Well, its about time I post some sort of update on what we, that is, the Waite family, are doing these days, especially since making the long, hot, bumpy, slow, did I say "long", and ardious journey from the bush village of Ngyen Mbo to the city of Maroua. But since I mentioned the journey let me take just a moment to describe some of it for you--especially those of you who complain about traveling in the U.S.
What was supposed to be a 470 mile drive over really bad, rough, rain-gutted and rutted roads actually turned out to be an 1150 mile drive due to bad directions, a mis-guided guide, no map, and a detour due to sections of road completely immersed or just plain destroyed by rain. We left the bush on an early Friday morning and arrived Tuesday evening. Not bad for a little over a thousand miles. We may have made it in on Tuesday morning had we not been stopped and detained at almost every police checkpoint along the way which, amounted to about 25. You see, most of the police here make a little extra by stopping travelers and not letting them go without paying a small "token of appreciation" for driving in Cameroon. We call this a bribe. But, if you are of the sort who won't pay the bribe, as are we, then you have to wait until they get tired of you parked on the road in front of their checkpoint. Other than the police, rough roads, the long unexpected detour, and getting hit and almost run off an enbankment by an SUV who hardly even noticed and didn't stop our trip was fairly uneventful.
Once in Maroua which is in the extreme north of Cameroon we stayed the night with Fidele's family. The next day we moved into our rental and began settling into our Muslim quarter. It is a nice house with running water and electricity. Wow! Who would have ever thought you'd see a bunch of white guys hooping and hollaring about running water and electricity?! Of course, there are brown outs and black outs throughout the week and when the electricity goes so does the water. So we still have to keep buckets of water around just in case.
Maroua is much hotter than Ngyen Mbo. Last week our warmest day was 118. This week it has cooled off some down into the 110 to 112 area. The nights don't cool off much and with very little wind it makes for some challenging sleeping. Just about the time you get to sleep, say around 0400, the Mosques all start their wake-up calls as they summon their faithful to the morning prayer service. Living in a part of town surrounded by Mosques on all sides and only a few sandy blocks away makes this time of day pretty lively as the Imams, not so different than some of their Christian "pastor" counterparts, see who can put out the most lively and relevant chant so as to attract more Muslims from the other mosques. We'd probably call that "goat-stealing".
Once we're up and running, have spent some time with the Lord getting oriented for the day, eaten breakfast, and taken care of daily chores, Nance and the kids start their homeschooling routine while I meet with Fidele and Parfait to plan out our day of passing out tracts, evangelizing, visiting Fulbe villages, finding more villages to visit, going over plans for our missionary training school which starts in about three weeks, and canvassing the neighborhoods around us looking for "pre-sheep", that is those "other sheep" Jesus must and will bring to Himself according to John 10:16. During the week I also teach Bible and Greek to my kids (can't neglect their spiritual training just because we are busy being missionaries) as well as review and discuss theology and Bible with Fidele and Parfait as they will be the main teachers of our school here.
On Sundays we worship together with Fidele, Parfait, and another from their family. Sometimes I preach while other times we listen to John Piper, John MacArthur or C.J. Mahaney. Bethany, Rachael, and Parfait lead our worship time and then we all enjoy praying in English, French, Fulfulde, and even Tupuri.
I usually take time out of every day to run 6 to 7 miles and a couple times a week ride my bike to some of the villages out of town. As I run or ride I pray and look for opportunities to talk with and hand out Gospel literature to Muslims. I meet many this way and as of yet have not had anyone refuse to take the literature. While I am out running Nancy and the kids are making contacts with shop owners and people in our neighborhood. They are all interested in why an American family has moved into their quarter.
All-in-all, we are enjoying life in Maroua. We are looking forward to our new school starting and to how God will use the students to further His work of reaching Muslims with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our role in this school is more that of watching and simply guiding as this work is in the final steps of being handed over completely to Fidele, Parfait, and other faithful men to now run. By the way, our school down in Yaounde is doing very well with its first class of almost 20 students.
Well, I think this will do it for now. I hope you get a better picture of what we are doing and how we are doing it. Thanks for your prayers and please continue to pray for us. We realize more now than we ever have before that nothing of eternal significance occurs apart from prayer.
What was supposed to be a 470 mile drive over really bad, rough, rain-gutted and rutted roads actually turned out to be an 1150 mile drive due to bad directions, a mis-guided guide, no map, and a detour due to sections of road completely immersed or just plain destroyed by rain. We left the bush on an early Friday morning and arrived Tuesday evening. Not bad for a little over a thousand miles. We may have made it in on Tuesday morning had we not been stopped and detained at almost every police checkpoint along the way which, amounted to about 25. You see, most of the police here make a little extra by stopping travelers and not letting them go without paying a small "token of appreciation" for driving in Cameroon. We call this a bribe. But, if you are of the sort who won't pay the bribe, as are we, then you have to wait until they get tired of you parked on the road in front of their checkpoint. Other than the police, rough roads, the long unexpected detour, and getting hit and almost run off an enbankment by an SUV who hardly even noticed and didn't stop our trip was fairly uneventful.
Once in Maroua which is in the extreme north of Cameroon we stayed the night with Fidele's family. The next day we moved into our rental and began settling into our Muslim quarter. It is a nice house with running water and electricity. Wow! Who would have ever thought you'd see a bunch of white guys hooping and hollaring about running water and electricity?! Of course, there are brown outs and black outs throughout the week and when the electricity goes so does the water. So we still have to keep buckets of water around just in case.
Maroua is much hotter than Ngyen Mbo. Last week our warmest day was 118. This week it has cooled off some down into the 110 to 112 area. The nights don't cool off much and with very little wind it makes for some challenging sleeping. Just about the time you get to sleep, say around 0400, the Mosques all start their wake-up calls as they summon their faithful to the morning prayer service. Living in a part of town surrounded by Mosques on all sides and only a few sandy blocks away makes this time of day pretty lively as the Imams, not so different than some of their Christian "pastor" counterparts, see who can put out the most lively and relevant chant so as to attract more Muslims from the other mosques. We'd probably call that "goat-stealing".
Once we're up and running, have spent some time with the Lord getting oriented for the day, eaten breakfast, and taken care of daily chores, Nance and the kids start their homeschooling routine while I meet with Fidele and Parfait to plan out our day of passing out tracts, evangelizing, visiting Fulbe villages, finding more villages to visit, going over plans for our missionary training school which starts in about three weeks, and canvassing the neighborhoods around us looking for "pre-sheep", that is those "other sheep" Jesus must and will bring to Himself according to John 10:16. During the week I also teach Bible and Greek to my kids (can't neglect their spiritual training just because we are busy being missionaries) as well as review and discuss theology and Bible with Fidele and Parfait as they will be the main teachers of our school here.
On Sundays we worship together with Fidele, Parfait, and another from their family. Sometimes I preach while other times we listen to John Piper, John MacArthur or C.J. Mahaney. Bethany, Rachael, and Parfait lead our worship time and then we all enjoy praying in English, French, Fulfulde, and even Tupuri.
I usually take time out of every day to run 6 to 7 miles and a couple times a week ride my bike to some of the villages out of town. As I run or ride I pray and look for opportunities to talk with and hand out Gospel literature to Muslims. I meet many this way and as of yet have not had anyone refuse to take the literature. While I am out running Nancy and the kids are making contacts with shop owners and people in our neighborhood. They are all interested in why an American family has moved into their quarter.
All-in-all, we are enjoying life in Maroua. We are looking forward to our new school starting and to how God will use the students to further His work of reaching Muslims with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our role in this school is more that of watching and simply guiding as this work is in the final steps of being handed over completely to Fidele, Parfait, and other faithful men to now run. By the way, our school down in Yaounde is doing very well with its first class of almost 20 students.
Well, I think this will do it for now. I hope you get a better picture of what we are doing and how we are doing it. Thanks for your prayers and please continue to pray for us. We realize more now than we ever have before that nothing of eternal significance occurs apart from prayer.
1 comment:
Insightful & helpful update for us to the far west of you. Thanks Mark. I'll inform others at COTR about this blog page. Are you planning to still use the Romans 15-20 one?
Robert
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