her little 1st graders with personal size chalk boards, as well as the big board up front.

Sometime during the day, each class takes turns using the Bible in felts as they listen to a story- they all love it.

Our neighbor, Divine, who lives across the street and translates for Kimberly's 5th graders sends a bucket down the well to get fresh water for the children to wash their hands and to moisten the dirt floors. The little house that Gregory built over the well has a solid eucalyptus door and sturdy lock; so far we have not lost any children.

Next Monday, Franklin and his boys will ride to the school with me. We'll haul his new window shutters, storage room door, and teacher's desk doors so that he can install them over the course of the week. It'll be nice to be able to really lock up. Then we can take more of the supplies to school that we / you shipped here last August.

I can hardly wait to tell you about my Bible study project. Naphtali and I have recorded and produced 3 of the New Beginnings Bible studies in the Noone language. I'm learning a bunch about video production and having a good time doing it. The next phase involves 'post production' editing, where the 45+ minute full length version and cut it to about 15 - 25 minutes for showing at the school. Each Wednesday at about 12 PM, I show the cut version to the school children. They have the typical response- curious, and restless. But it is amazing to see how many really pay close attention throughout the whole program.

We have resumed showing these Bible studies in individual homes, but the response is different this time. Last night, Thursday @ 7PM, I showed the new Noone version in Franklin's home. He was there with his junior brother, his children and 2 of Naphtali's kids; about 8 in all. They sat silently glued to the laptop; the only source of light in the home, except for the small cooking fire in the kitchen next door. After the lesson, Franklin commented on the different countries that came to world power status as predicted in the dream recorded in Daniel 2. I decided to have some fun, "So. What is the next kingdom that will come?" "Jesus' second coming." He got it! Of course he did. Every word was in his 'mother tongue'. They all got it, from oldest to youngest!

We're giving these lessons in Naphtali's father and two mother's compound- they are so proud of their son's new 'film' career! They invite their neighbors to view the new film each Saturday night. Our neighbor 'boy', a high-school senior who made our garden fence last year has invited us to show the 'films' in his father's compound each Sunday evening. Moses' wife has invited us to show the films in her house again this year; we have not established a night yet. You may recall that Moses is a tailor and has made several of the new school uniforms again this year; 2 of his kids attend again.

Okay, how about a Cameroonian rainy road trip story? "The road seems better this year. The worst hill has gravel on it now. I believe the little red Toyota could climb it in the rain. I'm sure we can get to Kumbo now." I was confident and Jessica was a willing passenger. Kumbo is home to many internet cafés, an international calling booth, stores that sell foods like you can get back in the ., school books, and other stuff that is more or less vital to the operation of our school. The little car started and we were off. One point seven km from our house was the former trip killer hill. We climbed easily. Nothing to stop us now. There were small puddles, small streams, muddy places, rough rocky patches, but all had tire tracks on both sides of them. Then, just past the wood fired white bread bakery was this mud pit. I got out and took a second look. Seems that a stout looking Toyota 4WD pickup loaded high with stuff was clawing for traction with a crew of about 5 equally stout young men pushing various parts of it. After a few minutes the truck was free. A neighbor man advised me to bypass about half of the pit by using his driveway. "Just turn there and you'll have no trouble", he said. It looked safe enough. I had little choice. Well, our car was not stuck for long. After backing up a bit, the second attempt got us free. The rest of the trip to Kumbo was as uneventful as a day at the roller coaster park. I only took out one wooden foot bridge between the road and some lady's driveway; easy to put back in place.

We shopped and enjoyed the 'big city'. The rain began to fall. The road began to get slick. We began our ride home. There is a feature that forms here, two wide ruts that leave the center of the road high above the sides.
The crown is so sharp that you wonder if the car belly will drag. Normally you straddle this crown. When the road gets slick, this is a bit tricky. I was able to stay atop for all but the last 60 feet. Driving along while scraping the right side of the car against a muddy bank does not seem as bad as having to spend the night in a rut. Most of the road was reasonably uneventful, but the thought of that mud pit up ahead weighed heavy on my mind. Then, there it was. Unavoidable. The left side looked best, but it was where the truck had been. The right side had pretty deep ruts with standing water so low that I could only see it by sitting straight up. As I sat inspecting the pit, a small group of people formed; the same stout men we saw earlier. We prayed, pushed the electric 4WD button on the front panel, let the clutch out and headed right. The car sank deep into the ruts and continued for about six feet. All four tires made it painfully clear that they were not up to the task. Turning to either side was not possible.
Backing up- yea right. I really did not want to get out in that muck - call me spoiled. Soon the group of smiling faces converged on the car. They lifted the front end and tried to get it out of the rut; nope. Then one man began to fish around in the mud. He extracted two rocks about the size of soccer balls from my 'track'. The order was given, "try again". The little car tried and a dozen strong hands pushed on various parts of the car. Once on firm ground a small piece of paper with red ink was placed in the rolled up sleeve of the group leader. His beaming face confirmed that the payment was adequate. We got home. "Next time I go to Kumbo, it will be in a taxi"
, I said. The next time I went, last Monday, it was in a taxi. We were pushed three times (hills too slick), stuck in mud once and pushed free.
Dickson said that his car had suffered. I gave him my condolences. But, I was glad it was his car and not mine.

When dry season comes, about mid November, we'll buy concrete and begin making floors and plastering the walls of the school; but not before the roads firm up.

The ladies are in the process of moving into their new house. Pretty upscale. It has a flush toilet, indoor shower, propane stove. The glass should be in the windows by Sunday. Kim & Kataya have slept there once.
They love it. Having a phone that works from within the house helps too.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Steve, Carol, Kimberly, Kataya, and Jessica.

Dear Friends and Family,

We are so happy to share with you that our school, the Adventist Primary School of Lassin, is successfully beginning its third week of school! Two classrooms are full past capacity at 21 students each, the other two classrooms have 17 and 18 students each, making a total of approx. 80 students. We were able to offer five grades this year (first through five).
The students are really enjoying their classes, and they are endearing themselves to their teachers also.

For each classroom, we have an imported teacher and a local teacher. This combination seems to work very well for translation and general load sharing. Praise God! When we left Lassin last May, we only knew of three teachers (myself, Naphtali, and Naphtali's wife), and we were praying for more. When we visited the Gospel Ministries office in May, we met two Southern Adventist University students (Jessica and Kimberly) who wanted to come help. We tried to give them an accurate picture of the Lassin setting, but they tell us it would have been impossible to really describe in words or pictures how it really is! Then during the summer, a local Adventist teacher from the nearby town of Din applied; Vivian is a real sweetheart and true-hearted Christian lady. Then we were placed into contact with a gal from Romania who wanted to come help also; Adela is doing a great job teaching third and fourth grades. Her friend Adelin came too, and he is a great general helper. So that meant we needed just one more local teacher.
Both Steve and I thought of asking our friend Divine, but we knew he was busy keeping his store. When we returned here, we found out he was available and very willing! What a blessing! He is a true Christian and such a loyal friend.

Now, for some neat, exciting stories about our students. All but two of our previous students have returned. One student moved away, and we are not sure why the other has not returned although we have seen him several times and he says he wants to come back. We were very excited to see Juleyatu (our Muslim girl) return, and then we were very excited to see her brother Abulai come also. He attended last year for a few days and then left to attend the newly started Islamic school in Lassin. He always wears a bright smile and seems truly happy to be back! One of the Muslim leaders in town told Steve a few days ago that he was sending all the Muslim students to our school! The next day a Muslim lady said she was going to send two Grade 1 children on Monday! We are happy to be making friends in that community.

Here's another interesting story about a Grade 1 student by the name of Godswill. I met his mother last year on the path to school. She was selling cassava rolled in banana leaves, quite a nice treat. I purchased several that day. The next day she came to our quarter and "demanded" that I buy more cassava from her. Well, I didn't need it, so I politely refused.
She said more about me not buying from her. I was quite shocked and didn't know quite what to make of this. Anyway, we did have some short but pleasant interactions after that time, and now she is sending her son to our school! I am just so happy I did not grumble back at her! It is possible that she was just good-naturedly pushing for a sale. Sometimes the people seem more abrupt than they mean-does that make sense? She is very happy that her son is attending our school, and we are happy he is there.

Another student who is in the 2nd Grade, I believe, began attending our school this year, but after a couple days was physically removed by an aunt to another town to attend another school. Somehow, though, by the grace of God, the child is back at our school!

Keep praying for our school, each student, and each teacher. God is working, but the devil tries to hinder this great work.

Carol

Sept 14, 10
Dear family & friends,

The Lassin group is coming to grips with the new setting and doing pretty well. We all have decided to stay; perhaps the purchase of a real, indoor toilet had something to do with it. The cement is curing even as I write.
Actually, I'm sure that God worked it out in a variety of ways. There was an email from Kim's pastor brother that encouraged her greatly. Adela and Adelin have had their adjusting to do too. Adi' has been losing weight and has not taken easily to the food available here. He is a pretty good cook and has been able to fill his belly and be happy lately. He is a big help too. Yesterday, we carried 3 chalk boards to the school together; I painted them with special paint Sunday. Now each classroom has a board.

The school is growing; class 1 has 17, class 2 has 19, class 3 & 4 have 20, class 5 has 17 or 18.
Of these, at least 4 are from our Muslim neighbors.

My project- Naphtali and I have recorded the sound track for 1/3 of lesson one of the New Beginnings series. I have used an AT-2020 mike (thanks Brandon Ruiz), Audacity 1.3 beta sound recording software (really nice, thanks Calvin Hartman), and the Corel Video Studio Pro X3 video production software. I am so excited- Bible lessons in the Nooni language! Also, Gregory begins his evangelism training tonight.

Adventures- Last Friday, I took Divine, Kim, and Jessica, and our land lady'
s daughter to Kumbo for a routine trip for supplies. We loaded the little red Toyota, chalk boards atop, and headed home after a long day of shopping, internetting, and international calling. On the way home, about 7 km from Kumbo, the little car took a break. No coaxing or threatening helped. God provided a way out. I had the phone number of a good auto repairman in my cell phone. He arrived by taxi, diagnosed the problem as a bad ignition condenser, got us a ride to a hotel, and arrived Sabbath morning by 11 AM to complete the job. The little red car purred over the hills again. Next time, I'll pack spare food and water. Glad for the good charge on the phones.

Are we in Good Hands? You betcha. Do we still need your prayers? Yup!
Thanks!

Thanks for the SMS notes. We love them.

One last thing, I still have not heard from Christina. Babi, can you help?
Thanks for your help Dad & Mom. Way to go Eric- clep! JB glad ur enjoying teaching! GP&JP, you guys! Smith group- greetings. Calvin, tnx 4 note.

Steve & Carol

Greetings from the Lassin Cameroon group,

There are two ways to contact us, both are free for us.

1. By sending text messages to our sat' phone. We check it daily.
2. By calling our cell phone. This requires a pre-arranged call date and time. We do not have cell phone reception at our house. You can send a text message to our sat' phone that specifies a date and time and we will confirm the request via text or email.

To send sat' phone texts:

Send up to 150 characters from a cell phone or your email to:
881631672129@msg.iridium.com

Sept 8, 10
Dear friends & family,

Today is Wednesday, our first week in Lassin is behind us. Our travels went well, but we probably have commercial plane and bus rides out of our systems. The last leg of our trip was by Lassin taxis, but we each had a seat to ourselves. You should have seen the trunks of those cars, they looked like Santa's sleigh held together with hand braided rope and rubber straps. We never had rain on our luggage or ourselves, we're very thankful.

We arrived in Lassin on Thursday evening, Sept 2. Our home was clean as can be, thanks to Divine's hard work. The batteries still had a full charge so I connected the lighting that night. Even though it has been cloudy with light rain at times each day, we have always had enough power for lights and accessories. Our 'big' dining room table has 7 chairs around it now. There is never a dull moment when we're all home!

What a group! We represent about 3 cultures within ourselves and live in a 4th. Each person contributes to the needs of the group but the work extends from morning to bedtime. How I love hearing the words, 'What can I do?'.

Our new teachers are managing the 3 mile (5km) walk to & from school each day. So far, the rain has not soaked us during our trek. However, right now it is raining really hard. It followed a huge strike of lightening and an extensive thunder roll.

Group introductions are in order:
From Romania, Adela and Adelin. Adela teaches 3rd and 4th grades, she is quiet and gentle and loves the children. She taught school at an orphanage in Africa last year. She speaks English and Spanish also.
Adelin helps with whatever project is at hand. He speaks Spanish as well as Romanian, but not too much English. He is quite bright and is learning quickly. He has an apartment close to us. It is across the path from the house that will become the home of the female volunteers upon its
completion- doors, indoor shower and flush toilet.
From Georgia, USA, we have Kimberly and her daughter Kataya. Kimberly teaches 5th grade. She has attended Southern Adventist University and is working on a masters in social work. What an energetic duo they are!
Also from Tennessee / Georgia, comes Jessica. She teaches 2nd grade. She has attended SAU also and is working toward an M.D. degree.
Each one brings strengths, energy and good ideas to the project. We, and the people of Lassin, are blessed to have each one here.

Culture shock. We have it, we all have it. It looks like each of us is adjusting steadily. Pray for us though. (We knew you were anyway. Thanks)

The school? Wow! On Monday morning we found all 4 rooms ready for class.
The floors had been cleaned, leveled, wetted, and pounded hard. Each room had a door hung with locks installed. Franklin's 45 new desks were in place. They are strong and beautiful. The light streams in through open windows and under the roof eves reflecting off the bottom of our open beam, silver corrugated metal roof. Each teacher has a table to teach behind or set stuff in & on. Soon they will have a front and doors to lock supplies in.

Students? Day 1 there were 36. Day 2 saw a couple classes double. The news is out that we are open and that there are new teachers from America and Europe. The town is a buzz with 'welcome' and questions about our trip.
We expect about 80 children or so.

Church? Sabbath, Divine had the lesson, and Charles (our country host who lives in Douala) had the sermon. We sang a lot and had so many children that we had to bring a bench in from our landlord.

Some have asked what I do while the ladies teach. Well, mostly I sit here and write emails, enjoy the air conditioning, attend the washer and dryer, load & unload the dish washer, and take the dog to the groomer. Do I detect a hint of minty sarcasm? Okay, I wrap up loose ends around the house, and the school. Presently, I'm preparing videos for a evangelism class that will begin next week. We plan to record the sound tracks for the New Beginnings series in Noone (local dialect) and Pigeon (Local English dialect). Honestly, I must pray for time to do these tasks because just staying alive takes a whole lot more time this year.

We would love to 'hear' from you via text messages to our Iridium phone.
Use Iridium.com and send a free text (free to you and to us) to our phone number 8816 316 72129. Send as many as you like. Number them, and include your name or initials in each message.

P.S. keep Kimberly in your prayers. She is concerned about many issues and has requested to serve in a more developed part of Cameroon.

P.S.S. We continue to look for a couple to join us. We need new leadership to take this project forward next year. Carol & I are hoping to use our abilities in aviation and education next year.

Love and greetings from all,
Steve (& Carol) Rose

Dear family!

we are in Douala; Cameroon: not too hot but muggy: Pray that we get our luggage today; it did not arrive with us yesterday:

We hope to be in Lassin by Friday:

Love;
Carol and Steve

July update from Lassin and California

Just today, 7/20/10, we received this message from our pastor Josia in Lassin-

I visited the workshop where Franklin is making the benches. As I saw, the benches are almost finished, in fact the remaining part is to go and fix (assemble) them in the school. He still has to start the doors and the windows and the tables.

You should know that Franklin had a lot of troubles: he felt sick (2 weeks) just after you went and two weeks ago he lost his father; all these events explain why he has not yet finished the work. But he said he will finish on time, and to that, he is planning to do some work with machines and he is also now working by night with a generator.

For the classrooms, Nephtali told me they are ready, they removed all the soil already. (clean, level, and compact the dirt floors)

Nephtali is doing a good work in the registration process: he is going house to house to register the children. The statistics he gave me about the children registered are as follows:

Class, enrolled

Class 1, 18

Class 2, 26

Class 3, 9

Class 4, 8

Class 5, 14

Total 79

There are four registered not yet in the statistics.

We still pray that this number should be maintained for the first classes and that the others (3 & 4) should reach the required number. They told me there is a risk of decrease, because the people of the village are making a bad campaign against the school, convincing some parents to not send their children there. But since the results of last year are there to testify for the seriousness of the teaching, some people are committed to register their children and we are confident.

That is why we don’t take these statistics as final: the number can still increase. And I told them that given the mentality of the place, we will have more children.

From Steve,

Look how God is working! We are really excited about having a really full school this year.

In summary, we have 3 ladies that will help Carol teach. We purchase plane tickets this week.

Collecting necessary items for the project is going well.

Tonight, I work on a hand or electric solution to washing cloths- may be a bucket and plunger; we'll see.

The job of an electric water heater for warm showers will progress soon; yes, I'm soft, but should be able to fabricate it for less than $20.

We're really in need of your prayers.

Steve & Carol