Harmony

I like to think this says something good about us as people, and as pet owners.  Our dog, cat and bunny enjoy each other.  Or at least can stand each other.  The cat thinks the bunny is fascinating, and often tries to eat the same vegetarian diet, but just doesn't get it.  The bunny loves hopping around and over the dog, often stopping to nap on the dogs neck.  And the dog and cat, I've just noticed the game that they play every day.  The cat's version of it is "Try to get past the dog and into the school room to nap while the kids are doing school."  The dog's version is, "Can't let that cat in again today,"  but they aren't ever mean to each other. 

Day of Worship

Half way through our retreat at Breath , we had the opportunity to hike in the mountains above Grindelwald, right across from the Jungfrau. We took a cable car up quite a ways, then got out and hiked to two lakes, where we had a picnic lunch with our group. We were in awe of God's awesome creation, and we kept "wow"ing the view.

We had the option of going further, to the top of these hills, but we weren't sure our kids would hold up. We seriously hiked well over 5 miles and weren't sure how much more the kids could handle. Still, we were so close to snow. So close. The kids agreed that they wanted to try to make it to where they could touch the snow, since we haven't seen snow for a couple years. In this picutre, Nathan is pointing to the first snow spot where we trekked.

We threw a few snowballs, slid down the snowbank (by a surprising accident at first, but then for fun), froze our fingers numb, and packed a bag of snow to take back down the mountain to show those who didn't quite make it as far as we did.

The farther we hiked up the hills, the bigger the mountains across from us seemed to grow. It was simply breath taking (and not just because the air was getting thinner). We kept reminding the kids that this would probably be a once in a lifetime opportunity. They enjoyed every minute of it. The boys loved straying off the trail and walking the crest of the hills. We praise God for this awesome time we had together as a family. Our awe and gratitude was a true expression of worship to our mighty, loving Creator.

Breathing

I'm waiting for the words to come, to describe our time here in Switzerland. Hopefully I'll be able to more clearly communicate in my next post. It's easy to worship amidst the beauty of God's creation.

Get Well, Asher

This picture is from last week, the first day we realized Asher was sick. The kids were driving me crazy inside the house, so I announced that it was time for them all to go outside and play for a while. About a half hour later, I looked out into our veranda and saw Asher sound asleep on top of a trunk. He was wearing a dress up shirt from Brianna. When I snapped the picture, he opened his eyes and said, "What? You told me I couldn't stay inside but I was really tired."

We treated him for malaria starting on Saturday. He doesn't have the high fevers anymore, but he is still looking pale and has little energy. We are giving him vitamins and "reconstituant du sang" (I think it's basically iron) to build him back up. We are still waiting for lab results from Tuesday when we took him to the clinic, hopefully we'll hear this afternoon.

We are leaving on Tuesday for Switzerland for two weeks. Pray that whatever this is clears up before then.

New Quilts

Yes, sometimes we actually need quilts here. It can get cool at night (in the 60s...but that's cool when it reaches 90 during the day).

The boys were so excited to have new quilts. We ordered them from a Cameroonian lady in Mbingo. The colors are a little brighter than I imagined, but they turned out great. Now we're going to pick out fabric and colors for Nandry.

Anyone want to place an order? And then you could come visit us when you pick them up!

Isaiah 53:5

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."

Tiny

Jenn, our our teammate who is a nurse, brought home a baby yesterday from a Baka village called Lousu. The mother died about 2-3 weeks ago, and the baby is maybe a month old. The family doesn't really have the means to take care of the baby to bring her back to health. They are basically waiting for her to die. Jenn decided (after much prayer) to bring the baby back here for a week and see what some milk, vitamins, TLC and prayer can do. Nandry and I watched this teeny little girl today for a few hours. She weights under 3 1/2 pounds and is all skin and bones. Can you imagine?

Pray for wisdom and peace for Jenn as she makes decisions and takes care of this baby. Pray for the baby, that God will use this little life to bring Himself glory.

Sending off...

On Wed, May 30th, we sent off three Baka guys on an evangelistic trip to a village called Nkolbikon. Their names are Samba, Nestor and Philip. Samba & Nestor are very strong in the Lord and have shown a desire to serve Him for a long time. Philip is Samba's nephew and is still maturing, though does show signs of desire to serve God. We were thrilled to see them go on their own to do God's work. I've been talking to these guys for quite a while about my dream of seeing them and many others taking God's Word to other camps which have never heard. I've often explained to them that we (the missionaries) cannot do this work alone - and that, in fact, they can do it better than us. They know their own language and culture far better than we will ever know them. With the strength of the Holy Spirit, they can do mighty things for God.

About two months ago they came to me to tell me that they were ready to start going to other camps. I asked them if they wanted to go by themselves or for us all to go together. They said, "You can come if you want." :-) The one thing they asked for was a couple of bicycles to ride to the camps. Samba has partially crippled legs. He can walk but long distances are difficult for him. Nestor said, "Even if you could just get one, for samba, I could walk." I explained that if we got bikes, they would only be fore ministry trips - not just to ride to town whenever, or they would get messed up too quickly. I also explained that since they would be for mission trips, they wuold be available to any Baka evangelist who was ready to go share at a distant village - not just for them (Samba & Nestor). They readily agreed.

I was able to purchase three bikes a few weeks ago. This was their first time to go out without me or my teammate, Barry, to help. The plan was for them to share a Bible story on Wednesday and Thursday nights with me showing up on Friday. Then we would share together Friday and Saturday nights. Things went really well and we left a SABER digital audio player, with all the Bible stories on it, for the village to continue to listen in between our trips out there. Samba and Nestor's plan is to head to another village called Nkoumajop in two weeks to start haring the stories there. We have yet to share any stories there. I told them that they were going to do this one wihtout me. They've told me that htey want to continue to visit Nkolbikon and Nkoumajop once-a-month, alternating every two weeks between the two, continuing to share the rest of the Bible stories. This is a good beginning to the church multiplication that we have envisioned since day one. Please pray for Samba and Nestor and for God to raise up others like them, to take His truth to ALL the Baka people.

Note: Used bikes are expensive here. We payed $110 each, and still had to do some work to repair them. If you desire to support this project and help pay for one of these or others in the future - please contact us.

- Nathan

Happy Birthday! Yee haw!

We celebrated Asher's 7th birthday yesterday with a team party. His actually birthday is today, the 28th. Asher wanted a cowboy and indian party...so we did the best we could with not much time to plan.

We had a shooting competition with nerf guns. Brianna, Nathan and Vicky (the intern from Quebec) won for being the sharpest shooters of the bunch.

Asher shared his party with Heidi, our agricultural specialist. Her birthday is on the 30th, but we thought we'd lasso two horses with one rope...and some of our team wasn't going to be around or the actual birthdays.

The cake turned out extremely well, though going into it I was sure it would be a disaster. I made a marshmallow frosting, a recipe I'd never used before but it turned out great and spread wonderfully over the cake.

We surprised Heidi as well with a little cake with a Mountie on it, which we created by modifying one of Asher's cowboy figures. When one of the kids asked what a Mountie was, I answered, "It's almost Canadian for 'cowboy', eh?" We even played pin the hat on the Mountie, since we currently have 3 Canadians on our team.

Eating the cake (and home made ice cream) was the highlight for Asher. Nathan serenaded us afterwards with a rendition of The Old Chisholm Trail on his guitar. Singin' ki yi yippi yippi yay!

Most Creative Crazy Hat

Asher got a prize on Crazy Hat Day during our last week of our SCA home school session in Bamenda. I call the hat "Motivation By Mars". The judges were two random french guys, who stayed at the Baptist Rest House and had breakfast with our group in the morning. Lucky them! Nandry also got a prize for messiest hat, she taped strips of paper and such all over her cap. The french guys though it was funny.