Ike Zimmerman to Graduate Rain Forest International School Cameroon

Isaac Zimmerman, son of Dr. Rod and April Zimmerman (Mbingo) will be graduating from RFIS in June 2006. Ike will pursue Flight Aviation training at Purdue University in the fall of 2006.
RFIS was established in 1991 by SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators) and is located in the capital city of Cameroon. Providing quality education at the junior high and high school level has enabled many families from various mission organizations to remain on the mission field. We are thankful for an accredited high school within Cameroonian borders.
SIL runs the school in partnership with several other mission organizations including NAB. Together, representatives from each mission make up the school board. Along with this, we cooperate in recruiting necessary teachers and staff. The following is a list of definite needs for 2006-2007:

Special Education teacher
High School Geography
High School History
High School Science – Chemistry
High School PE
High School Math
High School English
High School Bible*
High School Spanish
High School Home Economics (Cooking, Sewing, Money Management)
High School Woodwork*
High School Small Engine Repair*

Middle School Math*
Middle School Science*
Middle School PE*

* positions for which we have applicants

Douala Church Planting Vision

Needing encouragement today? Read this story about what God is doing in Douala!

Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and is located on the coast. It is the main port for Cameroon and countries inland from here. It is the leading industrial and commercial center of Cameroon. The population is around 2,000,000. It is in the Francophone part of the country.

Our work began in Douala in 1978 when a house church was started amongst the English speaking population there. By 1982, it had grown large enough to become a church. Trinity Baptist was organized and used the facilities of a French speaking congregation.

In 1989, a second congregation was split off from Trinity to form Zion. They in turn started a prayer group at Bonubieu, which now has formed two more prayer groups of their own.

In 1995, a church was formed at Mambanda, and a fourth church, Faith, was organized near the International Airport. This congregation has now formed a prayer group at Boko. An additional prayer group was started at Basa.

In 2003 and 2005, churches were planted at Bonamoussadi and Mbengue City.

While these churches were initially primarily English speaking, they now have a vision to reach out to their French speaking neighbors. All of their services are translated into French, and much of the music is in French. At a recent field meeting, plans for further evangelization and church planting were drawn up. Crusades are planned for every four months. On a map of the city, sites for an additional 30 churches were located. The vision is to plant these churches over the next 10-15 years.

Pray with us that God will honor their vision to reach out with the gospel to the city of Douala.

Dewa’s Silent World

Fifteen year old Dewa’s world was one of complete silence. Deafened at a young age, possibly due to meningitis, Dewa was without any language except a few gestures.

Missionary Susie Hohn discovered Dewa while visiting some ladies in the small village of Allat in Cameroon. The Hohns arranged for Dewa to attend the School for the Deaf at Mbingo Baptist Hospital about eight hours away from Allat.

Over the past two years Dewa has been learning sign language, to read and write (in English) and also to learn about Jesus. Although Dewa was learning to communicate with others at the school. He still was not able to do so with his family.

Enter Jessica Beckerman from Edmonton, Alberta. Jessica’s husband Jonah planned to do an internship for Taylor Seminary at Allat – the village where Dewa’s family lives. Jessica was eager to be part of this experience and to use her sign language abilities in any way possible.

How thrilling for Dewa to learn the names of his family members! How exciting for Jessica to be a significant bridge of communication for this family.

Jessica worked with Dewa and his mother three times a week for about two months. As Dewa signed to Jessica, she would translate the conversation into English. Someone else would then translate the English into Fulfulde, the mother tongue of Dewa’s family. When Dewa’s mother wished to speak to him, the order of translation was reversed.

Through picture vocabulary cards, Jessica was able to teach the mother many words in sign language. Towards the end of the Beckerman’s stay at Allat, Dewa’s mother was able to sign simple practical instructions to him. He was then able to understand and carry out the tasks!

Praise God for the work He enabled Jessica to do for this family

"Y's" Ministry

Cal and Susie Hohn recently wrote:

In our last Plateau Newsletter we wrote about “Y”, a young Fulani man, who came to us from Central African Republic for discipleship and training. He and his family’s three months with us have come and gone.

Since “Y” returned to CAR, we have received an encouraging report from a missionary he is involved with: “… Y was absolutely radiant. He just talked and talked and talked and talked about the Bible, witnessing to Fulani in the Bush, the way they worshipped at Allat, etc. etc. etc.! I have never in my entire life heard any Fulani talk so much about spiritual things! It was incredible! So exciting!... Even though his wife remains an unbeliever, she apparently connected well with ladies up there and had a positive experience.”

Thank God for the encouraging work He did in “Y’s” life while here at Allat. Pray that he will remain bold, even amongst his own people. Continue to pray for a heart change for his wife.

Christian Bookshop opened in Bamenda

Many have noted the lack of Christian literature for pastors and lay Christians. One of the NAB field goals has been to encourage pastors to develop their libraries. This has been difficult due to the lack of available resources. To address these problems, we took over the management of a small bookshop here on Bamenda Station a few months ago. With the help of a generous donation, we were able to begin stocking the shop. We now have a good variety of Bibles including several study Bibles, a number of seminary level textbooks, and a good variety of books for lay Christians.

We have had many comments from our customers appreciating the expanded inventory of books available in the book shop. Financially, it is doing better that expected. Currently, most of our books come from Nigeria but we are looking into importing books from Christian publishers in the US. As we are able, we will continue to expand the number of titles we stock. In the future, we hope to be able to use some of the profits from the bookshop to provide a subsidy for our pastors, encouraging them to expand their personal libraries. We also hope the bookshop will promote serious study on the part of our lay Christians.

Betty Mantay Receives the CBC Health Board Medal of Honor

Betty Mantay has served for the past nine months as a volunteer with the CBC Health Board. She has served as principle of the Integrated School for Health Personnel during the furlough of Kathy Kroll.

During the graduation ceremonies at Banso Baptist Hospital, she was awarded the CBC Health Board Medal of Honor in recognition of her service to the medical work of the CBC in Cameroon. Betty has served in Cameroon for a total of 42 years, the longest of any of our NAB Missionaries.

New 3-H Group at Mbingo

“There’s nothing new under the sun…” Maybe this was true in Solomon’s day but there is definitely something new at Mbingo, Cameroon. We have a new group of 3-H girls, all of whom are deaf.

One of the teachers at the deaf school at Mbingo, where these girls attend school was moved by the Lord to start this group. (3-H stands for Head, Heart, Hands and has a Christian focus on developing spiritually.) Mrs. Sarah Gabe has lead 3-H groups since 1973 but this is the first deaf group she has been involved with. Mrs. Gabe began to learn sign language in 2001 and has taught at the Integrated School for the Deaf since 2004.

This 3-H group began early 2005 and all students have earned their first badge. There are over thirty badges to be earned including ones in childcare, sewing, gardening, service, etc.

Pray that these special girls and their leader, Mrs. Gabe, will continue to grow in the Lord and that they will use their heads, hearts and hands for God’s Glory.

BICYCLES FOR PASTORS

Pastors are the anchor of all our work in Cameroon. Many of them live in difficult circumstances, serving small rural congregations. Because of the lack of trained pastors, many serve two churches. Transportation for the pastors is difficult. The only means of travel available to them, as they care for their people, has been walking. This has hindered their work many times, especially when two congregations are served.

A bicycle is an effective, inexpensive solution to this problem. Beginning one year ago, a program was begun to assist pastors in obtaining an inexpensive bicycle. The pastors were asked to pay about half the cost of the bicycle and the remainder of the cost was covered by donations. Because the area where most pastors serve is mountainous, it was important to get a bicycle with a derailleur. The bikes also needed fenders to keep from throwing mud during rainy season. The initial model was an older style with mechanical brakes to which we added a rear derailleur. More recently, we have been able to purchase a newer style 15 speed bicycle that resembles a mountain bike. This model is a bit more expensive but is very popular. It even has Shimano components on it.

To date we have placed more than one hundred bicycles with our pastors. They are very enthusiastic and appreciative of the project. We hope to continue to supply the bikes to our pastors to enable them to better serve their churches.