2005 Cameroon Backpack

2005 TMI CAMEROON BACKPACK TEAM

As with the Poland team it started with boot camp. But...rewind a couple of weeks. Remember here we were trying to clean out our trailer to move to Cameroon, help get Christi situated and get ready for the team. And to add to all of this, Tim ends up leading a Peanut team (younger children who stay at the base for their team experience). It's wonderful, but made it that much harder for us to get things done (which ultimately we didn’t)....oh well! After Boot camp, we (along with Sue and the team) head to Cameroon for our project time. When we arrive the team helps to run the Cameroon boot camp....teaching puppets, drama, music, construction, helping to judge the obstacle course etc... Tim and Sara help teach a couple of the boot camp classes as well as run their own team. Can anyone say "BUSY", Yes....but a great kind of busy! During this time we learned a very valuable lesson for Cameroon life....you HAVE to wash wounds right away! Tim had a small cut on his knee and kneeled on some dirt on the floor while getting into bed for the night (it was dark since we had no electric, it was late a pretty common thing with a team and he didn’t even notice).

Several days later his knee swelled many times its normal size, he ended up missing the field portion of the team (going to a nearby clinic to have the "pus pack" slowly dug and pulled out of his knee while taking strong antibiotics-Sue stayed with Tim to help take care of him). Sara and the team headed to a nearby village to backpack to the surrounding areas for evangelism. It was an amazing time with a very positive response to the message of hope that we were able to bring. This was the first time that Sara had the chance to hear the Jesus film in pigeon (a very colorful language). During this time Sara was also sick with a deep cough that she caught during boot camp in the U.S. Tim and Sue came to pick us up in Ngie with a bus to bring the team back to the TMI base in Nsongwa....there were some problems with the roads (see pictures below). We laughed at the fact that there were many times where it seemed we were pushing more often than riding in the bus. While on the field practically the entire team contracted malaria (while we had windows, there were no screens and it was a high malaria area).

WOW...it was a rough team physically but we saw much fruit through salvations and in the work of the Lord in the lives of the team members. God is good! Tim and Sue went with the team to the airport where Sara flew back with the team for a Switzerland debrief before heading back to Florida to help Christi through a major reconstructive surgery on her jaw. Tim and Sue headed back to the base via public transport, learning another valuable lesson don't sit in the back or you become the target of anything that goes out the windows in front of you (GROSS) Fresh off the plane in Florida on a Friday afternoon, Sara stopped at a local doctors office to try and get help for her cough before Christi's surgery the following Mon. No openings! So Sara and Christi head to the trailer to finish cleaning it out and start to clean out the place where Christi had been living. They mow 4 lawns (their responsibility...one for the house they lived in and an extra...this was the rent). Exhausted they head to Gainesville, FL for surgery on Monday morning. All this time the Sara's cough continued. Christi had her 9+ hour surgery (man....).

They are in Christi's room and Sara is praying fervently for the cough to go away (she was concerned they would not let her stay to help Christi). One hour later the cough is gone and her chest has completely cleared up! Praise the Lord!! Christi is in great pain and stays in the hospital for 4 days (that was tough to watch!) They stay at Tim's moms' home in Lakeland (near Tampa) and make the commute to and from the hospital in Gainesville many times during her recovery. Sara finishes clearing out all of Christi's stuff from the trailer she was staying in (she ended up staying with her grandmother instead). Many weeks later (after Christi has the hardware removed from her jaw so she can eat and she can drive herself around etc...) Sara heads back to Cameroon. One of her fondest memories was Sue leaning against her and saying..."I am so glad you are back". So Sara learned that the canned pork (which was supposed to last for 2 years) was all gone save 1 or 2 cans! She learned that their meals consisted of: toast with choc spread and fruit, soup (a kind of local oodles) and barbeque pork. Sue was longing for meals cooked by mom (little did she know that there was a long learning curve ahead!). So here they were....Christi settled in Florida with her grandmother and Tim, Sara and Sue starting their life in Cameroon.