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April 2000
Dear family and friends
In our last letter we shared with you a little about first days
in Yaounde of Linda, the children’s dog we brought from Kinshasa.
Since that humble beginning we’ve begun to enlarge our family
of animals. Panda the cat was invited to eat, or at least kill
mice, rats and snakes. A wooden cooking spoon and a flip-flop
have proven more effective. Caesar, or Pigtail, as Jeff descriptively
calls him, joins Linda barking at whatever interests them at night.
Two nameless chickens (a hen and a rooster) were received as gifts.
They haven’t made it into the cooking pot yet, despite Jeff’s
repeated threats at 5:00 in the morning. We’re trying our
best to discourage various other creatures from making their home
here, most notably the voracious termites.
Ministry
After more than half a year of activities to help us settle here,
we feel we have some structure and routine in our life and ministry.
Over 18 schools have already been visited. The observations and
discussions involved in the visits have been very helpful in understanding
the situation of the schools, students and teachers.
The results from the Etats Generaux, the churchwide critical
self-examination, were eventually reflected upon and discussed
in January 2000 when over 100 delegates attended a forum organized
for that purpose. The recommendations developed by the committees
were presented to the General Assembly of the Eglise Presbyterienne
Camerounaise just four days later. These and other meetings have
given us further insight into the functioning of the church. The
recommendations coming out of the forum are now being considered
for implementation. Among the first recommendations to be implemented
is the translation of the church constitution into French (from
English and Bulu). This will be followed by the dissemination
of the constitution and seminars organized to discuss it. For
some people, that process is moving too slowly.
Culture
Wherever one lives it is a normal human feeling to want to belong
to a community. Sometimes that feeling of belonging takes longer
than other times. Perhaps it never comes. Since our arrival we
have enjoyed our contact with Leopold, a young neighbor who drops
in regularly. Aside from his skills as an all around handyman,
we enjoy Leopold’s evening visits when he shares his views
on the church and cultural life in Cameroon. Sometimes he just
comes to watch his favorite soap opera at our house. We had been
planning to go with Leopold to his village during the children’s
spring break, but his mother suddenly died. It was a great shock
for the entire family and much had to be arranged for a precipitated
and sad departure for the funeral ceremonies.
Upon his return six days later, Leopold shared with us how some
of his family members, specifically the brothers of his father,
viewed her early death. As they could find no clear explanation
they assumed it was not natural, but had been deliberately caused
by someone else. In the view of his relatives, everything had
to be done to find this malevolent person for the sake of revenge.
Leopold, being from another generation and having broken away
from this vicious circle of suspicion, revenge, and fear, had
expressed his desire to come to peace with the death of his mother
rather than be restlessly harassed by the idea that someone else
had wanted his mother to die. He urged his uncles to direct their
efforts, energy, and resources towards the needs of the children
left behind.
Our friend went on to explain some of the customary ceremonies
his family held the day after the traditional funeral. In one
of these ceremonies Leopold’s father was re-taught, by his
deceased wife’s family, how to do the tasks that had been
his during their marriage. He had to relearn how to hold the hoe
and work the fields. The purpose of this ceremony is to call the
widower back to his basic profession so that he can continue to
survive. The same kind of ceremony would have been held for Leopold’s
mother if her husband had died. In that case, however, she would
have been taught by her in-laws how to cultivate peanuts and how
to fish in the river, as these had been her major activities.
After the traditional ceremonies were over, his father put on
the black clothes brought by his in-laws. He will continue to
wear black for the full year of mourning following the death of
his wife. At the end of that year there will be another ceremony
at which time he will put on again his regular clothing.
Leopold’s friendliness has been a blessing and we hope to
learn more from him in the future. Your support to us through
prayers, encouraging letters, acts of kindness, or financial contribution
to the mission of the church are also a blessing. We appreciate
all that you do and look forward to hearing from you.
In Christ,
Christi, Jeff, Matthias, Salome and Naomi
The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study, page 32
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