27 Days of Cameroonian Paradise

French Word of the Day: mechant (pronounced a little like “meh-shant”); as an adjective, it means “mean and nasty,” and as a noun, it means … well, a “mean and nasty person”! In French Bibles, this is the word that normally gets used to translate “the wicked.”

Face of the Day: Bernard Mbehna, pastor of Nazareth UMC, Douala: Here’s another one of our probationary pastors – Pastor Bernard opened a new church in an eastern suburb of Douala last year. It’s still struggling to become a solid congregation; I’m praying that Pastor Bernard will have success in bringing together a diverse fellowship and build unity. Previously, he was the pastor of Jericho UMC in Douala, which merged with Salem UMC to become Galilee UMC last year.

Cameroon Fact of the Day: Last year’s failure notwithstanding, the Cameroon national soccer team has played in the World Cup five times (a record for an African country shared only by Egypt). Those five appearances were in 1982, 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002. Its most successful Cup was 1990, when it advanced to the quarterfinals, where it lost to England, 3-2, in overtime.

Mission Challenge of the Day: Did you think that I might run out of “mission challenges” over the space of forty days? Well then, you would be … right. How many ways can I say, “Pray for this,” or “Give money for that,” or “Read this and that”? So today, I have a somewhat different challenge. In my opinion, “missions” begins right where you live, meaning that a mission-minded Christian has a different mindset than most people. She is always looking outside of herself, searching out opportunities to serve, seeking to love others, because … that’s what Jesus did! This weekend, make sure you perform some act of service or mission for someone else (not counting your immediate family!). And ask God to make you a “missional” Christian every day of the week …