Africa Journals January 2009


Journal entry: Saturday, Sunday, 1.17-18.09
We got a good start from the air port without a hitch. The first leg of the flight was Seattle to Paris. Nine hours in the air. We had some pretty rough weather landing in Paris which brought on air sickness for me. I didn’t throw up but it was very close. Unfortunately this followed me for the next leg of the trip which was from Paris to Yaundi, and from Yaundi to Duala. Another nine hours. I ended up loosing my cookies about an hour from Yaundi. Most of the flight from Paris I was dealing with my heart beating extra hard. This was very uncomfortable. When we finally landed in Duala we were greeted with very humid and hot air, we began looking for Joel. We didn’t see him so we went on to baggage claim. At this point I started to feel a little like a fish swimming through nets and lures. There were a couple people that tried to tell us that they were there to meet us. One of them used Joel’s name and grabbed my bag. I started to protest and he insisted. He took me to another man that welcomed me and told me that it was custom to open my bags now. Bob piped in at that point and said no this as a scam, grab your bag back. It is a kind of funny little dance that goes on in this kind of crowd. As they see you trying to get though somewhere, someone will step in the way. Not in an accosting way, but just enough to kind of allow more opportunities for people to try and get something out of you. Outside the airport we met Joel and three other men from his church. They had a big sign that said TIM CARTER BOB ALLEN on it. They immediately started taking good care of us. They grabbed our bags and brought us to their car, I think it is a little Toyota station wagon. We put all our gear in and squeezed in. We weaved our way through streets and alleys until coming to a little Baptist rest area. Like a little hotel. It is right near the water. Very nice. Surprising. We went through streets that were the most poverty stricken I have ever seen. Then pulled up to an old wooden garage door with two men sitting in chairs in front. I thought it would take us in an old parking garage. But when they opened we drove into this beautiful courtyard. The men helped us bring in our bags, then took us to a bakery to get a little something to eat. We came back to the room, and two of the men went to stay with relatives while the rest of us sat and talked. We talked about the churches challenges her in Bamenda, and the hopes that they have for what God is going to do.


Journal entry: Monday, 1.18.09
We drove to Bemenda today. Patrick is our driver. There doesn’t appear to be any speed limit in Cameroon. We passed everything on the road. Sometimes I was completely amazed we didn’t hit someone. It is apparently okay to drive motor cycles on the opposite side of the road they are supposed to be on. It can make you stop and think when you see something coming at you head on. Partway into the trip we stopped at a check point. I am not sure if these guys are military, or police. Either way they are corrupt. When they saw two white guys in the car they started trying to extort money out of us. They threatened to impound the car and send us all to talk to a judge. Visions of us dragging our luggage several miles down the road in this heat went through my head. I wanted to ask, “How much money does the guy want, maybe we should give it to him”. Patrick and Joel got outside the car to talk with them. Bob, Bonevenchia, and I sat in the back seat praying. We found out later that Joel told the guy in charge that the white men in the car are Gods servants, and if he tried to detain us he would be standing in the way of what God is trying to do. Evidently the guy was convinced that this is not the place he wanted to be in. The pineapple we ate this morning for breakfast caught up to me about a half hour into the five hours we had left in our trip. There is nowhere to stop along the way with a toilet NO WHERE. We stopped at a fruit stand and got some pineapples, papaya, and lemons. We finally stopped in at some kind of hotel and asked if I could use the toilet. Note to the wise. Strengthen your leg muscles before going on any African trip because sometimes there are not toilet seats on toilets, and a person has to perform sort of a hovering action. I am also very thankful for my wife who made me pack little Kleenex packages (for obvious reasons) Joel asked if we can eat soya. I said soy. He said soya. It is roasted cow. I said sure. We stopped at a spot along the road a picked up some. I don’t think Bob was overjoyed to taste liver in the mix of chopped up pieces. I’m not sure what else was in there, and I don’t want to know. Later I found out that Bob had seen a worm on one of the pieces in his portion. It is kind of funny to watch as the men buy things from people. They make a deal, buy some things, put them in the car, close the trunk, then a lot more talking goes on and the trunk opens again, and more things go in, then the trunk closes, then more talking goes on, then the trunk opens and more stuff goes in, and so on until you drive away. I think some of these people see very little money throughout the year. We took a few pictures at this stop. After what seemed like an eternity, we got to Bamenda. We asked Joel if we could stop at some place and send an email. This was a nice relaxing experience for all, due to the fact that there are several computers on one dial up. We finally got the emails sent off ( I think ) and made our way to the Catholic Conference Center. This will be our home for the next seven days. Joel picked this location because of its neutrality for the various pastors that will come to the conference. I miss home so bad I can’t even begin to describe it. Now I know why Bob was so much wanting a companion for this trip. I cannot imagine doing this alone. I got a few winks before dinner, then set up a little and wrote a few things down. I think the men are coming back around dinner time. There is a sort of seriousness about the men. They will joke around a little but they treat us with a sort of distance, like they don’t totally understand us or something. We had supper with the men from the conference center. Monks, with a brown robe and a rope belt and everything. The father asked Bob and I to sit apart from each other so that we would get to know others. They were very kind to us. I was still not in the mood to eat much. They had white rice, boiled fish, noodles with a red sauce, beans, and some raw veggies that you could mix into a salad. I ate some white rice and one noodle. The noodle made me wretch, it just about came back up. Then I had a little piece of papaya. They call it papa. Bob and I had a good talk about what we had seen today, then we turned in for the night.

Journal entry: Tuesday, 1.20.09
I awoke at sunrise to the sound of birds. I had a very good nights sleep. (ambien induced of course) Praise the Lord. Shortly after sun came up we began to hear the au cappella voices of the men singing. What a wonderful sound. Breakfast was bread, cheese (kind of a gouda), and tea. I was asked if I wanted an omelet. No. But Bob went ahead and had one. I am not that adventuresome yet. We had some quiet time after breakfast and I used that to go over my notes. After a few hours Joel and Patrick showed up to get us. They took us to the SIL office where we dropped off Gary and Penny’s packages. Then we went over to Joel’s church. I took pictures of this. Joes has been pastor here for two years, and he has five pastors in training. Joel and Patrick showed us around the church and showed us their plans for building. They shared one thing that amazed us. In order to save money, instead of ordering gravel, they ordered rocks. Then the men at the church broke them into gravel. They saved 1000 dollars by doing this. It made us think, how many times do we give up on Gods work just because it gets a little hard. We left the church and they took us around to a couple stores to get something to eat. We went to the internet place again, and then back to the conference center. Joel told me something that made my blood run cold today while we were sitting in Bobs room. He shared how some of the men that came to the conference are deacons and they could not believe that I was not a pastor. They had never seen a deacon be able to teach. Joel told us that Patrick asked him “will I someday be like Tim? I just want to be like Tim”. On the surface it sounds funny and you might think that it would feel good to get a compliment like that. And it does. But more than that it makes you feel small. Because I know what the depths of my heart are like. But what a reminder of how careful we have to be to be above reproach.
I am kind of dreading dinner. Last night there wasn’t much that I felt like I could eat. Dinner was another light one. I had a little lettuce with a slice of tomato, and some shaved carrot on it. And two pieces of bread. Towards the end they brought out some cheese. They set it in front of us every time. And no one else eats any. I think they maybe bought it just for us. I am very thankful for it. There were other things to eat but there is a spice that is in everything that I cannot get beyond. They had stewed beef chunks, (I think it was beef I didn’t eat any) potatoes in some sort of red sauce, and the father made me try something. I asked what it was he said “it is Italian”. Okay. It seemed like some sort of little lentil beans with some other kind of rice stuff mixed in it. It is okay because I am still not hungry. The father was very gracious to us and let us get on the computers here tonight. It is maddening. The connections are so bad that 3 out of 4 times you get your email finished and go to send it and the server cannot find your web site…so you loose it. We are trying to type out our emails and put them on a memory stick to copy and paste into the email. That seems to be working a little better. I am excited to see what God is going to do.


Journal entry: Wednesday, 1.21.09
Another good night’s sleep. Drug induced of course. We had a little breakfast of bread, tea, and cheese. Bob and I are pacing around a little. We are supposed to get started at about 8:30am. It got moved to 9am. We are getting close to that time and we have not seen Joel. This is not uncommon evidently it is very rare for everyone to be here on time.
We did finally get started about 10am. The first lesson was the sufficiency of scripture. I think it was well received. As the day went on the questions got a little more specific to issues that they are dealing with in their own churches. Bob tried to announce what was for lunch like we do in the states. He turned to Joel and asked what we would be having. Joel had a kind of shocked look on his face and said “it will be surprise”. Joel went somewhere and brought back foo foo, chicken, huckleberries, (which is kind of like spinach) and bananas. I tried everything but the huckleberries. The singing was so amazing. It was led by Joel and was au cappella. Everyone has apparent perfect pitch, and a natural ability to harmonize, and blend. These people are from different churches. They probably have never sang before, but would put any choir to shame. I will try to do a little video of it. Bob asked about our trip back to Duala today. It sounds like Joel and Patrick will be taking us back, and then they will stay the night before coming back. It is not a good idea to travel at night. Bob asked if there was any robbery along the road, Joel said a lot. If they travel at night they go in large groups. The Obama thing is huge over here. At dinner the father sitting next to me leaned over and said “many chickens lost their lives today on account of your new president”. What he meant was that there was much celebrating. But the way it came out was as if he was telling of a huge slaughter in some near by village.


Journal entry: Thursday, 1.22.09
I did the devotional this morning. We went over the parable of the vine and the branches, and the Vinedresser. I tried to get the message across that if we are producing fruit, we can expect to be pruned. Then later in the day I did a lesson on the purpose of the church. There are some good questions arising. One guy in particular seems to be always making more of a statement than a question. With the design of giving excuses of why a certain biblical principle cannot be followed in their culture. I witnessed what I believe to be the Holy Spirit move through Bob as he kind of unloaded on the guy. The guy stood there smiling as Bob asked stuff like. Who do you answer to? How much do you want to sell your integrity for? What is the price? A couple church members? A salary? Today for lunch I had yams and a cup of chopped up fruit. Bob said, “I am seeing a definite trend towards vegetarianism”. Good thing I have been storing up layers of cheese burgers for just such an occasion. At dinner the father that sits next to me has kind of an Italian sing song sort of voice and he rolls his r’s. He leaned over and said, “don’t take the meat”. I said what. He said “don’t take the meat, it is rrrrrat”. So that was nice. What do you say to that? Being a hunter the only thing I could think of was to ask who caught it. He said “It was our illustrious night watchman. Instead of catching bandits he is catching rrrrrats, cats…” I thought cats…..It made me think back to our lunch meal. Bob exclaimed how good this chicken was. Joel kind of looked at him blankly for a second then said “Yes, this is chicken”. The internet speeds here are maddening. The father is allowing us to use their computer room but getting anything out over the internet is another story.


Journal entry: Friday, 1.23.09
This is our last day of the conference. The lesson I will be doing is lessons for leaders in 1st Timothy. This goes over many things from false teachers, to setting the proper order in the church, to Oh yeah, I noticed that Bob gave me the one that talks about the role of women in the church. Actually they seemed to be okay with these principals generally. Yesterday one of the girls asked the question about if we should marry or not because of what Paul said about the subject. God is awesome. Today in 1st Timothy one of the traits of a false teacher was spelled out as someone that prohibits marriage. So I pointed this out to the girl. Everyone started laughing. I said did I say something wrong, Joel said “no you scratch were we itch”. I am still didn’t quite get the humor but the sense of humor is a little different here. Lunch was rice, fish sauce with a piece of white fish in it (this sauce was kind of a cross between spaghetti sauce and chili sauce), fried plantains (kind of a big hard banana) I didn’t eat much. Bob ate none. After lunch we discussed what to do. We didn’t really have time for another lesson. Some of these pastors have quite a distance to travel. 5 or 6 hours. So we wanted them to get a start by 3 or 4pm. We elected not to do “question and answer” because it was starting to turn into “comment and debate”. I thought it was funny that one of the ladies’ certificates said Pastor so and so on it. Joel said no she is not a pastor, but it was too late she already had it in her hands. I looked over and Joel had his head in his hands massaging his temples. I said do you think she will have some fun with that. He said “oh yes”. Right in the middle of the certificate program she went and set her things down and carried that certificate around to about ten of the men. She would put it in their face, and they would push it away, then she would push it in their face again. I was doing everything I could do not to laugh out loud. Another vegetarian dinner. Salad a couple little potatoes, some bread, and a banana.


Journal entry: Saturday, 1.24.09
Today is a little bit of a day off. We really don’t have much in the way of plans. Bob needs to finish preparing his message for preaching tomorrow and I will have a little devotional ready. But Joel will pick us up at about noon. We hope to find a place in the market that has wood carved canes. We want to get one for Pastor Frank. We got a phone call on Bobs new Africa cell from Joel’s wife. She was just checking on us, and checking on my health. Also sending her regrets that she could not be here. We got some nice things at the pres book store. Evidently owned by the Presbyterian church. It is a mixed feeling. I spent about 22,000 cfa. About 45 or 50 dollars. We were getting about 500 cfa to a dollar (as long as we were not there at the time of the exchange. They see a white guy and they want to charge way more. They will loose a customer rather than treat them fairly.) a mixed feeling spending more than some of these people make in a month on some trinkets. On the other hand they need the money. After dinner one of the fathers sat down and chatted with Bob and I. He shared how recently he was coming home at night and was robbed and shot. He told us that people avoid traveling at night if possible.


Journal entry: Sunday, 1.25.09
Today we went to Joel’s church for Sunday worship. One part of the service in particular put me over the top. they had 5 children that had memorized a message to us, and to our wives and children back home. They would each share a little and then go to the next one. I asked them to do it again so that I could video tape it for you and the kids. the only problem is that my camera only records 60 seconds at a time. I had to do it in 4 parts. so I missed little bits. Bob was asked to give his message again this afternoon at one of the local radio stations. PTL. so we will go out again to do that. Somewhere about the middle of the service this morning Pastor Joel announced “Now two of the deacons will now take Bob and Tim to the back room for the African ritual”. Then he giggled. Which brought a round of laughter from the church. I looked over at Bonevenchia who was sitting beside me, he just grinned. Thoughts ran through my mind.....I tried to run the list of African rituals through my mind that I had seen in the movies. None of them were a great comfort to my heart. Neither was Joel’s statement as we got up to follow them men. He said “and may you perform the ritual well, heh heh heh”. What if we don’t perform the ritual well? What happens then Bob??? As it turns out, it they had beautiful African shirts that they wanted us to put on. My shirt fit perfectly because of my girlish figure, but watching Bob (and two men) try to get this shirt on Bob was a little like watching two guys trying to stretch a tire over top of a phone booth. Later on, when we got back to the rooms Bob started to try and get his shirt off. He got it about half way up over his head and asked for some help. So I got the camera. Funny thing is, when Bob saw the camera he got the shirt off just fine. Then he informed me that my spiritual gift is “harassment”. I think he has me confused with someone else. We had the best and biggest meal to date in Africa. one chicken leg three small potatoes, and some lettuce. Oh yeah and a banana and a piece of bread. Doesn’t sound like much but thanks for your prayers it was nice to get a little bit of solid food after a week. I started to figure out that it was going to get dark long before we got done traveling for the day. After the robbery story we heard last night this was a little concerning. But if the Lord wants Bob to preach on the radio, He is able to protect us. Kind of funny how God can give you these bits of comfort in His word. Earlier today I only caught a little bit of the Sunday school class, but the part I caught was the passage where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said “our God is able to keep us from the fire”. We got back to the friary just fine.


Journal entry: Monday, 1.26.09
The nine o clock pick up time came and went. We got a phone call from Joel. They were having a little trouble getting Patrick’s license renewed. The official that runs that office did not show up today. I prayed that the Lord would superintend this situation and that we could leave before Noon. They showed up shortly before Noon. We did not make a stop of any kind until after we passed the check point that we got stopped at before. Paul was in the back seat with us. He said “maybe the hungry one is not here today”. I said “maybe the hungry one has a stomach ache today”. They all laughed. God certainly allowed us to go through unseen. We had a kind of abrupt drop off at the airport. The car was engulfed by people wanting to carry our bags and in the midst of all this we never got to say goodbye to Patrick. I will miss him a lot. I got the impression that he would have laid down his life in a second to protect Bob and I. We had to sit in the airport ticketing area from about 7pm till they opened at 8pm. Then we checked out bags and moved to the gate. The flight didn’t leave until almost midnight. I slept most of the way to Paris. After we landed Bob located a back massage service for me. I don’t remember how much it cost but I probably would have paid double whatever that was. The trip to SeaTac was excruciatingly long, but fairly uneventful. We landed a little early, and it was awesome to see the family, and it was very cool to see Gary, and Penny Lent had come to great us as well. They were holding a sign that said “Bamenda Taxi”. Over 40 hours since we were picked up at the friary. That is a looooooong day.

Most of the people at home ask “Did you have a good time in Africa”? It’s a hard answer. No, not really. Good time is not the phrase that comes to mind. The journey was horrible. The shock of seeing such poverty was hard to process. The food was strange. It’s hard to explain. I went on this trip out of obedience. God asked and I went. And it was awesome to watch Him work. These men that came to the seminar cannot afford to go to a seminary. If they could afford it, they could not leave their churches for this long. And on top of that Cameroon has no seminary. So the teaching that we brought was like fresh cool water for a man in the desert. So I didn’t have fun. But that’s not why I went. I went to serve the Lord. And we got to be a part of Gods plan to water the seed that He has sown in Cameroon. We may never know until glory what kind of an impact our sacrifice had there.

Cameroon, Africa

TIM, JOEL, BOB
This is a picture of Bob and I at Joel's church