Joel and Kristen's African Adventures

Heading Back to Cameroon

Pastor Ron and Susanne posed with us for a pic after

Joel's ordination at District Council in Dothan AL.

Well it has been a while since we last posted on this blog. I guess facebook has kind of taken over the world. Anyways, we figured since we have so much history at this site, and the fact that we are indeed heading back to Cameroon, we might try to start updating it again. It will be a good place for those few of you who are interested can keep up with what we are doing in Cameroon once we get back in January 2010. We don't have tons to post right now except for what we are doing here in the states and Jeremiah.

We'll keep in touch.. Thanks to everyone who is behind us. We are looking forward to getting back to work in Africa.

Pictures from Northern Cameroon

Here's some random pictures from our trip up North. What a beautiful and interesting place!

Just Chillin'

We threw him a fig to eat for posing for us.

We saw these guys just hanging out on the side of the road.

Scenes sur la route (on the road)

This is the mountain outside of Ngounderie. They say it looks like an "outie" belly button.

Waza National Park

While up north, we had the opportunity to go to Waza National Park. It is like a safari but in your own car and much more "in the wild" in my opinion. We saw lots of different animals, but we didn't get there early enough to see the lions at the waterholes or to see elephants. We drove 80 kilometers inside the park. It was really fun! Some of the pictures seem blurry, but it was just really dusty.

Driving through Waza.

Elephant tracks

Kristen in an elephant track.

They were looking at us.

This is a beautiful blue bird. Sorry the picture is a little blurry.

This is the back of the same type of bird. He is my favorite!

This was a pee break by a water hole. I sure am glad there weren't any lions around!

These birds were so beautiful! There are so many cool birds here in Cameroon.

We saw several heard of giraffes while driving through Waza. It is so cool to see them in nature!

I love GiGi's! They are so cute!

Some ostrich were running by. Our friend Jeremy had never seen an ostrich and he was amazed at how huge they are.

Tchatibali--a village in Northern Cameroon

On our trip to the North, we were able to visit the home village of one of our closest African friends, Jeremie. We enjoyed getting to visit his and his wife's family there in Tchatibali. They were so friendly!

This is one of the churches in Tchatibali.

Kristen taking a nap in our beautiful hotel room in Tchatibali. It's always an adventure in Africa!

Here's the entry way to our room.

Here's where we bathed in our luxurious room. And, No, there was not even a hole to pee in. We had to go outside and ring a pipe in the ground in the open in front of the bar. Needless to say, we tried not to drink anything that night!

Up North they harvest a lot of millet (It tastes kind of like corn). This is how they store it.

This was one of Jeremie's really good friends house. It was so interesting to see how the cows were just in a little bity pen by the house.

Jeremy and Kristen gettin' their grub on! We love African food and enjoyed one of the
Northerner's favorites--millet couscous.

Kristen in front of one of the family's huts.

Brigitte's mom wanted to make us some coffee so she went to get her pot out of storage. Yes, this is where they store things! She went up a ladder and climbed in to get her pot.

This is our friend Brigitte's parent's house.

This is a picture of us with Brigitte's family in her village. Yes, it was cold in the morning with the wind blowing. It is very deserty there.

Hello, everyone! Yes, we are still alive and kickin' here in Cameroon. I know it's been a really, really long time since the last post, but our internet it not quite up to par with the rest of the world.

We are doing good and ministry is going well for us here. We had the opportunity to take a trip up North last month and it was great to see a different side of Cameroon. It is like a totally different country up there and the people were so friendly. It was a 3 day drive to the city of Maroua and when I say three days, I mean three 10 to 13 hour days of driving. All I can say is that I can't wait to see interstate when we get back to the States! I praise God for a husband who loves to drive and is great at it! It was definitely an adventure driving instead of flying but it was great to see the countryside and how the people live. Well, I will post some pics and let you see it for yourselves.

For other news, we will be arriving back in Bama in June for our time of furlough. We look forward to seeing everyone.

Nous sommes toujours la!

Kristen and our new puppy, Bruster. Well, he is a lot bigger now. This was when we first got him a few months ago.

Well, we are still here! Sorry we haven't updated very much lately. We have been staying pretty busy with ministry here in Cameroon. We are still working with the new church plant and things are going well. We have had the opportunity to reach out to a lot of people in our neighborhood and they are now coming to the church. God also provided the money for us to be able to buy some land to build a structure for the church. We have been meeting in one of our friends and deacon of the church's house. So we were so happy when we were able to purchase the land. God is so faithful! So after the first of the year we will really begin to clear the land and prepare it for a structure.

Thanksgiving was really fun. We spent the day with the Lemons, our missionary friends and mentors. We ate lots of good food and had a good time of fellowship. Joel was able to ride their motorcyce while Cynthia and I worked on preparing the food. He always looks like a little kid in a candy store when he is riding. He really loves it. Well, we were really glad for the time we were able to spend with the Lemons while they were here. We took them to the airport the last day of November for them to return to the States for furlough.

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas and that this year is almost over. God has been so faithful to us this year to provide all of our needs and take care of us while we minister here in Cameroon. We praise Him for all He has done in our lives and for choosing to use ordinary people like us. We are so thankful for Jesus coming to this earth only to be rejected, suffer and die on the cross for our sins. What amazing love!!!

We pray that the Hope and Love of Jesus Christ will fill your heart during this Holiday Season!

September Update a few months late!!!

Ok, well I know that it is now December and I am posting an update on September. Yeah, so we are a little behind here! I actually put this post together in October but never had the opportunity to post it with our internet being so slow. We stayed busy in September with our church plant and we also had the opportunity to work with Jim Byh, the Book of Hope director for West Africa. We were able to go into some neighborhoods and hand out the Book of Hope books and then show the "God-Man" film, which is now translated in French. This was the first time they had shown the film here in Cameroon and it went really well. So I have been meaning to post these pics for several months, but they are here now, so hope you enjoy!

Lydia handing out BOH books

The kids were so happy to receive their own Book Of Hope books

Kristen and Lydia, the Book of Hope Coordinator for Cameroon

The girls and their BOH books

Joel with Jim Byh and some of the neighborhood kids

Getting ready to show "The God-Man" film in French!

One of the little girls at the Book of Hope distribution. Isn't she precious!

Mefou-Gorilla and Monkey refuge

So for our free day for the team, we took them to the Mefou refuge (It's a Jane Goodall sponsored reserve). It was really fun to see all the monkeys and gorillas and also take a small trek through the jungle. This is actually the first time we had been there ourselves, but we really enjoyed it and would go back again.