Safely home

Hi all,

I'm sitting here in my parents' house in Conway, Arkansas. Wow. Just a few hours ago I was drinking espresso at a cafe in Zurich, thinking back over a year in Africa and looking forward to the familiar-yet-strange world of America. Now I'm here. I wanted to write a quick note to let you all know that I made it back safely. With just minutes to spare, I made all of my connecting flights. I arrived back in Little Rock around 8 p.m. last night. Tommy and I said goodbye to Charlie in Zurich, then the two of us flew to Paris while he flew to Copenhagen. Then Tommy and I flew together to Atlanta, went through customs together, and said goodbye as I boarded my next flight.

What a year!

I hope to see and/or talk with as many of you as possible this summer. If you have questions about the trip, feel more than welcome to ask. I'd love to talk about it.

Thank you so much, again, for your loving support this year. We could not have done it without your help.

Under God's mercy,

Wes

“Si’a beri,” Cameroon

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. There was a time for us to travel to Cameroon; there was a time for us to leave Cameroon; and there most certainly is a time for us to blog about the start of our homecoming. That is the introduction, as I have just informed Wesley, who is crashed in the German-constructed Ikea bed next to me.
We spent our remaining days in Cameroon enjoying the simple, slow-paced life that paradoxically came to fill our schedules to the brim. We all felt, quite honestly, a bit guilty as our days thinned out. What to do with our last few days, and what to do when we had done everything else imaginable, proved to be wearisome. But our parting was sweet. When we left the house, we had numerous students down to see us off. The last hand that I hit was Emma the tailor—a short, grinning, well dressed young man. When I looked at him, my throat closed up. You know that feeling? It’s a hard one to fight. Emotions were short lived, though, as Pa called out, “Enter the vehicle.” Meaning, I presume, get out of here because I want to go home.
We arrived in Douala, where we ate substantial meals and tried to soak in as much of this country as we could prior to our departure. One day for lunch we actually went to this somewhat-hokey African restaurant, where our waitress spilled her life story (including her baptism into the Catholic Church) onto us. Mais elle a parle seulement en Francais. You probably understood as much of the last sentence as I understood of her story. But she was nice, and she gave us a final glance at the openness of many Cameroonians—an ingredient here that makes relationships so easy to form and so hard to leave.
When we got on the plane, after jumping through the somewhat excessive security hoops (did they really need to look at our boarding passes four times?!), I found that something very interesting happened. I had not expected to see so many white people. I mean, it makes sense that nearly everyone on the flight was white, but it had been quite some time since we had seen so many similarly-colored people. In fact, I found myself gawking at whole families of white people as they flanked my airplane seat on both sides. The way they talked and walked, the way they kept their noses lifted high (as though smelling something directly in front of them), the way they moved about the airplane’s cabin (as though it were a summer home or something)—all of these firmly held my attention for the thirty minutes prior to takeoff. Unflinchingly so. And the verdict, after watching these people file in? Different. And strange. I wanted to poke at them, and see how they would respond. No, I really wanted to shake their hand and try to snap them as Cameroonians do, and see if they knew how to do it. Were they initiated into this culture as I thought we had been? Would they get me if I said something like, “You done come for airplane for walka for white man country?”
The flights, I am happy to say, were uneventful. After storing most of our luggage in the Zurich airport, we hopped a train for Munich, and have been here since. On Wednesday we will head back to Zurich, and after a day there, on the 22nd, it’s au revoir to this half of the world, and bonjour to the other half. I will bypass commenting on our feelings as we return home. I know that all three of us have had very different experiences, and so will reflect differently on it. Questions will help us to reflect, so ask away.
We are excited to return home. You all are in our prayers, and we would ask that you remember us in the days ahead.

Grace,

Charlie, for the team

Our itinerary

Just a bit of an update on what's happening here the next few days.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we leave CBTS to go to Bamenda (about a four hour drive). We'll meet with two (former!) students there to say goodbye. Our friend Ally will go down with us to see us off.

On Thursday, we'll travel from Bamenda to Douala.

On Friday night, we'll fly out of Douala to Zurich, Switzerland via Paris.

Then from Saturday through Thursday, we'll be in Munich, Germany and Zurich. We're planning to rest, relax, and debrief with a lot of espresso. We're also planning a day trip to Dachau.

On Friday, June 22, if all goes as planned, we'll arrive back in the States, Charlie to Seattle, Tommy to Evansville, Ind., and me to Little Rock, Ark.

We covet your prayers.

Saying goodbye is so HARD!!!

--Wesley, for the team

Class portraits

Here are three pictures of us with our students. Tommy is with his Greek class, Charlie his Hebrew class, and me with my Systematic Theology class. A year ago these were just nameless faces, but now they are friends who will be in our thoughts and prayers from now until… always.

Wesley's Letter to Supporters

5 June 2007

Dear friends,

This will be my last update letter from Cameroon. I can hardly believe it, but in less than two weeks I'll be on a flight out of the country.

Here are some snapshots of what's been happening here since I last wrote. You'll also find listed below some specific ways you could be praying for me.

· My teammate Charlie's mom and dad came for a visit (we just got back to Ndu last night from dropping the two of them off at the airport in Douala for their flight back to the U.S.), and we had a fun three weeks of showing them around CBTS and other places in Cameroon. One of the highlights of their time with us was a trip we took to the East province, to a small village near the town of Bertoua. A couple of missionary families, the Abbotts and the Conrods, live there and are working on a long-term strategy of planting a church among the Baka people. It was eye-opening for all of us to stay for a couple of nights in a very primitive setting and listen to our friends tell us about the ever-so-slow process of learning the Baka language and culture and trying to build relationships with the Baka. Our friends' ultimate hope is that, three or four years down the road, they will be able to share the gospel with the Baka and see the Baka worship Christ in their own way, as Christ makes himself at home in their particular culture. In between great conversations about frontier missions, we also made time for an exotic rainforest hike, complete with half-submerged log bridges, tree trunks that were literally 40-50 in diameter (at their base), made-on-the-spot Baka animal traps, and more sweltering heat and "no-see-ums" and fularia-carrying flies than you can imagine!

· One of my students, named Linwe, asked me a few weeks ago if he could come over to the house and talk with me one-on-one. Linwe has been in four of my classes. He started the year as an average to below-average student. Occasionally he would ask incisive and insightful questions, but it was not at all unusual during my first semester of teaching for me to see him asleep at his desk in the middle of my lectures. As the year has progressed, he has become more alert and attentive in my classes. When he came to the house, he started our conversation by saying, "I just want to tell you that when I started seminary, I hated to read. But through your classes, especially the Missions class where we read those difficult articles by Andrew Walls and Christopher Wright, I have learned to love reading. I feel like I can follow an author's train of thought now. I no longer fixate on sentences, but now I look for connections between paragraphs and larger units. It makes me excited to write my thesis next year!" Needless to say, at this, I wanted to jump up and shout "Hallelujah!" (As a side note, many of you will know that in African culture, it is socially acceptable and very normal for people to ask directly for what they want. Many of our students who know that we're leaving soon are asking for things they want from our house. For example, one of our friends asked Tommy for his Nalgene "flask" and his coffee carrier, Charlie for the sconces he brought from the States, and me for my stapler and laptop. When Linwe came to meet with me, he said: "I know that we Africans are always asking for things. But today I want to ask if there's anything I can be praying for you or doing for you as you get ready to leave.")

· CBTS' 60th graduation was held on Friday, June 1. It was held at Ndu's First Baptist Church, with (I would guess) around 1,000 people in attendance. It lasted from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with no lunch break! Despite the fact that it was a joyful occasion, for me there was a dark shadow cast over the whole day. Shortly (too shortly) before graduation, the faculty had two long meetings to make the difficult decision to disqualify four students from walking. I made a recommendation that one student whose thesis I was reading not be allowed to graduate because his thesis needed much more work. One of the disqualified students had already butchered a cow for an after-graduation reception for his family and friends (a HUGE expense here in Cameroon), and he felt that the faculty were being unfair and unreasonable. Quite honestly, as I sat up front in academic regalia for the graduation ceremony, I had serious doubts as to whether we had done the right thing. Such doubts are especially sharp when you realize your decision has affected the lives and futures of students who are struggling to complete their seminary education in the midst of (relative) poverty.

· On our way down to Douala this past weekend to take Charlie's parents to the airport, we stopped for a few hours in the coastal town of Limbe and hung out on a black-sand beach. We swam, threw a Frisbee, jogged through the surf, and rode body boards. It was spectacularly beautiful – a reminder of our Creator's delight and overflowing goodness. The sky was overcast – it even started raining at one point as we swam – and there was virtually no one else around, so we had the beach to ourselves. I felt more relaxed that day than I have in months. It was a great way to conclude our time with Charlie's parents, not to mention our time in Cameroon.

Here are some ways you could be praying for me specifically over the next few days:

* For travel: We fly out of Douala on June 15 (my 26th birthday) and then the three of us, Charlie and Tommy and I, will spend almost a week (on our nickel) in Munich and Zurich before we fly back to the States. Pray for safety, a good time in Europe, and joyful reunions with our families and friends in the States.

* For goodbyes to our students: Today I am planning to meet with probably a dozen students here at my house. They have asked me if they can come by to say farewell and talk and pray one last time.

* For goodbyes to Tommy and Charlie: When you spend almost every waking moment of a year with two of your best friends, your heart becomes knit together with theirs in a profound way. Pray that God will show us ways to grow in our friendship even as we have to part ways in a short time.

* For knowing how to process this year I have had in Cameroon: Over the summer I want to think and pray about what God has done in the past ten months here. I want to think and pray with an openness to coming back to Cameroon, if that's the way God directs. Pray with me that God will continue to expand my heart for panta ta ethne, "all the nations."

* For next years's plans: I am hoping to apply for a student visa this month so that I can study in Durham, England next year. Continue to pray that God will guide my steps into the University of Durham and will make it a fruitful year.

Thank you so much, again, for being part of God's work in Cameroon and at Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary. What a joy it has been to tell you stories of his faithfulness. Perhaps this sounds cliché, but there really are no words to describe the delight that God has given me in my ministry here this year. The people of Cameroon and the work of CBTS are securely in my heart. Thank you for making that possible through your generous financial support and your persevering prayer. "From God and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever" (Romans 11:36).

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Full of gratitude,

Wesley

Plethora of Pictures

Pic 1: A great action shot of Wesley and me duking it out in a ferocious game of darts. Wesley looks hopeful, and I look cold and calculating. Or tired. Notice the hanging bananas and plantains.







Pics 2, 3, and 4: Jungle expedition shots. In Pic 2, I can’t tell if Ally has fallen in the stream/swamp yet. Looks like Wesley is wondering if he brought enough water. I searched for tropical species in Pic 3, to no success, and Pic 4 shows Charlie and his mom in the lush foliage.



Pic 5: Charlie’s Dad, Earl, with some of the Baka children. He has been wonderful with the Cameroonian children he’s come across.



Pic 6: All of us with the two missionary families we visited, along with our driver and one of the Baka people.



Pic 7: Charlie clearly unimpressed by the roadside meat that awaited him for lunch as we traveled back to Ndu.

Tomorrow, we had off to Douala to take Charlie’s parents to the airport. They fly out on Sunday evening. We’ve had a great time with them, and will be sad to say good-bye. It’s incredible that we’re saying our own farewells to students. Please pray for safe travel!

--tg, for team

Highlights from Traveling

(1) On our jungle forage, Ally slipped off a treacherous log, planting her legs on both sides, submerged in jungle water. We could laugh at this, because Ally has emphasized to us time and time again that she’s the slipping type. UPDATE: Her shoes now smell horrible.

(2) While we spent the night in Yaounde, I was able to catch a replay of Game 2 Cavs vs. Pistons. I already knew the outcome, but it was still fun to watch, despite Lebron’s sub-par performance.

(3) In Bertoua, we slept in a two bedroom rest house; Wes, Charlie, and I in one room, Charlie’s parents in the other, a curtain separating the two. At 2:30am one night, I woke up to hear some one pounding on our door. I was terrified. I almost woke Charlie up, who was slumbering next to me, but I realized that the rapping was strangely rhythmic, sounding like 3 quick pounds followed by a pause. After some hazy thinking, I decided that the circumstances better fit a large, rainforest-sized moth, trying to escape through the screen windows of our porch. Then, it came to me—Charlie’s dad’s snoring. It was incredible, surpassing all the hype I had heard about it.

(4) Listening to a tape of Celine Dion four times through on the drive. At the end of the trip, we were quoting Jack’s soliloquy to Rose in the prelude to My Heart Will Go On.

(5) Finally, as Wes said, it was wonderful to be with the two missionary families working with the Baka people. Their main goal now is learning the language; hearing them fluidly converse with their Baka neighbors caused us to stop and marvel at their devotion to their ministry and to hope that a some sort of breakthrough comes soon. We also enjoyed hearing about their concern for preserving the Baka’s culture. Wes mentioned how a philanthropic group built rows of black-sheep concrete houses for the Baka, which look like colonialistic disturbances in their land. The Conrods and the Abbotts deepest desire is that Christ to transform the people’s culture, yet it’s clear that they value and respect the Baka traditions. The last thing they want is to make converts to Americanism.

(6) I can’t end on too serious a note. We had a fierce dart competition one night. Nathan Conrod placed first, I was a near-miss at second, Wesley came in third, and Earl limped in at fourth.

--tg

Ps. Wes has assured me that he’ll put up some pictures later this week.