Connecting Points – July/August 2008

It is now “break” time from teaching at the Center for Empowerment of Females with Disabilities’ Special Education Teacher Training Institute and at the Center for Biblical Studies. The terms resume in September. The break is a welcome respite from the teaching, but a time of preparation for the next term. Having taught in higher education for nearly 30 years, this is, of course, nothing new to David.

Much has happened over the last two months since our last issue of Connecting Points. There have been two graduations (CBS Bafoussam on June 28, and CBS Bamenda on July 12), for which David was the main speaker, some preaching in area churches, and the Annual CEFED Family Bible Conference, which took place on July 18-20. About 35 families affected by disability stayed at the CEFED School in Santa for the weekend. The theme for the conference was “Honoring God.” David spoke twice on Saturday, and preached at the closing worship service on Sunday morning. Others who participated were Pastor Rose, from Yaoundé (a CEFED Board member whose church reaches out to individuals with disabilities in the capital city) and Pastor Njini Alfred, from Magdalene’s Full Gospel church in Bamenda. Pastors from the Christian Missionary Fellowship who regularly hold Sunday worship services for the children at the school and others from the Santa area were also present. The entire weekend was a wonderful time of worship and praise, a time of blessing and encouragement to all those who attended.

The children of CEFED participated in all of the activities of the conference. The video “Joni,” about Joni Eareckson Tada’s injury and spiritual recovery, was shown at the conference, along with an interview with Joni, her husband Ken, and some others speaking about the Family Retreats. Magdalene hopes to plan a Family Retreat for Cameroon, and this served to introduce the idea to those at the conference.

One thing that we have been able to do during our time in Cameroon is link CEFED with other expatriate missionaries who serve in Bamenda. Through the Friday evening Bible Studies which many missionaries attend, and our sharing needs of CEFED’s  program and the children, interest has been generated in the ministry. Loren and Victoria Hoy already had some connection with Magdalene and CEFED. Donna Dibbits who, with her husband Hans, serves at the Full Gospel Training Institute, has visited CEFED with Florence and has expressed a desire to help more with the children from time to time. Lillian and Frans Barah, Cameroonians who work with SIL/Wycliffe want to visit the school when the children return from  break in September. Sas Blair, an independent missionary to Redeemer Baptist Church in Bamenda, hopes to lend his expert carpentry skills to meeting some needs of the school and some of the children who are physically disabled. And Chris Jackson, also with SIL/Wycliffe, and Tim Born, with “Win our Nation” (a relatively new ministry in the Bamenda area) hosted a group of high school students from Rain Forest Academy in Yaoundé, who spent a day at the CEFED school installing rain gutters; repairing an area where the rain and run-off from the roof had caused “soil” erosion near the building; fixing the path leading up to the school; and performing sketches, singing, and doing some evangelistic teaching to the childre.

Connecting Points – April/May 2008

Because we are behind in getting our update into the mail, we have combined news from April and May. First, we want to thank all of you who prayed for peace a few weeks ago when there was a rumor of another bout of social unrest. Our prayers were effective – nothing happened anywhere in the country! Thank you for uplifting Cameroon and all of the missionaries working here. It was nice to receive encouraging words from several of you in response to our email to alert you of the potential for violence to erupt.

These past two months have been very busy with various activities. Mid-April saw the beginning of a new term at the Center for Biblical Studies, and early May was the beginning of a new term for the CEFED Special Education Teacher Training Institute. David is teaching “Acts/Missiology” for CBS, and “Basic Concepts of Learning Disabilities” for CEFED. The course he is teaching for Teen Mission (“Biblical Counseling”) ends on June 11^th.  David has preached a couple times over the last month, and was the keynote speaker at the “launching” of the Coordinating Unit of the Associations of Persons with Disabilities on May 8^th. This event was presided over by His Excellency, the Governor of the North West Province of Cameroon. Several other governmental delegates were present, along with the former Prime Minister of Cameroon, Simon Achidi Achu. David spoke on the topic “Empowering Persons with Disabilities to be Self-Reliant.” There were two choirs made up of disabled persons who performed, some of the children from the CEFED School performed a sketch, and Magdalene presided over a fund-raiser for the new organization. The event was covered by several radio stations and the local TV station.

Florence has become more involved with Magdalene and the ministry of CEFED. Most Friday morning she can be found teaching and interacting with the children of the CEFED School while David is teaching about special education. The children are very happy to see her when she comes, as she is to be with them.

On April 27, Florence accompanied Magdalene and several others from CEFED on an outreach to disabled persons in the village of Menka in the Pinyen District. The outreach was held at a Presbyterian Church in this tiny village far up into the mountainous region of the province. Magdalene was able, with the help of her sister Anna, to climb the steps up to the podium. She explained our purpose in bringing awareness to the village churches and of the need to minister the gospel of Christ to those with special needs. The Pastor was very supportive and even stayed afterward as the team ministered directly to the disabled who had been invited to the service. The gospel was presented as clearly as possible to make things understandable. Anna gave the gospel message in Pigin, which was translated by a worker from SIL into the Pinyen language. Amel, a young woman with a disability who works closely with Magdalene on these outreaches, gave her testimony as to the difference Christ has made in her life. After some singing and dancing, Florence gave a short encouragement explaining the power we can have through the Holy Spirit when we know Christ as our Savior, from Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3. Then, as is the tradition with the outreach team, we gave them salt and soap, both needy items for the village people, but also symbolic of being salt in this world and cleansed of sin through Christ.

One man, about 30 years old, was brought to the church in a wheelbarrow by his father. This gentleman had become paralyzed as a result of illness when he was 15 and is unable to care for himself. He had to be carried up some very high and not so secure steps into the church, and carried down again and placed in the wheelbarrow so that his father and a few other helpers could push him through the fields and mud (the rains had come) to his home. Following the outreach, Florence and the team visited two Fons (“chiefs”) in the Menka area, where the ministry of CEFED was explained.

Perhaps the highlight of the month for Florence was to be present at the baptism of one of the girls at the CEFED Special School. Marie was a “throwaway” child. Having been born with a disability, her father rejected her and cast her aside (literally). Someone from her village took her in and tried to care for her, but when Magdalene found her and brought her to CEFED School, Marie basically lived with the pigs. She was dirty and covered with maggots. She testified at her baptism that before coming to CEFED School, she had never even heard of God. Now she knows God and loves Him. She had given her life to Jesus and wants to live for him. Marie is in a wheelchair and does not have full use of her hands, but in God’s eyes she is perfect.

It was an ordeal getting all the kids from CEFED down the hill on a steep path, across the main street in Santa, down a lane, and then to get Marie’s wheelchair into the stream, where a Christian Missionary Fellowship Pastor, with the assistance of Anna, baptized her by immersion. Before the actual baptism, one of the CMF pastors preached a wonderful gospel message to all the onlookers on the bridge above the stream, and those participating and helping with the kids. After Marie’s testimony, Felicitia, another student from the school also gave an amazing testimony of what Christ has done in her life and the hope she has for a new and useful life. There was much rejoicing, singing and praising God. These photos show Marie just prior to her baptism and with Anna and the pastor in the water.

A Bit of History

Dr. David W. Anderson – Executive Director

Florence Anderson – Board Secretary

January 2008 marked the beginning of a two year commitment to serve God and God’s people in Cameroon.  This commitment was not based on a light,  spur-of-the-moment decision, but something that had begin growing in us back in 1997 when God first opened Africa to us — or rather, opened us to Africa.

It was while we were in Ghana for a sabbatical  during the 2002 – 2003 academic year that we met Magdalene Nungu.  She had come to Ghana to receive training in disability awareness and ministry during a Joni and Friends wheelchair outreach and distribution with which we were participating.  Since that time, she has been ‘praying’ us to Cameroon to assit with her ministry, the Center for Empowerment of Females with Disabilities.  We first came to Cameroon in 2005 for three weeks during which time we taught a course on disability ministry in Bamenda and in Bafoussam.  After retiring from  Bethel university in 2007, we decided to move into fulltime service with Crossing Bridges and make a move to Cameroon where we have been working with CEFED and with CBS since January 2008.