WU 3 Feb 08

Good Day All.

 

A few big things happening here. Cameroon has made it to the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations. It is the big biannual soccer tournament and Cameroon was the winner of their division to qualify as one of 16 teams. The city pretty much goes dead when they are playing. There is a story going around that there was an unexplained seismic event in Cameroon in 2000. Apparently it was narrowed down to the minutes following the goal that gave Cameroon the Olympic gold medal in Sydney. So many people were making noise and going crazy that the machines thought there was an earthquake. In this tournament they lost to Egypt in the first game but put up good numbers in wins against Zambia and Sudan. They play tomorrow night against Tunisia and if their defense plays as good as it has been, they should be ok. If they win that one, they play Nigeria or Ghana on Thursday. Which leads me into the other big thing happening here.

Our Annual RFIS HS retreat starts Tuesday at the Rock Farm. If the "Indomptable Lions" win it will be tough to not let the kids watch the semifinals Thursday. There are about 80 kids in 9-12 and the retreat is a chance to do more bible study and allow the kids to open up a little more. Bets and I go down on Monday with another teacher to get things set up and rooms assigned. I am teaching an orienteering course with our school director and Betsy is running a German class. I wanted to do a Billiards class but they wouldn't spring for tables.

Yesterday was Championship Saturday. The boy's soccer played ASOY at 1pm and in the dust and heat came up short and were unable to repeat as YMAC champs. They played very well all year and they were disappointed but they handled it well. At 3pm the girl's bball put their title on the line against College VOGT. College is the fancy French word for high school. It is kind of nice to play against a team that doesn't speak English because I can call plays and such without them knowing. Vogt was up by 15 in the 2nd quarter after hitting 8 3-pointers in a row. Some of them were at least 2 steps behind the arc. It was 30-17 at the half. We changed up our defense at the half and I put my favorite former next-door neighbor from the Nwest on their big scorer. Without her scoring, their offense went cold and we pulled ahead by the end of the 3^rd quarter. We were up 5 with a minute to go and held on to win by 7. It was the first time all year we were trailing in a game. The girls never wavered and it was fun to see them really work together and come back to win. RFIS 47 - Vogt 40. We finished the season 10-0 and won the trophy for the second straight year. All but 1 of the girls are coming back for next year so they will be tough to beat again. I had a lot of fun coaching this team again. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to coach a group of young women who are so dedicated to each other and to the glory of God. Also fortunate to have a wife who was willing to put up with late practices and games about every Saturday afternoon since August including the boys season. I will include a team picture soon. Our camera took a dip in the ocean at Kribi so I will have to get copies from the yearbook kids.

We have had a few fantastic letters from new supporters the past few weeks and we are so grateful to all of you who have contributed to our ministry here. We are still working to meet our budget goals for this year. We are getting closer every month and pray for encouragement and guidance as we finish up our time here this year.

Other than that, things are hot and dry here. It's about 90F here now and dry as dirt. It does not seem to be as miserable as last year but still too hot for me. If you want to check out the Lions soccer info go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_African_Cup_of_Nations

 

Take Care and God Bless.

 

Brian & Betsy