Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
MY TRIP TO CAMEROON
Dear all,
Prince Ituen asked me to send the part of the report that happens while I was in Cameroon. That is why you are receiving this.
God bless
Dan Goodyear
It was really hot in Douala and even the brethren complained about it because they were from Buea and said it is colder there. I just laughed to myself thinking of what they called cold. It was cooler in Buea because it is about 3500 feet in elevation. It was cloudy and started to rain shortly after we arrived, which always cools things.
We arrived at the church building, and they were still having bible class. They were studying on the eldership because they are trying to prepare their congregation for elders. There is only one congregation in Cameroon that has elders, and they will be the second. They asked me to teach on Sunday about the eldership at Southwest, which I am glad to do. The vehicle I was traveling in got ahead of the one that James, Prince and Emmanuel were in and we beat them to Buea by about 45 minutes. After the class, we waited on them and then the church in Buea presented their vision. I have a copy of their vision, which I will attach to this report. I think they did a good job in their process of this vision. I talked about what Sunset’s vision is and encouraged them to talk to Prince, Emmanuel, and James about the schools they have and to not reinvent the wheel. I talked for about a half hour explaining things and then gave them a copy of Sunset’s Bachelor’s Degree Associate program and asked them to read it while I am 5 ½ hours north with Prince Ituen going over the same paper and talking with the school that they have.
We got to the place where we were staying, and at 8:30 we ate supper. I was glad because I was hungry since I last ate at 1:00 PM on the airplane. It was called a vegetable sandwich. It was two slices of bread with some mayo and cabbage on it.
I couldn’t wait to give Emmanuel his size 15 shoes I brought for him after using the drawing he gave me last time. The shoe was a little big but if he wears socks it will fit him well and give him comfort because they don’t bind him.
We had three rooms for the four of us because Prince Ituen stayed with his sister who lives here. The bed was much better than the night before, and I think I needed some sleep. They had been up until 2:00 AM that morning too, so we were all tired and went to bed about 10:30. I had no trouble going to sleep.
May 12, 2011
I lay in bed because I didn’t hear anyone moving and didn’t want to wake them up. I finally got up at 4:30 AM and took my bucket bath because they had no water. I came out to type my report for yesterday. I heard James snoring and knew I had not disturbed them while I was getting ready. I was glad they could have some more rest.
I went over the expenses they have had so far and paid back all but the taxi fees for yesterday in Naira. I knew there were going to be quite a few expenses but they need to be here to experience the start of a work with Sunset where they had done many of the things already required at the beginning of the process. It is also good for them to see how other works are doing in other countries and to encourage and be encouraged by the church in another country. Emmanuel and his siblings were all born in Cameroon although they were Nigerians. His father was working here. His father planted the church in Buea. His oldest brother was 15 when they went back to Nigeria and really didn’t want to move. He acted like most teenagers who are moved from their friends.
Prince Ugbe gave me the schedule for Obudu, and now I know how many times I will have to speak (which is a lot). He asked me to speak on some specific things which I hadn’t prepared for, and I think I can do all of them but one. The one I am talking about is Jeremiah. He asked me to teach on the Prophet for an hour. I wish I would have known this before I left because I could have prepared for it in a better way than I will here.
The bus ride to Prince Ituen’s place is about 5 ½ hours, and we had to be on the first bus at 9:00 AM so we didn’t arrive too late. It cost $65.36 for 5 of us to ride the bus that far. We waited an hour then we got on one bus to go to the other bus so we could be on the larger one going to Prince Ituen’s house.
I was the only white man on the bus and, yes, I sat in the back of the bus. We had 5 of the 6 seats in the very back. Emmanuel and I couldn’t get our knees between our seat and the seat in front of us. We had to sit funny the whole way to try to give our knees relief. We were hoping they wouldn’t fill our 6th seat but they did. Every seat on the bus was filled. There was no air conditioning so when we sat waiting for everyone getting situated, we were miserable. I was so glad when the bus got going so we could get some air. We took off at 9:30 AM and arrived in Bamenda at 5:00 PM, so we were on the bus 7 ½ hours and only stopped once for 10 minutes to relieve ourselves. Wow! That was tough but praise God, He gave us strength for this trip. On the first half of the trip, a man got up and made a speech about some miracle medicine and I couldn’t believe that he sold a bunch. Then he talked about the second medicine and a third and sold these people that these miracle drugs were going to work. We all gave him a bad time and asked him where he got his degree. One Cameroonian who had lived in Houston, Texas for 10 years really started the heckling. Then on the second half, another man got up and started talking about oils that he had for sale, which were also supposed to help every ailment. Again, I couldn’t believe how many people bought this. One was supposed to help your eye sight. We laughed a lot with that and had a good time. The bus was cramped and crowded and hot, but this is the way they travel. Prince sat by me, and we had a lot of good talks. There was a stranger between us, and I asked him if he went to church. He said he was a Muslim Christian. I asked him what that meant, and he said he was tired and didn’t want to talk about it. We tried to ask him what Muslim Christian meant, but again he said he was very tired. The bus really beats you up especially when you sit in the very back. We were stopped 6 times by the Army or the police. We saw a fatal accident when one truck passed a vehicle and had a head on with a vehicle when he was trying to overtake the vehicle he was passing.
We had roasted plantain, bananas and chex bars for lunch on the way. Then when we arrived, we had Fufu (sadza, papa, nsima, chima) for supper with fish, greens, green beans they grew in their garden, fried potatoes, watermelon and rice if you wanted it. It was all very good.
When we arrived at Prince’s house, Austin Edi ran out to meet us and hugged me. He is a recent graduate of DMBI and has been back in his country of Cameroon for about 8 months now and he is still preaching. We were also greeted by one of the other instructors at the school, Ji Mathias. Prince Ituen has 2 boys and 2 girls. The girls are the youngest and they are twins. Prince’s wife’s name is Margret. They have a great family.
In about two hours, Prince’s two sons got into their mother’s powder and put it all over their face and on the face of one of their sisters. They came out and they had white faces. They saw me, a white man, and they wanted to look like me. We laughed and laughed about this.
I got copies of the Sunset Bachelor’s requirements and asked them to read it tonight so we could talk about it tomorrow. We will go to the school they have going and hopefully work out a starting point for them to be associated with Sunset. On Saturday morning, we leave for Buea again which means another 7 ½-hour bus ride. So with airplane traveling the last couple of days and now two bus rides almost back to back, my feet are really swollen.
Nigeria was playing Ghana in the WAFU 2011 cup, and Emmanuel really got into the game. It went overtime and the Nigerians scored the winning goal with 1 minute left in the final overtime. The Nigerians were all happy.
Prince Ituen is here with only $265 per month. He is 3 months behind on his rent because he is putting so much into the school. He said over and over, “I am trying to teach the students they must sacrifice.” He has no money in the bank and supports one of the other men who helps teach in the school. This man was trained at Jos Bible College and is older than Prince. He has 8 children and is support by Prince out of his $265 a month. He wants to make the school self-sufficient so it doesn’t have to depend on anyone to support it. Only on occasions has an American sent to help a little, but this is not a regular monthly gift. He and his wife are from Nigeria and have been here 7 years to preach. He can extend a second 10 years once the next 3 years are up. He truly is a missionary, himself. Brother Mathias has been a missionary in Chad for the last 5 years and joined him to help in this work of training men to preach. There is one other school in Cameroon that teaches that congregations should not have located preachers. This is what the Key’s have taught in Cameroon for over 20 years, and this is the reason the church hasn’t grown here. They have no permanent guidance in feeding the congregations if the preacher is only there once every other month. They need more men in the pulpit maturing the brethren. This is what Prince Ituen and Ji Mathias are trying to change here in Cameroon, because the church is very weak. And some places you go to worship with the church of Christ, it doesn’t even look like the church in its actions and following of the Word.
We sat around visiting for the evening and then went to bed. Again, I was glad to go to sleep. I tried to dose on the bus but I was so interested in seeing everything. We had a very high mountain we climbed with the bus, and Emmanuel couldn’t even look sometimes because it scared him. We all laughed at him trying to get him to look. There were two rooms and Prince Ugbe, Emmanuel and James were going to sleep in one bed, and they were going to give me the other one. I said there is no reason for 3 of you to sleep together and for me to have a double bed to myself. I insisted that James Eblabor sleep with me, and he finally agreed. James snores, but I am up and down anyway so it doesn’t matter.
May 13, 2011
I slept well, and James Eblabor and I shared a bed. James snores but wasn’t too bad last night. I got up early and Prince Ituen had just gotten up also. I heard him get up as I was getting up. He asked me if I would speak one or two hours to the students. I told him that, listening to him last night, I had already started putting some ideas in my head about what I would say.
Prince Ituen had so much to accomplish this morning that we didn’t leave his house until about 10:00 AM. We got to the Cameroon Institute of Biblical Studies (CIBS), and Prince welcomed us officially before the staff and the students. Then he introduced all 11 students and told us something about each one of them, which I appreciated. The oldest is 65 and the youngest is 19. He then gave us a tour of the facilities that they have rented for 3 years. They had a drip irrigation training there for the students and the community. This has caused the local chief to assign them some land (about 200 meters square), which they don’t want given to them. The reason is because, if they improve the land that was given to them, they will just take it back. Yet if they agree to purchase it, they won’t be able to take it back. Prince figures it will cost about $15,000 US dollars which is still a bargain. He doesn’t know where the funds will come from, but he is a dreamer and I believe he will find a way.
We then had chapel and I was asked to speak there. We had a song, a prayer and I spoke for two hours which I was requested to do. I talked about support of preachers and that they had the responsibility to train the congregations they work with…that this is their responsibility.
After the chapel, the students had lunch before they went out to evangelize. The staff and Emmanuel, Prince, James and I had a meeting about how they could associate with Sunset. They have already been recognized by the government of Cameroon and are authorized to award a diploma. They screen the men three ways: they are required to have a letter of recommendation from the local congregation they are from, they have an oral interview and then they have a written test. Those who meet the requirements are allowed to enter. They agree to study for 3 years. They just started in March 2011, which shows how new the school is. Prince introduced the dean of students, the teacher of English and French, the vocational teacher of computers, and a minister who is willing to come and teach on a part-time basis. He is teaching Old Testament and New Testament. They will teach these 11 for 3 years, and then they will start over with a new group. Only one man was turned down by the screening.
They asked to associate with Sunset as soon as possible so they would be on track for the next semester. We talked about Sunset sending the first year of courses by DVD and the thumb drive with all the workbooks on it. This would also mean that a DVD player and a television would need to be purchased. They said this would cost 30,000fcfa for the DVD and 90,000fcfa for the television, which is about $300 US dollars. That doesn’t seem possible to me but they assured me that is the cost.
They gave me a copy of the curriculum they are currently instructing and that some are Bible courses, some are basic courses like English and French, and some are vocational courses. They also gave me descriptions of these courses.
We talked about the instructions I brought them from Sunset and how to associate with Sunset. They think getting the first year to them and letting the instructors study it and be familiar with it would be the best way to proceed. They are really ahead of the game and have made a lot of progress being where Sunset needs them to be to be able to associate with them. They really want to get to the point of the degree for the students as soon as possible.
I took a lot of photos and Prince is now out copying them so that he will have copies of this. They gave us a chief’s hat and a chief’s shirt. They also gave me a bag to take to my wife, but I don’t think they knew she died until I spoke today. But it is a beautiful bag. What I appreciate is that they gave Prince Ugbe, James and Emmanuel each one of these things too. They even had us wear them.
Prince Ituen said to me that one congregation said they are willing to help because they believe it is a good program, but they don’t have it in the budget this year. He asked if I could contact them when I return, assure them that it is a worthy program, and find out if there is any way possible to help now if they could. He wants me to confirm to them that it is a program that I have seen with my own eyes and that it is worthy.
We got a taxi both ways to the school. It is 45 kilometers out of Bamenda and it cost us 5000fcfa ($11.63) each way. The man on the way back drove very fast. He was up to 140 kilometers an hour (84 mph) at one point and was at 120 kph (72) most of the time. All 5 of us rode in one taxi which meant two had to sit on the front bucket seat. He did seem to drive very recklessly, and we were glad the ride was over. We were stopped at a police check point, and only James and Prince had their chief’s outfits on. When they saw them, they told the driver to go on since there were two chiefs with us. We all laughed about that.
When we got home, Margret (Prince’s wife) served us lunch at 5:45 PM. She was going to fix another meal, and we insisted that was supper for us. I had given all the staff and those of us who came to visit Prince a chex bar before we left the school.
I have had an allergy attack all day because Prince’s wife uses a fire to cook the meals, and the smoke is killing my sinuses. They say sorry every time I sneeze. They sure have been saying it a lot. My nose is raw and red from all of this.
We got back too late to change money. Prince went out to see if he could do it but arranged with a man to meet him in the morning so we would have funds to return to Buea. To this point, he has been paying everything and I need to pay him back for the food, fees for all the taxis, and the bus ride here and return.
We visited late even though we knew we had to get up early. We have had such a short time together. I told them I will stay longer next time. They really are looking forward to that. Prince Ituen is going back to Buea and will see us off at the ship when we leave Sunday evening.
May 14, 2011
The rooster started crowing at 3:20 AM. I was already fighting to stay in bed but this ended it. I hated to get up that early because I knew I may wake up the children, but one was already fussing and I think the rooster was her alarm. After getting cleaned up, I came out and Sister Margret had just made some food to feed the one little girl that did get up. I told her I was sorry, and she said it was not my fault. I really think she was just being nice.
So far, my sinuses seem to be okay this morning. I am praying that they stay that way for the rest of the time I am in Africa.
Finally, everyone was up and I noticed that Prince Ituen was wearing a tie. I asked him if we needed to wear a tie today, and he said no he just wanted to dress up. He also had his chief’s shirt on which looked real nice with a tie. Emmanuel asked him the same thing and then went in and put on a tie. Prince had a tie on also. I didn’t understand what was going on, I guess. I thought they were just going to change money. They left, and sister Margret said I could just relax and listen to the program on the radio. I asked, “What do you mean?” She said that Prince Ituen was doing a radio program this morning, so I decided to rush out and go because I was ready. Austin Edi went with me to make sure I found the station. They had already started, but just barely, and the director of the station allowed us to go in and observe. They had prayer, Emmanuel spoke and Prince Ituen spoke. I told them I didn’t understand that they were going to do this. They told me they were sorry that they had not explained it well.
We went back to the house, and then Prince said he was going to go out and get the funds changed. I didn’t understand why we didn’t do that while we were out, but I am just going along with the program. Prince Ituen said he had to go do a couple of things. When he got back, he said now he needed to go change money. Again I didn’t understand the back and forth to home and then out again. He takes a motorcycle taxi almost every time and, if he just did it while he was out; he would save a lot of money.
Prince Ugbe, James and Emmanuel said they were going shopping for the family to see if they could find something. I didn’t need to buy anything. Besides, I didn’t have funds for that. I told them to watch the clock because I didn’t want to miss the first bus. Then I found out that, while they were out, they went to the internet café. That really irked me because I have not been able to let the girls know that I had made it to Cameroon safely and traveled the first half of the trip safely. They knew I was irked about it, and again the communication was the problem.
When they all got back about 10:20 AM, I was antsy because Prince had told me the bus left at 10:30. They had not eaten and now they were going to sit down to a meal. I couldn’t believe this. Prince Ituen said, “Brother, we will make it because this is 10:30 Africa time. But I knew the later we waited, the longer we were going to be on the road. Once they finished eating, Prince had to go up and get a taxi to come and get us because we had all our bags. Then we got down the road, and he forgot his charger for his phone so we had to turn around to go back and get that. We got to the bus at 10:50, and it was in bad shape. Everyone on the bus was complaining about it, so they changed buses and we had a better bus but not by much.
We finally left Bamenda at 11:30 AM. The bus was a 24-passenger and most of the time we had 36 passengers on board. We had the back seat for 5 of us and this was a smaller bus so we were like sardines. Emmanuel and I suffered because of our long legs. The bus driver wanted to make money so, every time someone held out their hand, he would pull over and pick them up and cram in one more sardine. It was like he was a local taxi instead of a bus. It took us 9 ½ hours to get back to Buea, which was quite an ordeal. This was 2 hours longer than the bus ride up to Bamenda. We arrived at 9:00 PM, exhausted, but there was cold supper to eat.
The bus driver put his music on, and for 9 ½ hours he played this blaring music. Even when he was asked if he could turn down the speakers, he would turn them up. He said this is his private business and that he could do what he wanted. At one point, there was a very heated discussion on the bus between 7 people. I really thought they were going to come to blows but they didn’t. We saw a van (taxi) and a semi turned over on our trip back to Buea.
We were thankful that brother Aaron met us at the bus depot so we didn’t have to pay another taxi fare to get back to Sister Ester’s NGO house, which she is allowing us to stay at. She is also providing the food for the three meals we have had and the two more we will have. Prince went out to look for a computer bag with James and Emmanuel. James still wanted to buy something for his kids. I stayed with Prince Ituen and talked some, and then I went to bed at 11:15 PM. Needless to say, I didn’t have any trouble going to sleep. This is the third night that James Eblabor and I have slept in the same bed.
May 15, 2011
I was up at 4:00 AM and took my bucket bath. There was no water when I started, but it came on half way through my bucket bath. I tried the shower but hardly anything would spray out of the shower head, so I just continued with my bucket bath. After I cleaned up, I had time to go over my lesson on leadership. They asked me to teach this because they are trying to teach the congregation that they need to follow the scriptures and have elders and deacons.
We went to sister Ester’s and brother Omam’s house for breakfast. It was a joy to eat with them and also have some coffee. We had eggs and bread. The eggs had fish in them because they eat a lot of fish in this area. We went to the church building after that because I didn’t want to be late. Brother Aaron told me yesterday that if the speaker is 5 minutes late, he doesn’t get to speak. We got there about 8:15 and that meant I could speak. I put some notes on the board so they would have something to copy. The young man who usually writes the notes started erasing my notes as I was about to start. They all laughed when I said “Wait!”
Everyone said they really appreciated the lesson and were thankful that I spoke on how the elders at Southwest decided to lead by using the Acts 6 model and the Acts 15 model. So many said this was really helpful. Prince Ugbe preached the lesson, but they only gave him 20 to 25 minutes to speak, whereas I had 45 minutes from the time I started. If I would have been Prince, I would have just kept speaking but he honored their request.
After the service was over, they presented me the clothing to be a Buea Boy. It was a long robe, a necklace, a hat and a bag. It was very colorful robe. I am always humbled by something like this because they usually helped me more than I helped them. It was quite an honor to receive this.
The ladies took off immediately after services and went to help in the prison. They do this twice a week. The men and the ladies who were left asked me to brief them again on the procedure for the association with Sunset International Bible Institute. They are sure excited about it.
Brother Omam took us to the rooms they graciously let us use and had us rest until the ladies got done with the prison ministry so they could feed us. We sat until about 3:00 PM, which was okay because Prince Ituen and Emmanuel had just arrived about 2:30 PM. James was still not back, but I believe that is the way Prince Ituen planned it so we would go visit his friend. Prince Ugbe talked him out of this and we still had to get James back to us. He had already eaten, so we were okay. He needed to because he is a diabetic. James told Prince Ituen that he had felt abandoned. Prince was speechless and didn’t know what to say. I think Prince may have gotten the picture. Again I think the problem was communication.
I know Prince Ituen is frustrated with us by asking a lot of questions, and I know he has it settled in his mind; but we want to understand how things are going to work even though he seems to know what is going on. Sister Ester backed him when she said we should wait here in the house and relax instead of sitting down by the boat, which is what we would be doing. Again, I am okay with that but just wanted to understand it. I gave Prince Ituen the funds for the 5-hour boat ride and the taxi fare to get there. I am running low on funds and want to make everything count, so I don’t run out of funds. I know some of this is because of the plane ticket I had to buy, but I don’t want to use my debit card at the bank.
We ate at 3:00 PM and were glad to eat because we had not eaten since 7:45 this morning. I had all my things packed, so I couldn’t get to my chex bars. The food tasted extra sweet and even the brethren said the same. I prayed with them and praised God for the hospitality of a place to stay and food.
We agreed Prince Ituen would go get James and then purchase our tickets for the boat and will visit the brethren in Limbe until we came down about 9:00 PM. We will still have to wait to board at that time. We all actually laid down and took about an hour nap. I didn’t think I could, but I did manage to go to sleep. Brother Omam and Sister Esther came down to make sure we got on the vehicle and say goodbye one more time before we left. We picked up brother Aaron on the way to the port. Brother Moses drove us to Limbe. So we had Moses and Aaron to lead us to the Promised Land.
When we arrived, we found out that there were no second-class seats left. So Prince Ituen, at the advice of brother Aaron, said to buy the first-class seats because we have a schedule. It cost us another 20,000fcfa ($46.51) for the 4 of us. At this point, I didn’t care. We just needed to get to Nigeria. There were weight fees because they used to allow 30 kgs per passenger but now they only allow 5 kgs per passenger and charge you C0.75 per kilogram over. We had to pay 6000fcfa ($13.95) for that and then there was a loader fee of 2000fcfa ($4.65) to load our bags. So they catch you coming and going, and the money flies out the window.
We got all checked in with our baggage by 10:00 PM and still had to wait until 1:00 AM to load. We did sit around a lot, which seems to be happening a lot because we have traveled a lot in Cameroon. We turned in our passports. They kept them and said they would call us in 2 hours to collect them. I didn’t like leaving it that long and the Nigerians really didn’t since this is their first experience with their passports. So now we sit and play the waiting game. We will all be glad to get on board so that we can at least cat nap.
God bless you.
Daniel Goodyear
Dean of Ministry Training Central Africa
9725 SW Durham Road
Tigard, OR, 97224
[503]708-6580 - CALL
dg.goodyear@hotmail.com. www.sibi.cc
Prince Ituen asked me to send the part of the report that happens while I was in Cameroon. That is why you are receiving this.
God bless
Dan Goodyear
It was really hot in Douala and even the brethren complained about it because they were from Buea and said it is colder there. I just laughed to myself thinking of what they called cold. It was cooler in Buea because it is about 3500 feet in elevation. It was cloudy and started to rain shortly after we arrived, which always cools things.
We arrived at the church building, and they were still having bible class. They were studying on the eldership because they are trying to prepare their congregation for elders. There is only one congregation in Cameroon that has elders, and they will be the second. They asked me to teach on Sunday about the eldership at Southwest, which I am glad to do. The vehicle I was traveling in got ahead of the one that James, Prince and Emmanuel were in and we beat them to Buea by about 45 minutes. After the class, we waited on them and then the church in Buea presented their vision. I have a copy of their vision, which I will attach to this report. I think they did a good job in their process of this vision. I talked about what Sunset’s vision is and encouraged them to talk to Prince, Emmanuel, and James about the schools they have and to not reinvent the wheel. I talked for about a half hour explaining things and then gave them a copy of Sunset’s Bachelor’s Degree Associate program and asked them to read it while I am 5 ½ hours north with Prince Ituen going over the same paper and talking with the school that they have.
We got to the place where we were staying, and at 8:30 we ate supper. I was glad because I was hungry since I last ate at 1:00 PM on the airplane. It was called a vegetable sandwich. It was two slices of bread with some mayo and cabbage on it.
I couldn’t wait to give Emmanuel his size 15 shoes I brought for him after using the drawing he gave me last time. The shoe was a little big but if he wears socks it will fit him well and give him comfort because they don’t bind him.
We had three rooms for the four of us because Prince Ituen stayed with his sister who lives here. The bed was much better than the night before, and I think I needed some sleep. They had been up until 2:00 AM that morning too, so we were all tired and went to bed about 10:30. I had no trouble going to sleep.
May 12, 2011
I lay in bed because I didn’t hear anyone moving and didn’t want to wake them up. I finally got up at 4:30 AM and took my bucket bath because they had no water. I came out to type my report for yesterday. I heard James snoring and knew I had not disturbed them while I was getting ready. I was glad they could have some more rest.
I went over the expenses they have had so far and paid back all but the taxi fees for yesterday in Naira. I knew there were going to be quite a few expenses but they need to be here to experience the start of a work with Sunset where they had done many of the things already required at the beginning of the process. It is also good for them to see how other works are doing in other countries and to encourage and be encouraged by the church in another country. Emmanuel and his siblings were all born in Cameroon although they were Nigerians. His father was working here. His father planted the church in Buea. His oldest brother was 15 when they went back to Nigeria and really didn’t want to move. He acted like most teenagers who are moved from their friends.
Prince Ugbe gave me the schedule for Obudu, and now I know how many times I will have to speak (which is a lot). He asked me to speak on some specific things which I hadn’t prepared for, and I think I can do all of them but one. The one I am talking about is Jeremiah. He asked me to teach on the Prophet for an hour. I wish I would have known this before I left because I could have prepared for it in a better way than I will here.
The bus ride to Prince Ituen’s place is about 5 ½ hours, and we had to be on the first bus at 9:00 AM so we didn’t arrive too late. It cost $65.36 for 5 of us to ride the bus that far. We waited an hour then we got on one bus to go to the other bus so we could be on the larger one going to Prince Ituen’s house.
I was the only white man on the bus and, yes, I sat in the back of the bus. We had 5 of the 6 seats in the very back. Emmanuel and I couldn’t get our knees between our seat and the seat in front of us. We had to sit funny the whole way to try to give our knees relief. We were hoping they wouldn’t fill our 6th seat but they did. Every seat on the bus was filled. There was no air conditioning so when we sat waiting for everyone getting situated, we were miserable. I was so glad when the bus got going so we could get some air. We took off at 9:30 AM and arrived in Bamenda at 5:00 PM, so we were on the bus 7 ½ hours and only stopped once for 10 minutes to relieve ourselves. Wow! That was tough but praise God, He gave us strength for this trip. On the first half of the trip, a man got up and made a speech about some miracle medicine and I couldn’t believe that he sold a bunch. Then he talked about the second medicine and a third and sold these people that these miracle drugs were going to work. We all gave him a bad time and asked him where he got his degree. One Cameroonian who had lived in Houston, Texas for 10 years really started the heckling. Then on the second half, another man got up and started talking about oils that he had for sale, which were also supposed to help every ailment. Again, I couldn’t believe how many people bought this. One was supposed to help your eye sight. We laughed a lot with that and had a good time. The bus was cramped and crowded and hot, but this is the way they travel. Prince sat by me, and we had a lot of good talks. There was a stranger between us, and I asked him if he went to church. He said he was a Muslim Christian. I asked him what that meant, and he said he was tired and didn’t want to talk about it. We tried to ask him what Muslim Christian meant, but again he said he was very tired. The bus really beats you up especially when you sit in the very back. We were stopped 6 times by the Army or the police. We saw a fatal accident when one truck passed a vehicle and had a head on with a vehicle when he was trying to overtake the vehicle he was passing.
We had roasted plantain, bananas and chex bars for lunch on the way. Then when we arrived, we had Fufu (sadza, papa, nsima, chima) for supper with fish, greens, green beans they grew in their garden, fried potatoes, watermelon and rice if you wanted it. It was all very good.
When we arrived at Prince’s house, Austin Edi ran out to meet us and hugged me. He is a recent graduate of DMBI and has been back in his country of Cameroon for about 8 months now and he is still preaching. We were also greeted by one of the other instructors at the school, Ji Mathias. Prince Ituen has 2 boys and 2 girls. The girls are the youngest and they are twins. Prince’s wife’s name is Margret. They have a great family.
In about two hours, Prince’s two sons got into their mother’s powder and put it all over their face and on the face of one of their sisters. They came out and they had white faces. They saw me, a white man, and they wanted to look like me. We laughed and laughed about this.
I got copies of the Sunset Bachelor’s requirements and asked them to read it tonight so we could talk about it tomorrow. We will go to the school they have going and hopefully work out a starting point for them to be associated with Sunset. On Saturday morning, we leave for Buea again which means another 7 ½-hour bus ride. So with airplane traveling the last couple of days and now two bus rides almost back to back, my feet are really swollen.
Nigeria was playing Ghana in the WAFU 2011 cup, and Emmanuel really got into the game. It went overtime and the Nigerians scored the winning goal with 1 minute left in the final overtime. The Nigerians were all happy.
Prince Ituen is here with only $265 per month. He is 3 months behind on his rent because he is putting so much into the school. He said over and over, “I am trying to teach the students they must sacrifice.” He has no money in the bank and supports one of the other men who helps teach in the school. This man was trained at Jos Bible College and is older than Prince. He has 8 children and is support by Prince out of his $265 a month. He wants to make the school self-sufficient so it doesn’t have to depend on anyone to support it. Only on occasions has an American sent to help a little, but this is not a regular monthly gift. He and his wife are from Nigeria and have been here 7 years to preach. He can extend a second 10 years once the next 3 years are up. He truly is a missionary, himself. Brother Mathias has been a missionary in Chad for the last 5 years and joined him to help in this work of training men to preach. There is one other school in Cameroon that teaches that congregations should not have located preachers. This is what the Key’s have taught in Cameroon for over 20 years, and this is the reason the church hasn’t grown here. They have no permanent guidance in feeding the congregations if the preacher is only there once every other month. They need more men in the pulpit maturing the brethren. This is what Prince Ituen and Ji Mathias are trying to change here in Cameroon, because the church is very weak. And some places you go to worship with the church of Christ, it doesn’t even look like the church in its actions and following of the Word.
We sat around visiting for the evening and then went to bed. Again, I was glad to go to sleep. I tried to dose on the bus but I was so interested in seeing everything. We had a very high mountain we climbed with the bus, and Emmanuel couldn’t even look sometimes because it scared him. We all laughed at him trying to get him to look. There were two rooms and Prince Ugbe, Emmanuel and James were going to sleep in one bed, and they were going to give me the other one. I said there is no reason for 3 of you to sleep together and for me to have a double bed to myself. I insisted that James Eblabor sleep with me, and he finally agreed. James snores, but I am up and down anyway so it doesn’t matter.
May 13, 2011
I slept well, and James Eblabor and I shared a bed. James snores but wasn’t too bad last night. I got up early and Prince Ituen had just gotten up also. I heard him get up as I was getting up. He asked me if I would speak one or two hours to the students. I told him that, listening to him last night, I had already started putting some ideas in my head about what I would say.
Prince Ituen had so much to accomplish this morning that we didn’t leave his house until about 10:00 AM. We got to the Cameroon Institute of Biblical Studies (CIBS), and Prince welcomed us officially before the staff and the students. Then he introduced all 11 students and told us something about each one of them, which I appreciated. The oldest is 65 and the youngest is 19. He then gave us a tour of the facilities that they have rented for 3 years. They had a drip irrigation training there for the students and the community. This has caused the local chief to assign them some land (about 200 meters square), which they don’t want given to them. The reason is because, if they improve the land that was given to them, they will just take it back. Yet if they agree to purchase it, they won’t be able to take it back. Prince figures it will cost about $15,000 US dollars which is still a bargain. He doesn’t know where the funds will come from, but he is a dreamer and I believe he will find a way.
We then had chapel and I was asked to speak there. We had a song, a prayer and I spoke for two hours which I was requested to do. I talked about support of preachers and that they had the responsibility to train the congregations they work with…that this is their responsibility.
After the chapel, the students had lunch before they went out to evangelize. The staff and Emmanuel, Prince, James and I had a meeting about how they could associate with Sunset. They have already been recognized by the government of Cameroon and are authorized to award a diploma. They screen the men three ways: they are required to have a letter of recommendation from the local congregation they are from, they have an oral interview and then they have a written test. Those who meet the requirements are allowed to enter. They agree to study for 3 years. They just started in March 2011, which shows how new the school is. Prince introduced the dean of students, the teacher of English and French, the vocational teacher of computers, and a minister who is willing to come and teach on a part-time basis. He is teaching Old Testament and New Testament. They will teach these 11 for 3 years, and then they will start over with a new group. Only one man was turned down by the screening.
They asked to associate with Sunset as soon as possible so they would be on track for the next semester. We talked about Sunset sending the first year of courses by DVD and the thumb drive with all the workbooks on it. This would also mean that a DVD player and a television would need to be purchased. They said this would cost 30,000fcfa for the DVD and 90,000fcfa for the television, which is about $300 US dollars. That doesn’t seem possible to me but they assured me that is the cost.
They gave me a copy of the curriculum they are currently instructing and that some are Bible courses, some are basic courses like English and French, and some are vocational courses. They also gave me descriptions of these courses.
We talked about the instructions I brought them from Sunset and how to associate with Sunset. They think getting the first year to them and letting the instructors study it and be familiar with it would be the best way to proceed. They are really ahead of the game and have made a lot of progress being where Sunset needs them to be to be able to associate with them. They really want to get to the point of the degree for the students as soon as possible.
I took a lot of photos and Prince is now out copying them so that he will have copies of this. They gave us a chief’s hat and a chief’s shirt. They also gave me a bag to take to my wife, but I don’t think they knew she died until I spoke today. But it is a beautiful bag. What I appreciate is that they gave Prince Ugbe, James and Emmanuel each one of these things too. They even had us wear them.
Prince Ituen said to me that one congregation said they are willing to help because they believe it is a good program, but they don’t have it in the budget this year. He asked if I could contact them when I return, assure them that it is a worthy program, and find out if there is any way possible to help now if they could. He wants me to confirm to them that it is a program that I have seen with my own eyes and that it is worthy.
We got a taxi both ways to the school. It is 45 kilometers out of Bamenda and it cost us 5000fcfa ($11.63) each way. The man on the way back drove very fast. He was up to 140 kilometers an hour (84 mph) at one point and was at 120 kph (72) most of the time. All 5 of us rode in one taxi which meant two had to sit on the front bucket seat. He did seem to drive very recklessly, and we were glad the ride was over. We were stopped at a police check point, and only James and Prince had their chief’s outfits on. When they saw them, they told the driver to go on since there were two chiefs with us. We all laughed about that.
When we got home, Margret (Prince’s wife) served us lunch at 5:45 PM. She was going to fix another meal, and we insisted that was supper for us. I had given all the staff and those of us who came to visit Prince a chex bar before we left the school.
I have had an allergy attack all day because Prince’s wife uses a fire to cook the meals, and the smoke is killing my sinuses. They say sorry every time I sneeze. They sure have been saying it a lot. My nose is raw and red from all of this.
We got back too late to change money. Prince went out to see if he could do it but arranged with a man to meet him in the morning so we would have funds to return to Buea. To this point, he has been paying everything and I need to pay him back for the food, fees for all the taxis, and the bus ride here and return.
We visited late even though we knew we had to get up early. We have had such a short time together. I told them I will stay longer next time. They really are looking forward to that. Prince Ituen is going back to Buea and will see us off at the ship when we leave Sunday evening.
May 14, 2011
The rooster started crowing at 3:20 AM. I was already fighting to stay in bed but this ended it. I hated to get up that early because I knew I may wake up the children, but one was already fussing and I think the rooster was her alarm. After getting cleaned up, I came out and Sister Margret had just made some food to feed the one little girl that did get up. I told her I was sorry, and she said it was not my fault. I really think she was just being nice.
So far, my sinuses seem to be okay this morning. I am praying that they stay that way for the rest of the time I am in Africa.
Finally, everyone was up and I noticed that Prince Ituen was wearing a tie. I asked him if we needed to wear a tie today, and he said no he just wanted to dress up. He also had his chief’s shirt on which looked real nice with a tie. Emmanuel asked him the same thing and then went in and put on a tie. Prince had a tie on also. I didn’t understand what was going on, I guess. I thought they were just going to change money. They left, and sister Margret said I could just relax and listen to the program on the radio. I asked, “What do you mean?” She said that Prince Ituen was doing a radio program this morning, so I decided to rush out and go because I was ready. Austin Edi went with me to make sure I found the station. They had already started, but just barely, and the director of the station allowed us to go in and observe. They had prayer, Emmanuel spoke and Prince Ituen spoke. I told them I didn’t understand that they were going to do this. They told me they were sorry that they had not explained it well.
We went back to the house, and then Prince said he was going to go out and get the funds changed. I didn’t understand why we didn’t do that while we were out, but I am just going along with the program. Prince Ituen said he had to go do a couple of things. When he got back, he said now he needed to go change money. Again I didn’t understand the back and forth to home and then out again. He takes a motorcycle taxi almost every time and, if he just did it while he was out; he would save a lot of money.
Prince Ugbe, James and Emmanuel said they were going shopping for the family to see if they could find something. I didn’t need to buy anything. Besides, I didn’t have funds for that. I told them to watch the clock because I didn’t want to miss the first bus. Then I found out that, while they were out, they went to the internet café. That really irked me because I have not been able to let the girls know that I had made it to Cameroon safely and traveled the first half of the trip safely. They knew I was irked about it, and again the communication was the problem.
When they all got back about 10:20 AM, I was antsy because Prince had told me the bus left at 10:30. They had not eaten and now they were going to sit down to a meal. I couldn’t believe this. Prince Ituen said, “Brother, we will make it because this is 10:30 Africa time. But I knew the later we waited, the longer we were going to be on the road. Once they finished eating, Prince had to go up and get a taxi to come and get us because we had all our bags. Then we got down the road, and he forgot his charger for his phone so we had to turn around to go back and get that. We got to the bus at 10:50, and it was in bad shape. Everyone on the bus was complaining about it, so they changed buses and we had a better bus but not by much.
We finally left Bamenda at 11:30 AM. The bus was a 24-passenger and most of the time we had 36 passengers on board. We had the back seat for 5 of us and this was a smaller bus so we were like sardines. Emmanuel and I suffered because of our long legs. The bus driver wanted to make money so, every time someone held out their hand, he would pull over and pick them up and cram in one more sardine. It was like he was a local taxi instead of a bus. It took us 9 ½ hours to get back to Buea, which was quite an ordeal. This was 2 hours longer than the bus ride up to Bamenda. We arrived at 9:00 PM, exhausted, but there was cold supper to eat.
The bus driver put his music on, and for 9 ½ hours he played this blaring music. Even when he was asked if he could turn down the speakers, he would turn them up. He said this is his private business and that he could do what he wanted. At one point, there was a very heated discussion on the bus between 7 people. I really thought they were going to come to blows but they didn’t. We saw a van (taxi) and a semi turned over on our trip back to Buea.
We were thankful that brother Aaron met us at the bus depot so we didn’t have to pay another taxi fare to get back to Sister Ester’s NGO house, which she is allowing us to stay at. She is also providing the food for the three meals we have had and the two more we will have. Prince went out to look for a computer bag with James and Emmanuel. James still wanted to buy something for his kids. I stayed with Prince Ituen and talked some, and then I went to bed at 11:15 PM. Needless to say, I didn’t have any trouble going to sleep. This is the third night that James Eblabor and I have slept in the same bed.
May 15, 2011
I was up at 4:00 AM and took my bucket bath. There was no water when I started, but it came on half way through my bucket bath. I tried the shower but hardly anything would spray out of the shower head, so I just continued with my bucket bath. After I cleaned up, I had time to go over my lesson on leadership. They asked me to teach this because they are trying to teach the congregation that they need to follow the scriptures and have elders and deacons.
We went to sister Ester’s and brother Omam’s house for breakfast. It was a joy to eat with them and also have some coffee. We had eggs and bread. The eggs had fish in them because they eat a lot of fish in this area. We went to the church building after that because I didn’t want to be late. Brother Aaron told me yesterday that if the speaker is 5 minutes late, he doesn’t get to speak. We got there about 8:15 and that meant I could speak. I put some notes on the board so they would have something to copy. The young man who usually writes the notes started erasing my notes as I was about to start. They all laughed when I said “Wait!”
Everyone said they really appreciated the lesson and were thankful that I spoke on how the elders at Southwest decided to lead by using the Acts 6 model and the Acts 15 model. So many said this was really helpful. Prince Ugbe preached the lesson, but they only gave him 20 to 25 minutes to speak, whereas I had 45 minutes from the time I started. If I would have been Prince, I would have just kept speaking but he honored their request.
After the service was over, they presented me the clothing to be a Buea Boy. It was a long robe, a necklace, a hat and a bag. It was very colorful robe. I am always humbled by something like this because they usually helped me more than I helped them. It was quite an honor to receive this.
The ladies took off immediately after services and went to help in the prison. They do this twice a week. The men and the ladies who were left asked me to brief them again on the procedure for the association with Sunset International Bible Institute. They are sure excited about it.
Brother Omam took us to the rooms they graciously let us use and had us rest until the ladies got done with the prison ministry so they could feed us. We sat until about 3:00 PM, which was okay because Prince Ituen and Emmanuel had just arrived about 2:30 PM. James was still not back, but I believe that is the way Prince Ituen planned it so we would go visit his friend. Prince Ugbe talked him out of this and we still had to get James back to us. He had already eaten, so we were okay. He needed to because he is a diabetic. James told Prince Ituen that he had felt abandoned. Prince was speechless and didn’t know what to say. I think Prince may have gotten the picture. Again I think the problem was communication.
I know Prince Ituen is frustrated with us by asking a lot of questions, and I know he has it settled in his mind; but we want to understand how things are going to work even though he seems to know what is going on. Sister Ester backed him when she said we should wait here in the house and relax instead of sitting down by the boat, which is what we would be doing. Again, I am okay with that but just wanted to understand it. I gave Prince Ituen the funds for the 5-hour boat ride and the taxi fare to get there. I am running low on funds and want to make everything count, so I don’t run out of funds. I know some of this is because of the plane ticket I had to buy, but I don’t want to use my debit card at the bank.
We ate at 3:00 PM and were glad to eat because we had not eaten since 7:45 this morning. I had all my things packed, so I couldn’t get to my chex bars. The food tasted extra sweet and even the brethren said the same. I prayed with them and praised God for the hospitality of a place to stay and food.
We agreed Prince Ituen would go get James and then purchase our tickets for the boat and will visit the brethren in Limbe until we came down about 9:00 PM. We will still have to wait to board at that time. We all actually laid down and took about an hour nap. I didn’t think I could, but I did manage to go to sleep. Brother Omam and Sister Esther came down to make sure we got on the vehicle and say goodbye one more time before we left. We picked up brother Aaron on the way to the port. Brother Moses drove us to Limbe. So we had Moses and Aaron to lead us to the Promised Land.
When we arrived, we found out that there were no second-class seats left. So Prince Ituen, at the advice of brother Aaron, said to buy the first-class seats because we have a schedule. It cost us another 20,000fcfa ($46.51) for the 4 of us. At this point, I didn’t care. We just needed to get to Nigeria. There were weight fees because they used to allow 30 kgs per passenger but now they only allow 5 kgs per passenger and charge you C0.75 per kilogram over. We had to pay 6000fcfa ($13.95) for that and then there was a loader fee of 2000fcfa ($4.65) to load our bags. So they catch you coming and going, and the money flies out the window.
We got all checked in with our baggage by 10:00 PM and still had to wait until 1:00 AM to load. We did sit around a lot, which seems to be happening a lot because we have traveled a lot in Cameroon. We turned in our passports. They kept them and said they would call us in 2 hours to collect them. I didn’t like leaving it that long and the Nigerians really didn’t since this is their first experience with their passports. So now we sit and play the waiting game. We will all be glad to get on board so that we can at least cat nap.
God bless you.
Daniel Goodyear
Dean of Ministry Training Central Africa
9725 SW Durham Road
Tigard, OR, 97224
[503]708-6580 - CALL
dg.goodyear@hotmail.com. www.sibi.cc
MY TRIP TO CAMEROON
Dear all,
Prince Ituen asked me to send the part of the report that happens while I was in Cameroon. That is why you are receiving this.
God bless
Dan Goodyear
Prince Ituen asked me to send the part of the report that happens while I was in Cameroon. That is why you are receiving this.
God bless
Dan Goodyear
It was really hot in Douala and even the brethren complained about it because they were from Buea and said it is colder there. I just laughed to myself thinking of what they called cold. It was cooler in Buea because it is about 3500 feet in elevation. It was cloudy and started to rain shortly after we arrived, which always cools things.
We arrived at the church building, and they were still having bible class. They were studying on the eldership because they are trying to prepare their congregation for elders. There is only one congregation in Cameroon that has elders, and they will be the second. They asked me to teach on Sunday about the eldership at Southwest, which I am glad to do. The vehicle I was traveling in got ahead of the one that James, Prince and Emmanuel were in and we beat them to Buea by about 45 minutes. After the class, we waited on them and then the church in Buea presented their vision. I have a copy of their vision, which I will attach to this report. I think they did a good job in their process of this vision. I talked about what Sunset’s vision is and encouraged them to talk to Prince, Emmanuel, and James about the schools they have and to not reinvent the wheel. I talked for about a half hour explaining things and then gave them a copy of Sunset’s Bachelor’s Degree Associate program and asked them to read it while I am 5 ½ hours north with Prince Ituen going over the same paper and talking with the school that they have.
We got to the place where we were staying, and at 8:30 we ate supper. I was glad because I was hungry since I last ate at 1:00 PM on the airplane. It was called a vegetable sandwich. It was two slices of bread with some mayo and cabbage on it.
I couldn’t wait to give Emmanuel his size 15 shoes I brought for him after using the drawing he gave me last time. The shoe was a little big but if he wears socks it will fit him well and give him comfort because they don’t bind him.
We had three rooms for the four of us because Prince Ituen stayed with his sister who lives here. The bed was much better than the night before, and I think I needed some sleep. They had been up until 2:00 AM that morning too, so we were all tired and went to bed about 10:30. I had no trouble going to sleep.
May 12, 2011
I lay in bed because I didn’t hear anyone moving and didn’t want to wake them up. I finally got up at 4:30 AM and took my bucket bath because they had no water. I came out to type my report for yesterday. I heard James snoring and knew I had not disturbed them while I was getting ready. I was glad they could have some more rest.
I went over the expenses they have had so far and paid back all but the taxi fees for yesterday in Naira. I knew there were going to be quite a few expenses but they need to be here to experience the start of a work with Sunset where they had done many of the things already required at the beginning of the process. It is also good for them to see how other works are doing in other countries and to encourage and be encouraged by the church in another country. Emmanuel and his siblings were all born in Cameroon although they were Nigerians. His father was working here. His father planted the church in Buea. His oldest brother was 15 when they went back to Nigeria and really didn’t want to move. He acted like most teenagers who are moved from their friends.
Prince Ugbe gave me the schedule for Obudu, and now I know how many times I will have to speak (which is a lot). He asked me to speak on some specific things which I hadn’t prepared for, and I think I can do all of them but one. The one I am talking about is Jeremiah. He asked me to teach on the Prophet for an hour. I wish I would have known this before I left because I could have prepared for it in a better way than I will here.
The bus ride to Prince Ituen’s place is about 5 ½ hours, and we had to be on the first bus at 9:00 AM so we didn’t arrive too late. It cost $65.36 for 5 of us to ride the bus that far. We waited an hour then we got on one bus to go to the other bus so we could be on the larger one going to Prince Ituen’s house.
I was the only white man on the bus and, yes, I sat in the back of the bus. We had 5 of the 6 seats in the very back. Emmanuel and I couldn’t get our knees between our seat and the seat in front of us. We had to sit funny the whole way to try to give our knees relief. We were hoping they wouldn’t fill our 6th seat but they did. Every seat on the bus was filled. There was no air conditioning so when we sat waiting for everyone getting situated, we were miserable. I was so glad when the bus got going so we could get some air. We took off at 9:30 AM and arrived in Bamenda at 5:00 PM, so we were on the bus 7 ½ hours and only stopped once for 10 minutes to relieve ourselves. Wow! That was tough but praise God, He gave us strength for this trip. On the first half of the trip, a man got up and made a speech about some miracle medicine and I couldn’t believe that he sold a bunch. Then he talked about the second medicine and a third and sold these people that these miracle drugs were going to work. We all gave him a bad time and asked him where he got his degree. One Cameroonian who had lived in Houston, Texas for 10 years really started the heckling. Then on the second half, another man got up and started talking about oils that he had for sale, which were also supposed to help every ailment. Again, I couldn’t believe how many people bought this. One was supposed to help your eye sight. We laughed a lot with that and had a good time. The bus was cramped and crowded and hot, but this is the way they travel. Prince sat by me, and we had a lot of good talks. There was a stranger between us, and I asked him if he went to church. He said he was a Muslim Christian. I asked him what that meant, and he said he was tired and didn’t want to talk about it. We tried to ask him what Muslim Christian meant, but again he said he was very tired. The bus really beats you up especially when you sit in the very back. We were stopped 6 times by the Army or the police. We saw a fatal accident when one truck passed a vehicle and had a head on with a vehicle when he was trying to overtake the vehicle he was passing.
We had roasted plantain, bananas and chex bars for lunch on the way. Then when we arrived, we had Fufu (sadza, papa, nsima, chima) for supper with fish, greens, green beans they grew in their garden, fried potatoes, watermelon and rice if you wanted it. It was all very good.
When we arrived at Prince’s house, Austin Edi ran out to meet us and hugged me. He is a recent graduate of DMBI and has been back in his country of Cameroon for about 8 months now and he is still preaching. We were also greeted by one of the other instructors at the school, Ji Mathias. Prince Ituen has 2 boys and 2 girls. The girls are the youngest and they are twins. Prince’s wife’s name is Margret. They have a great family.
In about two hours, Prince’s two sons got into their mother’s powder and put it all over their face and on the face of one of their sisters. They came out and they had white faces. They saw me, a white man, and they wanted to look like me. We laughed and laughed about this.
I got copies of the Sunset Bachelor’s requirements and asked them to read it tonight so we could talk about it tomorrow. We will go to the school they have going and hopefully work out a starting point for them to be associated with Sunset. On Saturday morning, we leave for Buea again which means another 7 ½-hour bus ride. So with airplane traveling the last couple of days and now two bus rides almost back to back, my feet are really swollen.
Nigeria was playing Ghana in the WAFU 2011 cup, and Emmanuel really got into the game. It went overtime and the Nigerians scored the winning goal with 1 minute left in the final overtime. The Nigerians were all happy.
Prince Ituen is here with only $175 per month. He is 3 months behind on his rent because he is putting so much into the school. He said over and over, “I am trying to teach the students they must sacrifice.” He has no money in the bank and supports one of the other men who helps teach in the school. This man was trained at Jos Bible College and is older than Prince. He has 8 children and is support by Prince out of his $175 a month. He wants to make the school self-sufficient so it doesn’t have to depend on anyone to support it. Only on occasions has an American sent to help a little, but this is not a regular monthly gift. He and his wife are from Nigeria and have been here 7 years to preach. He can extend a second 10 years once the next 3 years are up. He truly is a missionary, himself. Brother Mathias has been a missionary in Chad for the last 5 years and joined him to help in this work of training men to preach. There is one other school in Cameroon that teaches that congregations should not have located preachers. This is what the Key’s have taught in Cameroon for over 20 years, and this is the reason the church hasn’t grown here. They have no permanent guidance in feeding the congregations if the preacher is only there once every other month. They need more men in the pulpit maturing the brethren. This is what Prince Ituen and Ji Mathias are trying to change here in Cameroon, because the church is very weak. And some places you go to worship with the church of Christ, it doesn’t even look like the church in its actions and following of the Word.
We sat around visiting for the evening and then went to bed. Again, I was glad to go to sleep. I tried to dose on the bus but I was so interested in seeing everything. We had a very high mountain we climbed with the bus, and Emmanuel couldn’t even look sometimes because it scared him. We all laughed at him trying to get him to look. There were two rooms and Prince Ugbe, Emmanuel and James were going to sleep in one bed, and they were going to give me the other one. I said there is no reason for 3 of you to sleep together and for me to have a double bed to myself. I insisted that James Eblabor sleep with me, and he finally agreed. James snores, but I am up and down anyway so it doesn’t matter.
May 13, 2011
I slept well, and James Eblabor and I shared a bed. James snores but wasn’t too bad last night. I got up early and Prince Ituen had just gotten up also. I heard him get up as I was getting up. He asked me if I would speak one or two hours to the students. I told him that, listening to him last night, I had already started putting some ideas in my head about what I would say.
Prince Ituen had so much to accomplish this morning that we didn’t leave his house until about 10:00 AM. We got to the Cameroon Institute of Biblical Studies (CIBS), and Prince welcomed us officially before the staff and the students. Then he introduced all 11 students and told us something about each one of them, which I appreciated. The oldest is 65 and the youngest is 19. He then gave us a tour of the facilities that they have rented for 3 years. They had a drip irrigation training there for the students and the community. This has caused the local chief to assign them some land (about 200 meters square), which they don’t want given to them. The reason is because, if they improve the land that was given to them, they will just take it back. Yet if they agree to purchase it, they won’t be able to take it back. Prince figures it will cost about $15,000 US dollars which is still a bargain. He doesn’t know where the funds will come from, but he is a dreamer and I believe he will find a way.
We then had chapel and I was asked to speak there. We had a song, a prayer and I spoke for two hours which I was requested to do. I talked about support of preachers and that they had the responsibility to train the congregations they work with…that this is their responsibility.
After the chapel, the students had lunch before they went out to evangelize. The staff and Emmanuel, Prince, James and I had a meeting about how they could associate with Sunset. They have already been recognized by the government of Cameroon and are authorized to award a diploma. They screen the men three ways: they are required to have a letter of recommendation from the local congregation they are from, they have an oral interview and then they have a written test. Those who meet the requirements are allowed to enter. They agree to study for 3 years. They just started in March 2011, which shows how new the school is. Prince introduced the dean of students, the teacher of English and French, the vocational teacher of computers, and a minister who is willing to come and teach on a part-time basis. He is teaching Old Testament and New Testament. They will teach these 11 for 3 years, and then they will start over with a new group. Only one man was turned down by the screening.
They asked to associate with Sunset as soon as possible so they would be on track for the next semester. We talked about Sunset sending the first year of courses by DVD and the thumb drive with all the workbooks on it. This would also mean that a DVD player and a television would need to be purchased. They said this would cost 30,000fcfa for the DVD and 90,000fcfa for the television, which is about $300 US dollars. That doesn’t seem possible to me but they assured me that is the cost.
They gave me a copy of the curriculum they are currently instructing and that some are Bible courses, some are basic courses like English and French, and some are vocational courses. They also gave me descriptions of these courses.
We talked about the instructions I brought them from Sunset and how to associate with Sunset. They think getting the first year to them and letting the instructors study it and be familiar with it would be the best way to proceed. They are really ahead of the game and have made a lot of progress being where Sunset needs them to be to be able to associate with them. They really want to get to the point of the degree for the students as soon as possible.
I took a lot of photos and Prince is now out copying them so that he will have copies of this. They gave us a chief’s hat and a chief’s shirt. They also gave me a bag to take to my wife, but I don’t think they knew she died until I spoke today. But it is a beautiful bag. What I appreciate is that they gave Prince Ugbe, James and Emmanuel each one of these things too. They even had us wear them.
Prince Ituen said to me that one congregation said they are willing to help because they believe it is a good program, but they don’t have it in the budget this year. He asked if I could contact them when I return, assure them that it is a worthy program, and find out if there is any way possible to help now if they could. He wants me to confirm to them that it is a program that I have seen with my own eyes and that it is worthy.
We got a taxi both ways to the school. It is 45 kilometers out of Bamenda and it cost us 5000fcfa ($11.63) each way. The man on the way back drove very fast. He was up to 140 kilometers an hour (84 mph) at one point and was at 120 kph (72) most of the time. All 5 of us rode in one taxi which meant two had to sit on the front bucket seat. He did seem to drive very recklessly, and we were glad the ride was over. We were stopped at a police check point, and only James and Prince had their chief’s outfits on. When they saw them, they told the driver to go on since there were two chiefs with us. We all laughed about that.
When we got home, Margret (Prince’s wife) served us lunch at 5:45 PM. She was going to fix another meal, and we insisted that was supper for us. I had given all the staff and those of us who came to visit Prince a chex bar before we left the school.
I have had an allergy attack all day because Prince’s wife uses a fire to cook the meals, and the smoke is killing my sinuses. They say sorry every time I sneeze. They sure have been saying it a lot. My nose is raw and red from all of this.
We got back too late to change money. Prince went out to see if he could do it but arranged with a man to meet him in the morning so we would have funds to return to Buea. To this point, he has been paying everything and I need to pay him back for the food, fees for all the taxis, and the bus ride here and return.
We visited late even though we knew we had to get up early. We have had such a short time together. I told them I will stay longer next time. They really are looking forward to that. Prince Ituen is going back to Buea and will see us off at the ship when we leave Sunday evening.
May 14, 2011
The rooster started crowing at 3:20 AM. I was already fighting to stay in bed but this ended it. I hated to get up that early because I knew I may wake up the children, but one was already fussing and I think the rooster was her alarm. After getting cleaned up, I came out and Sister Margret had just made some food to feed the one little girl that did get up. I told her I was sorry, and she said it was not my fault. I really think she was just being nice.
So far, my sinuses seem to be okay this morning. I am praying that they stay that way for the rest of the time I am in Africa.
Finally, everyone was up and I noticed that Prince Ituen was wearing a tie. I asked him if we needed to wear a tie today, and he said no he just wanted to dress up. He also had his chief’s shirt on which looked real nice with a tie. Emmanuel asked him the same thing and then went in and put on a tie. Prince had a tie on also. I didn’t understand what was going on, I guess. I thought they were just going to change money. They left, and sister Margret said I could just relax and listen to the program on the radio. I asked, “What do you mean?” She said that Prince Ituen was doing a radio program this morning, so I decided to rush out and go because I was ready. Austin Edi went with me to make sure I found the station. They had already started, but just barely, and the director of the station allowed us to go in and observe. They had prayer, Emmanuel spoke and Prince Ituen spoke. I told them I didn’t understand that they were going to do this. They told me they were sorry that they had not explained it well.
We went back to the house, and then Prince said he was going to go out and get the funds changed. I didn’t understand why we didn’t do that while we were out, but I am just going along with the program. Prince Ituen said he had to go do a couple of things. When he got back, he said now he needed to go change money. Again I didn’t understand the back and forth to home and then out again. He takes a motorcycle taxi almost every time and, if he just did it while he was out; he would save a lot of money.
Prince Ugbe, James and Emmanuel said they were going shopping for the family to see if they could find something. I didn’t need to buy anything. Besides, I didn’t have funds for that. I told them to watch the clock because I didn’t want to miss the first bus. Then I found out that, while they were out, they went to the internet café. That really irked me because I have not been able to let the girls know that I had made it to Cameroon safely and traveled the first half of the trip safely. They knew I was irked about it, and again the communication was the problem.
When they all got back about 10:20 AM, I was antsy because Prince had told me the bus left at 10:30. They had not eaten and now they were going to sit down to a meal. I couldn’t believe this. Prince Ituen said, “Brother, we will make it because this is 10:30 Africa time. But I knew the later we waited, the longer we were going to be on the road. Once they finished eating, Prince had to go up and get a taxi to come and get us because we had all our bags. Then we got down the road, and he forgot his charger for his phone so we had to turn around to go back and get that. We got to the bus at 10:50, and it was in bad shape. Everyone on the bus was complaining about it, so they changed buses and we had a better bus but not by much.
We finally left Bamenda at 11:30 AM. The bus was a 24-passenger and most of the time we had 36 passengers on board. We had the back seat for 5 of us and this was a smaller bus so we were like sardines. Emmanuel and I suffered because of our long legs. The bus driver wanted to make money so, every time someone held out their hand, he would pull over and pick them up and cram in one more sardine. It was like he was a local taxi instead of a bus. It took us 9 ½ hours to get back to Buea, which was quite an ordeal. This was 2 hours longer than the bus ride up to Bamenda. We arrived at 9:00 PM, exhausted, but there was cold supper to eat.
The bus driver put his music on, and for 9 ½ hours he played this blaring music. Even when he was asked if he could turn down the speakers, he would turn them up. He said this is his private business and that he could do what he wanted. At one point, there was a very heated discussion on the bus between 7 people. I really thought they were going to come to blows but they didn’t. We saw a van (taxi) and a semi turned over on our trip back to Buea.
We were thankful that brother Aaron met us at the bus depot so we didn’t have to pay another taxi fare to get back to Sister Ester’s NGO house, which she is allowing us to stay at. She is also providing the food for the three meals we have had and the two more we will have. Prince went out to look for a computer bag with James and Emmanuel. James still wanted to buy something for his kids. I stayed with Prince Ituen and talked some, and then I went to bed at 11:15 PM. Needless to say, I didn’t have any trouble going to sleep. This is the third night that James Eblabor and I have slept in the same bed.
May 15, 2011
I was up at 4:00 AM and took my bucket bath. There was no water when I started, but it came on half way through my bucket bath. I tried the shower but hardly anything would spray out of the shower head, so I just continued with my bucket bath. After I cleaned up, I had time to go over my lesson on leadership. They asked me to teach this because they are trying to teach the congregation that they need to follow the scriptures and have elders and deacons.
We went to sister Ester’s and brother Omam’s house for breakfast. It was a joy to eat with them and also have some coffee. We had eggs and bread. The eggs had fish in them because they eat a lot of fish in this area. We went to the church building after that because I didn’t want to be late. Brother Aaron told me yesterday that if the speaker is 5 minutes late, he doesn’t get to speak. We got there about 8:15 and that meant I could speak. I put some notes on the board so they would have something to copy. The young man who usually writes the notes started erasing my notes as I was about to start. They all laughed when I said “Wait!”
Everyone said they really appreciated the lesson and were thankful that I spoke on how the elders at Southwest decided to lead by using the Acts 6 model and the Acts 15 model. So many said this was really helpful. Prince Ugbe preached the lesson, but they only gave him 20 to 25 minutes to speak, whereas I had 45 minutes from the time I started. If I would have been Prince, I would have just kept speaking but he honored their request.
After the service was over, they presented me the clothing to be a Buea Boy. It was a long robe, a necklace, a hat and a bag. It was very colorful robe. I am always humbled by something like this because they usually helped me more than I helped them. It was quite an honor to receive this.
The ladies took off immediately after services and went to help in the prison. They do this twice a week. The men and the ladies who were left asked me to brief them again on the procedure for the association with Sunset International Bible Institute. They are sure excited about it.
Brother Omam took us to the rooms they graciously let us use and had us rest until the ladies got done with the prison ministry so they could feed us. We sat until about 3:00 PM, which was okay because Prince Ituen and Emmanuel had just arrived about 2:30 PM. James was still not back, but I believe that is the way Prince Ituen planned it so we would go visit his friend. Prince Ugbe talked him out of this and we still had to get James back to us. He had already eaten, so we were okay. He needed to because he is a diabetic. James told Prince Ituen that he had felt abandoned. Prince was speechless and didn’t know what to say. I think Prince may have gotten the picture. Again I think the problem was communication.
I know Prince Ituen is frustrated with us by asking a lot of questions, and I know he has it settled in his mind; but we want to understand how things are going to work even though he seems to know what is going on. Sister Ester backed him when she said we should wait here in the house and relax instead of sitting down by the boat, which is what we would be doing. Again, I am okay with that but just wanted to understand it. I gave Prince Ituen the funds for the 5-hour boat ride and the taxi fare to get there. I am running low on funds and want to make everything count, so I don’t run out of funds. I know some of this is because of the plane ticket I had to buy, but I don’t want to use my debit card at the bank.
We ate at 3:00 PM and were glad to eat because we had not eaten since 7:45 this morning. I had all my things packed, so I couldn’t get to my chex bars. The food tasted extra sweet and even the brethren said the same. I prayed with them and praised God for the hospitality of a place to stay and food.
We agreed Prince Ituen would go get James and then purchase our tickets for the boat and will visit the brethren in Limbe until we came down about 9:00 PM. We will still have to wait to board at that time. We all actually laid down and took about an hour nap. I didn’t think I could, but I did manage to go to sleep. Brother Omam and Sister Esther came down to make sure we got on the vehicle and say goodbye one more time before we left. We picked up brother Aaron on the way to the port. Brother Moses drove us to Lembi. So we had Moses and Aaron to lead us to the Promised Land.
When we arrived, we found out that there were no second-class seats left. So Prince Ituen, at the advice of brother Aaron, said to buy the first-class seats because we have a schedule. It cost us another 20,000fcfa ($46.51) for the 4 of us. At this point, I didn’t care. We just needed to get to Nigeria. There were weight fees because they used to allow 30 kgs per passenger but now they only allow 5 kgs per passenger and charge you C0.75 per kilogram over. We had to pay 6000fcfa ($13.95) for that and then there was a loader fee of 2000fcfa ($4.65) to load our bags. So they catch you coming and going, and the money flies out the window.
We got all checked in with our baggage by 10:00 PM and still had to wait until 1:00 AM to load. We did sit around a lot, which seems to be happening a lot because we have traveled a lot in Cameroon. We turned in our passports. They kept them and said they would call us in 2 hours to collect them. I didn’t like leaving it that long and the Nigerians really didn’t since this is their first experience with their passports. So now we sit and play the waiting game. We will all be glad to get on board so that we can at least cat nap.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Fight famine now workshop report
A REPORT ON DRIP-IRRIGATION AND SOIL CONSERVATION WORKSHOP HELD AT CIBS BATIBO ON THE 13th-16th April, 2011.
This Workshop was attended by 41 participants; that is, 3 Instructors 38 trainees and observers
All the various stages of this type of the Workshop were taught to these participants. Learning materials such as Hand-outs, and seedlings were provided. Also, feeding, Uniforms, Transport Allowances and Lodging were equally given to those participants that came from far distances for the workshop. A total of ten raised beds were constructed by the participants and handed over to the CIBS to add up to their survival garden on campus.
Since we are already in the rainy season here and as a means of spurring our trainees to go and put the knowledge acquired into use, we told them that watering cans will only be given to serious gardeners when we embark on evaluation trip to their garden.
This workshop has much impact on the Cameroon Institute of Biblical Studies students, the Church and the Batibo community as a whole .In fact, we lack the appropriate words to say thank you to the Healing Hands International for sending their Assistant director of Agriculture, Brother Ebenezer Udofia who came to help us from Kenya despite all his tight schedules and other pressing issues. We remain eternally appreciative for your sponsorship of this useful trip of his to Cameroon and your partnership with the CIBS for the hosting of this important agric workshop on our Campus.
We plead that you should assist the CIBS to set up a poultry, piggery and fishery farms respectively on our school campus. Brother Ebenezer did a wonderful job by teaching the participants on animal husbandry. The participants are now looking on us to set up a demonstration farm which could be a study center for them. In addition, this would help to add value to our student’s preachers as they stand a better chance to gain more practical knowledge on how to keep animals as part of their training as tent makers preachers.
The participants were so grateful to the Healing Hands International and the CIBS for organizing such a timely and important workshop in Batibo Community. Attached herewith are copies of some workshop photos.
We pray the good Lord continue to bless your efforts in name of Jesus Christ.
The Cameroon Duo,
Ji Mathias Ofon
CIBS Dean of Studies
P.O.Box 73, Batibo
Tel; +237- 76-197259; +237-93-029275
Prince Otobong Ituen
CIBS Director
P.O.Box 73, Batibo
Tel; + 237- 75-190238
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)