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Our faithful supporters, family, and friends, “Come and listen, all you who fear God, let me tell you what He has done for me.” Psalm 66:16
A lot has happened since our newsletter in February. We returned from our month vacation on February 20. Some of you know that my (Deb’s) mom passed away March 11. We were on our way to try to get there, and were not able to make it in time. She had been having some low oxygen readings off and on for the last month, and always seemed to recover but this time was God’s time to call her home. She was a woman of strong faith, and a prayer warrior for our family; we miss her so much, but know and trust it was the right time. Our time at home was fast paced but always so special to be with family! It’s during times like these that one realizes how important family is. We were able to see extended family members that we hadn’t seen in years. We were only in the US for 11 days and then had to get back to the hospital for Rick’s work that was piling up again with no coverage. He has now gotten caught up, thanks to the fact that several of his pathology colleagues agreed to receive backlogged cases and report on them by email to Mbingo. Things now are just usually busy instead of overly busy. This all went so well and we know that it is only because of the prayer support that we had from all of you and our great God. We received over a hundred messages by email, Facebook messages, and cards. What a blessing you are to us.
I specifically asked for strength to be able to speak at my mom’s homegoing service and by a miracle made it through without breaking down. I really felt that I was being lifted up especially on that day, as if it wasn’t really me, but God through me. Psalm 68:35 says it well, “You are awesome, O God, giving us power and strength.” Another new experience for us was the overwhelming condolence visits we received from our Cameroonian friends since we returned. Between my clinic staff, the WINS (Women In Service) group I’m president of, our women’s group at church, and individual visits by friends, we have had 50+ people come by. When the groups have come they have a program they usually follow. Someone starts a chorus and we all sing, then a prayer, then some words to me for encouragement, then they may present us with food, or money, and then prayer to close. Many of you may remember Victorine, who we helped build a house. She brought her family and put on a traditional death celebration in honor of my mom at our house. She made the traditional Cameroonian food for death celebrations, fufu and bitterleaf (a cooked green vegetable). She wanted us to invite all the expatriots on the compound. She made enough to feed all 20 people who came and had quite a nice program also. This has been so humbling and special and makes one realize the importance of relationships and how the Lord has blessed us with so many wonderful friends.
We had a great NAB retreat in March at the Mawa Hotel near Bamenda. Our speaker was Geoff Hart, who works with Hispanics for Christ and is also a pastor in the US. He gave us great insight and challenged us to think in terms of God’s Kingdom and what the Gospel of Jesus is.
The class graduation held in Mutengene for online HIV course
After the retreat Rick went back to Mbingo to catch up on work, and I went to Mutengene to another CBC (Cameroon Baptist Convention) hospital for the completion of an HIV course (see photo). It was a 4 month online course that about 60 of us from different CBC hospitals around Cameroon had done. The road trip was quite a memory; there were 27 of us plus 3 babies and all our luggage in a 17 seater, plus 4 jump seats. It was a great experience of ‘togetherness’! The conference was so helpful in updating our knowledge of current HIV treatments and dealing with many of the complications that go along with treating HIV patients. There was a special emphasis on caring for pediatric HIV patients.
We will be taking our furlough in October 2015–January 2016. We will not be able to visit all our churches this time.
Rick and Honest in the office
But we are hoping to visit half this furlough and half the next, in 2 years. If you are having a special missions event that you would want us to be at, let us know and we will try to work it out. As soon as we map out which of the 27 churches (14states + Canada) we can get to, we will let you know an approximate timeframe and work out dates.
In His Matchless Love,
Rick and Debbie