Make Your Broom

I’ve never made a broom. Have you? 

I’ve been here in and out of Yaounde for more than 25 years, and I’ve never seen anyone make the effective brooms they use.  I see bundles of them carried on seller’s heads. I’ve seen them used to kill a mouse and plenty a cockroach. I’ve watched them be used quite skillfully to sweep out every particle of dust and I have used them not nearly so effectively to clean my own home.

I do love the efficiency and effectiveness of this tool. It is easy to beat furniture with and get into corners as well as crevices to clean them or retrieve lost items. But, I’ve never watched the process to make one until now. Follow the directions.

                Cut branches from a palm tree such as these.        

 

Remove the “leaves” to trim to create the broom. 

Pictured here is what is left of the branch after the wanted pieces have been removed.

Remove the soft, green part. 

                                                Remove the harder part right next to the “spine.” This requires careful scraping with a knife as seen in the next picture. Those are Emelda's hands doing all the work. The following photo is what's left from the scraping and the spines ready to gather.

Gather the spines. 

Use one of them to make a ring and insert the spines together in the ring. 

Well, it is a lot easier to say than do! So, why did Emelda choose to cut the branches in the first place when one can easily buy one from the market? (Some people make their living creating and selling these fantastic tools.) Simply because she loves the fresh smell of the palm when we sweep with a new broom! I do too.

Our finished product next to an older one

When God Whispers

When God whispers and idea….listen!

I’m happy to say I did that last time and the result was amazing! We ended up  blessing more than 30 women coming from a variety of nationalities. I say, “we,” because it certainly took a team. I had 7 translators, a few language checkers, a media guy, (He probably had no idea what he agreed to either! But I’m sure glad he did.) 1 tech gal, a decorations team, 1 gal to purchase chocolate – very important job in the end! -  1 lady bringing supplies, 1 musician, 1 volunteer beautician, several center managers and janitors for room preparation and meal preparation, and a host of prayers!

But, I have gotten ahead of myself.

The idea: Back in March, I shared in a personal retreat day with other missionary women using an online retreat presented by Velvet Ashes. Anybody could register for this retreat but it is specially designed with missionary women in mind. Sometime in that day the idea occurred to me that this could work for the larger group of women in the mission community here in Cameroon. At the time I had NO IDEA what an undertaking I was about to begin.

Since we live and work in a bilingual community the first thing I had to do was find translators. God provided, of course, but then he just kept bringing people to me, some of them before I even knew I needed them. I’ll just tell you about our star beautician because there are photos of us showing the result of her work. Fun!

Included in the retreat package is a video of a DIY beauty enhancement. Well, I certainly wasn’t going to lead that! (not having time or experience) But God knew that Helene was the right gal for the job! He put her in my path 3 X in the day when I was deciding what to do about this part of the retreat. So, I asked her. Helene is already pretty but some of that beauty is brought out because she covers her face with lemon juice grey clay, and some other interesting things on a regular basis! She explained to us what this variety of God-given items (honey, tomatoes, milk, avocado…) could do for our complexion and then we gave it a try. Yes, I put grey clay on my face! It was a great way to end the day.

I must tell you about one more person God brought to me. Since she’d already done this retreat, Abby, our worship leader, came to me to offer her skills leading music. This was fantastic so we didn’t have to use an impersonal CD. It was a blessing to her as well because she enjoys leading worship for just women. She says that there is just something special about it. It is just one more example of how God moved to bring this retreat together.

 Yes, most of the photos are from our facial experience. After all, that was the most entertaining part to photograph!

And I sure couldn’t have done it without my tech gal, Jodi. Anybody who knows me knows that I am NOT the tech person! Thank you, Jodi, for your willingness to give time and energy.

I hope you and I will remember to listen when God whispers.

A time of relaxing in the afternoon

A visit to the Ngomba New Testament dedication via photos

When one cannot attend an event in person.... 




























We rely on the photographs of others.

   

These were all taken by our colleague, Joe Rider.

Mending Fences

How does that saying go? “Good fences make good neighbors.” Well, I did a little research and you’d be surprised at how many interesting quotes there are about fences and neighbors along with their historical references. Now I have a little story of my own to add to the assortment.

There is certainly some truth to that quote wrapped inside cultural understanding. I’ve learned that proper fences, sharing both bounty and burdens, along with good communication all make for better neighbors.

Surrounding our compound, we have chosen to build a wall of cement block only about three feet high and add bars on top to offer a bit of security but mostly to preserve privacy in our yard and  keep our dogs in. (As all of us know, security efforts are important but any determined intruder will find a way over even the highest wall so we decided to keep the view and the breeze along with our two dogs.)

 

                         This is the front yard wall and what the back should look like soon. In the corner is the well and some sugarcane.

 

There is a problem with this arrangement. The back yard wall doesn’t have the metal part yet and is just feet away from a significant drop-off. But the only reason to go back there is to harvest our guavas or search for food if you are a chicken. (We moved in here before a lot of things were completely done to help save money. That was fine at the time. We weren’t disturbed by anything. The neighborhood is changing, though, so we really want to get that part finished so it is not SO easy to climb or fly over!)

 

One of those pesky roosters

That is what brings me back around to our neighbors. Their roosters and hens come on over and eat my hen’s food and scratch around my garden destroying the plants. I’m not happy about this so I finally went to the neighbor to talk it over. Oh, I almost forgot. My hens are in their private section of the yard for TWO reasons: 1) so they don’t kill my herbs and 2) so our dear hunting dog, Dorea, doesn’t kill them. Just this morning she was after a tiny bird. It wouldn’t even have made a good snack! It’s all about the hunt for her. She’s caught some of those visiting chickens too. I got her to drop them before she did any permanent damage but the next time I might not be quick enough to save them. 

The back yard wall and the division for the hens.

So, we were there, at my neighbor’s, under the tiny bit of shade of a papaya tree solving the problem of what to do about the chickens coming in when another topic came up. Why hasn’t the landlord finished the back wall as promised? We gave him the rent money to do it. We know he started, called in the technicians and all. Well, it’s simple. (Not really!) It’s about sharing blessings. You see, he couldn’t finish it because he got promoted. When something good happens like that you have to share: have a party and buy drinks for everyone. (Same thing happens if you decide to celebrate your birthday. YOU provide the party and cake, not your friends. Similarly, if you get a new radio you play the music as loud as it will go so everyone can enjoy.) Had I been in the country at the time to stay with the kids and prepare supper, Kevin would have gone over to “drink” some of the bounty. He’d have had a coke bought with our rent money that we thought was going to pay for the finishing of our fence.

 The other half of the back

yard also showing the fence

protecting the vegetables from

Ziva, who loves to eat them.

And while I was there, visiting with my neighbors, they also expressed appreciation for my garden. I share the abundant parsley, other herbs, as well as fruits that have grown there and they joked that I have a village inside my wall. (At least I think that’s what they said. This conversation was all in French, so they might have meant that I have a mini farm and they really like it.)

So, at the end of the day, the chicken’s wings should be clipped while we wait for the fence to be finished with next month’s rent money, while we all gather the supplies and money needed to build a “bridge” at the end of our shared driveway for all of us to use.

Front entrance to the house with Ziva on guard

Don’t worry. We are in no more danger of intruders today, without the fence done yet, than before. Dorea and Ziva are pretty good alarms and some new lights have recently been put up for better night-time visibility.

There’s always next month for finishing that wall. Our landlord knows it’s important to have good fences and good neighbors.

When tragedy strikes what is our response?

We read a LOT in the news these days of tragedy. Often we cry out. Hopefully we pray and look to the Lord.

Below is the account of what one village pastor has done in the face of multiple attacks. We hope you are encouraged by his story! (After the story we describe our family's part in bringing the gospel to this pastor's people.)


From Barry Abbott:   "Today our friend and Baka pastor's house was burned to the ground while he was holding a Bible study in the village. Everything he owned was in the house except the clothes on his body and the Bible in his hand. Once they got the news, the Bible study group went to see, but it was too late. Nestor's response was to continue the Bible study. I keep wondering what I would have done. Prayers are much appreciated for this saint of God. Here he is with his new wife, Teti."


From Nathan Conrod:
"For all who were wondering, the Baka tend to have fires going all the time but it's very rare to hear of a house burning down (only in town were there are often electrical fires) as the fire has its 'spot' and getting a wall to catch fire takes more than a wandering spark - especially during rainy season - and Tuesday was the most rainy day of the year, it seemed. Also, this fire started behind their bedroom, on the other side of the house than the 'kitchen', were they never even have a fire. They were meeting only about 20 yards away. They didn't see anyone suspicious wandering about the house and it went up in flames very quickly! So it is not without reason that I feel this was a satanic attack. But Satan has attacked Nestor on 3 separate occasions in the past, which is how he has become so strong in his faith. First, when some ladies cursed him while he was visiting his home village. He suffered from demonic visions for months, until through prayer and fasting the Lord granted him victory. Second, his late wife, Dali, could not carry a baby to term because of some residual effects of having tuberculosis. They prayed and prayed and when Dali finally put her trust in God and not in traditional 'medicine', He granted their desire and gave them a beautiful baby girl. Yet a year later - [that baby girl] became sick and died. They were crushed, but persevered in their faith. Third, Dali also became sick and finally passed into her Savior's arms on the 1st of this year. Yet even then, Nestor put His trust in the One who holds the whole world in His hands. And so, with all of this behind him, instead of finding him devastated, we hear him say, like Job, "I was born with nothing and I will leave this world with nothing - I put it all, along with my heart, in God's hands"."




Kevin and our colleague, Liz, will be taking our drama evangelism team to Pastor Nesor's area this weekend. I’m not sure I’ve written about it here previously but this is a village they have gone to before. Kaiah was on the team with them last time.

 Please pray for safe travels, unity with the team and good presentations and follow up, and of course protection from Satan’s attacks.

The Baka are pretty fascinating people.
For your interest:
https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/why-aka-pygmy-fathers-breastfeed-their-babies/