Catching Up ...

While catching my breath today, let me catch you up on things that have happened in the last week in Cameroon:

… the launching of Phase II of the UMCOR-sponsored Cholera Prevention Project. Each day for the next three weeks (except Sundays), eight teams of ten people are going through Obala and surrounding villages, treating wells and latrines with a concoction of chlorine, sand, salt and lime. Pastor Nomo reports that the work is going well after the first three days; he also says that alongside the important work of disease prevention, evangelism is taking place. In one village, he found a group of over 20 people who begged him to start a cell group, which he quickly agreed to do on Friday afternoons. He’s begging me to buy him a motorbike so that he can continue to do this kind of village to village ministry.

… the arrival of Rev. Bettye! As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m excited to see what wonderful gifts Bettye will bring to the ministry. On Sunday, she attended John Wesley UMC with us, and received a standing ovation when she was introduced!

… I made new friends from Weddington UMC, North Carolina, who were in Cameroon last week to visit the work of SIL/Wycliffe translators in the Northwest Province. I had received an email from Bob Moore, a member of Weddington UMC previously, asking what kind of work we were doing. We arranged a short meeting last Saturday, only hours before he and a pastor from the church left to return to the States.

Before I go, let me mention a quick prayer request from another part of Africa. Last year, while Rachel and I were in Zimbabwe, we became friends with an American who taught on the faculty at Africa University, a man named Howard Gilman. I found out this week that “Gil,” as he was known by his friends, has been arrested in Zimbabwe after he was caught videotaping the destruction of “illegal” settlements in the desperately poor Sabukva neighborhood in Mutare (see http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050527/ca_pr_on_wo/zimbabwe_crackdown for more on this growing catastrophe). We’re awaiting word on Gil’s sentencing, which was supposed to happen at the end of last week. Please pray for him, and for the people of Zimbabwe.