Click here to view this newsletter as a PDF.
Hello friends and family, brothers and sisters,
We are excited to say that we are halfway through the year here at Rain Forest International School
in Yaoundé, Cameroon. We still love teaching P.E. and coaching volleyball, and everything that goes along with it! God has been moving in many ways this year and it has been an honor to be a part of making a difference in the lives these students.
Beta continues to teach PE once a week to the elementary age students. The students LOVE doing PE with her and are always excited for the day when she comes to participate in physical activity. We hope to instill the fact that our bodies are temples that God gave us to take care of; not only keeping bad things out, but also putting good things in, and exercising our body, just as we need to exercise our spirit.
Lee and some other advisors took 23 students hiking up the tallest mountain in West Africa.
Mt. Cameroon is 13,250ft (4040m) and is a hike straight up the side of the mountain. The focus was Philippians 2:3-4: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. It really applied as they struggled to climb the mountain; carried each other’s backpacks, shared food and water, and fought to “survive” the night at the top. That was a great opportunity to see students be very selfless and also to realize how small we are in comparison to God’s great universe.
One very exciting part of the year is the week that the school sets aside to go on “Retreat.”
All the students in the high school go to a campus with dorm style lodging and participate in special classes, meals, recreation, and chapel twice a day. You might equate it to summer church camp, where all the students are given the 
opportunity to give their lives to the Lord, or make a “rededication” if they already know Jesus. Many students decided to make this the week that would mark a change in their lives forever and the teachers work to help them to live out what they learned and decided throughout their daily life.
One of the students in Beta’s small group at the retreat was saved and now Beta is mentoring her. 
Sion is a 14-year-old Korean girl that is very confused and insecure about what is happening next with her faith. She is also very afraid to fail (since parents in the Korean culture expect a lot from their kids and are not “very happy” when they fail), and so Beta is helping her realize that God loves her even when she fails. Also, Lee was responsible for a small group during the debrief after each “chapel.” There were six young men in his group who were especially touched, and God spoke very simply and poignantly, touching each of their lives uniquely. They decided on their own that they would like to meet during the week with “Mr. Taylor” so as to keep each other accountable, pray for one another and not let the changes they decided to make be forgotten.
Lee + Beta