Saturday, April 18, 2020

God's Love and our Hurting World

       How does God's love meet the daily grind in this sometimes awful world? We know from the Bible that His love is steadfast and deep (see Psalm 57, especially verse 10). In our hearts, though, love is intricately tied to comfort and the presence of someone who cares...so if this is the love that describes to the greatest degree our God, how does that fit within the reality we see day in and day out? So many people ask, "How could a loving God let _________ happen?" I've asked it myself. I don't yet grasp the full answer, and have walked by faith, knowing that I have every reason to hold fast to God even when I don't understand.
       But a new understanding of how this all works has been ruminating in my mind. Ephesians 5:2 sums it up pretty well - "And walk in love, as Christ LOVED us and GAVE HIMSELF up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Because of the curse of sin over our world (which, by the way, we as humanity INVITED and continue to earn by our rebellion against God), God's love is played out in SACRIFICE. We EARNED our just rewards of death, misery, and broken relationships - we just struggle to comprehend this sometimes because we forget the majesty of our God and how drastically we have rebelled against and dishonored Him. Jesus Christ, who came to earth, did NOT earn any of that suffering. Yet He came and experienced it to the greatest extent as a sacrifice so that we would not have to experience it for eternity. Because of sin, the way to bring us comfort and true life required sacrifice and death on the part of Jesus...and now on the part of us as well.
       Christ is our example as we, redeemed, gratefully follow Him, brought to true vibrant life now, and anticipating life eternal. The only way to embrace God's love, live in it, and share it in this sin-sick world is by some SACRIFICE of ourselves and our sin-tainted desires. We must lay down our rebellion against God and our strangle hold on the gifts God has given us...because He has bought back for us this greater life, this greater love, that lasts. That is why Jesus calls His disciples to deny themselves and follow Him (Mark 8:34). Our sacrifices we make in order to love God wholeheartedly and love others zealously are not gaining us salvation...they are a joyful surrender to the life of TRUE life and joy that God has brought us into in Christ. Denying ourselves the pleasures of this world is worth nothing intrinsically, but should be done without an extra thought if it is required of us in this journey with eyes fixed on Christ. It should be done without an extra thought for what we are "missing out on" or for "what virtue we are gaining" in the sight of others (see Matthew 6:1).
So where have we gotten ourselves?
1) Sin = death and destruction; temporary comforts sometimes try to cover this up
2) Christ came to address the deep issue, sacrificing Himself to death to bring us to God, true love/comfort, and eternal life
3) He calls us to follow in His footsteps, finding a more vibrant daily life as we die to self, idolatry to temporary comforts, sin, and personal goals as we follow Him, gaze on His glory, and learn of His heart of love for all. Love takes no thought of self, and gives sacrificially for Christ's sake.
       God's love reaches into this sin-sick world and calls us higher, to His heart. He doesn't call us out of this world, but that we would love IN it in sacrificial love as we follow our Savior, all by His power. He calls us to rest in the truth and act in love NOW, knowing that His love affects, but doesn't completely fix, this sinful world. His complete fix is the new heaven and earth, which we wait for with joy.
       Our comfort then each day is not God's love shown to us by a multitude of material comforts and a plush life, but rather His presence as the Holy Spirit, His drawing us to deeper lasting joys in this life (which almost always seem a result of some giving of self), and His hope of the future "complete fix". We can revel in His small gifts and joys He does give us along the way as we focus on and point other people to Him who reigns above this sin-sick world. This is His love that is deeper, necessarily sacrificial in this sin-sick world, is longer lasting, and more vibrant than any love we could claim God "doesn't have".
So truly our call is to "walk in LOVE, as Christ LOVED us and GAVE Himself up for us."
I'd love to hear your responses and thoughts about this topic. Let's learn from each other as we look to God's word!

Wednesday, March 25, 2020


       The hum of the oven, the warmth of the house encompassing me, the smell of baking oatmeal apple cake wafting by my nose…serene. Calm. Comfortable. Peaceful. The day stretches before me with glimmers of things I look forward to doing – projects, chatting by phone, being creative.

       Facebook brings me an update from a friend ministering to the downtrodden in our area, and the voices of their needs resound inside my head.

       “My ‘safe place’ was school – it’s no longer available. I’m fighting for hope, because I can’t get out of my home. My home is chaos, and I can’t get away. My teachers aren’t around to run to anymore.”

       “Food banks and open public spaces like libraries were our safe places, the way we could make sure our families would be all right. They are shutting down. Stores are being cleaned out of necessary things we can’t afford to buy in bulk. How are we going to keep caring for those who depend on us?”

       The reality is jarring. I sit here at home, my main concerns being what to occupy my time with and how to continue having contact with people when I can love them better by keeping my distance. These people are each morning facing uncertainty and the daily needs of themselves and their families, made even more dire by the health crisis.

       Oh church, what is our calling? Is our calling to bow our hearts and knees and pray for these ones who God knows better than we? Yes. What shall we pray for? That all their problems disappear, that there are no more homeless ones, no more frightened children? Is that the kind of prayer God is wanting to answer? I don’t know. Possibly. When Jesus was on this earth, He healed and restored such brokenness by His power.

       Are we only called to pray? On one hand, I think we underestimate how vital prayer is. We jump in with hands a-ready, hearts burdened, forgetting that God’s heart was burdened first. He must feel their pain even more than we can and knows their situation better than we ever could. We empathize with the aches and pain of life that we see them experiencing and we think, “They need ME; I can fix this for them.” Though there is a hint of truth in that, should we not pause and first remember what is written in God’s Word? Jesus has said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) The lasting life and joy for all of us is this bread from God, this bread that will never disappear, but will nourish us starting in the deepest recesses of our hearts. Truly, this is what will satisfy the deepest needs of every man, woman, and child. And this bread is something that only God can give. This is what we must pray for, before we jump in and do. If we think that we can do “better” than this by quickly fixing circumstances for those who are suffering, we have fooled ourselves.

       BUT – Scripture also declares, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) This is not a suggestion, but a requirement, applied to us anew in the New Covenant. Through Christ, God’s love has freed us from the lusts and idols of the flesh and opened a fountain of renewing for the deepest motivations of our hearts – if we will submit to it. This is why John could write, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18)

       Have I understood the progression here? First, God loved us, sacrificed for us…so we ought to submit to the seed of love He has placed to abide in our hearts, and love others in the same manner. When I think of conjuring up this kind of love in my own heart, I quail, knowing how strongly the roots of selfishness and love of comfort cling to my heart. But that’s just it. God is not asking us to conjure up this love. It springs from His presence within us. He himself said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

       All this love takes is a willingness to look past our own noses and comfort, and to perhaps release control of making sure we ourselves are without a doubt materially taken care of. “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.” (Psalm 57:2) Do we trust that we will be okay if we let go of that control? That we will be even more fully alive if our eyes are only fixed on God, who fulfills His purpose for us, instead of on ourselves and our purposes?

       Perhaps this pandemic is a wake-up call for us to realize that this world is not okay. If we have built a walled fortress around our own lives to make sure, to the best of our ability, that it remains okay for us, perhaps we are missing the whole point. Okay, we are definitely missing the whole point! Will this pandemic drive us ever deeper into our walled fortresses, or will it reawaken us to those outside, to those who are hurting far deeper than us?

       God sent His Son to be brutally shamed, beaten, and killed, bearing our punishment for the mess we chose by our sin. He put aside everything to be ridiculed and killed for us! And yet our flesh resists giving up some of our comfort to serve the hurting and to perhaps bring the light of Christ to their darkness and hopelessness?

       But, may my soul take heed! If I submit to this requirement of God with a “grin and bear it” mentality and go into the world just to “do my duty”, out of guilt, I will also have failed. Or if I do these things for applause or personal gain, I have missed the point. For Paul declared, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3) Our actions must flow from abiding in Him, the author of all love.

       The God of justice and love, who bought us back from our natural tailspin into death, is offering us His heart, His love for those around us. He is offering us that dependent relationship with Him that trusts that He is in front of us and with us. That this love is His mission and He will provide. No, He may not provide all the comforts and even some of what we may right now deem as “necessities”, but He will be enough for this life and for the work, as He continually points us to the life to come.

       So, church, what are we called to do? Pray, yes. Having tasted the burden of compassion that comes from our God, we must bring it back to Him with pleas and trust that He can do far above anything we ourselves could. We must pray that He will provide the deepest solutions to these people’s needs. But then, He has also called us to act. Blooming out of that seed of His love God has planted in our hearts should be actions by our hands, feet, and voices, reaching towards those who are hurting.

       Will we seclude ourselves in this time of uncertainty? Or will we see it as a time for barriers to be broken, for walled fortresses to be dismantled, and for sacrificial love to play out in a dependency on GOD? And, oh how greatly we are dependent on God as we seek to love. Knowing how to love wisely has become even harder in this time where love sometimes means staying physically away from those we care about. How would God have us love right now? And how would He have us recognize how little we can actually do, but how much He can?


Tuesday, March 24, 2020


        “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” Psalm 57:9-10

       Some days it seems as though I am only a few steps away from the emotional downward spiral of restlessness, fear, uncertainty, and frantic grasping for my longings to be met (social connection being a main one right now). Then the sweetness of a time like this morning arrives. I sit here, warm drink in hand, furry companion lounging on the carpet feet away from me, soft specks of snow filling the sky as they drift downwards in the clear, just-lit morning sky. 
I can take a breath.

      “I will give thanks” Have I fully realized that no matter what happens in these uncertain times, there will always be something to give thanks for? We fear being stripped of many of the things in this life that we deem pleasurable or even “necessary”. On one hand, I must realize that we live in much decadence and have become used to excesses that are not “necessary” by any means. It would not hurt us much to be stripped of those and would perhaps instead bring us closer together as families and communities and even as family in Christ. On the other hand, we are not the first. We forget that generation after generation of humanity has undergone intense struggle. For the majority of us, we have forgotten what the basic things of life are, simply because our lives are filled with so much. We forget that to be human often means to struggle…and it will not destroy us.

       Where is God in our struggle? I have wrestled with this a lot, ever since my own family’s life was upended by an unexpected, life-consuming struggle that lasted years. Is the answer only that God must be good, therefore my emotions of pain and heartache must be silenced and put away, made to bow before sheer reason? That is a partial truth. Yes, I must believe God is good. But He has given us way more than that. He has given us Christ, in the Incarnation; God with us. This is not trite comfort. God, the One who is faultless, unable to be tainted, came to be part of a world that was broken and tainted by our own hands. We are all broken as a result of Adam’s choice and our own sin. We deserve this – no matter how much we might resist that declaration. I deserve to be broken, to be sick, to be living as though dead, to experience the pain of broken relationships and loneliness. We have chosen this.

       But Jesus didn’t. Yet He entered into the consequences of our decisions and bore it with us. For more than thirty years, He lived the daily life of mixed joy and pain that all of us experience. Are you seeing what I have been coming to see? This life is broken…and though we, as society, have tried to plaster it back together and paint over it again and again in an effort to hide it and declare that all is well…it is not. We are naturally broken. Despite all the declarations of the secular humanists, brokenness and pain is our lot in this world.

       BUT GOD. He, the only One not of this world, is our only hope, our only good. Once I realize that, my railing protests quiet, and I must humbly come to sit at His feet in awe. Each small thing of beauty then comes to light as a gift from Him. This warmth, this feline companionship, the beauty of the snow, the light that fills the sky, the connection with humanity that lies at my fingertips through the internet…gifts, every one.

       “For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds” – God’s love. The half truth is that we must believe by sheer reason that this is true. But what about those times of heartache? What IF our world turns on its head as a result of this time? Is God still loving? Yes – look at all the small joys in this life that we do not deserve! Yes – because Christ came. In Christ, we both have hope of a future eternal life where pain will be fixed (something we cannot demand now) and a hope of comfort and companionship in the heartaches of this life. God with us. Sometimes we rail against God, “Why don’t you fix this?!” But through His Word, does He not gently say, “I have…in the future. But, for now, you must stay with your lost brethren and experience the consequences of sin. Take heart, though, for I am with you.” Love. Love that reaches emotions, past the sheer reason that will deny emotion when it cannot fit it in.

       “I am with you.” Do we take that to heart? When my soul starts to gasp for the refreshing water of hope and joy, do I turn to the fountain of living waters, the One who is my source? Or do I try to drown my soul out in busyness, social media, news, or people? “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (John 15:9) “As the Father has loved me” …wait a minute – is that really what it is saying?! As God the Father loved His own Son, the perfect, blameless One…in the same way, Jesus loves me, the broken, distraught, frantic, blind, oft disobedient child?

       “And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.” (Mark 6:46) The perfect One, while on this earth, had constant need of His Father. Because He trusted His Father’s love, we see that He turned to Him continually, in public and in private. If we can trust in this same love, how much more do we need that communion with Him? That communion that brings us to the eye of the storm, to the strength and calmness of truth about our position combined with His love. It may look like a whole chunk of time set apart in these days of less busyness. It may look like a minute pause multiple times a day to see, to thank, to abide and rest. I need it badly, for my heart is so frail, especially in these days.

       So, it becomes clear. In the worst-case scenarios, there will always be a glimmer of hope and life in Him – I need not fear whatever may come. Much lasting fruit is created by the struggles of this life.

       And He is with us. My frail heart that is daily on the verge of being swept into fears and desperate grasping must run to the Father, who truly IS love, who truly IS faithful. Those things will never change.

(I encourage you to read and ponder all of Psalm 57 and John 15:1-17. They are a great encouragement.)


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

"Camp Mbunge" (or My Home In Bakaland)

I have had a couple of people ask me for a more in-depth description of where I am and what I am doing. To do so, I will lead you on a journey.

Our journey starts in the jungles of Cameroon, Africa, in the Eastern province of this multi-climate country. This part of Cameroon has been untouched by many for quite a while because of those who live here – whom people have somewhat derogatorily called “The Pygmy people”. It is an area bringing with it a little more political strife than some, because of the “protected” status of these people. The Baka, with whom the people on this station work, are part of this larger group (who live throughout central Africa). These people overall have a very interesting history as a Nomadic people. Here, though, the forest dwellers' old ways of life and the new ones being pressed upon them by these times are beginning to clash, and they slowly been forced to settle down. True to their “derogatory” name, most “forest dwellers” are shorter than the average American. During the first while I was here, and even sometimes now, I assume people to be younger than they are, just because they do not match up in height to the other missionary kids here. The other missionary kid living on the station here who is my age has found it hard in some aspects, especially in sports, being a giant by Baka standards at six feet.

The history of missionaries or foreigners here stretches back many many years, evident by the fact that there are typewritten Baka lessons still in use that were originally created by a Catholic Mission working with the same people group. The members of the missionary team on this station have cycled in and out throughout the years, leading up to the present, where there are 2 families, 2 single missionaries, and myself living on the station. In its beginning days, missionaries would come every other week from a close-by city; the station was started with a single house used by both families. Because of the slow growth of this station from its infant days, and the consecutive slow building of each of the houses, those same houses have a transient feel to them. They are not built completely with cement, as many other missionary houses throughout the country are, but rather with mud brick or wood. Also, the two buildings that now house the missionary families were built in sections as needed. To this effect, even the buildings that are now here have more of the basics than the elaborate – with pump bucket showers and plywood walls. Amenities have slowly been added along with time. The small house that I am staying in now has been there for quite a while. It has a sink with running water, but has not gained a toilet yet. It has, at times, had electricity, but it has depended on the distribution of solar panels throughout the team. Due to the fact that the Conrods just got a new shipment of solar panels and batteries, I may be able to get power soon (as other solar panels are shuffled around). As of today, though, I still walk to my house in the dark with my little solar lantern every night – and proceed to get ready for bed with my single light. It is not altogether that bad, and I may even prefer it in the future instead of harsh lights when I'm all alone.

My house consists of two rooms – plenty big enough for me – for I have it all to myself! As an extra bonus, I even have a double bed! The only downside I would say about my little house is the fact that it is not insect and rodent proof. I have hosts of sweat bees inhabiting my windows, and had a family of pygmy squirrels inhabiting my bedroom (as well as different lizards – or in one case, a baby monitor lizard!).
My jobs here in Bakaland (as it has been so dubbed by missionaries) are simple enough in writing, but get a little more complicated in action. They consist of the following: First, to help home-school the Conrod children in any way I am capable, and second, to observe the medical work happening on station. These are my official “reasons” for being here. This, I think, is the best way possible I could have spent my post-senior year. I get to return to my MK country, get to be integrated into a different missionary community, get time to observe and learn from others Spiritually and emotionally (as I learn to become an adult), and also get to try my hand at both of the “careers” I had looked at for my future.
Now that I've given you a not-so-short overview of why I am here, let me explain a typical week for your pleasure. Monday through Friday are school days. During those times, I am literally in a position of “teacher”, doing as much of the schooling as I can so that Laurel can get away to do other things. I work with the kids doing stuff ranging from Math practices, to reading Science and History, and even read-alouds in the evenings. Talking about “the kids”, I should explain a bit more. Meet the Conrod family – my surrogate family for this year. The three kids are in Grades 4, 6 and 7. I call them “kids”, but the oldest is already 13 – not too much younger than myself! Anyways, each day I work with them one on one or in groups with different subjects. Then, on Fridays or Saturdays, I work on making their schedule for the next week. Mostly their assignments are predetermined, but once in a while we need to be creative, such as this last week. Their first writing assignment was coming due (a general guideline is given as to when they need to have certain projects finished), and I got the chance to look at all the material we had, and to come up with my own plan for their assignments. I actually quite enjoyed this part of the planning, as I got to be creative! After I have worked out the schedules for the next week, they are quickly scanned over by Laurel to see if any re-working is needed, then they are printed out.

Once Saturday comes, I am free from all scholastic requirements. During Saturdays, though, clinic is held by the missionary doctor and nurse living on this same station. Because I had expressed interest in this area, I have been welcome to come and see their work. I was over and beyond happy as they have let me be involved more than I thought. There are the mundane things, such as ear infections and pregnancies (they come to hear the baby's heart-beat), and then there are the rarer more serious things, one of which happened this last weekend. That morning, a woman had been doing wash here in the camp, and had happened upon a razor blade left in someone's pocket. This is not a North American razor blade – it is in the pure sharp form – just the blade itself. Slicing her thumb very deeply, it ended up needing stitches. As the missionary nurse was not on the station that day, and I was there to watch, I got put to work helping to staunch the bleeding and holding her wrist for the anesthesia. This was my first “serious” case, and as I had no idea how I did with blood or other serious things, I just dived in. Unfortunately for me and the doctor, I ended up almost fainting half-way through and got someone else to take my place. I have really enjoyed getting to see the medical work, though, especially the three pregnant women we have had come through – two of which are probably due next month!

Of course, besides my “duties”, there are many fun things to do around here. The two Mks belonging to the other missionary family are nearer my age, and we, along with the Conrod children, have had great fun in some exploits. There have been walks to the nearby village, forays in the forest etc. It was discovered that a large tree had fallen down a short ways away from the station, and so we went to explore it at one point, and ended up returning. Because it kept all of its branches as it fell (it seemed to have been completely uprooted by a storm or something of the sort), it has created something close to a giant jungle-gym, reaching high into the air above the forest floor. The second time we visited, we ended up playing tag on the many branches of the tree, sometimes literally play-acting at being monkeys in order to make it from limb to limb. At one point, one of the Conrod kids actually slipped off a branch, shooting straight down to the forest floor about 10 feet below... and sitting there a little stunned for a while before getting up and climbing back on, unhurt.
There are many things such as these that I am enjoying – being part of the missionary kid culture again, but reaching into the older, adult culture as well.

Because I am an older MK (missionary kid), coming back to my country after a long while away, I think I have gained a fresh and more mature view on some things than I remember having as a child. One of those is the realization of the gold-mine of languages Cameroon has to offer. My siblings and I were taught a little French and a little Oroko (the tribal language in our area) as we were growing up, but we got nowhere near to fluency. Now, however, I have a renewed interesting in learning languages, as I have found I enjoy the process. Also, I have come to realize that any language learning I do in my year here will definitely not have any negative effects on my future! To this end, I have worked on learning a little more French (as we are living in the “French” province, that being the trade language). As I settled into living here, though, it has become apparent that for communication with our close neighbors, the most efficient language is, of course, their heart language. This being Baka in our case, I have started to work on that language as well, even though I may never use it again after this year. It has been rewarding, though, to get the smiles and nods as I attempt to communicate – especially with the kids. Sometimes you just get outright laughed at though... but that's how things go.

So, that completes our journey through my life here in Bakaland at the present. Later on, I'm hoping to do a picture journey throughout the station, to show you this place through my eyes – although a camera cannot do it justice by any degree of the imagination.



Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A Road Trip in Cameroon - Part 3

Talking about road trips has gone on longer than expected, but I want to give you a glimpse of all the different facets, so here we go again...

Fast food in Cameroon
First of all, there isn't any comparison between fast food here in Cameroon, and that of the United States or Canada. There, fast food is relatively cheap, usually unhealthy, and full of chemicals. Here, "fast food" is quite cheap, sometimes saturated with grease (but sooooo good), and with no chemicals, as it is all home-made or made on the street. Let me give you some examples.

This is what lunch on the road consisted of our first day of travel, either brought with us or picked up at different points along the way:

1. Beignets: deep fried balls of dough - so good! Especially if they are rolled in sugar.


















2. Soya: cooked meat with spices (sometimes including peppe) bought at the side of the road from a street vendor (This time I didn't get any, because I had other stuff to eat)


















3. Plantain chips brought as a snack by yours truly


4. Baguettes: those lovely breads of French Cameroun...half a one each - now that's just perfect! And I just happened to have along a small bucket of Tartina, the lovely chocolate spread rampant in this country. Oh why does Canada not have this? It's a mystery to me - it's so good!


5. Sugar-coated Peanuts: peanuts are actually grown here, so we do not get them packaged in mundane plastic boxes. Here, we have exciting home packaging, re-used beer bottles! For this reason we have the little bit of irony: "12 years old" staring up at us from the outside of a bottle of peanuts (or ground nuts as they are called here). I don't know exactly how these are made, but they are really good - the end result is a groundnut covered in a hard coat of crystallized sugar. Delicious! (Another thing I should learn how to make before I travel back to Canada)




On the next leg of our journey the following day, the meal consists of half a baguette, 2 sugar beignets and a yogurt, totaling to under 625 francs (500 francs is about a Canadian dollar). Also, the Conrods picked up a bottle of Pringles from a "Bonjour", the American-style convenience stores now emerging here. Now for the shocker: you remember I said that my whole meal was under 625 francs on the road? A single baguette is usually 100 francs. That one bottle of Pringles was 2.100 francs, which means you could buy 21 baguettes for the same price as that one bottle of North American goodness. Ah well - that goodness is worth it once in a while. Yet, isn't that outrageous? 21 baguettes for 1 bottle of Pringles. Yet they are well enjoyed.


A Road Trip in Cameroon - Part 2

 I thought that I should provide another post about the different facets of travelling in Cameroon, and our last couple days of travel, for those of you who enjoy pictures more than words. I am actually in a place where there is fast internet, so that is possible!

Quick peek at what we're doing right now - I'm sitting at the dining room table of a fellow missionary, while the two Conrod boys are doing their Language Arts. There was just a request for music, so at this moment songs from Disney movies are belting out of my computer, causing me to want to dance in my seat. 

At the start of all trips is the sometime arduous chore of packing up households – which in our case also includes making sure things are not going to get chewed on by mice, and shuttering up houses from the outside world (even though we are only planning on being gone for a week). From there, we all pile into the car, and head off.


Then... whoops! We've forgotten something!
So, we turn around, stop by the side of a foot path which connects to the station, and someone runs in to get the item.


Now we're on our way. First, we drive on all dirt roads, then move on to paved. These paved roads are quite new, and have decreased the amount of time from Yaounde to the station in Bakaland from 8 or so hours to only 4. (video)

To give you an idea of the scenery and road at different points, starting at the very beginning of our journey...










Many people sell cellphone minutes on the side of  the road - they are easily seen by their "MTN" or "Orange" signs.
Morning (6:30 A.M) traffic 
Cell-phone advertisements by the other large phone company





In Bafoussam






























Thus ended our voyage in Mbingo, Cameroon. These pictures are compiled from both legs of the journey (Bakaland to Yaounde, then Yaounde to Mbingo). Keep reading the next post to see a glimpse of what goes on inside the car during trips!