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Dear Family and Friends,
As I write this letter I am snuggled in my hoody and sipping a cup of tea. Apparently we got used to the heat of Yaounde. While it is only about 5 degrees Celcius cooler in Bamenda, it will take some getting used to!
We celebrated our hostel kids’ successes at the end of the school year in June. They all finished strong and we had a fun time recognizing some of their accomplishments at our year-end hostel dinner. And for those of you wondering about the ongoing birthday tradition, no one was able to keep from laughing and therefore we continued eating birthday cake under the table.
Although we knew we were only going to be hostel parents for one year it was still hard to leave. We’re missing the kids and Yaounde now but we completed the orientation of the new hostel parents so it was time to move on. The new hostel parents will only be there for one year so if you or someone you know would like to come out and serve as hostel parents, let us know!
This year Craig is acting Director of Cooperating Missions and Maureen will be working as a nurse educator. Craig has already jumped into his role and has begun navigating and discovering just what that job entails. Maureen has been getting things organized on the home front and hopes to get going on nursing things next week.
There is a lot to learn both on our job fronts but also in how to do life in Bamenda. Trying to find out where we buy food, stuff and just what is available here have led us on exploratory trips downtown. This city is much smaller than Yaounde and does not have big European shops. The roads are full of potholes big enough to swallow your vehicle – well almost! Craig was actually heard saying he might prefer battling the Yaounde traffic than dodging and decending into the holes in the roads in Bamenda!
We have moved out of the French part of the country and are now in an English speaking region. Our home is right in the city of Bamenda, but as you can see from the photo it is still a very green place and we can see 2 waterfalls from our front yard. It is rainy season now and it has rained every day since we have been here. It does make drying clothes a bit of a challenge but we do small loads and when the rain comes we move everything inside to a small drying rack.
Last week, we were priviledged to attend a graduation service. It was for individuals who had completed a course provided by the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC). This course equips pastors, lay leaders and believers from various denominations to explore themselves through various assessment tools and then apply what they have learned to both better understand their relationship to God and love and counsel others. We heard many testimonies describing the life transforming experience of the course. One teacher shared that she “was encouraged to persist in the process of shaping my motives for serving God as a teacher; not for what I selfishly get, but to look beyond human errors and treat my students as fellow creatures of the Most High. It is only by doing so and showing them the raw grace and mercy of God, which I have previously received myself, that these tender minds can effectively be brought to God.” How encouraging to see such a large group willing to give their time to this education as they seek to make a difference in their communities.
Thank you for continuing to partner with us in this journey. We are excited to be in Bamenda and see what God is doing here. We are grateful to be a part of His work in this area of Cameroon. We have been blessed with the priviledge of renewing old friendships and we are looking forward to developing many new friendships as well.
In Him,
Craig & Maureen Moody