First Post from Cameroon!

Note: This post is a little random and written jet-lagged. Pictures to follow soon though...

Hello Everyone,

After months of busyness and preparation, we have arrived at our new home in Mbingo, Cameroon! We will be living here until December of next year (2015) and are excited to settle in a little and get to know the people of this beautiful place. I am planning to take and post some pictures as soon as the rain lets up a bit. Despite the heavy rain, what can be seen of the landscape is gorgeous – rolling mountains mixed with steep hills covered in lush grass and trees, waterfalls all around, a cool breeze blowing... Maybe not what one would picture when we said we are moving to Africa? J The temperature has actually been on the cooler side – maybe 70s during the day and 50s at night. We discovered that a guesthouse on the hill behind our house is used for vacationing missionaries throughout Cameroon. We are already spoiled.

For those interested in the details, we are living in a three-bedroom duplex with a combined dining room and living room. We have a bathroom with running water and a hot shower (a small water heater is in the bathroom so we have hot water as long as we have electricity!), a kitchen with nearly all of our usual appliances, a small backyard area with a swing for Nathaniel, a washing machine in a little shed, and a clothes line for drying clothes and diapers. Again, we are going to be spoiled. This means though that as soon as we finish unpacking and getting settled in, we are ready for guests! Just email me and let me know when you would like to come! :)

Thank you all so much who prayed for us during all of the traveling here! The goodbyes were extremely hard. Even though we will return to the States for a couple years after our time here, it was so hard to leave Nashville. We will miss all of our incredible friends and family there (and in Ohio!) and are so sad to take the boys from them. In spite of this, we are sooooo grateful for the love, support, and encouragement we have received from everyone in following what God has called us to do. What a gift you all are! We could not be here without all of you sending us, praying for us, and strengthening us. Thank you!!

As our plane left Nashville, Nathaniel sensed my sadness and started to cry a little and ask for family members by name. He then kept saying “no plane” and “ go home”. I told him that we were going to our new home in Africa but that our family loves us so much and that we love them. We talked about how we will talk on the phone and skype and will get to visit and see them again soon. Throughout the trip, Nathaniel would ask about people and about what we were doing. When we finally arrived at Mbingo we excitedly told him we were at our new home and he said “Yay – Africa!” :) He got excited about his little wooden toddler bed and enjoyed pulling his toys and stuffed animals out of one of the action packer containers and putting them on his “new bed”.

Logistically, everything went incredibly well throughout our travels. The boys did really well overall during all the flights and transitions. Jason and I didn’t get much sleep at all on the planes but we hung in there ok. Our lay-overs in Detroit and Paris went smoothly and all of our luggage arrived with us in Douala, Cameroon! We had people who met us at the Douala airport so we never had to handle our entire luggage by ourselves. One of the missionaries here at Mbingo rode the whole seven hours to come meet us at the airport – what a blessing and help she was to us! We were able to eat and get some much needed rest overnight in Douala. The drive to Mbingo on Wed morning went much better than I thought it would. The roads were paved and the boys slept a lot of the way (the one time jet lag worked in our favor!). The biggest challenge so far has been adjusting to the time change – the past few nights have been filled intermittently with crying baby boys. Daytime naps and awake periods are hard to coordinate without a lot more crying, but it is already improving. We finally got both boys asleep around 1am this morning and they slept until 8am! This is the most consecutive sleep I have had in a LONG time so even though my brain is still a little foggy, we are doing much better.

Since arriving we have met a lot of locals and expats, had meals with missionaries and at the guest house canteen, had a brief tour of the hospital and market, and attended a Bible study and going away banquet for a beautiful and gracious couple from Australia. We have started unpacking and settling into our house in between “orientation talks” to begin familiarizing ourselves with the culture. Jason enjoyed attending surgery rounds this morning at the hospital and plans to begin working on Tuesday.

I want to end this post with a brief story to encourage you that our Great and Magnificent God is also intricately involved in the details of our lives...

A couple months ago Jason started talking about trying to get me a piano of some sort while we are here in Cameroon. We had been reading about a missionary couple in Nepal in the 50s who had 10 porters carry a piano up a mountain and were joking about how “nothing is impossible”. :) I have had an old upright piano in our home for years that my parents bought when I was 9 years old that I love dearly. Asking God for a piano here in Cameroon seemed kind of frivolous to me so I must admit that while Jason was praying, I was mostly silent on this issue. Anyway, a couple that has served here for several years are about to return home and asked us in an email if we would be interested in buying a Roland electric piano from them. They were asking for enough money to cover some of their cost from buying and shipping it. We told them that though we would love the piano, we didn’t have that amount of money right now. After a couple weeks of Jason praying (Oh me of little faith), he mentioned this to a friend and they told him they wanted to donate a substantial amount of money toward the piano because they thought it would be great both for me and for ministry. I was extremely humbled by their generosity and thoughtfulness but still felt like spending the remaining amount on the piano was too much. Another week or two went by and Jason felt like he should just ask the couple if they would be willing to sell the piano for the amount that was donated to us for this purpose. Jason asked and the couple accepted! They sold us the piano for a third of their original asking price, way below their cost. So... when we arrived to our new home, halfway around the world, there was a piano sitting in our living room – beautiful and ready to play. May I use it to bring glory to El Roi – the God who sees.