Weekend Away

Hello family and friends!!! Well our visas were extended! Thank you for all the prayers! The past few weeks have been busy! The kids are almost finished with school!! Elliott will be done by the end of next week! Megan is a little bit longer yet! Well just Algebra!! They both will be done so they can enjoy our last few weeks here at Mbingo!

I went to Bamenda and stayed with friends for a few days this past weekend! It was nice to visit and see the rest of Bamenda! 

Our Mbingo family!! 

I stayed with Aunt Elsie and Geri when I went to Bamenda. Elsie took me shopping in the main market on Friday! She has been here for 16 years so it was neat to hear all about the culture and traditions! I rode in my first taxi!! On Saturday, Geri and I went to Bafut to a women's co-op! They make clothes and all sorts of different items! The drive there was so beautiful! 

Here is the entrance to the compound where the store was located.

Geri looking at all the different items to buy!! I could have bought one of everything! This is the room where the ladies work!

On Sunday morning I attended church. We went to the CBC church. It was huge!! When I took this picture I was only half way to the back of the church!!

Sunday afternoon I went to Holly and Jake Schilinski's house and then to the Helping Hands Children's Home!! I met Holly, Jake, and their children at SCA! They were celebrating April Birthdays at the orphanage. 

Helping Hands Children's Home

Holly and the kids! They are answering bible trivia to see who gets seconds on cake! :)

Audrey and Blessing

Audrey is here helping at the home and staying with Jake and Holly for 6 months!

 Some of the kids! 

This is one of the girls bedrooms!

 

Braiding the girls hair!

 Some of the boys playing soccer!!

There are 30 children at the home! They were so friendly and welcoming!! I loved spending time there and wish I could have stayed longer and got to know them better!!

While I was there I passed out faith bracelets and a little booklet! After I was done passing them out the children sang me a song!! It was beautiful!!!! Then as a special treat we watched a movie!

Some of the kids showing their bracelets!

 The wall around the home has some paintings that some visitors have painted! This one says "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." John 14:18

I have the information on how you can help the children at the home! You can make a donation or even sponsor a child with a monthly donation! The work that Jake and Holly are doing is really amazing!! The mission that they are with just bought land between Bamenda and Mbingo! The plan is to expand the home so they can help more children!!!

On Monday, Jen, Megan, and Elliott came to Bamenda to pick me up!! We also spent the day shopping and sightseeing! 

Megan and Elliott trying on hats at Joseph's shop!

We ate out at PressCafe!!

Elliott and I had the Hamburger! It had onion, tomato, lettuce, and a fried egg!! 

Our first hamburger since we left the States!!!!

Jen had the noodle salad! Megan had the tuna melt! Both were very good!! 

 The traffic and roads in Bamenda are crazy! Well, just not Bamenda but all of Cameroon! Traffic laws do not really exist over here! The motorcycles pretty much go where ever they please! Cars drive two wide or on the wrong side to pass someone! I finally got some pictures!

This is looking down on of the main streets in Bamenda! We take this road to get to the CBC. 

Stands like these line both sides of the roads!

Gretchen outside church!

On her way to church in her new African dress!

They are growing up way to fast!!!!

Elliott found another BUG!!!!!

This one was 5 inches long!! So big and gross!

Please pray for accreditation for the CIMS and PAACS programs from the Cameroonian government!  Prayers for the patients and doctors here at Mbingo. 

Praise God and Thank God for the release of the French family that were kidnapped in northern Cameroon a little over two months ago!

Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. Ephesians 6:24

We did it!!!! We climbed Mbingo Hill!

Hello everyone!!

We did it! We climbed Mbingo Hill!! It was amazing! It was a goal from the first day we arrived in Mbingo! I could never have climbed it back in November!!! But since we walk everywhere here and I lost a little weight, we decided it was time to try it!! It was crazy hard but so worth it! The view from the top was amazing! Everyone went even little Gretchen! She did so good! She was climbing like crazy! The way up is very tiring and pretty much straight up, but coming down was scary!! On the way up you leaned into the hill but on the way down I was so scared I would tumble forward!! A couple of times I sat and scooted down on my butt!

Here we are at the top!!!

Starting out on our journey we had to go through a small village at the bottom of Mbingo hill.

Houses in the village

A gate that is held open by an engine block!

Gretchen leading the way!!

At the base ready to go up!!

 

Starting our climb!

About half way up we took a little break! 

Picture of the hospital at about half way!

Picture of the hospital from the top!!! Market is on the right side of the road and the hospital is on the left! 

 

Fields on the side of the hill! Mbingo is all hills and mountains so they must farm on the side of the hills and mountains!! I went with Nancy to visit some ladies working in a field! They were on the side of a hill turning the soil over getting it ready to plant! I could barely stand on the hill, but the ladies were digging with their shovels and hoes like it was nothing! They call them hills! I call them cliffs or drop offs!!!

The view from the top was beautiful!! God is good!!

Here we are coming back down!! This shows how steep it really was!! This was one of the many times I got stuck and Jen had to tell me where to put my feet or which path to take!!! I am way up the hill and Jen and Elliott are waiting for me!!!

Elliott waiting in his chair!! The whole side of the hill was like this! It was like climbing a rock wall. You would but your foot on a patch of dirt and grass and look for the next sturdy patch to place your next foot or to pull your self up!

On the road back to Mbingo!! Which actually was the dangerous part of our trip!!! Cars and Motos everywhere!!!! Cameroon is not like the United States where the pedestrian has the right away!! If you don't get out of the way or even off the road they will run you down!! There is no slowing down either!! Notice how we are hugging the side of the road!!! Also the Motos (motorcycles) here turn off there engines as they travel down hills and coast so they can save gas!!! So now you can't hear them coming to get you!!!!

Gretchen is so funny! When we go for walks she is always looking out for Motos! She will yell "Watch out! Here comes Moto guys!!" I think one of the scariest things I see on our way to Bamenda is the children walking along these roads! We drive on a road that is so twisty turny and people go so fast! The motos weave in and out of traffic while kids that are Gretchen's age (she is 3) are walking along the road by themselves! The children must walk to school and they have to walk along the roads!! There have been a couple of times when I have held my breath and cringed because I thought I was going to witness one of them getting hit!!! We all just look at each other and hold our kids a little tighter! It is their way of life here! They start school when they are 3 and that is how they get to school! They don't have a big yellow school bus that stops to pick them up!!! I should say that most of the really little ones have siblings that walk with them! But most of the siblings are only a few years older! It would be like Elliott and Gretchen walking to school on I-99!!! I know this road is not a 4 lane highway but people drive like it is and go just as fast!

Okay sorry back to our hike!

 

 On our way back these boys wanted their picture taken! They saw our camera and kept turning around and posing! I finally said can I take a snap! They laughed and posed again!! If you want to take a picture you should ask first and they say snap instead of picture!

Here are some close up pictures of our market! 

Well it was a fun and busy week! We didn't hear anything about our visa extensions yet! Maybe by the end of this week we will know something! We just ask for continued prayers! Prayers for safe travels for our friends that are going to Kribi tomorrow! Prayers for Lindsay and Cathen as they travel back to the states for a little vacation! We will miss them! Gretchen wanted to go on the airplane with Cathen!! I told her very soon we will be on the big plane!! Prayers for Elliott who is having all kinds of emotions this week! One minute he is very homesick and missing all his family and friends, but then the next minute he is sad to leave Africa, Mbingo, and the friends and family we have made here!!! I think we are all feeling this!!! We really miss our family and friends (and I can not wait to hug my mom!!) but we have enjoyed our time here so much we do not want to see it end!!!! 

Jen is going to post the next blog! She is going to give everyone a glimpse into what she has been doing at the hospital!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.  Psalm 136:1

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!!!

Our African clothes we had made for Easter! We didn't get Gretchen's in time but we will have plenty of pictures when we do!!

Wow, Easter already! It feels like I just did our Christmas blog!! Time is flying!! Well I hope everyone had a blessed Easter holiday! We had a nice holiday and shared it with our wonderful family here at Mbingo! 

 

Jen, Randy, and Megan went to Bamenda this past week to drop off paperwork to start our visa extension. While they were at the CBC, they got to visit the library and get new books for everyone! They got to visit with Aunt Elsie too! We should know in the next couple of weeks if we get our extension or not! 

We tried to dye eggs on Saturday but had to switch to decorating them with stickers instead! Grammy sent us some really good recipes for natural dyes but they would not color the brown eggs!! We tried grape juice, paprika, coffee, and beet juice! Thanks anyway Gram!!! 

 

Starting to dye our eggs!

See still Brown!!

Megan still having fun!

Elliott moved on to stickers! Of course he used Star Wars stickers!!

Gretchen and her Mickey Mouse egg!

Our "Uncle John is a weirdy" egg! Even in Africa, Megan still gets you John!!!

Time to put the stickers away!! She was getting a little sticker crazy!!

All the eggs!!

On Sunday morning, Jen, Randy, and Elliott went to the sunrise service. They got up at 4 o'clock in the morning and the drums started at 5 o'clock. Everyone marches up Mbingo Hill in the dark to have the service outside. As they march, they play drums and sing songs! Elliott really liked going! After they marched back down, they stopped and got Megan, Gretchen, and me to go to church! I didn't go with them up the hill but just watching them pass and hearing the music and singing was very powerful! Jen took some pictures of everyone marching and some at the top of the hill!

 

 

Elliott and Jen at the place where they had the service!

Walking back down from Mbingo Hill!!!

After church we had a Easter brunch with the other missionary families. We had a egg hunt, good food, and great fellowship! We hid some eggs with candy in them and hard boiled eggs too! 

 

Everyone hanging out in our living/dining room! The other good news was that Dennis and Nancy arrived back at Mbingo on Friday so they were able to join us!!

Getting ready to hunt some eggs!

The Gang!! (Isaac, Gretchen, Joey, Elliott, Cathen, and Megan)

The boys!

Gretchen and Cathen giving hugs!! It kind of looks like they are dancing!! Too cute!

Marlis likes to teach Elliott or show him things that are from here. She is always showing him new bugs or telling him about the culture. She shares with Megan too. A few weeks ago she brought him palm oil nuts. They use palm oil over here and she said they cook or boil the oil out of these seeds or nuts. When you crack them open, inside is a nut that tastes just like coconut. 

Here are the palm oil nuts.

Marlis told us that palm oil nuts and coconuts come from two different palm trees.

So when Jen went to Bamenda she bought a coconut to show Elliott. Marlis opened it and we all tried the water and ate a piece of coconut! I will say I am not a fan of either!! Actually no one liked the water! I can't get past the texture of coconut to like it! Not sure what we are going to do with it! Try to find a recipe!

Marlis cracking open the coconut.

 Marlis getting ready to show Elliott how to get the coconut out of the shell!

Our friend Ben brought his kids by our house one day while his wife was at the hospital for an appointment. This is their 4 month old baby! He was so cute! He really liked Megan!

We have had some pretty intense rain storms in the past couple of weeks! The clinic at the hospital flooded. Jen said she was in seeing patients and all of sudden the water was up to her ankles and rising!!!! Of course Elliott enjoys all the rain and water! The rainy season lasts until the first of November. Everyone says that after the first month the rains calm down and it becomes just a nice steady rain for a couple of hours a day. Everything is turning so green!! It is beautiful! Also the crickets!!! I have never heard so many crickets in my life!! Not even at Camp Meeting!!! Elliott found a new animal that we are going to study for science! It is the Laughing Frog! It is crazy! When we walk at night it sounds like someone laughing! I like the sound just not the frog!!!

I almost forgot we had a chicken die!! Elliott and Megan are fighting over which one of their chickens died! Elliott said it was Megan's and she said it was his! So I decided that it was our dear chicken Phil! (Named after Chick-fil-a) Megan went to feed and water them and came back in and said I think we have a dead chicken! Marlis went out and sure enough he was hard as a rock!!! Of course, all the kids had to look at it and walk with Marlis to get rid of it! I felt like we were on a funeral march for our chicken! Gretchen was running after Marlis yelling "Wait for me, Marlis!!!" Marlis probably thinks we are crazy sometimes!!

I want to say Happy Birthday to my sister Em, Randy's dad Jim, and my Grandma Pepple!!!! Wish we were there to celebrate with you all!! Also my mom and dad had a anniversary that I forgot about until the next day so Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!! Continued prayers for Thad, Brandi, and Mike! Brandi got to talk to him on Sunday so I'm sure that gave her a little comfort and peace!! Prayers for Jim as he continues with chemo. Prayers for Debbie and Rick Bardin who are leaving this week to go back to the U.S. for a month. Prayers for all family and friends who are fighting illness! Prayers for our visa extensions that God's will be done. Continued prayers for the patients and doctors here at Mbingo! 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11