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One of my roles with the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) is to serve as director of Cooperating Missions. This involves representing the expatriate missionaries of organizations working with the CBC, like the North American Baptists and World Team, to the leadership of the CBC. Since taking on this role in July 2024, I had not had the opportunity for in-person contact with World Team missionaries serving under the CBC’s cover to the Baka and Kwakum people groups, primarily located in the East Region (rainforest area) of Cameroon. So, in early April, with my administrative assistant Pierre and our driver Dieudonné (who happens to be Pierre’s brother), we left Bamenda and headed off in that direction to better acquaint ourselves with these ministries.
The Kwakum, a Bantu tribe people group, are estimated to number around 15,000 people. They live primarily in villages generally in the vicinity of Bertoua (if you want to find it on the map). They are mainly engaged in subsistent agriculture and small-scale trading. One of the Kwakum on the translation team told me that about 30 percent of his people go to church services in French, not their heart language. And many of those who go to church have a shallow Christianity, with strong belief in the spirits of the dead having significant influence over their lives.
Walter and his team meet Jean Bocsco at the Kwakum translation center.
The World Team couple working with the Kwakum are engaged in Bible translation, oral storying, and a Kwakum literacy program. They are trying to do all this while raising their four teenage children. I am amazed at how much they have been able to do in just two four-year terms. There is a desire to have others come along and help them reach the Kwakum through church planting, discipleship/leadership development, and health education. Who will help them?
Sunday worship in a Baka church.
The semi-nomadic Baka people have been traditionally forest-dwellers, hunting and gathering their food and medicine from the forest. Their rainforest area has been infiltrated by others, logging companies and farmers who slash and burn to convert forest to farms. On our trip to the Baka, we saw extensive deforestation. The Baka number over 60,000 but generally live in groups of 20 to 200. They have a strong belief in the spirit world, especially the spirit of the forest.
Baka children in front of their home.
With the need to adjust to the Baka’s changing environment, World Team missionaries are striving to reach the Baka with the gospel through several means. One couple is involved in Bible translation. Another missionary is doing literacy training. These two ministries are especially challenging among the Baka, where only about 5 percent of the adult population can read. Also, the semi-nomadic lifestyle disrupts any conventional training regimen. One missionary is doing health counseling. Two missionary units have set up an orchard and agricultural training center to provide the Baka with training to transition from forest hunter-gatherers to engage in sustainable agriculture. It’s not easy to change a mindset. Some Baka children wanted fruit from the top of a tree. With a hunter-gatherer mindset, it was fine to cut the tree down to get the fruit. Tomorrow will look after itself. I appreciate the World Team missionaries’ willingness to disciple in a very different culture from most other people groups in Cameroon. The Church’s work of preaching to all nations is not yet done.
For more than a year, Florence and the Immanuel Choir of Nkwen Baptist Church, Bamenda, have wanted to put on a concert to raise funds for a parsonage apartment building project that would house four pastors’ families. The Anglophone crisis kept disrupting their plans. Praise God, on March 30 they were able to hold the concert. They may not have raised as much funds as desired, but the worship was very uplifting.
Thank you for sharing in bringing the gospel to all nations. Thank you for being challenged to bring the gospel to all nations.