October News

Last Friday [October 12, 2007] brought back such fun memories of last winter in Oregon….talk around the dinner table the night before….bedtime prayers (“Lord, PLEASE let it snow tonight!”)….getting up early to listen to the announcements on the radio…watching the ticker on the bottom of the TV screen…even checking the Internet….what’s the verdict?...will there be school today??

NO! No school and great rejoicing in the Coleman household! We all get the day off!

Did we have snow? In Cameroon? Well, not really…It was actually about 75 degrees Fahrenheit outside! This “snow day” was based entirely on a sighting of the moon! The Islam fasting month, Ramadan, was about to end, based on when someone—exactly who is not exactly clear!—sees the new moon. The next day is declared a national holiday and, to be sensitive to our host culture (and avoid rioting among the student body) Rain Forest International School also takes the day off. : ) Zac got to sleep in and Noah played some extra “Battle for Middle Earth” on the computer. It was a fun, relaxing day. But somehow the hot chocolate that tasted so good in Oregon last year didn’t interest any of us here!

We finished our first quarter of school on September 28, amidst a flurry of grading quizzes, papers and tests for Arnie. (With 38 students, he determined he gave a few too many quizzes for his own good last quarter and says he’s cutting back a bit.) For our October Break (1-8 October) we headed north to Bamenda, our old stomping grounds. Over the course of the week, we met with our Esimbi translation coordinator James, our literacy coordinator, Daniel, our Wycliffe literacy consultant, Truus, and the vice president of the translation committee Emmanuel. The work is progressing and we were encouraged. We also had time for fun with friends, a jigsaw puzzle, some DVD movies, even a water gun fight.

We’re back into our routines now. This week at school is Special Emphasis Week on Self-Awareness. Karen is leading a small group entitled, “Who Am I?” using scripture to teach the truth of who we are in the eyes of God. Zac spent last Saturday morning at an orphanage in town, playing with the kids for part of his “Community Service” requirement. Noah finished his “Medieval Life” paper for Social Studies. Arnie is reading up on secular humanism (via www.secularhuminism.org – many articles very strong against Christianity), communism and global warming for his “Bible and Worldview” classes. Our guest book is filling up a bit faster here in Yaoundé than it did in Benade, since we have the opportunity to have folks over for dinner more often. We recently had our Dutch neighbor and his Cameroonian wife over with another Dutch missionary family with kids at RFIS. Our neighbor was ecstatic to meet them and talked Dutch nearly non-stop throughout the meal. He had not seen any other Dutchmen in Yaounde. The other kids translated some for us so we could know a little of what was going on…it was pretty comical.

Thanks for your prayers for us as we balance these new RFIS responsibilities with overseeing the Esimbi project. We are currently trying to figure out how to get our Esimbi tone data off of a fairly dead computer so that we can present it to a Wycliffe colleague who has offered to help us sort out our old unresolved tone puzzle. We are also looking ahead to next school year and need God’s wisdom as we consider some options for further ministry at the school that have been presented to us. We appreciate you and your prayers for us more than we can ever express.

And we have a favor to ask of you…if you have a photo of yourself that you could mail or email to us, we’d appreciate it. We now have our prayer board hung in the dining room, but it’s still empty. We promise to post your picture as a reminder to pray for you.

Arnie, Karen, Zac and Noah Coleman <><

c/o SIL
B.P. 1299
Yaoundé, Cameroon
237-7757-1463
arnie.coleman@worldteam.org