Online Again: Second Week of Hymnal Notes

Hooray, Internet access is back! You can't believe how difficult life can be without email, Dallas Cowboy game results, and the Methoblog ...

Anyhow, I have a lot of catching up to do. Here's the second week's worth of posts from John Thornburg concerning his work recording music with the Cameroon Hymnal editorial team:

Subject: First day of recording

Hi, friends. After the extraordinary day of opening for Gateway UMC, today was just as good. I had to start the day in the bureaucratic prison also known as the Air France office in Yaounde. I'll leave it at the fact that when I took a number (72), they were serving #46. Nuff said.

When Wes picked me up from my enforced captivity at Air France, we went to see the Roman Catholic basilica in Yaounde. It's a place John Paul II visited twice, and it is absolutely stunning. There are mosaics depicting the seven sacraments that are simply amazing, and the stations of the cross are just as beautiful. The architecture is meant to portray the Blessed Virgin spreading her protective arms over the 12 apostles, so the ceiling beams are like wings. But it's so hard to see the opulence of the building contrasted with the utter poverty of those who attend. Perhaps like those who went to medieval cathedrals, it stood in stark contrast to their homes. It still gives me pause, even while I stand in wonder of the beauty.

Recording began today. Here are the highlights:

-The ambient noise is a factor, but not debilitating. Just a lot of roosters, and workers digging a trench around the building for drainage.

-We had a wondrous Congolese man join us today to play the synthesizer. To say his playing was amazing would be dramatic understatement. The guy was flat out brilliant, even if the synthesizer leaves something to be desired. I wasn't keen on using the synthesizer because I was afraid the singing would be drowned out, but the team over-rode me. The proof will be in the pudding when I bring my trusty little digital recorder home and we see what we have.

-We had another Anglophone join us for the recording. Her name is Ruby, and she's a true gem (no pun intended). A wonderful voice, a great spirit and she's bilingual so the singing in French didn't bother her. Of the five singers on the recording, four are completely bilingual, and the other is close to it. It’s a gift from God.

-There were lots of great moments; their wonderful singing in Spanish on “Santo, santo, santo”; their really energetic rendering of “Siyahamba”; their passionate and rhythmically intense rendering of “We will not give up the fight.” But the greatest moment was when I felt it was time for us to allow the Anglophones to shine. They’re the more oppressed group culturally, and generally the Francophones look down their noses at them. But I asked Pastor Solomon Mbwoge and Ruby to teach us the pidgin chorus, “Big, big thing Jesus e do'am for me.” It has the wonderful line, “E butter ma bread an E sugar ma tea.” Well, the Congolese guy found licks no one had ever heard, then Ruby went to the standing drum. We practiced for a while, and then the miracle kept unfolding. Ruby realized that Alexis, one of the Francophones, was a better drummer than she, so she pulled him over to the drum, and he took her place as the song leader and enlivener. Then Pastor David realized that he knew a version of the song in his local language, and that made him so happy he started dancing. It was just one of the great moments of the trips here. The group had received two new members, and they didn’t know each other, and it was song that started forming the bonds. Wow. Like the spiritual says, “Give me Jesus.”

Subject: Second Day of Recording

Today's lesson: God even protects Luddites from themselves. We had been having an extraordinary morning, enjoying the immense talent of the Congolese keyboardist and doing songs that we enjoyed. At 12: 15, having recorded 8 songs, I was about to switch on the little digital recorder to capture "O for a thousand tongues to sing", and what appeared on the tiny display screen but "Out of memory." It might as well have said, "You stupid man."

But then, as if coming as a divine piece of forgiveness for my inability to understand my own equipment, the power went off, so we lost the keyboard. That was a Holy Spirit time out, so we quickly re-strategized our afternoon and went to lunch.

The afternoon turned out to be a vigorous and highly productive conversation about how song teaching would take place, and I have spent the last few hours drawing up an action plan and budget for the team to look at. It's an exciting prospect. And my technology hero, otherwise known as Wes Magruder, was able to transfer all the data from my recorder to his computer and put all the files on a thumb drive, so we're good to go in the morning with the remainder of the recording.

Highlight of the afternoon: having Collins Etchi, the mission's office manager and health team leader, teach me a Creole song from Sierre Leone that he had just learned on a trip to a health conference sponsored by the Board of Global Ministries. "Thankee, thankee, thankee. Tell Papa God thankee. Weti i do for me (what he does for me), I go tell am thankee." It's a sweet, wonderful melody.

Blessings to you all. Tomorrow is the final day. Keep us in your prayers.

Offline in Yaounde

Thanks to a fiber-optic cable problem 60 kilometers offshore of Douala, we have had no internet connection in Cameroon for the past week and are not expecting it to be repaired anytime soon. I am writing this short note from the office of a friend who works for the United Nations and has a satellite connection. I expect you won't hear much from us for the next two weeks or so, but I'll catch you all up on the Mission when we're back online!

Creating a Hymnal, Part One

These days have been exciting and intense. Not only have we opened a new church in the last week, but we have been hosting another visit from Rev. John Thornburg. He’s been meeting with the Cameroon Hymnal editorial team at the Mission Office over the last week and a half.

Every evening, he returns to the house and writes an email to supporters and donors, with some of each day’s highlights. With John’s permission, I am posting some of his news here.

Subject: Day Two in Cameroon

Hello, friends.

I’m comforted by Aesop tonight; slow and steady wins the race. That is our pace; but it’s the pace we need to use. It seems that each hymn, song, or chorus raises new issues to solve, some simple and some complex. Of the 102 pages we need to proof, we've finished 32. The work in the morning proceeds well because we are rested, but the heat and humidity and some of the intensity of our conversation makes the work in the afternoon much harder. I had a bishop once who said that his idea of hell was that it stayed 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon forever. I begin to believe it as I saw the eyes of the team glaze over just about then.

We discover that there are almost always at least two versions of every song we come to, sometimes in both languages. So then it’s a matter of what fits the context.

The day started with a wondrous conversation with Solomon Mbwoge, the one Anglophone on the committee, about the short songs in pidgin which he had brought for inclusion. My favorite is:

Big, big thing Jesus e do-am for me

E butter my bread and e sugar my tea

Solomon then said, when I asked the literal translation, “Jesus has done an enormous thing for me.” Amen to that.

Or,

I will likam for waka with Yi (I am happy to walk with Him).

I was also introduced to the fact that the further the team walks into this project, the more they get to what their “heart song” really is, i.e., they get in touch with the deepest things that song does in their lives, and so they want to make certain that all the songs that trigger the deepest things get into the book. So, we keep re-defining the real nature of the book, even as we attempt to move toward completion.

I also had one of the most humbling yet strangely comforting moments of my life this morning. Late yesterday we had looked at “The First Noel,” given that it was available in both French and English. I did a silly, careless thing and didn’t read carefully through the French, presuming that it stuck close to the English. When we got to it, to my horror I realized that it referred to “all the white angels.” Pastor David said that we could not have a hymn that presumed that all angels are white, and of course, he was right. So we excised it on the spot, and I said I was in complete agreement. But the passing of the night convinced me that I must offer a full and complete apology for my oversight. I started the day this morning making that apology, and, as I say, it was quite humbling, yet their graciousness was one of the more uplifting moments of my recent days. Like Tom Hanks’ character in A League of Their Own says, “If it was easy, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

Subject: Day Three in Cameroon

There is a well known acronym in Cameroon; WAWA. It means West Africa Wins Again, and it's used to describe the fact that even if you've made a plan, that doesn't mean the plan can happen. It was a WAWA day.

It was very hot, the building we're working in was so full of noise we could hardly hear each other, two members of the team are battling recurrent illnesses, and the power was out, so we didn't have any real light to work by or the use of a fan. Therefore, it was miraculous that we had the kind of progress that we did.

We've made a major decision about recording. The team was flushed with the realization that we could actually get the book printed in Cameroon (we got that word two days ago), and so we were hoping to have the second miracle of having the recording happen here, especially if we could find a way to empower the team to make the major decisions about what to record. I brought a proposal that would have me making a master recording of the tunes, just my single voice, so that each of the team members has a recording of every tune in the book. That way, they can learn and master the tunes, and gather on their own time and with their own musicians, train additional singers, and then do subsequent recordings. This is meant to address the whole pedagogy issue, i.e., the fact that the book is of little value if we don't have good song teaching.

We still have to build a budget and an action plan for their recording sessions. The team enjoyed the two sessions they had this summer in my absence, and despite the normal tensions of committee work, they are one of the little miracles of the United Methodist Mission in Cameroon, reaching beyond the normal parochialisms in some wonderful ways. Because none of the members of the team has a bank account, or any real hope of having one anytime soon, doing budgets is not a skill they have. All the money they receive is spent immediately. So the work in building a budget is fascinating to them.

Subject: Day Four in Cameroon

Well, the force was with us today. Literally, because we had electricity in the building today, so we could see our notebooks, and figuratively, because the Spirit was alive and active. We worked from 9:00 until 12:30 today, and when I suggested that we only work in the morning, I could see the relief written on their faces.

But the shorter work time practically doubled our creativity. It also didn't hurt that it was cloudy so the temperature was more moderate.

I love the developing sense of empowerment and discernment in the group. When they want to delete something from consideration, they have wonderful reasons, and they seem unafraid to suggest the deletion of things that I brought for them to consider. That's a great relief, because I didn't want them deferring to my suggestions just because I'm paying the bills. When they want to alter texts, it is for solid linguistic and theological reasons. So, it was a great day.

We are now off until 1:00 p.m. Monday. The Anglophones in the group will practice their songs over the weekend for recording purposes, and I have a long talk scheduled with the Anglophone pastor. I asked if he would talk to me about Cameroonian history and politics and he was delighted. I'm very eager for that time with him.

Cover Girl & Boy

While we were home during the summer, a local reporter interviewed Leah and I for a story which is this month's cover article for The Allen Image, a magazine in my hometown in Texas. Peggy Helmick-Richardson did a great job of telling the story of our lives for the last three years. Read it here!

Opening Gateway, Part Four

Simbok is a new neighborhood in Yaounde, which is one of the reasons why Simeon and I thought it’d be a great place to start a new congregation. You might even call it the leading edge of urban growth. New houses are being built in every direction from the church.

But new housing developments also have their drawbacks. For one, nothing in Simbok is paved yet. Even when it’s dry, driving to Gateway UMC is an adventure. Four-wheel drive is not a necessity, but almost.

There are other problems in Simbok, too; the electric company hasn’t exactly figured out how to keep the lights on 24/7. We have a generator in the back room, but it is temperamental.

I arrived at the church an hour and a half early on Sunday morning. It had rained throughout the early morning hours, and I expected our grand opening to be … sloppy. And it was!

Sure enough, the power was off, and we couldn’t get the generator started. But a crowd was gathering.

Simeon’s feelings were torn. He desperately wanted to be able to show off the new microphones and soundboard we’d purchased for the church – he wanted things to be loud!! But he was also determined not to start the service too late.

So at five minutes after ten, two guitarists and two worship leaders started singing choruses in the sanctuary. After a few songs, four of us (Simeon, myself, Rev. John Thornburg and Pastor Solomon Mbwoge) processed down the middle aisle and took our places. (John and Solomon are in town for a meeting of the hymnal editorial team – more on that later!)

Simeon was the liturgist for the service, with help from John and Solomon for various other pieces of the service. We heard a beautiful version of “Jesus is the Answer for the World Today” in French from one of Simeon’s seminary classmates.

I preached from the second chapter of Joel. I spoke about the beauty of “new things” and the fact that Jesus Christ is in the business of making all things new, now and forever.

And following the service, we did the most “Methodist” of things … we ate together! Simeon’s wife, Therese, oversaw the meal of chicken, fish, ndole, sanga, bread, baton, plantains and sweet cake.

Other observations from the morning:

… Pastor Solomon leads our congregation in Kumba. He was asked to pray before the scripture readings, and he gave an interesting twist to the story of Wesley’s Aldersgate conversion. In the middle of his prayer, Solomon said, “God, give to us the experience that John Wesley had when he heard your Word proclaimed and felt his heart cooled…” Of course, Wesley claims to have had a “strangely warmed” heart, not a cooled one, but then again, Wesley didn’t live in a warm climate!

… I never was able to get an official attendance count, because people were still entering the building as we were singing our final hymn! But midway through the service, I counted over 60 people.

… More important than the number of people present was the spirit in the room. The service was upbeat, friendly, and -- sorry, Solomon! – warm.

… I still don’t know if this will be an English-speaking or French-speaking congregation. We translated everything into both languages on Sunday, just to cover our bases. But in the future, it will be interesting to see what kind of people gather on a regular basis. My experience in Cameroon thus far indicates that it is very difficult to incorporate Francophone and Anglophone Cameroonians into the same church; it appears to be better to offer two separate worship services.

Our Reality

Yesterday was one of those dichotomous days that I WOULD have traded for the world. First, we had our opening day for Gateway UMC. It was wonderful, and we saw the potential for God's work to be done in the neighborhood of Simbok. It was lovely with lots of visitors and a wonderful meal to follow. It couldn't have gone better, except...

During the middle of worship time, Wes left the room and had Collins return to ask me for all the money I had in my purse. I had no idea why, but I handed him my wallet and off he went. Wes finally returned to mouth the words, "Djibril's son died." I have never been able to lip-read very well and was wondering what in world he was trying to say to me. He finally slipped me a note that said the same. We were devastated. We knew that Ayoudou, 22, had had cerebral malaria for nearly two weeks. Wes had rushed Mr. Djibril (pronounced jee-breel) to the hospital one day last week and prayed with Ayoudou and had heard reports that he was slowly recovering. We were very hopeful.

The Djibril's are Muslim. They are devout, and we talk about giving God the glory and thanks for so many things that happen during the course of a day. Even though we know that Mr. Djibril doesn't call God "God", he does with us so that we understand he is thanking the same God we are. I know that some of you do not believe we worship the same God but please don't comment to me about it. I won't change my mind, and it's not appropriate in our time of grief.

I guess I haven't said who Mr. Djibril is. He is our driver. We inherited him from the previous missionaries and have always felt uncomfortable about the fact that we have a driver and no other missionary in Yaounde does. It's not that we don't drive, both of us do, but Mr. Djibril is a master at navigating those crazy taxi drivers and horrible roads that Wes has to encounter every time he goes to the Southwest Province. But even more importantly, we keep him because he has (had) eight children, and we love him. Wes and I weren't willing to put this man out of a job just because we could do for ourselves what he could do for us. I truly couldn't imagine not having Mr. Djibril in our daily lives. He keeps us up on the news of the day (he's an avid radio listener as he does not read or write French but Arabic). He corrects our muddled French, and we can always count on having a good laugh with him when we see some of the bizarre scenes on our daily treks around the city.

So after church, in the late afternoon, we filled the car with Geni, Philippe, Collins, Rev. John Thornburg (our guest for two weeks) and the five of us. We went to the market to buy food knowing that the Djibril's would have a houseful of people for several days. In the Muslim tradition, they bury their dead the same day they die. We knew that Ayoudou would already be buried by the time we got there.

We arrived at his home in the Briquetterie (the Muslim neighborhood in the city of Yaounde). In his little house were all his relatives and friends. All the women were inside and all the children were out. The men of his community and he were at the mosque. This is how they grieve, men separate from the women. But we had called to say we were coming, and Mr. Djibril came from the mosque to greet us. We arrived before he did, and we were able to greet and hug Mrs. Djibril. It was really, really difficult. As a mom, that is my worst nightmare. How must she feel? I can, and I can't even imagine. Then entered Mr. Djibril. He greeted everyone first with a handshake and a thank you for coming and then he embraced me and we cried. All I could say was how sorry I was. I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

So, as in the Cameroonian tradition, we sat there. Just sat. That's what you do, just sit and show solidarity in your sitting. After an hour or so, we knew it was time to leave. My blessing was getting to hold Baby Leah, Mr. Djibril's eighth child named after me. She's sweet and was quite happy to be held by all the strange white folks in her house.

To have and lose a child in the same year...I won't ever know how that feels.

Opening Gateway, Part Three

Tonight, Jesus’ resurrection was a rainout at Gateway UMC …

Simeon had the idea to show the film, “The Passion of the Christ,” on Saturday night before the Sunday morning opening worship. I must confess that I wasn’t real thrilled about this choice. For one, I question whether the gruesome film is appropriate to be seen by small children, who certainly would be in the audience. Secondly, I also question the atonement theology that the film perpetuates.

But I decided to defer to Simeon’s wisdom on this matter. He wanted to show the film, and so we did. We set it up on the screen outdoors, and instantly gathered a crowd. There were at least forty people sitting in the arranged rows of chairs, while again, a number of people watched from the roadside.

We watched one hour and forty minutes of blood, spittle, and flogging. Just as the nails were being pounded into Jesus’ hands, however, it started to rain. I had to dash to the projector and laptop to get them under cover as soon as possible, unplugging cables as I went.

Fortunately, there was no damage of any sort, but within seconds, our crowd had vanished, returning home with fresh images of a dying, bloodied Jesus in their head.

One of my criticisms of the film has always been that it glorifies Jesus’ sufferings to a ridiculous extreme, and thus, distorts the meaning of the atonement. Furthermore, the resurrection takes up only a miniscule amount of screen time; the film is 98% death and only 2% resurrection. Yet a true and faithful understanding of Jesus’ atonement is that it comes as a result of his faithful life, death AND resurrection. You cannot separate any one of those three elements.

And last night, my fears came true – we presented a Jesus without resurrection! That just isn’t a true gospel story.

Other thoughts about the film:
… “The Passion of the Christ” is a stunning visual account of Jesus’ story, more striking than “The Jesus Film,” for sure. It also has less dialogue. I think this makes it easier for people on the street to follow the story. The action is very simple and clear; when Pilate washes his hands of Jesus’ guilt, for example, we get a close-up of the bowl, of his hands, of the water dripping. Then we get a flashback to Jesus’ washing hands at the Last Supper. It’s an easier film to follow, with a clearer dramatic arc, than “The Jesus Film.”

… My favorite moment in the film was the release of Barabbas. The character in the film is an unsavory, ugly man who grins and laughs maniacally when he finds out he will be released. The crowd laughed heartily at this!

… When it’s not raining, showing films in the front yard of Gateway could be a tremendously fruitful evangelistic event. I think we’re going to have to find a way to do this on a regular basis!

Opening Gateway, Part Two

It rained all afternoon in Yaounde, forcing us to move our Friday evening program at Gateway UMC indoors. This was only a problem when we realized there was no power … Fortunately, there is a generator in the office, and we were able to get it going.

Simeon had asked me to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the subject, “Who are United Methodists?”

In the end, thirteen brave souls showed up to hear me tell the story of John Wesley and the people called Methodists.

(No, that’s not a huge number, but YOU schedule a program called, “Who are United Methodists?” at your church, and count how many show up!! Am I right?)

The crowd was actually quite interested in the stories of Wesley, the revivals, and what the United Methodist Church believes. The PowerPoint was full of pictures of eighteenth-century England, as well as contemporary Methodist churches and some of the wide-ranging activities of our boards and agencies. I also talked about the vision of Gateway UMC, and introduced Simeon as the pastor.

The questions at the end indicated that people were actually listening, and quite interested!. One man stood up and said he’d never heard of United Methodists, but was ready to join the church, and wanted to be in the choir!

There were questions about what the name “Methodist” means, about our practice of baptism, and the differences between Methodism and Pentecostalism.

I find myself in situations like these often in Cameroon. I’m constantly defining, explaining – and even, defending – Methodism.

And in these situations, I stick to the basics -- Methodism is an evangelical movement with a simple mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ. And Methodists are nothing but disciples of Christ who are seeking to put their love and faith into action.

Opening Gateway, Photos

Opening Gateway, Part One

Pastor Simeon has been bugging me for over a year to start a new church. Last September, when I asked him to move to Yaounde to attend seminary, I told him that we would be able to open a new congregation in the building where our new office is located.

Simeon immediately was excited – he named it Gateway UMC, after a church we’d visited near Houston, Texas. He began making plans, assembling a music team, and thinking about what kind of equipment we needed.

But things dragged … the building took longer than expected to be finished, then I was out of the country during the summer.

We also didn’t quite agree on the proper strategy for a new church start. Simeon has the “if you build it, open it, and turn up the sound real loud, they will come’ attitude toward church starts.

I emphasized the importance of building a core team first. In fact, when I left for the States, I asked him to start gathering a prayer group once a week. Then I gave him a sheet of paper, numbered one to twelve and, “When you have filled this list with people who are committed to attending this church, then we’ll start.” Then I added the proviso, “And none of these people can be related to you or to me!”

By the time I had returned at the end of August, he had seventeen names on the list.

We finally set the official Gateway opening for this Sunday, October 28. But there are festivities scheduled for the entire weekend.

For example, we kicked off things on Thursday evening with a showing of the Jesus Film on the front lawn of the office building. Simeon has friends at Campus Crusade for Christ of Cameroon. For a tiny fee, they'll come to your location with their own generator, screen, loudspeakers, and 16mm movie projector and show the film.

I sat and watched the film with at least sixty people, all of whom were neighbors who had been attracted by the noise and excitement. Simeon and I arranged rows of plastic chairs for people to watch the film comfortably.

But there were at least another fifteen to twenty people who watched from the roadside. Even a few motorcycle taxis slowed down to watch!

A few observations while watching the Jesus Film:

… For several reasons, this kind of evangelistic event wouldn’t fly in most American neighborhoods, though it's a big hit in Cameroon. For one, the movie is badly dated and it’s not all that great. Let’s face it – the life of Jesus doesn’t quite stack up against Spiderman 3 or whatever else is showing at the local Cineplex. Second, the picture and sound quality of most American home entertainment systems is far superior to what we watched outdoors last night. Third, most people prefer watching in the privacy of their own living rooms, with easy access to the refrigerator and bathroom. And fourth, there was a bald evangelistic invitation at the end of the film. The invitation was not to attend church, nor was it to take a free book or gift – it was an invitation to repent and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And yes, five children came forward to do just that.

… During the three reel changes, one of the Campus Crusade presenters preached to the gathered crowd about the meaning of the life of Jesus for them. Of course, it was a standard evangelistic call, but I noticed that there was a great emphasis on the healing and deliverance miracles of Jesus. This prompted me to reflect on the fact that Africans resonate more with this part of the story of Jesus than do Americans. American evangelists focus on salvation from “sin,” but Africans emphasize Jesus’ power over sickness and demons.

… My favorite part of the evening came at the end of the film when a smiling, risen Jesus appears to his disciples. The crowd broke into spontaneous applause. I was filled with an unspeakable joy; clapping for Jesus in Cameroon … That’s what it’s all about for me!

Taxi Wisdom: Very ... What?

The second installment in my new series of taxi slogans is confusing, and requires a bit of exegesis. If you can't quite make it out, it reads: The Very Boy. Which raises the question, "How is 'Very' used in the phrase?"

Does it mean the driver is extremely masculine ... as in, "he is very boy-ish" ... or is it a kind of precise identification ... as in, "this is the very one ..."?

Interesting question ... or not.

Putting the "Circuit" Back into Methodism

I have recently wrestled with the age-old problem of ecclesial supply and demand: too many churches, not enough pastors.

In the case of the Cameroon Mission, the problem is particularly acute because of poor transportation and communication networks, as well as a lack of adequately trained people.

I was comforted by the fact that John Wesley had the same problem in 18^th century England during the revivals. And I became intrigued by his solution – organize the cell groups and societies into “circuits” and train a team of lay preachers to visit them in a kind of rotation. On the American frontier, this idea was exploited to its fullest to reach pioneers and on-the-go adventurers.

When I served as a pastor in England ten years ago, I discovered that the British Methodists are still organized in this way. In my case, I served as one of three clergypersons in a circuit of five congregations. Every week, I preached in one of the five churches, though I had pastoral responsibilities for only two of the churches.

Ideally, I would love to have a qualified, spiritually mature, and energetic pastor placed in every village, town, and city in the country to work in the ministry full-time, but of course, that’s not practical!

Circuits help meet the basic needs of every core group of Methodists, while allowing flexibility to meet new evangelistic opportunities. It also gives us time to evaluate the progress of new, young, wannabe preachers, and offers them the opportunity to test their call.

So last week, I called together a few of our pastors, plus some of those wannabes … and we created a circuit!

The Lekie Circuit is located just north of Yaounde, and is made up of eight “preaching points,” for lack of a better word. Two of the preaching points are actually considered solid churches, with a full-time preacher: those are the churches in Monatele (Pastor Jean-Blaise Bikoy) and Obala (Pastor Lemec Nemy).

The other six points are cell groups, or struggling churches. Their Sunday services will be led by one of five preachers, all of who have been worshipping as United Methodists over the last several years, and who will rotate around the circuit during the month. We drew up a preaching plan for the first month, deciding who would preach where and when.

I also put the fledgling preachers through a short, one-day course in Methodism, salvation, leading worship, and preaching. We bought the pastors brand-new Bibles, complete with concordances and dictionaries, and gave them cell phones so they can stay in touch.

Now we begin to pray … for Lucien, Joachin, Roland, Roger, and Igance … the new true Circuit Riders of the United Methodist Church in Cameroon!

It’s still considered an “experiment”; we’ve drawn up a preaching plan for four months. After that, we’ll reevaluate, and see what new trails have been blazed!

Big Fans in Bova

I recently paid a visit to Bova I UMC, which is located on the side of Mt. Cameroon in the South West Province. While there, I was able to pass on a couple of symbolic gifts from their partner church, Brewton UMC.









Our family visited Brewton UMC and Rev. Ed Glaize while we were in Alabama this past summer. While we were fielding questions that evening, the pastor wanted to know what kind of gift we could take back to Bova with us. We suggested something related to communion, since Bova's pastor, David Njie, has recently received permission to administer the sacraments. Some church members went scrounging around in a back closet and came up with a communion set.

They also decided to send some small church fans -- some were decorated with old and new pictures of the Brewton church; others were miniature replicas of the American flag.

Small tokens of a big, new, "brew"-ing friendship!

Taxi Proverbs: FBI Blessings?

Taxis are a common feature of life in Cameroon -- whether yellow cabs, motorcyles, or white passenger vans (called "bush taxis"). Often, these vehicles have slogans or phrases printed across the back bumper in French, English or pidgin. Sometimes they make sense, other times ... not so much. I've started collecting photos of these bits of taxi wisdom, and want to share them as a regular feature on the blog. So here is the first entry in "Taxi Proverbs" ...

Red Dirt Ramblings: Where Are the Other Nine?

Where Are the Other Nine?
Lectionary Inspiration from Cameroon
Luke 17:11-19

I am preaching this Sunday at the International Fellowship in Yaounde, before a congregation of fellow missionaries.

Over the past week, I have found myself reflecting on Jesus’ question, “Where are the other nine?”

Good question. We reserve our praise and commendation for the one lone leper who returned to say, “Thanks!” to Jesus. And we heap our scorn on those other nine.

But to be fair, those other nine were following Jesus’ exact words … He told them to go and show themselves to the priests. Period. He didn’t say they should dilly-dally or spend extra time writing sentimental thank-you notes. He said, “Go!” If anything, they might have been a little legalistic, but they don’t deserve our scorn.

Besides, imagine their pure excitement over being healed. They couldn’t wait to tell their friends, their family, the neighbors, CNN, or whomever else would listen.

Albert Schweitzer, the great 20^th century missionary physician, defends the nine in his Memories of Childhood and Youth. Let me quote him extensively on this story:

… I refuse to think that there is so much ingratitude in the world as is commonly maintained. I have never interpreted the parable of the Ten Lepers to mean that only one was grateful. All the ten, surely, were grateful, but nine of them hurried home first … One of them, however, had a disposition which made him act at once as his feelings bade him; he sought out the person who had helped him, and refreshed his soul with the assurance of his gratitude. In the same way we ought all to make an effort to act on our first thoughts and let our unspoken gratitude find expression.

In my sermon tomorrow, I plan to throw out the idea that all ten of the lepers became followers of Jesus, and went into “the ministry.” I speculate that some of them became missionaries to other lepers; others went to work for NGOs and humanitarian organizations to help the plight of their former peers in the leper colony. I can even imagine that one or two became popular inspirational speakers and authors, as they related the story of how they were healed dramatically by Jesus.

But I also plan to show that, according to the story, only one healed leper knew the secret of effective ministry … nurturing and maintaining an attitude of thankfulness.

So many pastors, teachers, bishops, missionaries and other church-related workers go about their work motivated by a number of different reasons, some of which can be good and noble, others of which are base, mean and largely subconscious. But I have become convinced that only gratitude truly greases the wheel of Christian service.

We can never DO the work of God in a dark world until we are motivated first by what God has DONE for us … We can never LOVE the world in the name of Christ until we are first filled with the LOVE of Christ for us …

Another great 20^th century missionary, Lesslie Newbigin, put it this way:

The Christian is one who has forever given up the hope of being able to think of himself as a good man. He is forever a sinner for whom the Son of God had to die because by no other means could he be forgiven. In a sense we can say that he has given up the effort to be good. That is no longer his aim. He is seeking to do one thing and one thing only – to pay back something of the unpayable debt of gratitude to Christ who loved him as a sinner and gave himself for him. And in this new and self-forgetting quest he finds that which -- when he sought it directly – was forever bound to elude him – the good life.

The challenge to my own calling as a missionary is clear … am I motivated by pride in my work, by acclaim, by success, by guilt … or by an overwhelming thankfulness to the One who has brought me this far by his amazing grace?

All About the Nets

We moved the Mission Office across town a few months ago, as you know. Our offices are now housed by the Fobang Foundation, a non-profit public health organization run by our friend Dr. Wilfred Mbacham.

One of the main activities at Fobang is the production of mosquito nets. Dr. Mbacham's original idea was to create a small business opportunity for persons living with HIV/AIDS. Thus, he made sure to build a large room for net production, which can then be sold to organizations looking to distribute nets around Cameroon.

And nets are now in production! I snapped a few shots of the work team treating the nets with insecticide.

The Mission has already placed an order for 250 nets in advance of a VIM team coming in December.

Speaking of nets, I've received a number of questions about our relation to the Nothing But Nets program which is currently being popularized by the United Methodist Church and National Basketball Association. In the States this summer, for example, we were asked many times whether we received nets from funds raised by Nothing But Nets.

And the answer is, "No." Monies raised by Nothing But Nets is channeled through government health ministries, and given specifically to approved health clinics. Most commonly, nets are distributed to children when they receive other required and vital vaccinations.

I am hoping that Dr. Mbacham's organization will soon be on the list of approved Cameroonian net producers, but that's another issue.

However, the Mission does work in malaria issues through the General Board of Global Ministries' Community Based Malaria Initiative, started in April 2006, and directed by Dr. Cherian Thomas. It was this initiative which supported the Mission's HIV/AIDS and Malaria Prevention Health Team, which has made four village trips around the country in the last two years. Monies given to this program do come specifically to countries like Cameroon to purchase mosquito nets.

We are in full support of both Nothing But Nets and the GBGM Community Based Malaria Initiative, and hope that you feel prompted to give to both programs. The truth is that malaria is a preventable disease, and nets are one of the simplest ways (at this moment in time) to go about the fight.

Red Dirt Ramblings: Hungry or Not?

Lectionary Inspiration from Cameroon: Hungry or Not?
Week of October 7
World Communion Sunday

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday, so I thought I’d share two very different “communion” stories from Cameroon …

The first is an experience I had the first time I visited our church in Buea. I prepared to serve Holy Communion to the congregation; they hadn’t celebrated in several months, since I was the only ordained United Methodist clergy in the entire country at the time.

After progressing through the communion liturgy, I issued the invitation. I threw my arms open and asked people to come forward.

The room was full, but only a handful of people shuffled forward to receive the bread and wine.

I was taken aback, but issued the invitation again. Nobody else responded.

After the service, I asked the pastor why so few people came forward. He answered that many of his people had a fear of taking communion because of the Apostle Paul’s assertion that “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord” (I Cor. 11:27). The pastor explained that most people feel that they must spend a lot of time in prayer and fasting during the week prior to taking communion. Otherwise, they feel unworthy to participate.

Since that experience, I have spent a lot of time explaining our understanding of Holy Communion to the United Methodists of Cameroon. Typically, I use Jesus’ parable of the banquet in Luke 14:15-24. I try to equate the communion service with a big party, or une grande fête in French.

Then I tell another story. I once attended a funeral service in a village near Sa’a. The family was very poor and could not afford to send the corpse to the morgue; instead, they buried the young woman first thing in the morning. Family and friends began to gather at the family house near the grave, and by midday, there was a large crowd.

I assisted in a brief funeral service with a couple of our pastors. After the service was over, I expected the crowd to thin out. Instead, people continued to gather.

After sitting in the sun for about an hour, I asked one of the pastors, “OK, the funeral is over. What is everybody waiting for?”

He laughed and said, “They’re waiting to eat and drink!”

Knowing the family was very poor, I asked, “But how will the family be able to afford to feed them all?”

He shrugged his shoulders: “I don't know, but nobody will leave until food and drink is served!”

I like to contrast these two stories: the churchgoers in Buea were unfortunately reluctant to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, while the mourners at the funeral exhibited a kind of attitude that is quite appropriate for Holy Communion. They came to eat and drink, and they were not going to leave until they got something!

Sometimes I wish we all were a little more hungry and thirsty when we came to worship …

A PK says "Thanks"

I received this email this morning from Pastor Njie's daughter. But I don't deserve to receive it ... for all those who gave donations to the PK Education Scholarship Fund, this "thank you" is for you:

Dear Rev. Wesley,

Greetings to you and your family. I am the daughter of Pastor Njie. PLease sir, my main aim of writing you this letter is to thank you from the bottom of my hert, for the concern that you have for me, infact i was more than happy when i saw the money, that you sent to me to pay my school fees.

I dont have any silver nor gold to give you, but i give you the Almighty God. Amen.

Theresia LImunga Njie

Sitting with the Casket

Last weekend, Pastor Simeon buried his younger brother.

Alain Damase was only 31 years old when he died in a Yaounde hospital of hepatitis. As the eldest male in the family, Simeon found himself largely responsible for the burial process.

The first step is to remove the body from the morgue. Simeon’s family couldn’t afford to hire a hearse; instead, a taxi backed up to the front doors of the morgue last Friday and four hefty men loaded the coffin into the back of the car.

The taxi then drove to the family home in Yaounde, followed by several other cars and taxis, including the Mission Land Cruiser.

The coffin was removed from the taxi and placed on a low table in the living room of the house, where it stayed until the next morning.

I was invited into the room to view the body, and take a seat in the chairs which ringed the room. The coffin wasn’t opened; instead, there was a pane of glass on the top of the casket, so that the body could be seen.

As I sat in the room with grieving family members, I experienced true Cameroonian mourning. One by one, people filed into the room to scream, cry, shout and moan their feelings.

It was an incredibly intense experience, one that made me truly feel uncomfortable.

A young man, presumably a friend, shouted for several minutes at the deceased: “Alain, how can you do this? Why have you left us? You know you’ve disappointed us!”

Several old women came in and began sobbing loudly, interspersed with loud shouts in a tribal language.

At one point, Alain’s mother rose and started praying in a loud voice, giving thanks to God, and saying that she understood that this was God’s plan and will.

I finally was given permission to leave the room, which I did quickly. There would be a worship service much later in the evening, but the gathering of people to mourn, cry, and pray would go on all night long.

Then, in the morning, the body was finally laid to rest in a grave behind the family house.

I never feel more intensely my “foreignness” and “strangeness” than in cultural gatherings like funerals. I’ve done my share of funerals as a local church pastor, but in America, they tend to be quiet, sober, sad events. This was an extremely different thing.

I remember studying the grief process in pastoral counseling classes. I learned about the various stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, depression, etc. But I had never seen them all displayed so openly in one place and at one time. I was watching people go through the entire grief process in ten minutes, at full volume and in shocking detail!

It may have been uncomfortable for me to watch, but I came to understand that this may actually be a very healthy way to mourn, rather than the sterile funeral services we plan in America.

Red Dirt Ramblings: The Great Chasm

Lectionary Inspiration from Cameroon

Week of September 30 -- The Great Chasm

Luke 16:19-31

Apologies to any preachers who may have visited this blog earlier this week desperately looking for sermon inspiration. My trip to the Southwest kept me away from the computer until today …

¹⁹“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²²The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ ²⁵But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ ²⁷He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ ³⁰He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

The first time I really wrestled with the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus was during a short-term mission trip to Zimbabwe. Our team spent the days working at an orphanage in Old Mutare. We held a devotional every night before bed, and this story was the text one evening.

I remember coming to the troubling conclusion that I was the rich man in the story. Not Lazarus, the poor beggar who ends up in heaven, but the rich man who ends up … elsewhere!

It dawned on me that, as an American, I am enormously privileged. I am rich! I have access to opportunities that simply don’t exist to millions of the world’s peoples!

I can’t easily escape this fact these days, especially since I can look out my back window and see the shanty-like dwellings of poor families dotting the hillsides and valley below.

When I drive through the middle of Yaounde, small children lead their blind or handicapped parents to my car window at the intersection near the supermarket, tapping on the window with a small plastic cup. A few men with shriveled legs paddle their way down the median on small, crude skateboards.

If Mr. Djibril is driving the car for me, he rolls the window down and shoos them away, complaining under his breath about the “foreigners from Niger.”

However, when I’m driving alone, often I will open my window and press some francs into their hands. I know that these gifts are small, insignificant, and easily forgotten. They don’t even qualify as “sacrificial giving.”

But do they make me better than that rich man in Jesus’ story, the man who wouldn't even feed Lazarus with the scraps from his table? Seriously … I want to be “better” than him!

When the rich man tries to do something to redeem his selfishness and greed, he is told by Abraham that there is a “great chasm” fixed between him and Lazarus now. No one can cross over from one side to the other.

The truth is that, even on earth, there is a great chasm; it doesn’t only separate heaven and hell. It’s fixed between the rich and poor. It’s fixed between the first and third worlds, the developed and the developing countries. It’s fixed between the educated, technologically literate and the undereducated, technologically disadvantaged.

And it is difficult to cross. Custom, tradition, language, self-complacency and apathy make it difficult for anyone to want to cross from one side to the other.

But it is possible. On this side of death, it is not impossible to go from one side to the other. It is not impossible to renounce one’s greed and luxury and step over into the shoes of the poor. It is not impossible to make the change, to try to put one’s self into the place of the disadvantaged.

It is possible to listen to the poor, to make a commitment to shifting one’s attention, to change one’s values.

No, giving alms is not the same as crossing the chasm. It is a small act of kindness, but it is simply not the same. Handing out coins at the traffic stop is probably no better than the rich man’s desperate plea to be allowed out of heaven in order to warn his brothers.

The greater challenge is to figure out how to get across that gaping abyss, the chasm between poverty and luxury … before it is too late.

Stuck in Buea with the "Four Wille Drive" Blues

I left Yaounde two days ago for a trip through Douala and the Southwest, and was supposed to be in Kumba right about now. Collins and I were cruising along fine in our Toyota Land Cruiser (also known as 'Four Wille Drive' which is painted on the side of the car) when we hit the notorious Kumba road.

Driving on the Kumba road is a little like traveling on gigantic washboard, while dodging potholes and small lakes. We heard an enormous rattling sound on the right front of the car. I feared it was a flat tire at first, but alas, it was a bit worse -- a broken bushing on a shock.

So we turned right around and came back to Buea, which was only 10 miles down the road. The car is being welded back together and I get a chance to check my email, as well as yesterday's NFL scores (way to go, Cowboys!).

We'll be spending the night in Buea, and hopefully moving on to our intended destination tomorrow. I'll blog more fully about our adventures on the road when we get back, plus I have lots of new pictures (and videos!), especially for some of our partner churches.

GUESS WHO'S 70?

Well, today is one of my very favorite person's 70th birthday! Happy Birthday, Vonnie! This is my Mom and the grandmother to my three girlies. We just spent a most wonderful summer with her and PawPaw, first at DisneyWorld and then in Texas. Mom, I wish you a wonderful day and a year full of blessings. We love you! From Wesley, Leah, Rachel, Chloe and Mallory (Jina and Pierre!) Birthday wishes can be sent to: yvonnecole1937@yahoo.com

Red Dirt Ramblings: The Difference Between "Shrewd" and "Corrupt"

Lectionary Inspiration from Cameroon: Week of September 23

Luke 16:1-13

“There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg – I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’

Then he asked the servant, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

New International Version

I walked up a flight of four floors in a ministry building in downtown Yaounde. All along the way, posters screamed at me, “Corruption kills a country!”, “Public services are free here!”, “Receiving and giving bribes is a crime!”

I entered a small office and inquired about a certain file that had been deposited a long time ago. The civil servant hardly looked at me and said, “Oh, I’ve finished the report, but my secretary needs some encouragement to type it.”

I’m not sure if my response was correct – I told him I’d take it and type it myself, thank you very much. And in fact, I did take it home, type it, and return it to his office the next morning.

I am sure that I failed the cultural test, but at the time I felt a certain kind of self-righteousness, because I had followed “the rules.”

Cameroon is a notoriously corrupt country, with the World Bank, Transparency International, the International Monetary Fund, and the American Embassy regularly commenting on the problem, and making suggestions and threats about how the president must respond. Infrastructure is crumbling or nonexistent, schools and universities are shabby and underfunded, and health care is spotty.

Having lived in this environment for the last three years, I am particularly alarmed at this week’s lectionary text, which on the surface, seems to endorse the actions of a corrupt manager. In fact, Jesus praises the hero of his story for being “shrewd,” instead of berating him for his dishonesty.

I regularly speak about corruption to people in Cameroon, to try to get a sense of what is really happening, and to understand what people think about the “corruption problem.”

One young man told me that the “corruption problem” is not addressed in the right way. “Most international organizations want to focus on the actual problem of money changing hands in civil servant offices,” he said. “But that’s not where they should be looking.”

He explained that the entire corps of civil servants had their salaries slashed by two-thirds over a decade ago. Now they are trying to live on far less than they had before. It’s no wonder, he said, that they take advantage of every situation to try to supplement their meager income; most people are not paid a living wage.

And, to make matters worse, at the same time that salaries were being cut, prices on goods were being raised, while some top ministers in the government started driving shiny new expensive cars.

Perhaps we can begin to understand the despair that would drive someone to ask for a bribe, for encouragement, for a tip. Is it really dishonesty that drives this practice? Or is it something else, something that we might (in another context) even praise for its creativity? Can we call it “shrewdness”?

Regardless, the tension and uneasiness of this scripture text remains. Let me suggest a new way to understand this text … Why not personalize it, stand inside of it and ask yourself, “If I were about to lose my job, my salary, benefits and security, what would I do to ensure that my family would survive? What kind of shrewd and clever schemes could I come up with to make it in the future?”

Then take that feeling, and ask yourself, “With that kind of raw emotion and determination, what could I do in the kingdom of God? For what purpose is God calling me to be shrewd and clever now?”

Who's Afraid of a Little Budget Cutting?

If you are aware of what’s happening at the general church level, you may know that a budget is being prepared for next year’s General Conference. And the press release about this budget warns that things are getting tighter …

Here’s the lead from the United Methodist News Service story, as well as a few paragraphs that pertain directly to the General Board of Global Ministries:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church is facing the "very hard, very painful" work of cutting ministries and shifting resources while building its denominational budget around four newly named areas of focus.

After months of reviewing a proposed budget that does not keep pace with inflation, the chief executives of the denomination's program agencies pledged to preserve ministries that address those four areas - leadership development, congregational growth, global health and poverty ……

The Board of Global Ministries is targeting a new pilot project aimed at addressing poverty in rural areas of the United States and also is reprioritizing its missionary ministry, said the Rev. R. Randy Day, the agency's chief executive. The board had asked for a funding increase of almost 23 percent but would receive a 6 percent hike under the proposal.

"The fact is, we lost a lot of dollars we were hoping to have," Day told the joint gathering.

The agency intends to place missionaries first with skills that address the church's new areas of focus - for instance, those with medical training to fight killer diseases and promote global health. "Every time missionaries come up for renewal, we are coordinating and looking at that through the lenses of all four areas of collaboration," Day said. "We can't cover everything, and sometimes we make those painful decisions that these missionaries will not be reassigned and doing what they were doing."

A few comments on what’s happening here: first, I am happy to see the church name these four areas of focus as priorities in the future. As a matter of fact, these four things are precisely areas of importance in the Cameroon Mission. I have written here before about the vital importance of creating strong leaders and supporting new and existing congregations. You’ve also heard about our health work, specifically concerning cholera prevention in Obala and an AIDS/Malaria prevention team that has traveled the country over the last two years. And we are beginning to address issues of poverty through our partnership with the Fobang Foundation, RELUFA, and our own partner churches.

So I feel confident that, concerning budget matters, the Cameroon Mission will remain a top priority for GBGM over the coming years. We fit all four categories of priority funding!

For that reason, I am also not worried about our jobs! We aren’t medical doctors, but the work Leah and I are doing is tied up in all of these areas, and so I hope the Board will continue to think of us as … necessary!

I know that fiscal responsibility is a matter of grave importance for the United Methodist Church. I certainly don’t begrudge the fact that the GBGM budget won’t be increased as hoped; I’m sure there are things that need to be trimmed.

And the truth is that much of the funding for initiatives and programs in the Cameroon Mission comes directly from churches and donors who have been touched by a personal encounter with the work here, either through our family, the blog, a visit, or getting to know a Cameroonian. I’m confident that that kind of funding will continue, as God leads you to provide.

For example, there never would have been a Pastor’s Kid Education Scholarship Fund except that Leah got the idea, wrote about it here on the blog, mentioned it in the newsletter, and shared it with churches on itineration. As a result, we’re distributing almost $10,000 this year alone to help children go to school! That was not a budgeted item of GBGM; that was simply a cry from the heart that you heard and answered.

Perhaps that is the point of having to cut certain programs from the GBGM budget; the hope is that individuals and congregations will pick them up and run with them. If GBGM itself cannot sponsor a specific initiative, for example, then perhaps a group of United Methodists in America will. And they will do it with fervor and excitement, because they “own” it.

But there is a danger here, too. The history of mission work in the last thirty years is littered with stories of reckless individualism, of people and churches who decide to work outside the system in order to do what they want to do, or what they think ought to be done, and in the process, make colossal cultural mistakes. I fear that some people engage in this kind of renegade mission work only in order to make themselves feel better about having “made a difference,” when in fact, they end up making things worse!

There are simply things that can’t be done without the backing and support of an international mission organization, which brings immense resources, energy, and experience to the mission field.

Having GBGM behind us is an immense blessing, and we hope that the Board will be able to continue to function as a mission-sending agency, with power and effectiveness. Because of GBGM’s support, we were able to go directly to the mission field without having to search for financial support ourselves first. Because of their staff support, we have someone to call when things get difficult, and someone to call when we are worried about our health or safety.

So no, I’m not happy that GBGM won’t get its 23% budget hike … but I have a feeling the work will get done anyway. Thanks for all that you do to make sure it will!