Nate and Joanna Michael

I don’t go to the market every time we need to, but since being in Banso, I have had the chance to go once already and enjoyed it thoroughly. Whereas in Yaounde the experience is more on the overwhelming side, Banso is much more laid back.

I think the most enjoyable part was negotiating for some onions with the woman who was selling them. Now if you have never ‘beat the price’ (as they say in Pidgin) it is actually quite fun if you don’t take anything personally and realize that they won’t take any price where they lose money.

The whole ordeal involved much going back and forth and several bursts (on both sides) of shock at what the other was offering. So when the woman said to me, ‘You are stealing from me!’, I smiled and knew that things were going well. After settling on a price, which she made clear that I was robbing her blind, I smiled and said,’Thank you, mami.’ I received, in return, a beaming smile and an equally appreciative ‘Thank you’. We had both gotten what we wanted and had some fun while doing it.

Kind of wild I would ever have to become accustomed to cold weather. I mean, seriously, I grew up through Illinois winters with their single-digit temperatures and blistering winds. But after living in a place where most of the inhabitants don’t understand what you mean when you say ‘snow’, your body becomes accustomed to the heat. This becomes even more so when you don’t have any A/C to ever cool down.

So now that we are residing at elevation 5,800 feet, we are having to get used to lower temperatures. Now, I will admit, it is not near freezing, but 50s are a little more than we are used to after spending most of our time at 80s or higher.

All this to say, I have done something that I never thought I would have to do in Africa…I built a fire to keep us warm. Yep, a beautiful, curl up and sip cocoa type of fire. The last time I remember feeling that close to the United States, I was playing catch with my dad on his visit here.

For those who have not heard, we are going to be out of the village until September due to the lack of pilots for that time. We were advised, and believe ourselves, that it would be irresponsible for us to stay in the village with no reliable means of transportation out during the rainy season with 2 young children. While out, we are staying in a town in the Northwest region called Kumbo.

We hope to find some speakers of the language here to continue language learning and also to spend time in spiritual renewal and preparation. God has been good to us and is providing a time to process what we have experienced and learned thus far. Thank you for your prayers.

p.s.-Someone has written me about there not being comment boxes on our blog and we hope to address that issue soon.

Who knows if I will get around to writing more than one post about this topic. I hope to, but I have made plans for many posts that still remain unwritten. So despite the fact that people write entire books on the subject, here is part of my humble take on prayer.

I am going to write this from the personal standpoint instead of the theological because I hope to encourage those who are praying for us in some small way since we have been encouraged by them. Truth be told, we have had a few rough, discouraging days recently. But each day this happens, we hear from someone back in the States that they or someone else are praying for us. On one very challenging day, we later learned that multiple people woke up in the middle of the night feeling God was leading them to pray for us right then.

Two things resonate with me about this fact. First, God has blessed us with an incredible community around the globe who support us and partner with us in what God is doing in and through us. What a great picture of the Church. Secondly, each time we hear people are praying for us, we are given a new burst of energy and are encouraged in our work. So, to all those who have prayed for us, thank you and please continue to pray as God leads you.

First of all, sorry to everyone for not writing in a while. Things these days have been a bit crazy and we are still learning how to balance our lives. So here is a much needed post.

I am not a big fan of the term ‘culturally sensitive’. Simply considering our line of work and making an impact for Christ, I don’t think ‘sensitive’ is necessarily what are called to be so much as ‘effective’ or if that sounds a little too business-like, ‘impactful’. Now some people may be saying, ‘Nathan, I get the impactful part, but what is the deal with focusing on the culture so much? If you know the Bible and are led by the Holy Spirit, you’ll be fine.’ Well concerned reader, I understand your point, but there are some gross oversimplifications in what you are saying.

One thing that might need to be grasped is the fact that the Bible is an extremely cultural book. I can prove this point by simply asking the question, ‘When was the last time you shepherded some sheep?’ (This last question doesn’t apply to all the shepherds that read my blog) So in essence, we are looking at how to apply the principles from a very cultural book to another culture that is vastly different, including our own. The great thing is that the principles are transferable because the needs of man transcend cultures. Everyone wants to feel a part of something, needs relationships, have a purpose, feel cared for and a myriad of other universals. The trick is figuring out how you practically demonstrate these things.

If I were to show up at your door with some salt and some bars of soap in the U.S. you might think I was making a statement about your cooking and hygiene, but here it can have a serious impact in expressing a desire for friendship.

The church service in the village is quite a bit different from the services in the States. There are no instruments other than rhythm instruments and when the offering is taken, they dance and sing as they bring it to the front of the sanctuary. Some of the differences are taking some getting used to and others I have loved since the first time we went.

Here is one of the latter. At the start of the service, the children come in from Sunday school. The boys come in quietly and take their seats, but the girls, starting with the youngest, line up and come in dancing, singing and playing instruments. I can’t really explain why, but there is something about seeing the women of the church enter singing praises to the Lord that is pretty awesome.

So how do you start learning a completely new language from scratch when there are no text books and most of it isn’t even written yet? Well that is a good question, dear reader. And actually, if you start looking, there are several different philosophies out there on language acquisition. To start with, there are 2 major factors that will help you on the path to learning any language. The first is that it is best to live where the language is spoken. Sorry to all you people using Rosetta Stone, there is just nothing that can replace living amongst speakers of the language. The second factor is motivation. Now I am not talking about enthusiasm. That can be manufactured and, more often than not, is linked to the emotions. Motivation is when you say, ‘No matter what, I will learn this language.’

Frankly, I could stop the explanation here because these two factors alone contribute in such a large amount to success, but there are methodological practices that can help. But, since I am short on time, I will save those for another time.

This is not going to be a post about specific cultural norms, though I am sure we will share those in the future, but rather a general explanation of what it feels like to enter a culture so vastly different from your own.

The process of culture acquisition often fluctuates between feeling like a lost child and elation. What I mean by this is that we are learning social norms that have been instilled in the people here since childhood. So things that children instinctively understand leave us scratching our heads. But the elation comes in when that light bulb clicks on and something makes sense for the first time, like when and how it is appropriate to give a gift. Before learning something like that, you come off like a selfish punk who just takes the gifts others brings and doesn’t do anything to reciprocate. Don’t you hate those people?

So we are glad to announce we are slowly moving from the clueless child stage to the not-quite-as-clueless child stage. Who knows…maybe in a few years we might hit puberty.

The title says it all. Some of you have been praying that the government would approve the airstrip that has been built in here in the village and we received word last week that it is officially open. This is serious news since now we will be able to fly directly from Yaounde to the village if we need to and make the entire journey much shorter time-wise. Thank you to everyone who has been praying.

Hello everyone,

   I realize the lateness of my writing, but we have some big news: We are in the village! We arrived on May 30th and are still getting settled in. It is a massive help having my in-laws to help us with the transition. I think the biggest help is that they have been able to give the kiddos some extra attention while Jo and I are trying to adjust and get settled ourselves.

   Some people may ask, “Nathan, what are you getting adjusted to that requires so much of your attention?” Well random reader, I will tell you: watching our battery bank and our energy consumption to make sure we have enough power from the solar panels, watching our water consumption and water level in the water tank, meeting new people, understanding a new language, adapting to a new culture, organizing our belongings, and the list goes on. It is a little shock to our systems to be living in a new place, but God has been encouraging us through our brothers and sisters in Christ here in the village. We have already met many welcoming faces. Every person we talk to we hear, “You are welcome!”

   So thank you to everyone who prayed for us as we made the journey to the village and please continue to pray for us and our fellow partners in the Gospel who we work alongside of. More to come soon.