Another Great Trip

Hello everyone,

Happy 4th of July to everyone as we celebrate our independence. I am overly joyed and excited about BCO and how things are going. The children are doing great. The staff are doing their jobs and are happy. The country still has it's issues with the ongoing divide between the French and English sides. God has kept the Wotutu area safe and we continue to ask for His providential care.

We went back to visit again the first week of June again. My daughter went with me this time and really enjoyed herself. The children were very excited to see her and they loved spending time with her throughout the week. She was able to connect with them on a level I have not been able to because of her age.

We held another VBS at the Wotutu congregation for many villages children who came. I helped teach the 10-12 year old class with Mendel. My daughter helped with the 2-4 year old class. We had a total attendance for the week of over 1,000 children. We also had six baptisms.

Each time I go back to see the children and the staff I am reminded of how God has worked in my life and in the life of everyone involved. I thank God that he put me in this role. I thank the elders at the Hillsboro congregation where I am a deacon for giving me the opportunity to serve in this capacity. The children love where they are, they are loved by all who raise them and visit them. The church in Wotutu loves these children and help provide for them, and so many here in the states provide for them and love them. I am blessed to be able to go and hug them and hear them and spend time with them. I know there are many who support who would love to do the same. Thank you from all of us for your dedication, love, compassion, and sacrifice for these children.

This year we took some games, dress clothes, activity books, etc. We also were able to take a lot of books from Usborne that a friend of ours set up for us. She held a fundraiser and raised $400 dollars and Usborne matched half that. So we were able to take $600 worth of books for our orphans. They were very excited about getting them.

We also had the opportunity to go to Down Beach, Limbe to do some evangelism and then have a Bible study with the brethren there. We had an hour long Bible study at the first house we went to. The reception to studying the Bible there is just astonishing when compared to here in America. They are open minded and very respectful.

The week was great. I did my normal walk around the orphanage with Mendel and saw the things that needed attention, fixed, or replaced. You will see on the home page what some of those things are. As an individual, family, or as a congregation; if you would like to help with these expenses, please message me. We need almost $31,000 to do the things we need to do.

We spent a lot of time just visiting with the children and the staff and listening to how things were going. The children are growing so much in their knowledge of God's word. Their reciting of Bible verses, and their question and answer, and their Bible alphabet show this. Everyone who visits the home leave so impressed with our children, our staff, and our facilities. Thanks be to God for His abundant blessings!

Getting ready to do some evangelism in Down Beach

Our one hour Bible study in Down Beach with Brother Abage Michael.

Brother Elangwe addressing everyone on Friday at VBS.

Day of the African Child. Our kids did great!!

Sanga copying notes at VBS.

Scola practicing using the sewing machine.

The children playing with their new "Match" game.

The new gate and wall around the orphanage.

Below is Magdalene's most recent update and some pics:

Hello Brother Jonathan,

Receive Calvary greetings from this end of the country, how is every one doing, hope by the grace of God you guys are doing great, it was nice having you around again this year and more particularly Makenzi, the children misses her presence.

The children are using the materials you brought this holiday to draw, colour and play the games to you brought, we are also using the storey books to teach them so as to occupy them during this holiday period, they are also learning how to sew.

We hosted the platform meeting for all orphanages in southwest in the month of May, our children welcome our visitors with a welcome song and also presented their memory verses, question and answer session, the children are really good, they appreciated them very well, after the meeting was over, they went round and checked all the rooms in the home and they really appreciated us, it is a nomal routing done each time an orphanage host the platform meeting, we congratulated and encouraged to continue in that spirit, I will be attaching pics of the meeting below.

Our children were also part of the vacation Bible school that took place in Wotutu this june, they were also awarded a certificate each for the program, I will be attaching some pics of the last day of the studies.

We children were also privilege this year again to have Daddy Jonathan and Makenzi around with many educative materials and some dresses for them, they were so happy to have all these items coming from you people of good will, as you can see them smiling while getting their gifts, all we can say is thank you and may God continue to bless you more abundantly, the children had a good time with Makenzi, they played togethered and it was their their first time they had a friend of different color played with them, carried the smaller children, they really enjoyed their time with Makenzi, we want to thank Makenzi for accepting to come over despite all the risk involved, we also thank brother Jonathan and sis Jamie for allowing their travel thousands of kilometers to another country despite all the insecurity in our country, may God continue to bless you and your efforts in the Cameroon work.

We also appreciate Savana , the daughter of sis Vicky who also followed her mum down here in Cameroon, she too was so closed to the children, she carried them, played with them, the children are already missing your company.

In the financial report, I included a child in the hospital, I will be attaching his pic below, is a child I met at the hospital when my son Stevemax was admitted and the child was on the next bed to my son, the child had been in the hospital for a month before I came, he was severely malnourished, people had help in their own way. The doctor prescribe some medications that were so expensive and the mum said theres no way she will ever have that kind of money and asked the doctor to discharge her, I knew if she took that child home, he will die, so I had to the money sent for the other child to help this little boy who was at the verge of dying, that was how I used the money.

(I did not include the picture of the child because the child is not clothed from the waist down. He is very malnourished and very sick)