Dear Family and Friends,
As we wrote last November we were on our first furlough. We have completed that furlough now and are happy to report that the Lord granted us safety in driving over 10,000 miles in our little leased Hyundai Accent. We had the privilege of visiting 25 of our 27 churches, and about 15 of our individual supporters. We met so many wonderful people along the way we could never name them all, but we want to thank all of you who arranged for our visit, housed us, fed us, gave us gifts, encouraged us and so enthusiastically listened to our sharing about God’s work in Mbingo!! We were so blessed. We were sorry we could not get to everyone this time, but we will do our best to see you the next furlough we have, which will be in 2015.
We had several precious times with our kids and grandkids while on furlough. Christmas time was particularly special since we were in Colorado with all of Deb’s family, plus both kids, spouses and grandkids who flew in to be with us. An added blessing was being with Rick’s family in Texas over New Years. We were very thankful to Deb’s brother Sam and his wife Tina for letting us pop in and out of their home during those 4 months. Between multiple postal deliveries and our shopping trips we took over most of their basement and ended up using 2 of their suitcases to get some of that stuff back here!!
We are now back in Mbingo, Cameroon and have finally gotten back into routine here. We arrived on January 17. It is now 3 weeks later and it has taken this long to catch our breath. Transition between worlds always takes time, but this seemed a bit harder than usual. We were only gone 4 months but many changes had taken place here which made it more challenging. Even though there had been several volunteer pathologists to help cover Rick’s work during his absence, there was still a mountain of work waiting for him. We also found a family of mice had made our home here theirs too which didn’t help Deb much. We killed four of them the first few days we were back. Thankfully we haven’t seen any lately. We have appreciated your prayers, cards and emails especially during this time; it has carried us through. The Lord is good and so faithful.
Our Cameroonian friends and missionary friends were so loving and gave us a very warm welcome back which is always a positive. But leaving family behind is very tough. One other factor that was tough for us in getting back was that one week we arrived, our close friends JR, Lindsay Young and Cathen (their 2 year old daughter) left Mbingo after serving here for 2 years in the Samaritan’s Purse Post-Residency program in Pediatrics. We had the privilege of mentoring them and they had become like family. So it was another loss when they left. On the other hand we love our jobs and are grateful for such a great place to serve the Lord and such meaningful work. Our colleagues and patients were happy to have us back. We praise the Lord for getting us through this transition time and can say with Paul, “I have learned to be content in whatever situation I am in.” We cherish your prayers. Please keep them coming. They do make a difference.
In His Matchless Love,
Rick and Debbie