Trip update!!

Hey, so I just want to thank everyone who's taken the time to follow me on my trip through my blog! Here's just a quick update. Firstly, the above picture is a picture of our team (starting from top left) Josiah, Tiffany, Amanda, Cody, Erika, Beatrice (me), Megan, Andrea, and Naomi! I'm so blessed to have such an amazing, God-centred, community of unique people to have as a team! I am so grateful for each one of them!

We're heading off to Cameroon on May 9th with stops in Brussels, Belgium and Zurich, Switzerland! So far we've created big sunday school style picture books of Bible stories that can be used in the Oku culture to promote reading and the Bible to children, and we are in the process of highly interactive Bible studies specific to Oku culture to promote studying and reading the Bible in unity within the Oku groups since their New Testament has now been translated!! So exciting!

oh p.s. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but you will be able to somewhat follow me on my trip through video! We're not sure about all the details yet but I'll let you know when I do! Also, pray for our videographer named Michael!

Prayer requests:
- preparation
- finances
- our focus - God's glory
- spiritual transformation
- host families
- spiritual warfare
- literacy & Scripture use in the Oku
- health
- group dynamics
- culture shock
- CABTAL (Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy)

My Strength, My Motivation, My God.

I've been reading Phillipians lately, and I have decided to focus on chapter 4 for today's blog. I noticed that this chapter is one of encouragement, and it is really helpful since it's crunch time, exams are coming up, and I am just simply exhausted and unmotivated. Paul begins in verse 1 by saying, "stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved." This part of the passage reassures me that 1. I need to stand firm in my faith, and 2. I can only get the strength I need to pull through, through God. Verse 5-6 goes on to say, "The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." This is such a refreshing thought. To know that God desires to know the wants of my heart, and that he is here, even when I do not depend on Him when I'm anxious. I have a God who can handle anything, and if my faith and strength is in Him, what is going to stop me from getting through obstacles and troubles? Paul goes on to confirm this in verse 13: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." And once again in verse 19, Paul further confirms the Lord's Sovereignty: "And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Despite my anxious thoughts and doubts about getting through obstacles, I am reaffirmed through this passage that God will be my strength, my motivation, and will supply exactly what I need, for His glory. Goodnight!

(All verses are taken from the ESV Bible)

"In as much as you have done it unto the least of these - you have done it unto me." - Jesus

Depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is an American legal term for an action that demonstrates a "callous disregard for human life" and results in death.

Pain to Beauty

This morning, Japan was hit with the largest earthquake they've ever had in history. The earthquake was 8.9 on the Richter scale, and cause a Tsunami, 7 metres high. I guess it's hard to imagine in Canada an earthquake, or how powerful they can be. The impact was so colossal, that a Tsunami hit Haiti this morning as well. I feel so terrible. I can't imagine what it would be like to go through something like that. I'm praying that they'll get as much help as they can today, but even with the most efficient help, it doesn't take away from the emotional, physical, and spiritual disaster that people must be experiencing there. I have Christian brothers and sisters who are dieing and suffering right now, and I get to sit in my comfy apartment, on my comfy couch, in a comfy, heated room. I could be one of those people in Japan right now. I don't know if I'm making any sense, but I am just overwhelmed with grief for these people. Please pray for Japan.

All of this pain can be turned around to God's glory, and I've been looking at a couple of God's promises through Scripture today. I pray that through this disaster, many will turn to God for their comfort, and that God's kingdom will grow because of this disaster. These verses give me some peace about this whole situation & I hope that they may be able to give some people in Japan a little bit of peace over the next few days, months, and years that they'll be recovering through. God can turn this pain to beauty.

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

Psalm 34:18 
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
   and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Joy to the World!!

So our team was pretty PUMPED when we heard that we will no longer be split up into two groups anymore, but we will all be going to the Oku people group TOGETHER!!! (:(:(: When I found out that we were initially going to be split up, I had a lot of uneasiness at first about the idea, but I left it in God's hands and tada! I just thought I would let you guys know a little bit about the Oku group we will be working with :)

Oku Language Group
Population: Estimated 67,000-80,000
Religion: 94% claimed Christian (6% evangelical), and 6% Ethnic Religions
Villages occupied: Over 33
Income: Agriculture
Agriculture: -corn, Irish potatoes, beans, plantains, and cash crops like coffee and cola nuts
                  -animals like pigs, goats, and fowl

Fun Facts:
- Oku alphavet was developed in 1987
- communities are already responding well to literacy initiatives
- there are two men translating the Bible into Oku, Christopher Fornkwa and Mbuh Samuel
-  it is expected that by 2009, four hundred and fifty children will be registered for literacy certificate examination

13 Hostages Return

This past Wednesday, 13 Cameroonian hostages were released. These 13 men were all government officials by unidentified armed men. These men are believed to be the Bakassi (how the news spells it) Freedom Fighters. The Bakassi Freedom Fighters are a military group that is still fighting over the section of land where the Bakassi tribe lives. Why? This land had belonged to Nigeria, the country that rests south of Cameroon, but they ceded it (gave it over) to Cameroon in 2006. The news says that areas around Bakassi Peninsula (around where we will be, I believe, remain prone to piracy and attacks.

Please pray for the citizens in this area of Cameroon, as there is military heat around them. Pray for protection for these people, and for our team not to fear these military groups when we are in Cameroon.

To view this article, please visit: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110217/API/1102171136

Conformity - Is Nature Irreversible?

In Acts 10-11, Peter is faced with a great challenge. The Holy Spirit tells him to go to some gentiles, who were considered unclean, and to be their guests. He has a choice to stick to his cultural norms, but he goes in obedience and faith. Peter sees that when these people who were once considered “unclean” were saved, they were blessed with the same gifts as he was upon receiving the Holy Spirit. He realizes that these men are not unclean by God's standards, and he takes a stop of faith in reporting this to the church, whom also considered these men to be unclean. Despite his church's criticism, he boldly gave God the glory and proclaimed what God had shown him.

Peter is so confident in God's work through his life, that he almost does not even care about everyone else's criticism. In Psychology, we studied conformity, and how easy it is to change our opinion on something we know is right, simply because everyone else has a different opinion. It's in our nature... it's built into us so much that we don't even notice our conformity... it's pretty much automatic. When it comes to our Christianity, it's so hard to go against the grain and hold a different view in our church or families, let alone be a Christian in our society. Peter's obedience, faith and passion for God made it automatic for him to give God the glory instead of conforming. If we are constantly devoting our life to God, we can turn around our nature of conformity, and put our faith in God's leading, instead of the crowd's.