Christmas Party

We had a little Christmas party with some of our really close African friends and their kids. We just had some cake and gave them some gifts. Their kids were so excited and it is probably the first time they have ever gotten toys for Christmas. A few days before Christmas, their son was outside playing with his flip flop pretending it was a car because he didn't have any other toys to play with. When I saw that I knew that the little truck we bought him for Christmas was the perfect gift. We are so blessed and don't ever want to take it for granted. We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Oh Christmas Tree!!

Here's our little Christmas tree! We were so happy to find a tree this year and even some ornaments. We had a really fun time decorating. Sorry it took so long for the pics but our internet is super slow. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

Happy Holidays!!!

Joel and I after our big Thanksgiving dinner at Jim and Cynthia Lemon's house


Here's Kristen stuffing her face. I'm not sure but I don't think all that food is going to fit.
Here's Joel enjoying his food. Yum! Yum!
Wow, what a feast we had this Thanksgiving! This was Kristen's plate.
Joel is taking this photo of us at the dinner table with Jim, Cynthia, Michael, Amelia and Kristen



Well, I was going to post more pics of our ministry stuff here in Africa but I guess I will post our holiday pics first because it takes so long with our internet. We had a really nice Thanksgiving with our missionary mentors, Jim and Cynthia Lemons and another missionary, Amelia. We all got together and had a really big Thanksgiving meal. We couldn't find a turkey but we had just about everything else. We had chicken, ham, sweet potato casserole, stuffing (the best I've had so far), green bean casserole, and pies (pumpkin--my favorite, pecan and coconut cream). Yummy!!! It was all so delicious. Cynthia did a wonderful job with the cooking. We had a good time of food and fellowship. It is always hard to be so far away from friends and family during the holiday season, but we are so grateful for the other missionary families here in Cameroon.

Well, we actually found an artificial Christmas tree in Yaounde and a few decorations. I am so happy that we will be able to have a Christmas tree even though it is really hot and dusty outside. So we are still working on decorating the tree as I post. I will try to get a picture posted as soon as possible.

More Pictures of Book of Hope Distribution

Some of the kids from the school. They love having their picture taken!!

Random Pics

Kristen with some of the kids after the BOH distribution
This is the Book of Hope team we helped train at our first BOH distribution at one of the largest schools in our city of Ebolowa.
Joel with our friend Isidore who is the pastor of the church in Ma'an. The kids loved our STL truck

Some pics from our part of the World

Here's Kristen with some of the kids in the village of Ma'an
In memory of ButterBall our dog. She died a few weeks ago. We think she was killed by a poisonous frog.
This is the road leading to our house.
Here is a recent picture of our house. We are thankful to have a such a nice place to live while in Cameroon.

Ebolowa aka Rotten Chimpanzee

So it's been a while since our last post but considering our current internet and electricity situation I am sure you will all forgive us.

We have been getting settled into our new home in Ebolowa (which means rotten chimpanzee in the Bulu language---nice huh!) We have also been traveling to many of the villages in the southern province and preaching and assessing the needs of the church. We were able to travel to the village of one of our good friends, who is now a pastor there. It's a village called Ma'an and it's out in the middle of the jungle. I mean there is nothing out there. We were able to go and hold a campaign there. On our way we were praising God for our 4x4 STL truck, because we definitely needed it. We were slipping and sliding the whole way and actually almost got stuck in a ravine at one point, but we finally made it there after 4 hours (it should've only been a 2 1/2 hour trip but the road was horrible). The village has no running water, electricity, village restaurant, or anything. All they have to eat is bush meat and we ate our full of it while we there. The first night we arrived Joel preached and around 15 people prayed to receive Christ which is awesome. After the service the pastor asked us to stay because the women of the church had prepared something for us to eat. Yes, of course it was bush meat! We had viper, anteater, and plantains, but it was actually all really good except the skin of the snake I couldn't eat that. We then headed back to the little Auberge, took a nice bucket bath and went to sleep. The next morning was Sunday so we got to the church early and of course the women were ready to feed us again. They were so hospitable. What was on the menu for breakfast you might ask? Well, we had dried fish in eggs, black snake, leftover anteater, and plantains. Yum Yum! And whatever was leftover was lunch. I have to say that it really wasn't that bad at all. I have actually come to really like African food and viper in particular. Yes, it does taste a little like chicken and crab meat. It's kind of a sweet meat. Viper--the other white meat!!

Well, it was a really good time with the church there and with our friend Isidore. We also drove through many other villages that you wouldn't even know existed. There is so much work to be done here. It is amazing to see village after village just in the middle of the jungle and God has a plan for each one of the people that live there. It's hard to even know where to start sometimes because there is so much need, but we just continue to ask God to lead us and guide with what He wants accomplished here.

We have also been working with Book of Hope International and helping get that started in the southern province of Cameroon. Book of Hope is an awesome ministry to reach out to the children and youth all over the world. The books are actually in a magazine form and contain information to help students deal with issues they may be facing like sex, drugs, and family issues, and make right decisions. It also gives the students the opportunity to make the most imoportant decision of all, which is giving their life to Christ.

So we had our training for BOH (Book of Hope) in Yaounde and loaded-up about 45 boxes of books to be handed-out at the schools there. We did our first distribution in Yaounde. It was a small elementary school, but it was good to see how it works. We then helped with training a team in our city. We had the opportunity to go into one of the largest schools in Ebolowa for our first distribution with our team. We went class by class and gave out 2653 BOH books to the student. It was really fun and reminded me of my days in Master's Commission.

After Thanksgiving we are planning to help another missionary here with building a tabernacle for the village church in Ma'an. We will also be helping a team that is coming to build a tabernacle for the church in Ambam, that we helped plant 4 years ago. So things are going pretty well for our ministry right now.

The biggest frustration has been our electricity situation in our neighborhood. It has been cutting off 4 to 5 days a week. We have bought a generator but we can only use it for a few hours a day and it gets really hot at night without a fan. So please be praying about that situation for us because if it doesn't get any better we will have to move into another place in the city when our lease is up. Also, our dog Butterball died Monday morning. She was a really good dog and had a great temperment. We don't know why she died but we think she may have eaten a poisonous frog or something. There is a lot of spiritual warfare going on in our neighborhood and satan has been attacking hard, so please pray for our safety. It isn't always easy living here, but we know that we are where God wants us to be.

So that is an update on a few of the things we have been doing here. I will try to post some pics so that you can see where we live and what we have been doing.

6 Years and Counting

So Saturday is our 6 year Anniversary! This is just a little list that tells a little something about our past 6 years.

6 Years:

10 moves
9 jobs
8 pets
7 trips to the beach
6 cars
5 Christmas's
4 cell phones
3 countries (lived in)
2 states
1 happy couple



So we will be going to the capital city of Cameroon, which is Yaounde, for our anniversary. It is only a 2 1/2 hour drive away and the only place close by to find a decent restaurant and hotel. We will be staying at one of nicest hotels in Yaounde (Mont Febe) on Friday night and we plan to have dinner at a restaurant called Cafe de Yaounde. I already know what I am going to order: Le capitain forestier, haricot verts, et pommes frites ( a really good fish in a white cream sauce, with green beans and french fries) Yummy!! I'm sure it's going to be a great week-end!


Now for an update:

We are finally in our house in Ebolowa. We are getting settled in. We finally got some living room furniture after being in our house for over two weeks, but it's not like we can just run to the nearest furniture store and pick-out some stuff. We had our furniture hand made and the wood it is made out of was actually a tree in the rain forest only a couple of weeks ago. We have a small little stove and a really big refrigerator (american size) which works when we have power (which hasn't been very often lately). We have a well and running water, but no hot water. We actually have a nice bed and dresser that we were able to buy from some other missionaries and we even have a guest bed ready for whenever you want to come visit. Our house is really nice and roomy. It is located just outside of town, in a village that is becoming part of the town now. It isn't a very long walk to our market, where they sell all sorts of fruits, veggies, fish, plantains, and all sorts of just stuff. We really love our house and our neighbors. Everyone seems to be really friendly and there are several families from the church that live in our neighborhood. So God has really been good to us and provided all of our needs. With that said I would also like to say a big "Thank You" to the sunday school classes and all the people who have sent us money to help set-up our house. We really appreciate it.

The beginning of October we have our Book of Hope training and then we will be setting up and training in our city to have a Book of Hope distribution in the schools. We will also begin traveling to all of the churches in the Southern Province of Cameroon, which is our main area of ministry, since we are the only missionaries in the south. We have vision to really encourage and help the churches that are established as well as planting new churches that are so desperately needed in so many villages. Please continue to pray for us that God will give us favor and open the doors to the schools for Book of Hope and that He will give us wisdom and guideance as we begin to plant new churches.

Clarification concerning the 3 things list

In reference to three things lists comment listed below, we are sorry if we offended any mother in laws or anyone in general with the comment. It was meant only as a joke and we really love our mother in laws and listen to almost everything they say.

Thanks Moms for all you do for us. We love you!

Joel and Kristen

More Pics

Here is the welcoming sign to our City Ebolowa.


This could be our mode of transportation if we didn't have our Speed the Light vehicle. Thank God for STL!
A little top heavy don't you think? Everyone in Africa carries something on their heads. We have yet to master the skill.

This is right after one of the Children's Campaign that was held in Mbalmayo. They really love to have their picture taken and then see it on the screen.

Our second week here, we traveled to the Northwest Province for a Pastor's Conference. This is Jim Lemons the missionary in Mbalmayo and Sebastian who is the Pastor of the church that Joel preached at in Mbalmayo.

Joel had the opportunity to preach at one of the churches in Mbalmayo. We have been really encouraged to see the churches hungry for God's Word and expectant for Him to move in their lives.

This is our dog Butter Ball. You can't tell in this picture but right after she eats which is quite often, she ends up looking like a butter ball turkey and she will lay on her back and wait for you to rub her belly. We think she is going to be a good dog for us.

Cameroon Pics

Kristen with the Kids after a Children's Crusade in Mbalmayo, Cameroon.
Joel with some of the Kids after a Crusade in Mbalmayo, Cameroon.



Here we are in on the Bible School Campus in Mbalmayo.



Joel with the new Speed the Light Truck paid for by the youth of Alabama!!

Bienvenue au Cameroun!!!

Bonjour tout le monde! We are so happy to finally be here in Cameroun. We have officially been here now for 1 month. We have been really busy and moving at warp speed to get things done here. We have already found a house to rent, gotten our Speed-The-Light vehicle, attended a youth conference, attended a pastor's conference 6 hours away, worked with a team doing 8 services (children's and adults), and Joel preached his first Sunday morning service this past Sunday morning.

So we have been really busy and our internet access is limited. For the time being we are driving an hour away to get on the internet but once we move to Ebolowa on September 1st we will have an internet cafe in town that we can use.

We are feeling great and God has blessed us in so many ways already in just our short time here so far. We want to say thank you to everyone who has been encouraging us and praying for us. Please continue to pray that God will do awesome things here in Cameroun. We are also hoping for teams to want to come in and work with us. So if that is something that interests you let us know. We miss you all and love you!

My 3 things list (Joel & Kristen combined)

3 things that scare me:
-getting some funky disease in Africa
-spiders(Joel)
-something bad happening to either one of us

3 people that make me laugh:
-Doug Heffernan (King of Queens)
-Steve Martin
-Ryan Thomas(Missionary to Mexico)

3 things I love:
-Jesus
-my family
-traveling

3 things I don't understand:
-French people
-Men (kristen) Women (joel)
-People that know they are called to do something & never make an effort to do it.

3 things I have on my desk:
-DVD burner
-french dictionary
-sunglasses

3 things I'm doing right now:
-packing to move to Africa
-taking anti-malarial medecine
-typing this

3 things to do before I die:
-travel more of the world (14 countries & counting)
-have children
-travel some more with our kids

3 things I can do:
-speak french
-eat almost anything (grub worms, anteater, viper)
-ride a bike

3 things I can't do:
-drive a manuel (kristen)
-play a musical instrument (kristen)
-sing well (joel & kristen)

3 things that describe my personality (Kristen)
-Quiet (until you get to know me)
-Analystic
-Simple

3 things that describe my personality (Joel)
-layed back
-adventerous
-real

3 things I should listen to:
-Father
-Son
-Holy Spirit

3 things I shouldn't listen to:
-satan
-mother-in-law
-booty music

3 favorite foods:
-Mexican
-Pizza
-Indian (anything spicy)

3 things I'd like to learn:
-speak more languages
-basic medical skills
-too many more things to list

3 favorite drinks:
-water
-diet coke & diet sprite (kristen)
-coke & dr. pepper (joel)

3 shows I watched as a kid:
-Dukes of Hazard
-Knight Rider
-Quantum Leap

3 people tagged:
-Shanda
-Austin
-Michelle

Nous l'avons fait! (We did it! We have finally graduated!)

Here we our with our certificates after our graduation. We hope to be fluent within the next ten years!!

Ok, so it has been a while since we posted. Things have been really busy for us during the past two months with final exams, graduation, Kristen's parent's visiting and packing to move to Africa. We finally finished our French course and graduated on June 24th. It was 10 months of intense language learning. Honestly it was a lot harder than we expected, but we have progressed so much in our French. We can understand almost everything we hear, about 95% or more, and we can communicate enough to build good relationships and preach and teach. We are still learning and will have a tutor when we get to Africa.
After graduation, my parent's (Kristen) came to visit us. It was so great to get to see them after being gone for 10 months and before leaving for Cameroon. They stayed with us and we took them around our region, which is the Rhone-Alp region. We went about 30 minutes from where we live to a city called Beaufortain, where they have a cheese factory. We showed them the cheese factory, bought some cheese and french bread and had a little pic nic. After that we drove through the mountains, which mom was not too happy about, and made it to a beautiful crystal blue lake, where the cute cows with there big bells on where being milked. We also went to Geneva, Switzerland which is only an hour and half away from us and Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain in Western Europe. Anyway we had a really great time with them and were glad they could come see the beautiful placed where we have been blessed to live for the past 11 months.


Here we are in front of the famous clock in Geneva. We have done Geneva several times, but it was good to be able to do it one last time with family. I think we could have worn a little more green...


Here we are at a castle which is about a 15 minute drive from our house. Chateau de Miolans was built in the 15oo's and has an awesome view of the mountains and of Mont Blanc.


Only in France can you find a bread vending machine! We couldn't believe it but the bread was actually hot and fresh. Yum Yum....


Larry was really wanting to go to Euro Disney while here in France but settled for a short ride in this Mickey Mouse car outside an arcade in Chamonix, which is a city at the foot of Mont Blanc.


And for what is going right now-packing, packing, and more packing. We leave for Cameroun in 10 days. We will be leaving our house at around 3:30am to get to the airport in Lyon, which is an hour and 3o minutes away on July 24th. We are almost finished with packing all 9 of our bags. I know it seems like a lot, but only having 9 bags of stuff to live in Cameroun for 2 years is not that much considering that you can't find many things there. We have are necessities like our water filter, meat grinder, pressure cooker (for me), wind up flashlights for when we have no power, flip flops, flip flops, and more flip flops (of course for me-K), clothes and a partridge and a pear tree. We are excited about finally leaving for Africa. We should get our STL truck soon after we arrive, but we will have to find a place to live. Please pray that God will help us to find a nice little house or apartement to live in with an outdoor area for our dog and to hang our clothes out. I am so excited that we will finally have a dog. We plan to be getting a puppy from another missionary family. It will be a german shepard and if we get a girl I think we'll name her Ally and if we have a boy as well, we will name him Bama. Please pray for us as we travel that God will protect us and give us favor with customs once we arrive in Cameroun, and also that we will get all our bags and none will be stolen. Thank you for praying for us, keeping in touch, and encouraging us. We'll try to blog as often as possible while in Cameroun but we are not sure of our internet situation. We most likely will not have internet in our house but we are hoping that the city we live in will have an internet cafe. When we lived in Africa before we had to drive 3 1/2 hours to get internet connection, but after four years I'm sure things have progresssed a lot more, well, at least I'm hoping. That's all for now, we have to get back to packing.


One down and eight to go. Here is Joel weighing our bags.

An interesting story

Here is something you don't see everyday. If you read the rest of the blog entry you will find out why I put in a picture of a chimp. We took this picture in the Canary Islands.

And people keep telling me I don't put enough pictures of Kristen on the blog!! Well here you go. :-)

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick note to say hello. We haven't been up to much here lately except for going to school and studying. We had a long weekend this past week so week took advantage of the the beautiful weather and went biking for three days. Not three days straight. We actually went to Geneva on Friday and saw X-Men 3 which was nice to see but I still like the first two the best. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday after church, we went biking around this region. It has been really good to get out and see the country at a slower pace and get some good exercise at the same time.

It's actually starting to get a little warm here now and when I say warm I only mean like 80 to 85 degrees. It's not that bad but we are thinking Oh God, Please help us because once we get to Africa we'll never get a break from the heat. I guess it is good to be here without AC because we will be there without AC so it is kind of breaking us in to help us get used to living without it. We are getting ready to go and are very excited. The other missionaries in Cameroon will help us get set up once we are there. So once we are there, the tone of our blog will change a bit with more things pertaining to the ministry we will be doing in Cameroon until we are able to set up a nice website for the ministry side.

Ok, so I heard an interesting story the other day about Cameroon. According to a Scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmigham, scientists have cofirmed that the the origin of AIDS is from a group of Chimpanzees found in Cameroon in the Southern Provence where we will be living. Is that weird or what? I don't know if it is absolutely 100% certain but it sounds legit. If you want to read more about it, you can click on the Interesting Story Link. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197024,00.html

Thank you to all of you who continue to keep up with us, pray for us and support us. We know that you are a big a part of the ministry that God has called us to in Cameroon. You help make our dreams possible and we don't want to take that for granted! I know our blog hasn't been that ministry oriented since we have been here in language school but we have had to remind ourselves that right this minute our ministry is to learn the language of the people whom God has called us to. A lot a times we want instant results but sometimes instant results don't stand the test until the overall goal is completed. We are committed to the end goal and right now that committment has led us to language school which is something that has taken a lot of time and even money but it is a necessary step to take so that we can be committed longterm and be able to reap lasting results.

Thanks for your prayers during this time of our lives and thanks for praying for us as we prepare to go to Cameroon. We know for a fact it will not be an easy road or life in Cameroon but we are ready for what God wants to accomplish through our obedience to His Call. Keep in touch. We love you guys.

Horrible Bloggers!!!

Hello Everyone,

If there is anyone still checking our blog, it would be a miracle, but thanks to those of you who are still interested. We have been horrible bloggers. We just spent a couple of weeks with my Mom and Dad and we had a really nice time. We were able to take a break from french and do a little traveling. We were able to see a few places that we never thought we would have the opportunity to see and we really enjoyed seeing my parents. We will probably not have the opportunity to see them for another two years, so this was a real blessing to us. Here are a few pictures of the the places we we able to see. You might have to scroll down to get to the first ones, but they are there. Check back and we will try to keep you updated.

By the way, we will be leaving for Cameroon very soon. We are excited, and we know that God has used this time in France to prepare us for the work he has called us to there. We appreciate your prayers as we make yet another transition to finally get to where God has called us. We are expecting great things in Cameroon. We believe God has a great plan for the Continent of Africa and we are greatful to be a part of the harvest fields of Cameroon. Once we arrive in Cameroon, we are not sure but we will more than likely live in the city of Ebolowa, which we are not sure if the internet connection is so great but we hear they have one there now and we will definately keep everyone updated. Thanks again for taking an interest in our lives.Joel and Kristen

All roads lead to Rome just isn't true!!

On our way to the famous castle in Germany we were able to see some of Austria. It was an absolutely beautiful place.


Just below the Castle, which is called Neuschwanstein (probabably pronounced like NOY SCHAWN STINE) there is a really nice lake. The sun was just beginning to set, but you can still see the beautiful mountain backdrop.



This was taken from Mary's Bridge which gave us a really nice view of the Castle.




Question:
What does 17 years, plus a lot of tired dudes, plus 200 million US Dollars make?

Answer:
This castle that King Ludwig lived in for only 6 months before he died at the age of 43.

Is this thing really leaning....

Pisa was one of the first places we stopped off to see in Italy. We only spent a couple of hours here, but it was a really awesome experience. I am not so sure that if the tower hadn't ending up leaning that Pisa would be so popular. But none the less what an awesome thing to see.



Could you please just hurry up and take the stupid picture! This thing is getting really heavy!



The Colleseum The Colliseum and Rome altogether was an awesome experience. We are so grateful to have had this opportunity.

Here is a nice picture with Kristen and my parents. If you hadn't noticed, Kristen got a nice haircut before they came.

The Roman Forum

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome!! That's about all I can say about the Roman Forum.

"ça fait une éternité" " It's been an Eternity"

Here we are on Tenerife Island in Spain. We had the opportunity to visit our friends who we used to work with in Cameroon. They are doing an awesome job in the Islands. It was really encouraging experience for us to see their passion for the people. Can you see I am sporting a cameroon t-shirt. It's the first one I have ever found anywhere. Woo Hoo!


Ok, So it's been awhile. One month and three weeks to be exact. Sorry!.... Some of you have been very encouraging with all your comments and we really appreciate you being interested in our lives. We have been pretty busy with studying for upcoming exams along with just trying to keep up with all the new things we learn everyday.

Anyways, I will throw some pictures in here and try to do a quick upate of what's been going on for the last month and half and I then we will try to be more regular about updating. We hope everyone is doing well and we would love to hear from you. We read many of your blogs and since you are more faithful at blogging than we are, I guess that makes it a little easier to do. Well, we will try to do better....

A bientôt

Joel and Kristen

"Geneva on Fire"

Ok not really on fire but there is a story behind the title. As many of you know one of the cool things about living in Albertville is that we are only about an hour and half away from 3 major cities and Geneva, Switzerland is one of them. About two weeks ago, we decided to take a trip to Geneva with some friends from the language school who arrived here in January. The day turned out to be a fabulous one and we really enjoyed ourselves. I don't want to sound too shallow, but a couple of the highlights of the trip for me were drinking a nice warm caramel mocchiato from the only Starbucks that we know of in our region, and number two was eating a nice fattening Whopper from Burger King. We don't have Burger King in France, so it was a treat for me to eat something that reminds me of home.

Anyways at the end of the day, we were walking back to our parking garage which is a really nice one by the way, and we saw a bunch of fire trucks and flashing lights and Sapeur Pompiers(Firemen) blocking the entrance to our parking garage. My heart suddenly dropped, because we realized that we left all our identity cards and passports in the car. The fire men weren't talking. All they would say is that it was really bad and that they didn't know what the extent of the damage was. So for about an hour and a half all I could think of was how we were going to get our passports and identity cards replaced. I wasn't too concerned about the car, becuase we have insurance but if you know how much of a hassle it is to get your passports and id's in France you might be able to understand our concern. Anyways, at the end of the day the firemen reopened the doors and we found our car just the way we left it, not even damaged by smoke. And we got free parking out of the deal.

Anyways here are a few pics of our day in Geneva, Switzerland.



Geneva has a really nice lake called Lac Lemans. During the Summer they have a fountain that shoots out of the lake. We haven't had the opportunity to do a lot of exploration, but it makes a nice picture.



Geneva is famous for a lot of things, i.e, Swiss bank accounts, Lac Lemans, Swiss Army Knives and bien sûr (of course) watches. They have everything from Cuckoos to Rolex. You name it they have got it as far as watches are concerned. So we took the photo op in front of the infamous Geneva Clock in the front the Lake. It is a lot nicer during the summer but still a cool thing in the winter.



Ok, I will be honest, we've never really been on the Starbuck's bandwagon, but do I have to say we thoroughly enjoyed our caramel mocchiato while just relaxing in the nice warm american atmosphere. One could really feel like they've never left the States after walking into this place. Anyways, Merci beaucoup Starbucks for the atmosphere.



Ok, I know it's just Burger King but once you go without American fast food for a while a place like Burger King hits the spot. The only catch is when you find fast food in Europe, expect to pay a little more for the Not So Value Meal!



Did somebody call 118? (that's our 911) you bet they did. Some pour guy's car decided to burst into flames in the multiple story parking lot. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Something seems vaguely familiar about this fire truck. Oh yeah, that's right "our wedding". We just can't seem to get away from these fires.

For those of you who don't know, we had a fire at our wedding when a candle caught a table on fire. Maybe these are signs??? What do you think?