Our Story
Our Story: Going to Cameroon?
Back in May of 1998, I was extremely busy. I found myself working all day on the job, and several hours in the office in the evening.
One particular Wednesday, Ellen stopped by the job I was working on. I had just returned from a meeting with a guy that I had been working with, trying to arrive at a price for some work he wanted to have done. He basically wanted the work done for next to nothing. This was just one of many headaches, and time wasting events that I had to deal with on a daily basis. The problem was that I had very little time to spend with Ellen, and very little time to give to the various Ministries we are involved in at the Church we belong to, Bethany Bible Chapel. The priorities of our lives are, #1 God, #2 each other, and somewhere further down the list, earning a living.
Don't get me wrong -- we all need to work if we are able, to supply us with the necessities of life. But God's word tells us to seek first His Kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto us. He knows our needs. (Matthew 6: 25-34). I will explain in detail further down exactly why we feel so strongly about these things. Back to that Wednesday...
I was a bit short with Ellen when she stopped by to say hello. She said, "I'll just go home and let you get back to work."
That evening I was feeling really crabby. She and I ended up having an argument about what I knew to be true... We had no life. What was I to do? Quit? Go to work for someone else? Hire a Secretary? For the next two days I earnestly prayed, "Lord, I have no idea what it is that I am supposed to be doing, but I know that working 14 hours a day with no time for You or my wife isn't it. Show me what it is you want me to do."
This was one part of the scenario. Part Two was that the Chapel was having a missions conference the following weekend. The woman in charge of Hospitality had called us a few days prior to this, and asked us if we would mind having a gentleman from Cameroon stay with us during the mission conference. We thought that it would be quite interesting and gladly accepted. Although, Wednesday evening, feeling quite distraught, I told Ellen that we should call and have them find another place for him to stay. We didn't though, and by the next morning everything was fine except for the fact that I knew I had to have a solution to the priority problem. That was when I just prayed for guidance and left it in the Lords hands.
Friday evening, we had a potluck supper at Church -- this was the kickoff for the missions conference. It was here that we met our guest, Pius Tih. He was attending Amherst College, working on his Doctorate in Health care administration. It was an enjoyable evening, and at the end of it Pius returned home with us. It was late, we were tired, we showed Pius to his room, and we all turned in.
The following morning we had a father and son breakfast at the Church. The missionaries and Pius all spoke again, and we had a fun and informative time. After breakfast, Pius and I returned to our home. I had a truck full of tools and equipment that had to be brought to the shop, and Pius had some work to do on his paper for school. I helped him get settled in my office and I prepared to leave.
I was tying my sneakers at the kitchen table when Pius came into the room and stated that he "had something" to tell me. He said he needed to sit down, he pulled a chair away from the table, sat down and proceeded to tell me that he felt God had brought him into our home, because God wanted us in Cameroon. Please understand that Pius had no knowledge whatsoever of the events of the past week that Ellen and I had been through. All he knew was what I did for a living. I was about to laugh when I suddenly remembered how I had been praying the previous two days, "Lord, what do you want me to do with my life?" I couldn't think of a thing to say. Ellen was ironing some clothes for a mother/daughter luncheon that was also part of the missions week. She almost burnt her dress. She broke the silence "does this mean we are going to Cameroon?"
Pius immediately went into a description of the job needs they had at the Cameroon Baptist Health Board. For me with the Projects Department, and Ellen as Mission Station Hostess. My first reaction after the initial shock was to say "we definitely need to pray about this." The way the whole situation had been working out we could not ignore the possibility that God was providing an answer to a request.
After much discussion and prayer, we felt that we should look into it. If this was what God had in mind for our lives, the only way we would know, would be to pursue it. We knew that He would either open or close doors according to His will.
We contacted the Baptist General Conference, our church's affiliation. Told them what had happened, what was on our minds, and asked about the process that would be involved, if this indeed was where we were headed. They sent forms to fill out and questions to answer.