Prenote: I did not have internet until Saturday afternoon after arriving on Friday. This is a day late.
Dear ITEM Partner,
I am settled in Cameroon but have not worked out an internet connection yet. I expect to be set up Saturday morning with a Data Sim Card that I can install in a “wifi hotspot” device I bring with me. So, I’ll get this started tonight and upload when I can.
After my second straight restless night trying to sleep in Nairobi I was up just past 4am to catch a 5am ride from the guest house back to the airport for my 8am flight to Cameroon. Everything was pretty much on time.
I was surprised by the low exchange rate compared to what I had seen on the internet. It wasn’t a little lower. It was/is a lot lower. My budget inflated 75% over what I had planned for.
ITEM CAMEROON
Cameroon is divided into an English-speaking area and a French-speaking area, although the French-speaking area is increasingly using English as well. There has been a conflict between the two sectors. The capital, where I am at, is in the French-speaking part. And from what I have picked up, the government wants to turn all of Cameroon into an officially French-speaking country. The English-speaking part has a group that wants to become their own country. And there are tensions between the two and there are rebels in the English-speaking part that seem to be controlling the movement of people in that area. Well, our coordinator, Pastor Joel Ngoh lives and ministers in Bamenda (see picture), which is in the English-speaking area and life and ministry hard.
Nathan’s disciple
Pastor Ngoh is a disciple of ITEM’s own Nathan Chiroma. Nathan mentored Joseph years ago and was the one who put me in touch with Joel originally.
CORBAN’S PARTNERSHIP
I began the ministry there and in 2011, I believe, Dr. Greg Trull of Corban University, Salem, OR participated in a seminar with me. That led to Corban partnering with us and adopting the English-speaking area. They have been using their curriculum to train pastors throughout the English-speaking area.
I was only a few years ago that we expanded into the French-speaking area around the capital, Yaounde. One of the ITEM team members, Pastor Joseph Ngwani, is coordinating the ministry in this part Cameroon.
Nathan has been here and there is a core of about 40 that have attended both of our seminars. Joseph has picked out ten to form the leadership team and I am here to meet them, get to know them, and do some planning. The next step for them is to become familiar with and start personally working through ITEM’s mentoring curriculum Then they’ll need to be trained to conduct seminars and mentoring. Joseph already has plans to establish clusters of pastors in all of the various regions around Yaounde.
That is all from Yaounde, Friday evening. February 7, 2020
I have many good pictures on my phone but without wifi, I can’t get them to the internet yet. Maybe later. But I did upload a few additional ones today (or will soon). Here is the link
By His grace,
Steve