Nate and Joanna Michael

We live in an age where seeing is believing. This poses a problem for many people with the Christian faith since that is exactly what it is…faith. But that doesn’t stop many people from explaining everything there is to know in the Bible. I saw a special on the History Channel about the scientific feasibility of the drying up of the Red Sea as well as the Flood. Many times people want the why or how to things that aren’t meant to be known in this life. Now before people start protesting this blog, hear me out. God has given us a creative and powerful mind and has provided insight into who He is, but Romans 1:17 states something that is a fact of the Christian life. It states that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed ‘from faith for faith’ (ESV). 

This means that at some point, after all the explanations and reason you can muster, there will still be a point where faith has to take over. The gospel makes sense only by starting with faith in order to lead us into a richer faith in Jesus Christ. An example is the Trinity. I have heard many ways of explaining the Trinity to make it comprehensible and believable, but when it gets down to it, stating that God is one in three persons requires faith.

I will not try to fake my way through the complete history of Cameroon, but yesterday, the 20th of May was a national holiday, National Day in fact. It was signified by an air show on the 19th, a large parade on the 20th, conferring of honors, and at least one presidential gala I have heard of. Kind of a big deal. But why May 20th.

Well, Cameroon doesn’t have a single independence day due to its fragmented colonization with Germany, Britain and France all playing parts. But the 20th of May was chosen, so I have read, in honor of the act of abolishing the previous federal government by president Ahmadou Ahidjo signaling the reunification of the anglophone and francophone portions of the nation. A person well-versed in the history of Cameroon might point out that this is an over-simplification, but I figure this suits our purposes for the blog. Happy National Day!

So in preparation for the village I have bought a machete. Owning a machete in the village is absolutely indispensable, like clean underwear. And if you are ever drawing a blank they are always good gift ideas. One of the most shocking facts about the use of machetes in this country is that the minimum age limit is somewhere around when you learn to crawl. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but when the school children have Youth Day, which involves cleaning up around their schools and cutting the grass, they all bring their machetes from home.

Knowing that little children feel more comfortable wielding a machete than I do, I felt, as a right of passage, that I should get one for myself. You never know when you will have to hack the head off a snake, right?

So after getting the top of the line machete ($6), I enlisted the gardener to sharpen it for me. I chose him because multiple people, unsolicited, told me that he would do a great job and though I am a machete novice, I could tell the man did nice work. This became especially clear when a passerby reminded me that if I missed what I am swinging at I will chop deep into my leg. Come to think of it, I don’t know if it had to do with how sharp the thing was or whether she knew I had never swung one before. Either way, point taken.

We have already started getting ready to move to the village and the ever-expanding to-do list is a boon and a burden at the same time. We start each day with laying out the tasks to accomplish that day. But if you were to look at this list before we fell asleep that night and compared it with the activities of the day, you would see much overlap, but not entirely. Because as we launch into the list of things to do, invariably one thing leads to another and we naturally have to follow a rabbit trail before we can mark off a seemingly straight-forward singular item from the list. But isn’t that the way it usually goes? Nothing is as simple as it seems and rarely are you able to tie off a task as quickly as you think it should be. But with each item crossed off, we are moving (in a measurable way) closer to the village and the task of learning our next language.

So here is a testament to the normalcy of life in an otherwise drastically different context we now live in.

A special Happy Mother’s day to my mom and mother-in-law. They are both extremely supportive of us being in Cameroon and doing what we are doing as well as adventurous. My mom was just here to visit us while my mother-in-law will be coming in just under 3 weeks. We’ll see if the same terror is struck in my mom-in-law’s heart as it was in my own mom’s when she took her first taxi ride. Love you both. Thanks Mom for carrying me and birthing me. After seeing Jo go through it, I understand what a burden you carried. Thanks for being willing.

We have settled on a date to move to the village, May 30th, but how we got to that point is a way that God has worked in our lives before. In the past, God has asked us to move and trust Him to work out the details. When we were still raising our financial support in the States, we were waiting on the finances to arrive before moving, but one day we felt like God was telling us to do it the other way around. Get moving and the finances will show up. So we kicked our preparations into high gear and sure enough, God worked the rest out for us. In no time flat, we were on a plane to France.

Well, it has been similar here. For several months, we had in mind mid-June to move to the village, but, through various extenuating circumstances, we felt like God said that it was simply too long. When we had mid-June in our minds, there was no sense of urgency to our preparations, but when we felt like our departure could be moved up a full month, we switched into high gear, just like before moving to France. We started packing items we didn’t absolutely need, we scheduled flights, looked at the remaining necessary vaccines and wrapped up my responsibilities at the office. As we progressed in moving forward, God made it clear that we wouldn’t be moving mid-May but rather at the end of May. But why would God make us think we might be moving within 2 weeks when that wasn’t the case? I think the answer is that God wanted us to move and trust Him for the rest. He wanted us to be willing to move no matter when and He wanted us to trust Him to work out the details. And just like before, He has. Now if only we can remember this for next time.

It was my dad’s birthday a couple of days ago and though I have already told him, I would be remiss if I didn’t wish him a Happy Birthday on our blog. Love you dad!!

Alright everyone, or at least for those who read the last blog post, I am going to unveil the massive changes coming on the horizon. And though some already know about them, this will be the official public announcement. We are going to be moving to the village by the end of this month!! It is the culmination of several years of preparation, so needless to say, we are pumped out of our minds.

Now when we use the word ‘village’, many images pop into people’s minds. Well, let me lay out what this means for us. There is a road to our village, but due to the treacherous nature of it and a broken down bridge, our current mode of entry will be by helicopter. Think repelling down like Navy SEALs except minus the danger, nighttime secretiveness and just about every other aspect of it.

There is no electricity as far as I know of, which is why at some point in the future we will be needing to purchase and install a complete self-sufficient electrical system run by solar power. If you are wondering about costs or helping out financially, please let us know.

Now I realize that this is a completely insufficient description and leaves many questions in the minds of our dear readers, but how else are we going to get people to come back and read our blog? Have no fear, in the future we will describe much more and give a much more complete picture of what our lives are going to be like.

Sorry everyone for the long delay in posting. We have had some issues, some wonderful visitors and some responsibilities.

The first thing that happened was our site was hacked and luckily, by the fancy footwork of my brother, our old posts have been saved and reposted. Thanks Josh!!!

Secondly, my parents came to visit us. It may be the understatement of the century to say that we enjoyed having them here. It was absolutely amazing. We laughed, talked, played catch, played with the kiddos and cried a bit. I think I posted on facebook that the difficult goodbye was worth the time we got with them. I am blessed to have parents like them.

Finally, we have had some large, mandatory meetings at work and were tied up almost entirely with everything that comes with them. But now we are back on the blog writing horse and hope to keep you well supplied with interesting news and witty insights. Plus we have some massive changes on the horizon, but that will have to wait for the next post.

Recently, I have been learning about cultural differences and, almost simultaneously, have been experiencing cultural stress of my own. This can leave me exhausted at the end of the day, not to mention discouraged about the work ahead. The questions in my head are: Am I cut out for this? Can I really do this? And how am I supposed to change the lives of those around me in a context and culture I don’t understand?

It is daunting to say the least. I have knee jerk reactions to what I think should be changed and how those around me should live their lives differently, but God has graciously put people in my life those who remind me that I have no idea where Cameroonians are coming from culturally. And in those rare moments of clarity, where I am out from under the weight of thinking I have to do everything right, I realize that the lasting, sometimes slower process of sharing our lives with Cameroonians and bringing them God’s word in their own language is vastly more beneficial than telling them how they should change. For it is not our work, but the work of the Holy Spirit that changes hearts and if we move forward, following the example of Christ in patience and love, we will not fail in bringing brothers and sisters into the fold. Praise God for the freedom he gives us to allow him to change the hearts of men.

Nate