Cameroon and the Baka People

Some Information on Cameroon:

Location:
Cameroon sits in the heart of Africa, just north of the equator and just below the familiar bulge of the west coast of the continent. Home to an estimated 18 million people, Cameroon is about the size of the US state of California.

Languages:
More than 270 indigenous languages are spoken in Cameroon. Literacy work and Bible translation are ongoing needs in Cameroon.

Economy:
Cameroon’s economy is struggling. The current economic environment fosters a cycle where the poor remain poor and the rich get richer.

Religion:
Most Cameroonians are very religious. In South Cameroon, the main religion is African Traditional Religion, a form of animism.

Some Information on the Baka people:

The Baka People:
The Baka people have lived in the dense rainforests of southeast Cameroon for centuries, surviving as semi-nomadic hunter gatherers. Considered backward and primitive by other Cameroonians, they have seldom been on equal footing with others. They are animists.

Music:
Music is central to their lives. As soon as a baby is able to clap it is encouraged to participate in all the communal music-making. There is music for ritualistic purposes, music for passing on knowledge, stories and the history of the Baka people, and music for pure enjoyment.

A unique way that Baka women and girls play music is to literally "play the river" (liquindi).
You can hear a clip at this link: http://www.baka.co.uk/baka/mp3_liquindi.html

Another unique instrument is the Earth Bow (Angbindi). This is a single-stringed instrument that literally uses the ground as a sound-box!
You can hear a clip at this link: http://www.baka.co.uk/baka/mp3_angbindi.html

World Team and the Baka:
World Team began work among the Baka in 1992. From the beginning the Baka team has emphasized a holistic approach, using medical care and development initiatives to build trust relationships. Chronological storytelling is being used to present the Gospel to this pre-literate group. There is no viable church currently in existence.

The Baka Team's Vision Statement:
To complete a presentation of the gospel using a storying method in the Baka heart language resulting in a group of discipled believers equipped to facilitate a church planting movement.

Candidate School (RACE)

As most of you know, I was invited to attend World Team's candidate school, RACE, in Pennsylvania this past July. I made the decision to go only about a week before RACE, as God quickly opened the doors for me to be able to attend. During this time leading up to RACE, I was busy completing Bible knowledge and evangelism tests, psychological testing, sending in references, and writing out my life story and testimony for World Team's assessors.

RACE started out with a couple days of training and information about World Team, its history, and the areas around the world where it works. Then a few days were spent on the actual assessment part. The group of us candidates was put through situations/simulations while the assessors sat around us taking notes on how we each responded and contributed. There was also time where each of us gave our testimony and then answered questions. World Team hires an outside company of psychologists to do part of the assessment for them; they were there the whole time watching everything we did, and at the end there was a day of individual interviews with one of the psychologists, and then with one of World Team's missionary assessors.

The process was so valuable! When winding down and processing each night after another grueling day, I continued to think to myself, even if I don't make it through this will have been such a worthwhile process. I learned so much about missions, about myself, about what was really important to me in the mission organization I would submit myself to, and what was important in my teammates on the field. (And in turn, about who I needed to be to my future teammates.) As I continued to learn about World Team, I prayed more and more that this would be the mission God wanted me to go out with. By the last day, I simply couldn't imagine going out with any other organization, and my heart almost physically ached to be accepted by World Team. My prayer during my devotions the morning that we'd find out who had been accepted was something like, "God, I only want to do what is your will. But please let it be your will that I be accepted by World Team! Please let this feeling in my heart be from you because you want me to go out with World Team."

A time was set up for each candidate to meet individually with their main assessor that day; during that meeting we'd be told if we'd been accepted or not, and the reasons why. When I went into my meeting my heart was racing, and I was full of the joy and peace of the Lord. The song that I had written that morning while reading Psalm 46 was going through my mind:

Come to me
When your heart become anxious
Come to me
And be still
Come to me
When your heart become anxious
Come to me
And rest awhile

Be still-And know that I am God
Be still-And know that I'm the Lord
Be still-And know I am holding you up
When strength is gone
Be still

I am the Lord
Who brought you out of darkness
I am the Lord
Who filled you with light
I am the Lord
Of Abraham and Isaac
And as I cared for them
So care I for you

Come to me
When your heart become anxious
Come to me
And be still
Come to me
When your heart become anxious
Come to me
And rest awhile

When my assessor handed me a copy of my letter of invitation to join World Team, and began to read it to me, I felt like the Lord had just entrusted me with the greatest and most precious gift! My heart was so full that I almost couldn't bear it, and as the tears trickled down my face I couldn't help but sing the Doxology in my heart. ...Praise God from whom all blessing flow...

As those of us who were accepted sat and visited for a few hours, sharing stories of God's faithfulness, and how we'd seen God's leading in our lives toward missions, there was a feeling of peace and awe in the room. Each one of us that sat there was a sinner, but in God's mercy He'd redeemed us, and during this week He'd confirmed in our hearts His desire to use us for His glory overseas. What a gracious and faithful God we serve!

The last night of RACE, World Team had a banquet and presented each of us who'd been accepted as missionary appointees with a certificate, and a baton with our name and a verse on it. (The picture at the top of this post is of me receiving my certificate and baton.) Afterward they had a prayer time and commissioned us. This was such a beautiful time, I will always treasure it in my heart as a most precious gift from the Lord. Oh to follow in His ways, walking along the path that He has for me, what better joy could be found on this earth!

My heart's desire has always been to share Christ with the world, and I know that He put that desire there because He has called me to do so. What an overwhelming joy it is to see how He is leading me toward that--and that my heart will not have to break to be sharing His Gospel overseas for much longer! He is a good God, who gives us the desires of our hearts...His desires!

I thank you all for the faithful prayers you have brought before the Lord on my behalf over the years. I count it such a great privilege to be surrounded by a family of believers who pray! As I continue preparing to go to Cameroon I would greatly appreciate your continued prayers. Please pray that God would continue to open and close doors in ways that would show me the directions He wants me to go and the things He wants me to pursue. In the meantime I continue to walk along the path I see He has set before me, trusting Him to show me which way to turn each time I come to a fork in the road.
You could also pray that God would fill me each day with His strength, patience, and grace. As I prepare to go, I continue to see ways that Satan is trying to discourage me from continuing on. On the one hand I am encouraged by this, as I know that it means God must have a plan that Satan is trying to thwart, but on the other, it can be very tiring some days. I continue to turn to the Lord day by day, and He continues to fill me with Himself--and with everything that I need. But I know that without being continually filled I will not be able to accomplish the things that God has planned for me, and my heart's cry is that I would never stop coming to Christ for that filling of my spirit.
I am full of Christ's joy to overflowing, and know that the Lord has a wonderful plan, but some days I am not sure which way to move forward. On those days I simply have to give my questions to the Lord and keep walking. I know that He is faithful, and will finish the work He has begun in me.