Akosse Bible Dedication Part I

Posted on November 28, 2011 by David

Last weekend I was privileged to attend the dedication of the Akosse New Testament for the Bakossi people in Tombel. The drive there and back is another story, which will come soon but I wanted to share about the celebration first.

The dedication was an all day event that started with breakfast. At the end of the breakfast one of the national translators held up a bag of coconuts. He said that the coconut symbolized the Bakossi people with the hard outer shell that is not easy to break through and the flesh of the coconut on the inside was the Word of God. He asked for several people that filled key roles in the translation process of the Akoose New Testament to come forward and hit the coconut to with a hammer.

If you have ever tried to break a coconut with a hammer, it’s not really an easy task to do with only one hit. I enjoyed watching the various people hit the coconut and try not to get the coconut milk on their outfits that they would be wearing throughout the day, everyone was cheering and laughing. It was a great way to start the day off full of joy. The group of people showed me once again that it’s not just the translators that are required for the work of Bible Translation. There were linguistic consultants, representatives from various funding agencies, pastors and administrators all were working together to break these hard outer shells.

Once the shell is cracked, the coconut milk comes out and the rest of the coconut is easily broken apart to get the fruit on the inside. They then divided up the coconut and we were all able to eat the fresh coconut. The coconut tasted extra sweet to me, I’m sure not as sweet as finally having the Bible in your mother tongue but it was good.

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:8)

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Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2011 by David

This was our 3rd Thanksgiving outside the USA.  It’s not as strange celebrating it here, because we have many American colleagues who celebrate too.  In France it was very strange because it was just another day in school followed by homework.  This year we hosted Thanksgiving.  We had some wonderful goodies sent to us at the beginning of the year, so we could have them for our holidays.  Canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice so I could make pumpkin pie, French’s fried onions so I could make green bean casserole (I still needed to make my own cream of mushroom soup for it), pecans so I could make pecan pie and jellied cranberry sauce (that we haven’t opened yet).  No turkey, but chicken galore.  I cooked up 10 kilos (more than 20 pounds of chicken quarters), made homemade stuffing, pumpkin pies, pecan pie and green bean casserole.   We had a great time together and shared our thanksgiving from the year and the boys put on a little skit.

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Big Bread

Posted on November 13, 2011 by David

If you read the blog a week or so ago, you read about the difficulty of making bread one day.  There is a man who attends the church we attend and he gave us this huge loaf of bread, almost as big as Jonah.  It measures one meter in length.  Bread is homemade so there aren’t any preservatives in the bread.  We had all kinds of yummy bread based meals.

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Reflections on 11/11/11

Posted on November 12, 2011 by David

November 11th is a day of prayer in Wycliffe that started in 1933 when Cameron Townsend was refused entry into Mexico and as they sat at the border, they prayed and watched as God opened the doors to grant them entry into the country. Read the entire story on the Wycliffe website.

Each year the Wycliffe organizations and many of their partners around the world set this day aside to pray and remember that we are only able to do the work we do through the power of prayer.

As we praised God for the work he is doing in Cameroon we gave thanks and sang songs of praise and thanksgiving in over 30 languages! Besides singing songs in English, French, Dutch and German (mother tongues of many of the missionaries) we praised God in over 25 Cameroonian languages, these are just the mother tongues of the staff working in Yaoundé. Many Cameroonian employees testified to how the Word of God in their mother tongue is transforming their families, villages and communities. Some have had the Bible for over 20 years and some are looking forward to the dedication of their New Testament next weekend.

I can only imagine what it will be like as it describes in Revelation 7:9 when the great multitude that no one could count is standing before the throne worshiping in every language from every tribe. I lost count yesterday of how many different languages we sang praises in but the day is coming when there will be people from EVERY language and EVERY tribe worshiping before God.

A few weeks ago we made a short video clip for our sending church Deerbrook Covenant Church in Missouri.  In the clip we share how worship has had an impact on us. I’d like to also like to add 2 verses from Psalm 71:

“Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.” (Psalm 71: 17-18 NIV)

God is good!

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Bread Day

Posted on October 27, 2011 by David

Today was a day full of bread making (we don’t have a bread machine).  All our bread is made by hand, the same with tortillas and every other baked good.  Today I needed to make bread and thought I would try a recipe I found in a cookbook.  The recipe title was “Easy Bread.”  Not that bread making is that hard, but if I could get it done faster, I was willing to try.  The easy bread ended up being a lump of dough that refused to rise.  I chalked it up to that the humidity here is always 90+% and the yeast was mixed into the dough, instead of started at the beginning before adding other ingredients.  Note to self, just go back to what I know to get it done.  Bread number 2, I’m really trying to figure out what happened, I used the recipe in my head, but ended up with flat, dense loaves.  David is very positive and said it reminded him of English Muffin Loaf.  So, if you have made bread, then you know it’s a timely process and I’ve just spent about 4 hours on bread making, but still didn’t have sandwich worthy bread.  Plus, our flour has to be sifted first because of bugs, which is just another step in the process.  At 5pm I started attempt number 3, deciding to pull out the Amish bread making recipe.  Hip hip hooray!  It finally was a success and now we have bread!

First step sift to remove the bugs

Final product

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Block Soap

Posted on October 23, 2011 by David

We were introduced to this soap just a few days after arriving.  It’s a big block of tan colored soap with a light smell.   It’s been used around our house to lather up raclette rags to mop the floor (no, we don’t use traditional mops here, we use a squeegee type thing on a handle with a specific rag), this soap takes stains out of clothes, washes clothes, used with a lather to scrub showers, sinks, walls, to wash dishes, you name it and it can be used to clean it.  I use it most frequently for greasy dishes because it takes the greasiness away and cleans the pot.  Also, for clothes to get stains out.  We were first skeptical about this block of soap and now wonder, why isn’t block soap available everywhere?

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Boils

Posted on October 10, 2011 by David

In Exodus I’ve read many times about the plague of boils and in Deuteronomy about painful boils that can’t be cured that spread over the whole body.  I never thought to long about these, just the passing thought of yuck or that’s not good.

Last week David came home from work with a big red bump on the front of his neck.  It was too big and swollen to be acne and after looking in the health manual and the book “Where there are no doctors” I came to the conclusion he had a boil.  Boils to some degree are common place here, many people have them and get them, but this was our first experience with them.  David complained of the pain with the boil and it seemed to grow larger every day.  He started treating it like we are supposed to with a warm/hot compress and pull the skin back from the boil to try and drain the infection out.  He only could get a little out when he continued this process, but 7 days after it appeared he pulled back and yuckola the pus came out and kept coming, which is great for his healing process – as pictured.

We didn’t take any pictures of Joshua’s nasal impetigo blisters, but they are healed now thanks to answered prayers.

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Killer Bees and me

Posted on September 27, 2011 by David

The grounds and facilities fall under my area of responsibility so as I was walking outside when one of the gardeners stopped to show me something that was really bothering him. As he was mowing the grass around a cement cover to one of the access points for our electrical and water systems he spotted a small piece of the cement was broken off and I thought he wanted me to get the maintenance shop to fix it so he wouldn’t scratch the lawn mower.

He said “See all the honey bees!” I asked him, “What’s wrong with the bees just get some Raid and kill them.” He said he couldn’t do that. I asked “Why?” He said, “I think you call these bees KILLER BEES?”  He said we would need to move them somewhere else. I guess unlike normally honey bees these bees attack as a group and will chase people up to a mile. But he didn’t want to kill them, and I wasn’t about to go grab the Raid can either.

I went inside to discuss this with my finance manager who is also a bee keeper. I asked him how he would kill the killer bees and he said he wouldn’t. I asked him why not, and he said bees do pollination and you need them. So he is going to capture all of them and take them out to the bush.

As I continued to walk around the grounds I realized how important all the different people are working are for Bible translation process just as God uses killer bees for pollination he uses each one of us for his purposes and to accomplish the work that he has given each one of us.

A quick walk around the campus this week reminded me of that. In one of our classrooms there was a computer course being taught to national translators on how to use Libre Office. In the Auditorium pastors, translators and numerous others from around Cameroon were having a scripture use course on how to engage the local communities with God’s Word. We also had CABTAL (Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy) holding a conference at the center.

Just like bees work together for pollination we all need to work together from the gardener that mows the grass to the computer guy who gets the computers ready to the administrators to make sure programs and processes are working for the translators out in the village to the financial and prayer partners that support all of the work.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it”1 Corinthians 12:27 (NIV)

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Hamburger

Posted on September 12, 2011 by David

Sometimes we would like the convenience of all the restaurants available in the States, from fast-food to sit down.  We were hungry for hamburgers and there is a boulangerie (bakery) that sells pre-maid hamburgers wrapped in plastic wrap.  They are quite different than what we would get at a fast-food chain, but it’s nice to have a break once in a while from cooking.  As you can see from the picture, the hamburger is about the size of a jelly jar lid (the smaller jar, not the wholesale size), there are carrots in with the meat and less than ½ inch thick.  We eat them without complaint with lots of ketchup.

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Greek Marketplace

Posted on September 9, 2011 by David

At the end of the FES sessions at school there is a closing event, this time it was Greek Marketplace.  The assignment:  each family needed to make something to trade with other families in a market fashion.  Our family made Pasteli (sesame seed and honey candy) only with our high humidity it was more like honey goop with sesame seeds.  The boys had fun trading the candy for other family’s goods, but it didn’t stop there.  Jonah traded a family for a well painted rock of Larry the Cucumber – highly sought after item, so one of his friends arrived in the afternoon asking to trade a bracelet, small rock painted with the work Dad and a top for his Larry the Cucumber rock.  Jonah took the trade because 3 items are better than 1.  Oh to be a six year old!

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