the seasons here

Yes, I miss fall. I look at friends' photos on Facebook, and I can almost smell those piles of brown and orange leaves. I can almost feel them crunching underfoot. I remember the times we would ask our neighbors if we could rake all their leaves and bring them over to our own backyard to play with. Now, as the parent, I realize how much patience Mom had with us. But how I loved making a huge bed out of leaves, covering it with an old sheet carefully tucked in around the edges. I took some blissful naps on those leaf-beds, covered with a blanket to protect against the Autumn chill.

But I can't take for granted the seasons I get to experience now. So very different from Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter! Here, we have dry season and rainy season. Rainy season, at the moment. There's often a sudden cool wind that gives us a minute's warning that a torrential downpour is on its way toward us. More days than not, I'll feel that breeze rush into the house, and I will drop whatever else I'm doing to run outside and frantically rip clothes off the line before my sun-dried clothes get drenched with tropical rain.

I love standing at the window or on the step waiting for the rain to arrive. You can hear the thunderous sound of its approach on tin roofs; then, with a deafening roar, it arrives.

If you are standing outside when it comes, you might as well be standing under a waterfall. The other day, while this neighborhood was in the midst of a days-long city-water outage, a friend told me she had considered going outside and just shampooing up her hair and taking a rain-shower. Indeed, when the rain arrives, people everywhere are gratefully putting out buckets to catch the precious torrents.

As far as seasonal fun, you should hear the boys' cries of glee when the rain hits. If I let them run outside, they will doubtless return drenched, mud-covered and totally content at the end of the rain. There was that one time John ran out in a white t-shirt...a t-shirt that will never be white again, no matter how much bleach is used on it. So these little guys are making their own youthful memories, like my happy autumn-leaves memories from childhood...even if they are memories in different place, and in a different kind of season.

After the rains, it is calm, and the sky is beautiful and clear again. Time to go hang the laundry back out on the line.

keep praying for the Central African Republic

Shortly after the last time I blogged in June, we had a visit from one of our Central African colleagues. He told us a little about what his family had been through over the past year or more. Then, over the next few weeks, several other friends from the Central African Republic came to visit us. The visits were dear times of being reunited, talking, and praying together. But as we heard their stories of what they've been through in recent months, and the difficult situations in which their families are still living in CAR - our hearts were so heavy.

Now that we're back in Cameroon, we're right next door to CAR. And being physically closer (perhaps, most of all, being able to now connect in person with many Central African friends who are in Cameroon for various reasons) makes us feel more deeply the reality of the difficulties and the destruction that are going on there.

Please keep praying with us for peace in CAR. Pray for those who have lost loved ones and seen family members killed. Pray for people to have enough food, and safe places to sleep and live. Pray that those who have recently gone through a wonderful "Trauma healing" course, led by our colleagues and friends, would find healing through Jesus and His word...and that they will be able to counsel many others who need healing from the trauma they've experienced.

Also, please pray for Adam as he heads to Bangui for two weeks (starting next Saturday) to work with the Gbaya translation team and to observe some Bible translation checking: pray that Adam can be an encouragement and help to the friends he will interact with during his brief time in CAR.

In our last email newsletter (just let me know if you'd like to be added to that list!), we passed on a plea from three of our friends who are widows caring for many refugees. They needed money to buy food for the children and refugees in their care, and food has gotten much more scarce and expensive as of late. We received a number of generous gifts which we were able to send to our friends in Berbérati. These gifts are a big help to them, and a huge encouragement to us. In such difficult times, the love and unity of the body of Christ is a precious thing.

happy notes the past week

Moving to a new home/city/country/culture has its stresses and low points, but also its high points. So here are a couple happy things about the past week.

We got to see several dear friends this past week who were just "passing through" Yaoundé on their way in or out of Cameroon. One of them was Anna! When we last saw Anna about a year ago in Dallas, we said goodbye thinking it might be years until we saw each other again. It was a really special visit before she headed out of Yaoundé to return to the village where she's doing linguistic work:

On another happy note, there's finally a job that John and Sam can do (well, except for sharp knives) all by themselves. This after some rather inconsistent, sporadic years of "training." The photo shows, accurately, how John specializes in telling Sam exactly how to do the job:

One more thing that's so nice: the sudden, tropical downpours that come with cooling winds. (I just took a break from writing this post to run outside and grab clothes off the clothesline before the drenching rain began in earnest).

spontaneous praise

John sometimes launches into praise songs to Jesus. I asked him if he minded if I recorded one that I heard him singing today...and then when I turned on the recorder, he sang a completely new song.

borrowed beds (or "how having stuff, even a mansion in glory, is not the point")

I remember, as a child, feeling really bad for Jesus whenever I heard the passage where Jesus told a certain scribe, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:2) I would lie in my own comfortable bed and wonder how Jesus could have just gone on, day after day, not even having a place to sleep.

When I got a little older, I somehow figured out that Jesus actually did have a place to sleep, but it wasn't really His own place. Unlike other young men around Him, Jesus never settled down, got married, or accumulated stuff.

Jesus' reason for being on earth was entirely about reconciling humankind to the Father. And the process of doing that involved Jesus living a very transient and physically poor existence. Lately the poem has been running through my mind, which [although I wouldn't call it extremely poetic or beautiful] certainly captures the essence of Jesus' relationship to the "stuff" He needed and used in His earthly life. Basically, in spite of being the Creator and rightful owner of everything, while He was on earth Jesus owned nothing and borrowed everything:

They borrowed a bed to lay His head
When Christ the Lord came down;
They borrowed the ass in the mountain pass
For Him to ride to town...

He borrowed the bread when the crowd He fed
On the grassy mountain side;
He borrowed the dish of broken fish
With which He satisfied...

He borrowed the ship in which to sit
To teach the multitude;
He borrowed the nest in which to rest,
He had never a home so rude...

He borrowed a room on the way to the Tomb
The Passover lamb to eat;
They borrowed the cave; for Him a grave;
They borrowed the winding sheet...

Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. He came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. He came to fully reveal God to humankind, and to reconcile to God everyone who would believe.

Owning stuff just wasn't a necessary element of fulfilling the most important mission that a human was ever born to accomplish. When Jesus needed something, there it was for Him. He lived the most meaningful life possible, and none of that meaning was tied to the possessions He had.

And it's the same today, with us (by "us" I mean you and me, all of us). When God gives us a mission, He gives us power to go and do it. If we need supplies along the way, He'll provide them. There will be beds to borrow. There will be homes to welcome us along the way. There will be a worldwide body to support and join us. We are not alone, and we are not dependent upon our own resources. It's okay if we don't have anything or don't have too much of our own: that's really not necessary (no matter how safe it makes us feel to surround ourselves with stuff we can call "ours.")

Some of the borrowed beds along our recent way were the serendipitous couches of terminal B in the Brussels airport. Now we are in Yaoundé  in new rented beds. They're nice, but who knows how long we'll sleep in them before it's time to move on to different beds.

Tonight we enjoyed an incredible supper of rice, boiled plantain, delicious beef and tomato sauce, and Coca-cola, served in the home of a Cameroonian family we had gotten to know a bit during the two different Januarys ('11 and '13) that we spent in Yaounde before. It was one of those homes that welcomes strangers who have come from afar. We felt so welcomed, and we look forward to more fellowship with these and many other friends here. It's incredible how here and everywhere else we have been, so many people share freely with us the things that they have been given.

Ultimately, none of us own anything here. What things will we leave behind for others to organize, to enjoy, to donate? None of the stuff will ultimately go with us. In itself, the stuff has no real value. It's not worth getting very wrapped up in.

It's not that I am really okay with this all the time. Moving from place to place, trying to lug stuff around the world with us, takes a big toll on me. I find myself wearied, quick to get annoyed with my family, and wishing that we could settle down somewhere (please?!) or have some definition to our future (just a little?!) or not have to keep buying and then getting rid of stuff as we must downsize, pack and move yet again.

But I hope I can remember that the stuff isn't what it's about. Neither is it about having a house where we can just stay put and settled down for some number of years. In the age to come, there will be a dwelling place for us, and most importantly, we'll be living there with our Father. Together, forever.

[Now, just in case you have been getting excited about the big house you're going to have in the new earth...the Bible doesn't actually say that there will be a mansion for each one of us. The point is actually that we'll be dwelling with God, and not necessarily in a big ritzy palace. I'd love to talk with you more about that, but I think it's the stuff of a whole 'nother post].

last few days in the U.S.

Tonight at Living Water Tony gave a great message about Lot's wife. The one who got out of Sodom just before sulphur rained down, but who just couldn't stand to leave. She had to turn around, wanting to go back to that place God had just rescued her out of. Remember her? If not, check out Genesis 18-19.

The message was basically an encouragement to go forward towards what God has called us to do, and not to look back--longingly--at the sin or life that God has called us out of. A great reminder to me at a strategic time as we are just about to head back overseas.

Three days from now, May 31, is significant to travelers as the last day of "low season" (aka "cheaper plane tickets season"), and it also happens to be our littlest boy's birthday. So I told Sam we could fly across the ocean for his birthday: why not? In fact, how about an ocean and then a vast portion of Africa? That should provide some awesome views from the air! (I just love looking down at the Sahara). Our return to Cameroon just happens to be perfectly timed on Sam's birthday.

I've spent the last days packing, the process of which always includes plenty of stress but also some time for reflecting while organizing. In this year, we've welcomed our first daughter into the world, spent time studying and learning, and passed some very sweet times with family and friends--including saying goodbye to some for the last time on earth.

So, I'm thankful for this year. Our first "home assignment" in the U.S. is just about over. In parting, here are a few photo glimpses from our time since leaving Texas at the beginning of April.

First, after leaving Dallas, we visited the Missouri Huntleys, met our dear nephew Reid for the first time, and went to Esther's beautiful senior piano recital in Wheaton:

Then on from Illinois to Minnesota, where we enjoyed a late surprise snowstorm (hence the giant snowman who lived but a day or two...), spent great times with family and friends, and were encouraged by an Easter baptism service at Straitgate Church:

Then some brief (but very special) visits with more family and friends in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana (on our way from Minnesota to North Carolina)...

Finally, finishing up our time in the States in North Carolina, which due to its strategic location seems to always be our "portal" for coming and going. It certainly is a most beautiful place, out in the mountains, to rest and feel rejuvenated after stressful travels (and we like the people here pretty well too).

Oh, here's a final parting shot from our five-month-old (today!) So happy to have this little sweetheart as part of our lives.

life beyond death - some Easter thoughts

Today was a beautiful day to reflect on the central truth of our faith: that for our sake Jesus suffered and died on the cross...and that He was raised again by the glory of the Father, never to taste of death again. What a joy to also consider what Jesus' death and resurrection means for us: the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives within us even now. And though it is the human lot taste death, we who belong to Him have the promise that we will also experience resurrection.

The hope of the resurrection seems especially sweet today, as yesterday one of our dear friends was laid to rest. Though her days on earth are over, we know that our precious friend Jo Ann--along with all who belong to Jesus--will one day be raised to a new everlasting life with Him!

The grave isn't the end for any of us who belong to Jesus. He has conquered death. Spurgeon described it well: "Death, the slaughterer of all mankind, before whom kings and princes, as well as the meanest of their subjects, lie prostrate in the tomb—death, before whom giants bend as a rush sways to and fro in the wind—even death is vanquished by Christ! He is the destroyer of destruction, and the death of death! Then what power can possibly stand in opposition to Him? I want to cheer you,dear Friends, in these dark and evil days, with a strong belief in our great Master’s Omnipotence and invincible might. His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom! With such a hero as He is to lead us on, victory is sure, however stern may be 

the conflict!"

Thanks to Jesus, there is an immortal body to be had once we are done with this one. As Paul wrote, "Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:52-53)

When we went outside to take Easter pictures of the kids this afternoon, John told me, "I want to raise my hands to worship Jesus in these pictures, because of what He did for us." Yes, He is worthy of our worship. He has done great things for us. We will have troubles in this world, but He has overcome the world. And He will make all things new (including us).

Two weeks ago, our last Sunday in Texas, John was baptized.It's been beautiful to see the work that our loving God is doing in the heart of our little boy...the same redemptive work that He has done since the creation of man, and that He continues to do in hearts around the world.

As a closing Easter thought, hear some of Jesus' words of love:

"I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep...My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." (John 10:9-11, 27-28)