Freestyle cooking

Posted on March 13, 2013 by David

Read Yesterday’s post first if you have not already read it.

On February 9th we decided to go look for a different range.  We had a small European model, but the door didn’t want to close all the way and parts were falling off of it, so we thought we should look for a new one.  I(DeAnna) was secretly hoping for a more American style because it’s frustrating cooking in a small oven with only one oven rack that can only hold a 9×13 lengthwise (meaning you can’t put it in the oven sideways because it’s not wide enough).

Well after searching several stores, we were shocked to find a Hotpoint gas range with two oven racks for a great price.  I was so excited!  We needed to have it converted so it can run off of gas bottle and a week later we picked it up.

The burners worked well, but the oven didn’t work correctly.  We consulted with the store and we were asked to return it to the store for a technician to work on it.  Last Thursday (March 7) we received the phone call that the oven was ready to be picked back up.  David went and got it, we excitedly put it in the kitchen and lit the oven and didn’t have shooting flames like before so we thought it was fixed.  I placed a casserole in the new oven to cook for dinner, set the timer and left the kitchen.  I smelled a strong gas odor and as I walked closer to the kitchen I saw black smoke rolling out of the oven.  I turned it off and opened the door.  The oven, pan and meal were all covered in black soot.

Needless to say, I was disappointed. 

Saturday we took the oven back to the store and talked with them about what to do next.  As we were talking to them, they confessed to us that they couldn’t get the screws needed for the proper oven conversion and it won’t be able to work on the gas bottle system that we have here.  We had to choose another oven (all the choices were the small European models).  I was frustrated and disappointed and really didn’t want any of them, but I knew we needed an oven for cooking.  I quickly made a choice without looking very closely at it.  After we got it home and were verifying that it worked, I saw that the oven knob doesn’t have temperatures on it.  It has two pictures.  There is always a learning curve and now I have a new one on how to cook without knowing the oven temperature and guessing how far between the two pictures would equal 350 degrees.

So any advice on where you think 350 is between the two picture would be appreciated.

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Stove of wonders

Posted on March 12, 2013 by David

Since 2009, I (DeAnna) have been cooking on a short Ariston 20″ range.  This range has four gas burners on top with a 16″ oven that has one oven rack.  There have been some inconveniences about the range, but since it works – it’s a keeper.

Well after we returned in November, I don’t know it it was the moving or what that jarred the oven door but it wouldn’t open all the way or close all the way.  This created a situation where it’s necessary to use a hot pad to turn the burner knobs when the oven is in use.  Plus the front of the oven and sides near the oven door are extremely hot when the oven is in use.

We decided to look (just look) at ranges available here for style and price.  I secretly wanted to find an American style range, meaning wider with two oven racks.  The first store had several of the same European style ranges (narrow, short, one oven rack).  The second store had the same and so on.  I was getting a bit discouraged, but thought since our current range does work that maybe I was just being greedy wanting a larger, more efficient range.

At our last store, at first glance it looked like all the same as the other stores, until it seemed a tractor beam led me to a white range that stood taller than the other ranges and from a distance looked like an American style range.  Is this a mirage in the desert of ranges or am I just seeing things, I asked myself.  Upon further investigation it was a Hotpoint gas range with two oven racks, a bottom broiler, four burners and pilot light start (meaning no more matches needed to light the burner for each use) and it’s a whopping 24″ wide!  Woohoo!

The salesman walked up and told me the price, which was a better price than I anticipated and David reminded me we were “just looking.”  We left the store and went home.  I couldn’t get the range off my mind.  David and I discussed numbers and he went back to the store to negotiate (negotiation is expected and respected here).  He knew the owner of the store and was able to purchase it for less than we thought was possible.  A little more than a week later, David could pick it up and bring it to our home.  I’m so excited about this new range and can’t wait to cook something using both oven racks!

Hotpoint Gas Cooker

This post was originally written a month ago come back tomorrow to read why it took so long to get posted.

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Aircraft

Posted on February 6, 2013 by David

We are in the process of returning one of our aircraft back to JAARS after many faithful years of service. Which means we will need to take it apart and ship it back in a 40 foot shipping container. The wings will be coming off next week.

What major part is missing from the aircraft in this picture?

How would you like to be the one who gets to put the aircraft back together when it arrives?  Warning some assembly required.

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Posted in Cameroon | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Bonne Année

Posted on February 4, 2013 by David

In Cameroon you continue to greet someone with a happy new year (bonne année in French) until mid March since by that time you will have seen everyone. But you only say it the first time you see them each year, it’s getting harder to remember who I haven’t already greeted this way.

We recently had a leadership transition and we sent out all our invitations as is the culturally appropriate thing to do, hand delivered of course, and 2 days before our event we received an initiation to the Bonne Année from the government organization that we report to and allows us to operate in Cameroon and do the linguistic and Bible translation work in minority languages. So our event was in the morning which gave us 30 minutes to get to the location where they were having the event. So on our way there the roads were closed and I got to learn some new back roads that I didn’t even know existed.

One of the attendees at our event, who is high up in the ministry and would need to attend both events, also came to our event because he was thankful for the work we did and wanted to thank the outgoing General Director and show his support.

It was encouraging to see that after several hundred people shook the minister’s hand it was our turn to go through the line and when our new General Director shook her hand she took the time to speak to him and expressed why she was not able to come to our event that was the same day. She has been very supportive and is very quick to share all of the statistics and information that we are doing in Cameroon.

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It’s nice to be encouraged and to see good collaboration.

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Philippians 2:1-2 NLT

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Posted in Cameroon | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Jesus Meat

Posted on January 5, 2013 by David

We went shopping today and at the old Mahima in Yaoundé and there was a new product that caught Joshua’s attention and he asked “What kind of meat is JESUS?” I didn’t know nor was I daring enough to ask for a kilo of Jesus.

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Heavy Burdens

Posted on January 2, 2013 by David

As we enter 2013 and we are now settled back into Cameroon we were able to celebrate the New Year as a family. As we were driving down the road I saw two taxi’s beside each other and it reminded me that I could try and stuff as much as I could on my plate, but eventually I would break down just like the taxi is going to have a problem because it’s not designed to carry that much. Not that any Yaoundé taxi driver would believe that there is a limit to how much that their taxi can carry.

God has created us in the same way and has given us each a specific role to fill.  We don’t need to do it all or put it all in our trunk. I pray that this year we will all keep our focus on God and not allow the many things that try and fill up our time or our cars take over what God has planned for us.

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“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NLT).

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The House

Posted on December 10, 2012 by David

We decided before we left for furlough to move into a home off compound.  Living on the compound had many benefits, but also had difficulties.  We didn’t have privacy for family time – just the four of us.

We are settled into our home now and so far it’s been great.  We have nice neighbors, a trustworthy guard who lives next door and is the appointed local landlord of the house, we have a friendly dogIMG_1232 and we are pleased that the boys beg to play with the children in the neighborhood.

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We’re Back in Cameroon

Posted on December 7, 2012 by David

We made it safe and sound back to Cameroon.  We’ve been very busy upon arrival getting settled into a different home.  We now live off compound in a free standing home.  We are grateful for a smooth transition so far and are praising the Lord for His provision and protection over us. We are adjusting back to  life here including that everything takes ten times longer, cooking from scratch again and getting back to work.  David returned to work on Monday and DeAnna has stayed busy unpacking and sorting our belongings.  The boys are in a joint learning session (a co-op of sorts) for all the children who are homeschooled and who attend the Parent Run School.   Joshua is happy being able to return to a classroom where Mommy isn’t the teacher.  Both boys are thrilled to be surrounded by friends again and others to play with.  We now have internet in our home and can take advantage of blogging, emailing and phone conversations via Skype.  Thank you for your prayers!

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Off we go again

Posted on November 27, 2012 by David

We celebrated Thanksgiving with family, and rejoiced as everyone around the table had to expand on what our boys listed that they were thankful for. Their list included God, dad, mom, money, ice, snow (which we didn’t see this furlough), kitchen utensils, electricity and air. When was the last time you gave thanks for running electricity and clean air? We spent the next day hiding in the house far away from the black Friday sales; we didn’t have room for any more stuff in our suitcases even though a 32” inch tv for $97 was almost worth a trip out. We continued celebrating Saturday with a 60th wedding anniversary party of DeAnna’s grandparents. Sunday was my birthday and the best gift I received was not the steak dinner (although that was very tasty) but to being able to worship with our home church in Missouri before going back to Cameroon. Technically the next day of the holiday week is Cyber Monday where everyone is suppose to go back to work and buy presents online, instead we went to Pack-n-Mail and shipped one more box since we were over our weight limit of 50lbs per suitcase we can track it online so we are helping the cyber Monday sales.

Today is Travel Tuesday for us and we are looking forward to settling back into work and life in Cameroon. We are grateful beyond words for all the support and encouragement so many of you have given to us since we have been back in the United States. Since June we have flown 6900 miles from Yaoundé driven over 12,000 miles flown to Florida, stopped in Canada. There were 3 outpatient surgeries. DeAnna wrote a book. Jonah lost a few more teeth. Joshua learned to ride a bike and then his brother decided he wanted to too. We were able to celebrate the life of one of our supporters who went home to heaven. We’ve spoken at 10 churches and have been blessed more times than I can count with people who have taken us out to dinner. The list could go on and on. God is good!

As we travel the 6900 miles back to Cameroon our travel Tuesday will turn into Weary Wednesday. But even though I know I will be physically exhausted I can still life my eyes up and see the many hills that surround Yaoundé and know where my help comes from, my help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth. My prayer today is that you also know that no matter where you are God is with you and is watching over your comings and goings both now and forevermore.

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9 ½ Fingers

Posted on November 16, 2012 by David

When Jonah had his accident we searched high and low for something to help us explain to him all that was going on. A movie that they had watched over and over was Soul Surfer so he understood what the word amputee meant, but this didn’t make it any easier to explain what was going on and why we had to keep going to doctor’s appointments.

In an effort to explain what happened from the eyes of a 7 year old DeAnna wrote a short children’s book to help with this process. It is currently available on Amazon. We are hopeful that if another family has an accident and they are also searching for resources that this book would be able to help them explain what is going on to their children.

WIN A FREE copy of 9 ½ Fingers for your kindle, or any other device that can read kindle books such as your computer, tablet, smartphone or web browser.

To WIN you must be the first person to correctly answer the following question:

What was the name of the hospital that Jonah had his first surgery for this accident? (hint if you followed our blog there was a picture of it)

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