Wonderful Weekend with "my girls"

This past weekend was a whirlwind for me.

I hosted, 8 teenage/young adult orphans and an intern from the orphanage. (ages 12-19) Two of my Cameroonian friends, Sophie and Enih helped me facilitate the weekend.

We started the weekend discussing the hopes and dreams of all the girls and getting to know them a bit better. It's been a while since I have spent time with them and they were meeting my new "staff" for the first time.

Our topics of discussion for the weekend were: Identity in Christ, love, forgiveness and we spent a great deal of time discussing what it means to truly have a relationship with the Lord. I taught about having a servants heart and how servant-hood starts in our homes. This is an interesting concept when you live in an "institution" and are used to "fighting" for just about everything. We did some practical things as well. We used team-work to make all of our meals and clean up, they were taught the proper way to set a table, they learned how to use cutting boards and a garlic press! The garlic press was a HUGE hit. Most people chop vegetables in their hands here. It was comical to see the girls attempting to cut on the cutting board. Their comments were hysterical.

In between our lessons, we played games, I had one on one conversations with the girls and we danced. They were so surprised that Auntie Yaya knew how to dance with the beat. They told me that they didn't know American's could do that! :-)

On Sunday morning I thought I was coming to wake them up to get ready for church. What a surprise I got, when they were all awake on mattresses in the living room having morning prayers. Such a blessing to my soul. I took them to a local church that is full of young people on fire for God and they had a GREAT time. They live, go to school and church all at the orphanage so it was good for them to experience church with others.

After church we prepared our last meal and discussed the Biblical Truths and Character development things.
When it was time for evaluating the weekend, I asked what did you learn? The first girls response, was, I learned what it means to have a real relationship with Christ. My heart burst. Out of all of the fun things we did and learned, this was the most important aspect of the weekend for me and she "got it." 


While I had a fantastic time with the kids there were some things that left my heart broken:

•  This was the FIRST time any of them had used a real toilet. They are used to using pit toilets or simply going outside.

• NONE of them had ever seen/used a shower. They take baths in buckets. sometimes outside as well. 
• This was the FIRST time any of them had sat at a table for a "family" meal. The orphanage where they live has 150 children and they cook outside over firewood and eat outside sitting on the ground. They commented over and over how special it was to have "family dinner."

These things don't overshadow all of the good of the weekend, it just helps me to put things into perspective and to really appreciate all that God has blessed me with.

These girls have not become discouraged with the fact that they are orphans. Their is such a stigma attached to being an orphan in this country. Orphans are not treated well in this country and are often ostracized. We reminded them that they are children of the Most High King which means that they are princesses and royalty.

They have dreams of becoming Doctors, Nurses, Journalists, Electricians and Builders! We will do all we can to help them achieve their goals.

It is such a blessing to be able to watch the kids learn and grow. We will be having another retreat with another set of girls from the orphanage in a few weeks. Additionally, Sophie and I will be teaching Bible and Life Skills weekly at the orphanage. I look forward to seeing what God does with each and every one of them in the future.

Dreaming with God

I received an email from a friend at my church asking how they can be praying for me and His Body Ministries in the next 6 months to a year. I was a little overwhelmed at the thought of what to say. There are prayer requests and then there are prayer requests.

It took me a while to answer. The last few weeks of my life have been surreal. I have come from a place of grief, mourning, and facing some of my deepest fears all while trying to pour the love of Christ out to others. My purse was stolen with a substantial amount of money in it, the following day I dropped a boiling pot of water and ended up with second degree burns on my face and upper body. Afterward, I had one week of literally lying in my bed crying, screaming, praying and then having some sweet worship. (so thankful my roomies love me and God, poor things, they suffered for a little while.) Do I share these things or keep them to myself?

On the day we buried Elliott there were 6 or 7 teenage orphan girls that I had been teaching Bible Study, Life Skills and some practical ways for them to earn money after leaving the orphanage. I hadn't seen them in several months since Elliott and I had been in the hospital in Yaounde for more than 3 months. After  hugging me a zillion times and expressing their grief over the loss of our sweet boy, they asked repeatedly when I was coming back to teach them. I told them to give me a bit of time but I would be back.

A few weeks ago, I met with the Administration of the orphanage to discuss plans about starting to teach again. They were overjoyed. We made plans to begin again the following week. The staff also wanted to know when I would expand the classes to more adult women. They wanted to invite people from neighboring villages to come and learn to be able to help assist with the work in the future. In the meantime, my phone has been ringing non-stop with people from 4 different cities as far as 7 hours away asking for the same teaching, classes and if I am available to provide counseling sessions for Young Adult girls.

My heart was overjoyed and overwhelmed at the same time. I am ONE person and not able to fulfill every request. While my brain understands this, my heart bleeds with the thought of leaving any hurting people out there. I shared my heart with my roomie and after she left I spent some serious time with God asking what to do. He had burdened my heart with the young women of Cameroon years ago and I was struggling to stay above water to be able to help them. What gives? Where is the help? Who can come? Who is already here who has a heart for you and a heart for the people as well? Where are the resources we need? The list of questions was endless. The only answer I heard was a simple, Trust ME. Over and over that's what I heard.

A few days later, I went for a meeting and was introduced to a young lady who had been sharing her heart with my roomie and the dreams that she had in her heart were almost identical to what was in my heart. We started talking about how we could work together. Both of us were there with tears in our eyes. She had recently been crying out to the Lord for what to do to help the young women of Cameroon discover who they were in Christ and not throw their lives away.

This weekend we will have a retreat at my house with 10 young women who are orphans. We will share some Biblical Truths, they are going to teach me how to make a Cameroonian meal, I will teach them how to make something (haven't decided what yet) and we will begin to help them understand what their identity in Christ looks like. After all that we will have a bit of fun and go to church together the following day. I'm so excited.

I have been dreaming about how to streamline all of what I do and how to maximize the number of requests with my availability. I believe God has given me a plan. We need a building. A Training Center of sorts. Young people will be able to come to be Discipled, taught the Word of God, and all of the practical life skills and vocational skills that I have been teaching all over Buea. In addition to Biblical Truths and HIV/AIDS, and God's plan for purity, I am currently teaching how to make soap from wood ashes, cake baking, food preservation etc. If we have a building we can reach more people in a more organized way and have a place where the girls can sell their wares to help earn a living. We would also recruit other vocational teachers both here and from the US to help teach other things. One practical thing we are thinking of is since we are teaching so much about cooking, we should have a restaurant on site to further be able to employ people and let the girls increase their skills (how to run a business, budget, etc) Proceeds from the restaurant would also be used to fund ministry projects, i.e. future baby Elliott's, the medical clinic we so desperately need, school fees for orphans, etc.

We are in the process of looking at costs of renting a building, equipment etc. There is another young lady who used to run a restaurant but has a huge heart for orphans who is willing to help, train and do whatever is necessary to make the vision come to pass. I am also seeking counsel from my mentors and others to be sure that I'm hearing from God correctly.

In order for this dream to become a reality, we need you. Right now all I would like you to do is pray and give me feedback on what you think about this dream. Then, I want you to pray about how you can be a part of it. Do you give? Do you come teach? Do you provide resources? Do you continue to pray and champion our cause in your sphere of influence? Please join me in praying for this dream.

In the following weeks I will continue research and prayers of my own. Building or not, the work will continue but I am certain that where God provides a vision, He provides Provision. He has begun with showing us the need and giving more workers to help. We will go where He leads us and do what He says to do.

Thanks again for all of your love, support and encouragement. You are invaluable to me and the ministry that God has blessed me to be a part of.