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Prayer
- For the Cameroon Baptist Convention and her Cooperating Missions to have wisdom to navigate their ministry partnership in the midst of the ongoing civil conflict and pandemic.
- For endurance and wisdom for the CBC leaders whose mandates have been extended.
- For continued wisdom to allocate limited resources to help meet basic needs and relieve physical suffering of those affected by the civil conflict.
Praise
- For the body of Cooperating Missions that partner together with the Cameroon Baptist Convention.
- For technology that has enabled Ysabelle and Elianna to continue school online.
- For the generosity of donors to the Cameroon Crisis Relief Fund (CLICK HERE TO GIVE).
“God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us.”
Ephesians 2:10 (GNV)
While the NAB may be the parent mission to the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) since handing over leadership and administration in 1974, a number of other mission organizations have joined in partnership with the CBC. There are currently five mission organizations that make up the CBC Department of Cooperating Missions:
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- North American Baptist Conference
- Converge
- World Team
- Reach Global
- Global Outreach
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These five missions are represented by 25 missionary units engaged in a variety of ministry with the CBC: church planting, community development, least- reached people groups, medical training and expertise, Bible translation, high school education, and administration.
Besides serving as NAB’s Field Director in Cameroon, Calvin also serves as the CBC Director of Cooperating Missions. This role involves liaising between the CBC and her partner missions, leading missions strategy amongst the Cooperating Missions, and general oversight of all expatriate personnel serving with the CBC: orientation, guidance, residence documentation, and safety and security matters.
In our last newsletter we wrote about the annual retreat we participated in with our Cooperating Missions colleagues. Not only during this meeting, but on an ongoing basis, we receive regular ministry updates from them and are encouraged and reminded that the body of Christ is truly global. Whether the one reporting is Cameroonian or an expatriate, whether one is planting a church or planting an orchard, whether one is training medical doctors or translating the Bible, it takes every member of the body, cooperating together, to bring God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”
COVID-19 and CAMEROON
While some countries in the world are beginning to experience a reprieve from the first wave of the global pandemic, Cameroon’s first wave has yet to peak. Schools remain closed, physical distancing is strongly encouraged, and large gatherings of people continue to be banned. As a result, the Cameroon Baptist Convention had to postpone her every-four-year General Session until further notice. The General Session usually gathers more than 3,000 people from all corners of Cameroon for three days of fellowship, teaching, and business. Elections of the three top leaders of the Convention, the Executive President, the Chairman, and the Vice-Chair, were to be held during this session.
It’s not easy holding a meeting with people spread apart and wearing masks!
On April 24, the CBC Executive Committee met and unanimously agreed to extend the mandate of the current CBC leaders for one year or until a General Session can be called, if sooner. While this has solved an immediate leadership challenge for the CBC, it has created challenges for those currently in leadership who have already engaged in other ministries, having anticipated their departure from office by May 2020.
As a family, self-isolation is not something too new for us. Since the civil conflict began three years ago, we have remained more isolated for security reasons. Now with the coronavirus, we added the extra measures of physical distancing and wearing masks when in public. We picked Elianna up from boarding school on Marth 17, so she is now doing school online from our home. Ysabelle successfully completed her first year of university online as well. She is in Kelowna, British Columbia, for the summer and is thankful that she has already started a summer job.
GIVE TO CAMEROON CRISIS RELIF FUND
Calvin & Susanne Hohn
PO Box 1, Bamenda, NW Region, Republic of Cameroon
calandsusie.hohn@gmail.com | chohn@nabconf.org | nabonmission.org