Today's the day

After months of planning the day is finally here. At 6:10 pm we are flying out from Toronto airport and tomorrow night we arrive at 7:35 Cameroon time in Yaounde.
Please keep me and the rest of the team in your prayers for the next two months.

Tongue Twisters

I mentioned in my last post I have been thinking about what God might be calling my to in the future. So I have been thinking a lot lately about whether or not God has called me to Career missions and well I'm not really sure, I'm hoping that this upcoming trip to Cameroon will really help with find direction. But one thing I know for sure is that whether or not I am called to full time missions overseas I feel strongly called to work with children or youth ministries. So this led me to a decision to switch the children and family ministry program. But there is a still a possibility of  overseas missions and even if I am in Canada there are so many cultures in Canada that the intercultural studies would still be very valuable. So this all led me to where I am now which is a tongue twister of a program. 
Bachelor of Religious Education - Professional - Children and Family Ministry - Intercultural Studies  

T-Minus 14 days till take off

These are the pictures of the book I made for the story of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-32)

I am really excited to be leaving soon. But I'm also starting to get nervous as well. I keep being afraid that I'm going to forget something so I have a very detailed packing list. I also have a big long to-do list of things I need to do before I go home. But in all of this I need to make sure I am still spending time with God and preparing spiritually for this trip. 
I'm going to post soon about what God has been doing in my life lately in terms of a possible future in children's ministry 

Trip Updates

We are leaving exactly three weeks today for Cameroon! I am so excited.
Our original flights were canceled but God really answered our prayers and we go on new a new flight that leaves at the exact same time. 
We leave Toronto on May 9th at 6:10 pm we arrive in Brussels in the early morning of the 10th. From Brussels we fly to Zurich and from Zurich to Yaounde (the capital of Cameroon). We should be arriving in Yaounde at 7:35 pm on May 10th, which is only 3 hours later than our original flight. 
For our exam we had to make a big book (each page is 2ft by 1.5ft) of Bible stories. The story I did was the Prodigal Son. I was really glad I got to do that story because it has had a really big impact in my life. I took so pictures of it but my SD card reader on my computer isn't working but I will try to upload them soon. 
Prayer Points:
-Group dynamics 
-Health 
-Host Families
-Oku people
-Culture shock
And also, God has really helped me in regaining my health from when I was sick. I am feeling just as well as before I got sick and I regained all the weight I lost.
Praise the Lord 

It's the final countdown

So today being April 9th is exactly one month from when we leave. It is kind of crazy that it is coming up so soon, but I still have so much stuff left to do. Me and some of the other girls have started doing insanity (which is a really intense workout) every night to get ready to climb Mt. Cameroon. It still probably will be the hardest thing that I have ever done so prayer would be very appreciated. 
It has just been really amazing to see God bring all the pieces together. I have just over half the amount of money I need and I know that God will bring in the rest that in need. God has also just been really working in my heart preparing me for this time trip. 
For the next month I will post about how preparations are going and also prayer requests. 
Prayer requests
I was really sick this past week and I a lot of weight but I really need to gain weight so that if I lose weight in Cameroon it won't be unhealthy for me. So if you could just pray for my overall health and that I could gain the weight that I need to in order to be healthy the entire time I am in Cameroon. 

The fruit of the Spirit

"But the fruit of the Spirit is

love, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness

gentleness and self-control"

Galatians 5:22-23

The fruit of the Spirit is very important in a Christian's life. It is a display of the work of the Holy Spirit in a Christian's life. The of the Spirit demonstrates that we have accepted God into our lives and have a relationship with him. Which was only made possible through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The fruit of the Spirit make it clear to others that we are Christians.

We often fail in displaying the fruit of the Spirit but stays with us even when we fall into sin. 

I want to reflect on each of the fruit of the Spirit. 

Love: Love is mentioned so many times in the Bible. We are commanded to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbour as ourselves. It is important that we develop an intimate relationship with God and also show Christ's love to all man kind. 

Peace: We serve a God of peace, a God of Shalom. If we are filled with peace it should flow through all areas of our lives, what we do, our outlook on life, and how we treat others. Peace can also help us in times of suffering and struggling. 

Patience: When we are patient we are able to wait calmly and wait upon God's will for us. A patient person is willing to respond when and how the Lord desires. Sometimes it is after a time of patient prayer and waiting that we are able to discern but is best for ourselves and others. 

Kindness: Kindness really flows out of the love of others. It is when we become involved in meeting each others needs. Kindness is willingly and freely helping those who need a helping hand.

Goodness: Goodness is the desire to do what is right and just. Goodness also helps us with our natural desire to hurt those who hurt us and gives us the ability to forgive. 

Faithfulness: This is what inspires us to trust God even when we feel like he has abandoned us. 

Gentleness: Gentle people are careful not to hurt others, they respect other people opinion and beliefs and promote dialogue  without patronizing the other person.

Self-control: This is very important for the christian life. It helps us to set up boundaries and stay away from temptation. It helps us to fulfill our desires in the appropriate time and place. Self-control is something that can greatly aid us with temptation and not falling into sin. A person with self-control experience immense joy and happiness in fulfilling their desires because they are filling them in line with God's will. 

As a team it will be important for us to remember to display the fruit of the Spirit to each other even when we are tired and we don't want to show any love to each other. We also need to show the fruit to the Spirit to those we are serving. It is important for people to be able to see the Spirit working in us.  

Cameroon on youtube

So I was home for some of the week I decided to check out videos of Cameroon on youtube 

Here are som good ones that I found

This one of a photo montage of a 

group that climbed Mt. Cameroon

in the description of the video they 

also have some info on how the 

climb went for them

This is a video of dancing in

Oku Cameroon which I thought

was pretty cool since that is 

where we are going

The beginning and end of the video

just have shoots from a really bad

road in Cameroon. But in the middle

there is some footage of a JuJu 

ceremony that was really interesting

 Well those are some of the videos I found. I hope you enjoy them.

This makes me so excited to go to Cameroon!

45 days!!

Unrest in North Africa

So as many of you may have heard there has been unrest in many countries in North Africa. Cameroon isn't really considered North Africa is more West Africa but it is near enough to countries that are going through unrest that they too might be effected. So I decided to do some research. I came across this article that adresses issues with possible protests against the current president. You can read read the article Here. 
Please be praying for safety in Cameroon.

Awesome God

I was planning on writing something about lent and surrendering idols in our lives to God this week. But when I went to my Bible study tonight God really just like hit me on the head. (And to think I was so close to not going this week) 
We have been going through the Truth Project with some people at my church and tonight in the lesson there was this video. 
A managed to find it on youtube, for those of you who aren't at Heritage and can stream video.

I was just completely blow away. This video almost had me in tears. What really hit me was just how amazing God truly is, the world is so beautiful when I look at nature I just can't get over how breath taking it is and God CREATED this world and everything in it. But not only that God also created ME. The Bible says that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. But not only did God create me He also sent His one and only son to save me. God is so great and I am so little I don't deserve to be saved yet I am. I don't deserve to have a relationship with God yet He not only wants to have a relationship with me he desires to have a relationship with me. 
Our God is truly an awesome God.

Oku

I posted before that the team was going to split in two and work in two different language groups. That has now changed and the whole team is going to stay together and work in the Oku language group.
Location: North West of Cameroon
Jesus Film: Not available 
Population: Over 80,000
Villages: Over thirty-three 
Agriculture: corn, Irish potatoes, beans, plantains, and cash crops like coffee and cola nuts 

Lake Oku

Praying the Psalms

Lately I have been going through some hard stuff. I was just really in need of comfort, so I asked my R.A. what I should do. Her reply was "read Psalms". So I decided to follow her advice.
Sometimes it just feels wrong to me to cry out to God when I am in pain. But when I read the Psalms I see that they are filled with David crying out to God. 

"Listen to my cry 

For help"

Psalm 5:2

This really just blew me away. This really just became my prayer, I have never felt such a close connection to the Psalms before, it was almost as if these words had become my own.

"My soul is in anguish

How long, O Lord, how long?

Psalm 6:3

It has just really amazed me that can read through the Psalms and be praying with them. It is just such an incredible thing that there are words in the Bible expressing how I feel. The Bible really is God's gift to us. No matter how we feel there are words for us in the Bible. 

This has really impacted how I pray, now I when I go to pray I will open my Bible to the Psalms and I will read the Psalms and highlight what really stick out to me and pray those words. I am so thankful to God for the comfort this gives me He is such a glorious God. 

I know I can trust God to take care of even in this time of hardship.

Avoiding Syncretism

Syncretism is the reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief.

Syncretism is something that is even present in Western Christianity. But it is often easy for us to see syncretism in other cultures. One of these cultures is in societies that practice animism. How to we present the gospel in animistic societies while avoiding syncretism. 

In our culture we tend to think of things individually, but in many other cultures including animistic ones their thinking is very holistic. In the western world when Christianity is taught it often deals with cosmological questions such as; our origin, destiny, and the meaning of life. Many other cultures on the other hand are more concerned with practical everyday issues such as illness, death, drought, financial success, and romance. This results in Christians that follow Christ in the way of cosmological issues but when it comes to the everyday issues they resort to the traditional way of thinking. 

This can be avoided by communicating the Bible in a holistic way. Making sure to address the big issues and question of the community. It is also important to make sure that you contextualize the gospel for the culture of the society you are working with. If people have to change their culture for the gospel they are more likely just to change the gospel to suit their culture. 

Aint No Mountain High Enough

One of the things we are going to be doing in Cameroon is climbing Mount Cameroon. It is also known by it’s native name of Mongo ma Ndemi ("Mountain of Greatness"). Mt. Cameroon’s elevation is 13,255 ft. It is actually one of Africa’s largest volcanoes. Mt. Cameroon has the most frequent eruptions of any West African volcano. It’s last known eruption was in 2000. (Hopefully it won’t erupt again until after we have climb it!)  

Volcanic craters on Mount Cameroon.

And the Greatest of these is love

"A new command I give you: 

Love one another. As I have loved you, 

so you must love one another."

John 13:34

There are countless verses in the New Testament telling us as believers to love one other. But what does it really mean to love one another. This is something I have really been learning about this year. One of the great things about living in dorm is the community, but sometimes it is really hard seeing the same people all the time. Sometimes there are people I just don’t want to love. There are times that someone has unintentionally hurt me in some way and the last thing I want to do is show them love. I have learned that love is a choice. Love isn’t just a feeling you feel towards certain people. There is always going to be some people that you just naturally click with and are easy for you to love. But God doesn’t call us just to love these people. God has called us to love everyone this even means those who may have hurt you. Even on the days when you don’t feel any love towards a person it is so important to show love towards them. 

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. I’ve realized that keeping this in mind as actually made things easier. Before I really started thinking about how love is a choice there would be days when I just didn’t feel like being loving. But now I have realized that loving one another isn’t showing your feelings at that particular moment it is about making a choice to love that person each day. 

Jiggers!

While we are in Cameroon we will have to be careful to watch out for these things called Jiggers which burrow beneath your toe nails and are very unpleasant to remove.  (I really really hope I don't get them)

Here is some information I have found on them.

Jigger (or harvest mite): larval mite that sucks the blood of vertebrates including human beings causing intense irritation

Jiggers like to live on the dust on the ground you walk on and from there get into your feet and other parts of your body.

The way they remove them here is to take a small stick of bamboo, sharpen it and pierce the skin around the Jigger, once all the skin is removed and the Jigger is exposed it is fairly easy to pry it out (except for the last bit where the Jigger bites itself into your skin, so you have to pull a bit there). It is very important to get a Jigger out in one piece (and not pierce its egg sack) to avoid a secondary infection. 

Markers of Witness

Acts 9:12-16 

-The Lord sends Ananias to Saul, even though he did not want to because of Saul’s reputation on persecuting Christians  

Sometimes God is going to ask us to do things we really don’t want to do. God came for all peoples, Jesus died for all even the ones who may persecute you now. We need to be willing to follow God’s leading. 

Acts 13:3 

-Some are sent out while other stay and be a witness where they are

We are called to be witnesses wherever we are, but some are specifically called out to go somewhere else to bring the message of Christ. 

Acts 13:16

-Preaching God’s whole story progress of redemption not just the story of Jesus 

It is important to show God’s whole story not just the part of it relieved in the life of Jesus. In the book of Acts the apostles are often preaching from the Old Testament and showing how Jesus fits in.  

Consuming Love

"Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, 

   for his compassions never fail."

Lamentations 3:22

I came across this verse in the fall when I was reading through the Old Testament. This verse really just hit me, I really like the wording they use in the NIV translation.  In the NIV it says “we are not consumed” but in some other translations such as the ESV it says “never ceases”. 

It is because of God’s great love for us that we are not consumed by sin, there is freedom because of his love. In John 8:34 it says that “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” So how do we become free from sin? God sent the solution to that! John 8:36 “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” When God sent Jesus, He sent away for us to be free. There are so many things in the world that could easily consume us we are so easily entangled by sin, and we become consumed with things of this world instead of thing of God. Without God’s love and God’s help it would be impossible for us to live in freedom from things of this world. 

The last part of the verse is something that I am always having to remind myself. God’s compassion never fails. Even though we live in a broken world and sometimes God allows terrible things to happen to those He loves He stills feels compassion for them He hurts when we hurt. When Lazarus dies, Jesus wept not because He was sad He’d never see Lazarus again, for He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He wept because he felt compassion for Lazarus’ sisters. God knows that all things will work together for good (Romans 8:28). Yet He feels compassion for us while we are in a season for broken heartedness.  

God’s compassion will never fail. God is close to the broken hearted, and weeps when we weep. 

With the freedom I have received from

God, how could I chose not to

Worship 

Bakossi

Bakossi is one of two people groups we will be working with in Cameroon. 

Language: Akoose 

Over 90% of the New Testament is translated into the Akoose language

Population: 129,000

Much of the area is agricultural with major food crops being coco yam, cassava, and some corn.

Many of Bakossi Christians are not well rooted in the Christian faith, so a good number of them are tied to traditional religious practices

Sources joshuaproject cabtal

All who are weary

"Come to me, all you who are weary 

and burdened and I will give you

rest"

Matthew 11:28

I feel like so often we come across verses or passages in the Bible and we think to ourselves “Oh, this’s a nice verse”. I so often say to that I will rely on God’s strength, yet I hardly ever do. It is like some many biblical truths I will say how great that is but I don’t actually believe them in my heart and in time of struggles I don’t draw on these biblical truths. It was yesterday that I really learned the value of what this says. 

I had hardly slept at all because I had horrible nightmares so I woke up yesterday feeling like I had hardly slept and I was just so overwhelmed by the amount of work that I needed to get. I just felt like hiding under a rock for a few days. One of my friends told me to go look up Matthew 11:28. When I read it I just felt just a peace that I haven’t felt before reading that. I realized that I’m not alone in this world I have Jesus to help me with all these things, this isn’t my burden to carry alone. With help from God I can do all the things I need to do. 

I can find my rest in Jesus.

Whose Life is it Anyways

This past week we had our missions conference at school. The theme of the conference was Whose Life is it Anyways. One of the theme verses was Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This is a verse really speaks to the question of, whose life is it anyways? Christians say that they have given their lives to Christ but what does it really mean to give your life to Christ. People are so ready to say that they believe in Christ so  they won’t go to hell. But are people willing to go one step forward. If God asks you to run, will you ask how far? Something I really want to make evident in my life is that I live by faith in the Son of God, my life is no my own, I want to be willing to serve God where ever and how ever He wants me. 

How a group functions - Colossians 3

This week in class we walked about how a group functions. The early church has many examples of groups functioning well together. As a team that is going out to serve God it is important that we look at these examples of how to be a Christ-like team. A passage I really like that speaks about unity in the body of Christ is Colossians 3.

Colossians 3 really speaks about unity in the body of Christ saying in verse 11 that “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” It also talks about being Christ like in your relationships with each other and also displaying the fruits of the Spirit in your relationships. It also says to forgive one another. The underlining message of this passage is to do everything in love, everyone of these virtues lacks value without love. The end of the chapter really focuses on just obeying those who have authority over you. But it also says that leaders shouldn’t abuse the authority they have.

As a team I think we will really need to make sure that we are displaying kindness, compassion, humility, gentleness, and patience towards one another and also forgiving each other, and doing all these in love.  

Praise The Lord!

One of the really big things we were praying about for our trip this year, was the Cameroonian elections. There was presidential elections scheduled to happen this year, and if it was announced that they were going to be in May/June we wouldn’t have been able to go to Cameroon. But this last week we found out that the elections are going to be October 2011. Praise the Lord. It is so good to know that the elections won’t be something that could keep us from going. 

http://www.electionguide.org/country.php?ID=38

Psalm 4:8

I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety 

Psalm 4:8 

When I came across this verse in Psalm 4 I was just really amazed because it seemed to be speaking right to me. Something that I have been struggling with is nightmares. I need to be keeping this in mind before I go to sleep at night. God has the power to take away my nightmares. I’m going to try to remember to pray before I got to bed. 

If you are praying for me, you can pray for my nightmares. 

Beginning of the Semester Reflections

I was really looking forward to this semester to start in December. I guess what I was really excited for was this week it feels more like we are actually seriously preparing to go. I’m really just so excited to learn more about Cameroon. I’m looking forward to learning about the field we are going to and also to learn about a variety of things that will help us when we go over there and also in future ministries. I’m excited to grow more as a team, it is really sad that some of our members have left but I’m excited to grow really close to the ones that are left. It will be really interesting to see how each person leads devotions on their day. I’m so excited to grow in my walk with Christ, and also see everyone else grow as well. 

The thing I am most nervous about for this whole trip is the food. I’m not really sure how I can spend the next few months preparing for this. All I can think of is praying really hard. I’m not so much nervous but rather stressed about some of the big assignments that I have to do for this semester. But I know that I did it last semester and I did well makes me feel more confidence I really just need to take Matthew 6:34 to heart. Maybe I’ll start saying it to myself whenever I feel like I’m getting worried. 

I can’t say I learned anything really profound over the holidays. My break was almost like a break from learning. I know we never stop learning but compared to the weeks before, the break was really just a time of recharging for me. Something that I did spend sometime thinking about over the break is that I really need to make it a priority to spend time with God everyday. Last semester I didn’t really put much of an effort into finding time in my schedule. I’m sad to think of how little time I actually spent alone with God last semester. I have learned how important it is to spend time with God. I really noticed during the holidays that I actually missed the time I used to spend with God and just really enjoy being in his presence. 

Cameroon: An Introduction

I found this webpage on Cameroon: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1042937.stm#overview

It has a really good country profile. The page gives an overview of Cameroon. And it also has some specific facts. There is also some information on the leaders and media.
This is a pretty good place to start out learning about Cameroon. 

Cameroon at a glance

The former French and British parts of Cameroon merged in 1961 to form the present country of Cameroon.
Location:

The Climate: 

It varies with the terrain, from tropical along the coast and semiarid and hot in the north.

Population:

19,294,149

Life expectancy:

54 years of age

People living with HIV/AIDS 

540,000

Religions:

indigenous beliefs 40%, Christian 40%, Muslim 20%

Oficial Languages:

English and French 

Government type:

republic; multiparty presidential regime  

Population below poverty line:

48%