Remembering Cameroon

I have spent the evening enjoying pictures from Cameroon and returning, with the help of online photos, to a place where we learned much of God's mercy. These thumbnails (click on each one to view the larger photo) are from Mbingo hospital, where we made an unplanned visit the second night of our yearlong stay there. Joel suffered the worst injuries in a car accident on the way from the coast to Bamenda. We had to take him that night to the Mbingo hospital, pictured below, praying that his leg was not broken. Seeing the picture of the hospital entrance brought back vivid memories of arriving there in John Dallman's small pickup, carrying Joel through the dimly lit covered walkway to the operating room, and watching while Dr. Zimmerman numbed, cleaned and then stitched the deep gash in Joel's leg. What a brave 5 year old trooper he was that night.



The next two thumbnails remind me of other happier times at Mbingo - BCG (Baptist General Conference) Field Council with the other missionary families - meetings interspersed with lots of fun and games as well as walks in what has to be one of the most beautiful spots on earth. Our children, like the ones in the picture below, climbed and played in these very trees!





And I remember buying the basket that now hangs in my living room from the men who were leprosy patients. If you click on the thumbnail of the man preparing the cane and view the larger photo, you will notice that he has nubs instead of fingers on one hand. That's because of the damage that leprosy does to the nerves which often results in loss of feeling and subsequent infection to, and loss of the fingers. I was amazed at the dexterity and skill with which the leprosy patients made both baskets and beautifully embroidered fabrics.





To see more pictures of the life and work at Mbingo Hospital and the BCG, visit the photo galleries of our friends, Thom and Ellen Schotanus. We are excited about the wide ranging work they continue to do at Mbingo and in church planting in Baicham. We are privileged to know such dedicated folks, who for the love of Christ left family, home and a successful construction business to serve among the unreached. May God raise up more like Thom and Ellen.