Brokenness

It’s true I am content.  SO glad to finally be here and to be ‘in the midst of God’s will for me.’  Glad to have time to put my thoughts on paper, time to watch the amazing birds play in the trees and eat the fruit in my yard and listen to them sing. Glad to begin to know the community here.

Pied Crows in a tree at sunset

A hymn sing goodbye for our
Swiss friend (left)

The easiest people to know first is of course the ones who look and sound like me: other missionaries, here to serve, called to serve in this place now.  There is depth here.  Wisdom. Age. Youth.  Naivety. Hope. Despair.  These Saints are not Super Christians. They are broken, hurting, loving, kind saints making their way like you and me. There was last week a woman who has served here for over 40 years and was leaving to return to her ‘homeland’ Switzerland.  She is leaving her work, her friends, her heart here in Cameroon.  Yesterday another missionary woman lost her young cousin back in the states to cancer, just after they took her 2 ½ lb. preemie by emergency C-section, their 4^th child, but my friend can not go home to help or comfort her family. My neighbor’s oldest child has mild autism.  This teenaged girl and her family deal with all the stresses of high school without the autism support found in the states. A husband leaves for two-week trips often, leaving his wife at home with several children, while they do the next step on the project.  

MKs watching a movie with my kids-
giving a mom a break
while her husband was out of town.

A wife makes a ‘quick’ trip home to the states with some of the kids because of a death in the family, while the husband holds down the fort.  There are displaced people who were supposed to serve in now war-torn countries.  A man who wants desperately to do his job well but is working through red tape and change of job description.  A pilot waits for the governmental okay for the developing aviation program.  A former MK with 2 small children has a stress fracture in her foot and no way to get a boot. 

But this community has something truly special.  People pray.  People practice hospitality.  People share what they have- food, rides, water, information. People love well.  It is not easy.  But it is good to see God’s glory and faithfulness in the brokenness of his saints.

Silas shows the kids and a parent
the summer sausage he is making on
their walk home from school

The second set of folks we’ve gotten to know are the Cameroonians who work nearby.  There are many who work at the SIL offices (Wycliffe’s sister organization that we report to here), and at CABTAL (Cameroonian Association for Bible Translation and Literacy) next door, but also the guards, vegetable salesmen, small boutique workers, gardeners, house help, and babysitters. It is hard to explain the language and cultural barriers, but they are real.  Again there is so much brokenness.  Everyone is struggling to make ends meet and to care for their children. Everyone has brokenness that needs a BIG God to fill and heal.  This time of year the stories are everywhere of the children who are not in school because of the school fees, or that they can go, but there is not enough money for books.  The guard whose wife lost a baby at birth but the insurance found a loophole and didn’t pay so the family has crippling hospital bills to pay as well as the grief of losing a child.  There are so many stories.  And I believe them.  But these Saints are persevering, praying, believing.  And God continues to provide help where there should be not help.  There is love and compassion and prayers for people and problems that we have never met.  What a blessing to serve alongside these Saints!

I just finished reading the book ‘Kisses for Katie’ about a young missionary woman serving in Uganda.  She has way less than I do in many physical ways.  She serves radically and while I do not feel called to serve the same way she does, I do feel called to love well right where I am, wherever I am.  I believe that is the will of God for all of us.

Please pray for the people of Cameroon, for our work here, and for the ability to love well.   The expat church does not have a regular pastor.  It has elders and people who take turns doing the jobs.  Missionaries need shepherding too!  Pray for you missionaries, for your pastors, for those in leadership.  They need it!  We all need it.  We are all dealing with brokenness and the need for a savior to make us whole.

A woman walking down our street
holding a baby the tradtional way.

This worm (10 inches) crawled up our shower drain!

Tonight's sunset from my porch

Please continue to pray for our house in Lynchburg to rent, and for us to find a good, used, four-wheel drive vehicle that we can afford.  Pray for a solution to Chris’s malfunctioning iPhone- it works except you can’t hear him talk.