The latest construction Pics

Below are a few pictures of the construction progress so far.

Living room

Veranda

Hallway

Living room

Exterior shot from the stream

From the road

Le Chef

The chief looking over the edge of what will soon be the veranda. 

From day one the chief has been very supportive of the mission. Whether it's been organizing the entire village to help fill in the foundation or administering funds to the contractor and various suppliers he has been instrumental in moving this project forward. 

One interesting note, during one of my conversations with the chief  concerning God, He said something that really impressed me. He said that we (I'm paraphrasing) That we put God first and then we follow and if we do that are labors are effortless. What a blessing that the chief is getting the message of grace in the remote village of Bano. Keep praying for the chief and the rest of the village. God be praised.

Remblage final phase

After the first remblage the workers are able to start elevation (building the walls.

The building is finally starting to take shape.

What would take one person in a bobcat in the US takes over a 100 villagers a lot of buckets and wheelbarrows in Bano. 

On one side of the building villagers break up rock ....

And fill up wheelbarrows and buckets.....

While the rest of the villagers fill-in the foundation of the veranda one wheelbarrow... 

And one bucket at a time.

If it looks like hard work....

It is.

Everyone helped whether old or young. And everyone volunteered. 

Remblage (many hands make light work)

The Chief had the entire village turn out for the Remblage (leveling). This is where they fill  in the inside of  foundation with dirt and rock to make the floor of the building.

Val and the chief are standing inside the area to be filled. 

Pierre and another worker. 

Here most of the village is at the work site to fill in the foundation with dirt and rocks. So many people are needed because the work is done by hand.

Here the floor of the inner section is starting to take shape.

Many hands make light work. Because the remblage went so well the chief decided to have a village work day once a month. When I talked to Val this morning she told me that today is a village work day. They are repairing one of the roads in the village.  

Val keeping track of the materials

Construction Pics from June.

As I said in a previous post I will be posting information and pictures in the order they happened. Below are some pictures of the workers in the foundation phase.

Finishing the foundation and adding corner supports.

Because of the hill one side of the foundation is very high.

Workers mixing mortar. Everything is done by hand.

Almost Home

Hello everyone,

I'm still in Chicago this morning, they canceled my flight from last night. I should be in Sioux Falls by 9:30 and Brookings around 10:30. I'll start posting the pictures and video I brought back once I get to Brookings. I'll do it in the order of how events transpired, so that all of you get a feel for the progress that was made.

The Truth in Rainbows

The popular conception in the village is that you will see a rainbow in the sky if someone very important like a chief dies. Val asked the boys if they have ever seen this notion come true. None of them could think of a time that this truly happened, yet it is what everyone in the village is taught. She had them read the story of Noah and how the rainbow is God's promise that he will never flood the world again. (Genesis 9:13) The other day one of the boys noticed a rainbow and he mentioned God's promise. Val was pleased that he had remembered the bible lesson.

Thanks for your prayers

Hello everyone, Just talked to Val. She has been without electricity for the past two days. So, no internet and she has not been able to charge her phone. She had to use the chief's wife's phone. So, please pray for her. Sandra the chief's eldest daughter is still in need of prayer she has been hospitalized within the last two days. Also lift Pierre's daughter up in prayer as well. She asked that we pray for the entire village because this is a difficult time. Thank you all in advance.

A Man’s healing

In January Anna (our nurse) treated a man’s wounds from a motorcycle accident. He came to the construction site.  Val didn't immediately recognize him, when he approached her and said thank you to the missionaries and the nurses for treating his wound. He said that ever since Anna had cleaned his wound and given him instructions on how to care for it, he did not return to the hospital.  He followed Anna’s instruction and stayed off his feet, and now his wound is completely healed. He told Valerie hat  he is also a believer in Jesus Christ and apparently his son is the one that said he used to perform sacrifices, and visit sorcerers, but since he got baptized, he does not perform sacrifice or see sorcerers any more.

June 28th

Yesterday Marie came to visit from Kekem.  She brought with her cooked rice, with tomato sauce and fish (maquero).  It was very delicious. I had cooked some rice w/ sauce as well.  It was not as tasty as hers.  Work was in progress yesterday. I had to talk to the chief contractor to speed things up.  The chief of the village visited the work site and gave some pointers as well. Mama Cecile visited the site and gave me cooked peanuts and ripened bananas.  I shared with the workers.  Cement bricks fabrication is progressing well.  Jean-Robert and Boko are in charge of making the bricks.  Boko hired two other helpers and it is speeding things up.  I have been keeping close eyes on materials.  I told the workers that if I am busy moving dirt inside the foundation or talking with the contractor or doing other work, they must make sure I see and count the cement and iron bars before they use it, or else I will consider it as not used and they will have to pay for it in return. This plan is working so far. I try to do my best to always be there when they are grabbing the materials so they don’t have to track me down. 

Yesterday was another blessed day.  I was able to share the gospel to everyone on the site.  I did not stop the work of course, but the four children that were there asked questions after one of the workers had just returned from performing a sacrifice.  He told me that he went to perform the sacrifice for all of the us that were working.  I told him I do not believe in that type of sacrifice.  That is when the children began asking questions.  Parfait, one of the kids, stated that it is an obligation to perform sacrifice.  He also stated that if I live in the village longer, I will end up performing sacrifice.  I asked him if he believes in Jesus, he said he believes in Jesus 50 percent and 50 percent in sacrifice, then he changed and said he believes 60% in Jesus and 40% in sacrifice.  He said that the two of them goes together.  That before they can perform any sacrifice, they have to ask and pray to God first.  They tried to justify this by saying that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, then he gave Abraham a goat to sacrifice, therefore, God loves and accepts sacrifices.  Out of four of the kids, only one did not believe in sacrifice any longer.  He said he was baptized in 2012, and his pastor told them that now that they are baptized, they should no longer believe in sacrifices.  He said that ever since he has stopped performing sacrifices.  One of his friend said that he has not stopped, and stated that he does eat meat sacrificed to the human skulls.  The young boy replied by saying that he only eats it if it is given to him.  He said that just because he eats it does not mean he still believes in sacrifices, but that he considers it as meat and meat only.  His friends didn’t want to believe that his friend is a changed boy.  He still has his bible we gave him in January.  I asked if he can bring it to the house on Sunday so that we can go through some passages of the bible together with the other children. 

Many of the workers were listening as we talked about Jesus being the only sacrifice for human kind and why the cross, why did Jesus have to die. We had about 18 people at the site listening that day. I realized that the children here only know what they have been thought from birth by their parents, who in turn learned from their ancestors.  But I know that God is a mighty God, and He will move and is already moving mountains here in Bano.  “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” 2Corinthians 5:21

Jesus is asking us to not worry about anything, instead, to pray about everything.   He is asking us to fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right and pure, and lovely and admirable.  He is asking us to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 

 Valerie

100 bags of cement on the porch

Pierre is unloading 100 bags of cement to be used for the foundation.

Keeping the bags dry until needed.

Something we take for granted

There are many things we take for granted in the United States. One of them is the ability to walk into a store and purchase a good pair of shoes.

These pictures show just a couple of examples of the shoes the workers have on site. That is why we are motivated to bring quality used shoes to the village for fitness and everyday wear.

A Legacy of Fitness

The people in the village are saying that in January there will be tons and tons of people for the 5K because even the little kids want to run. Apparently everyone is talking about fitness. Also ever since we left, a number of men and women formed a group to stay in shape. They exercise at least once a week together. In fact the chief’s first wife has started getting into shape. It is wonderful that a single event has spawned a village wide movement of fitness.

Pierre’s little boys blessed

When Valerie first came to Pierre’s house his son was wearing our son john’s old sandals. When they saw Val, they ran to Val like they have never run before, then they looked at their dad and said, this is the tata that gave us lots of shoes and clothes and smiled. The children are in good health except that the baby Elisha has some little wounds on her legs; unfortunately they do not have enough money to take her to the hospital. Please keep them in your prayers.

An update on the new mother from our January visit.

Pierre told Val about one of the women from Bano that received clothes at the hospital. He said that she was extremely happy for receiving baby clothes at the hospital. Her husband had not purchased any baby clothes for her yet, and receiving clothes was a tremendous blessing for them. Apparently Anna and Amanda where able to bring the baby clothes the hospital at the right time, it’s amazing how much we can bless someone with something that seems so little. Thank you again everyone for all of your gifts and donations they are surely blessing the people in the village.

The first of many trips to get supplies.

The first time purchasing materials from the city of Bafang. They had to load fifty bags of cement one at a time by carrying it on their head. there were only two people loading it.

Val gets to work.

In the following pictures, Parfait (a volunteer from the village) and Val were cleaning the worksite while the workers were preparing the construction area.

This is how things looked when Val arrived.

The following pictures were taken by Val two weeks ago when she first arrived at the work site. 

You can see that grass is growing out of this pile of sand due to neglect. 

In these two pictures we can see how the grass has over taken the construction site. Since Val has been on the site things have completely turned around. She tried to send me a video of the site today, but the file was too big. Unfortunately we really do need to have someone onsite to oversee the workers.

It takes a very long time for her to upload pictures, so I will post them as I get them.

A family's Hospitality

Last night Val went to Pierre’s house for dinner after picking up more materials for the construction. Pierre and his family were the ones living in Val’s father’s house when we first visited the village.  When we first met them the two boys only had one set of clothes and their food for the day was a small piece of cassava root. We have been able to support them each subsequent mission trip. Last night they only ate potatoes cooked in palm oil, and onion, and salt. That was all they had for supper, nothing else. They didn't even have condiments to add to their food. But they were so generous to want to share with Val. It is often humbling to see how much those who have so little are willing to share. Val brought them a sack of rice while visiting them, and they were very happy. Val plans to buy them some garlic, ginger roots and other spices the next time she shops at the market. In the meantime she will share the spices that she does have.

Hello everyone, at about 8:30 pm our time 2:30 am her time, Val and I had a wonderful conversation through Skype. We were able to audio chat for about 40 minutes. Then we did something we didn't dare try before. We had a video chat. We had to reconnect about three times but it was so worth it. We got to see each other for the first time in two weeks. What a blessing. We were so very, very happy. It was like GOD gave her a belated birthday gift. Maybe it was because she was on so early her time, this was the best connection we have had to date especially in the village. For those of you out there who know just how slow the internet can be in Cameroon I think you can appreciate just how very, very, very blessed we were. Please continue to pray for her and the important work she is doing. Everyone in the village agrees that the orphanage would not be making the progress it is without her. Thanks again for your prayers and support.

Val is back in Cameroon

Hello everyone,

I've haven't been able to update the blog on Val's trip as much as I'd like because she has not been able to connect to the Internet. She did land safely in Yaounde last Saturday and she arrived in the village of Bano about a day later. Not only has she been overseeing the project, she has been working along side the contractor and his crew each day of the week. With all of the work she has not had as much opportunity to minister to the people of the village. She was able to speak with a young man who ran the 5K last year and a group of women who came to the work site.

Please continue to pray for her as the consruction continues. I'll post pictures of the progress as soon as I get them. Thank you very much everyone.

Happy Father's day to all of you fathers out there.

Anna hands out a scholarship.

Jessica gives a heartfelt embrace to one of the girls at school.

Hello everyone, It is 4 am here in Cameroon and we are up and getting ready to leave Bano. We will catch the 5am bus and hopefully get there around 1:00 pm. The ride should take about 4-5 hours. Pray for safe travels for all of us to the village. Thanks everyone for all of your prayer and well wishes. Internet will be spotty in the village, so I don't know when my next post will be. God bless.

Jihye and Nate Marvel at the innocence of the children

Mbankomo-"What a Blessing"

We had our first big day of the mission trip today. What a wonderful day of blessings. We couldn't have planned things any better, it was obvious that God had set his plan in motion, we were just along for the ride.

We received some bad news once we got to the school in mbankomo. The director greeted us at our vehicles and informed us of the fact that the school was closed because the government  will rebuild in a new location. Currently the children will go to two different schools, one up the mountain and another down the mountain. We decided to go downhill first.

We met with the director of this school before we met with the children. He asked that we continue the partnership with his school that we had started with the first school. Bruce gave a brief message, Amanda gave the gospel story with the evangecube  and Anna spoke to the children about being a nurse. At the end of the presentations we played soccer. 

Near the end of the game a little girl tried to shy away from Jessica when she walked up to her. After Val talked to the girl we found out that she was shying away from Jessica because she afraid to get Jessica dirty.  Jessica embraced the girl and this sparked an entire discussion about skin color and it is not a determination of who is cursed or blessed. Anna led the discussion about how we are all the same under the skin and that through Jesus we are free from guilt, condemnation and shame.

We gave 5 scholarships at the school. Just as we got done with handing out scholarships it started to rain. Each time we hosted games at  schools in Cameroon during the last trip it rained. The amazing thing this time around is that it is the dry season. Last time we were here in the rainy season. Here they see the rain as a benediction.
Simon pierre was no longer in mbankomo, because of problems with the school the distance to the public school us to great. The private school is close but very expensive. After we tried to find Simon we found out that he is no longer in town. This was because of an issue with the father. 

Home visits: the first house we stopped at the women did not want to have anyone pray for her unless they were Catholic. Val told her that it was not a matter of religion but a matter of Jesus Christ and his love for us. Then the woman wanted us to lay hands on her. But she only wanted the men to touch her head.
I gave the rice to the grand mother and she took us to her kitchen. Them a young lady Celine Atangana wanted us to lay hands on her and she didn't care who. Everyone was welcome.

The second house the grandmother was sick but we were able to give the rice to her granddaughter. She was open to prayer.

The third house we saw the grand mother that we were able bless the previous year. Before we for out of the cars she greeted us. She gave big hugs to everyone. She grabbed Jessica and took her to her son. Jessica wanted to take her home. We prayed for her  her, husband and a granddaughter.

At the fourth house we blessed a grandmother who had lost her sight. She ask everyone to shake hands and them burst into tears. She hugged everyone and gave each of us a blessing.

The fifth house was the home of the directors parents he wanted a blessing for his parents. So, we prayed for both parents and a thrid member of the household when she asked for prayer.

Today was truly full of blessing and share God's love. It's late so I'll be getting to bed soon. We had for Bano in the morning. God bless. 

The Soccer Game in Mbankomo.

Looking at Fabric

Anna, Jihye, and Lizi looking at fabric.

In Cameroon

Hello everyone, We are in Cameroon. Sorry for the late post but we did not have power the night we came into town. Today was the day that we encouraged the team to get some rest and they did. We did do a little shopping in the afternoon. Those who wanted to purchased fabric for custom made Cameroonian clothes. But, of course the main reason that we went shopping was for rice to distribute in Mbankomo on Monday. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. In Mbankomo we will do home visits, as well as visit the school to hand out scholarships and host another soccer game for the children. If the power holds out I'll have more information soon.

Happy Trails

One last Taste of America before Cameroon.

Hello everyone, The Brookings crew will be leaving shortly for Cameroon. We'll join the Utah crew on Saturday and begin the mission in earnest. Before we go to the village of Bano we will make a stop in Mbankomo to bless the children there with school supplies and a soccer game. Happy Birthday to Amanda. She will celebrate her birthday during our layover in Paris on the 19th. Thanks for your prayers and support. I'll be sending more info soon.

Fred

Hear we go again.

Anna packing medical supplies for the trip.

Hello everyone, We are getting ready to break ground on the orphanage. We have a group of ten individuals going this year. Included in the group are a nurse, a pastor and a film crew. The film crew will document the mission trip and create several promotional videos for the ministry. The film crew arrived yesterday and the rest of us will land on Saturday. Please keep all of us in your prayers for safe travels and a blessed mission.

Thanks.