Reunion Time!

Karissa and Catherine are coming in tonight! WHOOOOO!

Things I Will Miss about Cameroon Part 3

-Laughing with Katelyn

-Sherlock (the puppy…now almost big dog)

-The Land Cruiser

-Buying bananas and mangoes from people selling along the road

-Cameroon beaches

-Being proposed to daily

-Hearing Pidgin

-The veranda at the Jackson house

-Talking to Maimu

-Fadi’s laugh

-Grilled fish with pepe

I just want to also take this post to thank all my readers out there. Thank you so much for your prayers and for your never ending encouragement. I feel all of your love all the way over here in Cameroon. This has not been easy, nor expected. I have had to really grow up a lot in the last week, but I have never felt alone. I have felt all of your support. God is amazing, and he is GOOD. I know death can be a time to be angry at God, and to be frustrated with the new path that God threw at us, but through all of this experience, and through a lot of talking with the people here in Cameroon and in the States, I have come to the conclusion that death of a believer is a celebration. Yes, of course it rips my heart apart to think that Karen is no longer with us, but to know that she now is in heaven, is a pretty magical thing.

Karen was an amazing woman, a woman I will never, ever forget. But to know that right now, she is praising the Lord and no longer feeling pain...it brings joy to my heart. We will see her again, we will all see her again…isn’t that just so encouraging? Through this facebook remembrance page that has been set up, we all see what an amazing, inspiring woman she was. She really impacted this world. I can only hope that I will leave behind such impact. She is an inspiration, and we should all strive to be like Karen. We should all embrace the calling to love one another. We should love that neighbor that we ignore every morning driving to work, we are called to love the person at work, who we never get along with, we are to love the lady who just cut us off in traffic, we are to love EVERYONE. Karen lived by this, and we sure can see that by looking at the facebook page.

I challenge you all, to live how she did. Take a leap, be like Jesus. Love those who have been forgotten, love those who are not. LOVE ALL. I miss you and love you Karen.

-Sarah

Letter to Karen

Karen,

I just wanted to write a letter to you to let you know, that I am so happy for you right now. I know that you are up in heaven holding your mother’s hand, dancing and rejoicing with the Lord. I know that you do not feel pain anymore; you never have to take anymore medicine for anything. I am so happy for you.

I thank you for allowing me to live in your house; I thank you for believing in me, and allowing me to participate in creating Lessons from Luke. Just know that Kathleen, Chris, and I WILL finish these lessons for you. We will make sure that all of the hard work that you put into these lessons will be used. Thank you for letting me be my controlling, organized self, and make you and Chris meet every Monday to lay out the week ahead.

Thank you for listening to me. There were so many mornings when I would get up, I would just share with you what I was thinking, feeling. You were always there to encourage me, and bring me back to the Lord. You would read from your devotional to me if it applied to my troubles. Thank you so much.

Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone. I have a difficult time with kids, and you would always push me to participate in Bible Club, and teach when you could not. Thank you for being an inspiration to me. You always said, “There is always room for one more.” You carried a gracious spirit, you never let anyone go hungry, and you never left anyone behind. You inspire me to let go of my fears, you inspire me to be the woman that God wants me to be.

Thank you for allowing me to be in the room with you in your final moments of life. As I was leaving the hospital you kissed me, and told me that I was the best caregiver, and that I spoiled you. But I just want to let you know that I feel honored to have been there. I am thankful that for some reason God had me with you during your final moments of life. I read Ephesians to you, we listened to music, I gave you water, fanned you, and massaged you. You told the nurses in the hospital that if it wasn’t for my fear of blood, I would have been the best nurse around. I will never forget those moments. You were so strong, and your body fought that infection hard. I remember thinking as I was in the room with you, your hair is so perfect….after all that you had gone through, your hair was still perfect looking. I wish I had your hair.

Karen, you were an amazing woman. You touched so many lives, you have no idea. As I sit writing this letter to you, the doorbell rings continually. People from all over have travelled to Bamenda to be with Katelyn and all of us. Everyone in Sabba Njowra are missing you, many of them are here right now. I wish you could be here. The house is full of people who love you. We all love you, and we will carry on your hospitality for the rest of our lives. 

I feel so privileged that I was here for the end of your life. You are an amazing woman, and I will always love you. One day I will join you in heaven. We will be reunited again someday.

(Do not worry, I made Katelyn take her vitamins today, and I told everyone to wash their hands ;))

I love you Karen,

Sarah

Karen

I know that many of you have already received the news about Karen.

For those of you who do not know, I will go ahead and post what Chris said in his most recent news letter.

Karen fell sick about one week ago with some virus. It seemed as though she was getting better, but then she took a significant turn for the worse in the past few days.

Today, Thursday, she fainted. I brought her to Mbingo Baptist Hospital which is about 45 minutes drive from Bamenda. Here there is a great staff of doctors from Cameroon, the US, Canada and Australia. It is a teaching hospital. 

The diagnosis is that Karen is in septic shock from a generalized bacterial infection. Her blood pressure was extremely low, and she was very dehydrated. The doctors have been doing all they can for her and she is somewhat stabilized. However, she is in need of more acute care than is available in Cameroon. So, tomorrow we will be flown to South Africa via an medical air evacuation service for her to receive the appropriate level of care she needs.

I went with Chris to the hospital yesterday, so I was there all day with Karen. I have to just say, you all need to be praying at this moment. We are getting small details at a time, and currently they do not sound like the best of news. She is currently on her way to South Africa to receive treatment. Please, be in prayer for her, and pray for Chris, Katelyn, Karissa, and those of us who all make up the Jackson Village. We are all under a lot of emotional stress and worry. We are praying our hearts out, and I ask that you all do the same.

Pray for Chris as he is with Karen, that he would be strong, that he would be given wisdom as he makes the decisions for Karen and for the family.

Pray for Karissa, as she is currently thousands of miles away. Pray that she would just find peace and comfort from those family friends that are around her.

Pray for Katelyn as she is currently living in a house with no parents, that she would also be given peace and comfort.

Pray for Karen. That this infection would heal, and that she would make a full recovery. Pray that she would not have any permanent damage from this illness.

Pray for the doctors who are helping Karen. Pray that they would be given wisdom, and they would use their knowledge to help Karen’s body heal.

Pray for those of us in the Jackson Village, that we would all peacefully team up together and help one another run the house, and keep everything going. Pray that we would all find rest in the night, and that we would have energy during the day.

Pray that as I take on completing the Lessons from Luke with just Kathleen, that we would finish the Lesson by the time I leave in May.

Pray, pray, pray.

I will keep you all updated as more information comes in.

Up in the Air

If I was currently on my deathbed, one piece of advice I would tell you for life is the following: don’t watch Jurassic Park while trying to fall asleep. Because you will wake up in the middle of the night thinking a carnivore beast is standing above you, ready to have him a great, tasty, human meal. If you want to be stupid like I was, watch it, but if you are smart, just do not watch Jurassic Park while trying to fall asleep. Of course I would share and tell all of my lost family members about Jesus, and I would be praying a lot to God if I was on my deathbed, but for some worldly advice, that would be about it.

What a weekend and week it has been over here. If you are trying to not catch a cold, you should probably stop reading this post, because it is plagued with drippy noses and sore throats. To welcome us back to the rain, the season brought a friend with it, and that would be sickness. Karen, Carol, Katelyn, and Lum (currently in recovery), have all been struck down by the snot and fever monster. Every second that I get I have been shoving Vitamin C down my throat. There is no way I am going to spend my last week’s here in Cameroon sick! The few of us left have been congratulating our immune systems daily for continuing to fight the monster.

There was not much going on this last weekend. We had Bible study for a bunch of people with kids, we went shopping, we watched movies, ate pizza, oh and I was electrocuted.

Now, I have been shocked from time to time, especially here in Cameroon, if you are not shocked when turning on the TV, opening the fridge, shocked from turning the light on, then you must have one powerful guardian angel. You should tell that angel thank you. Like right now, because after reading this, you are going to get shocked.

Any who, it was a rainy Friday late afternoon. Katelyn, Kathleen, and I were running late from the market. We were supposed to take a truck load of missionary kids riding, but sadly our cab driver decided to take the scenic route from town, so we were running late. Usually we have a man we call when we want to ride the horses, and he then brings them from “horse land” up to the house for us. Like I mentioned before, we were running late, so we decided to track the horses down ourselves in “horse land” so that we could at least have a few kids ride.

Horse Land: The large chunk of swampy land where the horses graze every day.

There are four horses the Jackson’s currently own, but one of them is out of commission, totally not my fault…okay actually it is totally my fault why the horse is out of commission. Many of you who read this blog do not know me on a real personal level. Well, probably after reading this blog, you know me better, but one thing that you should know about me: I DO NOT RIDE HORSES. Sure, I love to look at horses, and sure I like to ride horses WITH A SADDLE….but riding a horse on a blanket, with nothing to hold onto when the horse is stampeding down the road with cars, people, and motorcycles all around you?…yeah, that freaks me out. I have been here for eight months, and no matter how many times we go riding, I still panic every time I have to ride a horse with just a thin blanket draped over it. So yeah, the Jackson’s happen to have a saddle, so yeah, I am going to use it. Sad thing is the saddle does not fit the horses correctly, so after riding the horse for about a good solid month with it on, he got a massive gash on his back. So, he is currently healing, enjoying the grazing life and the life of shots of penicillin in the back.

Anyways, the three of us ran out into the swamp land to track the horses down. Katelyn, the horse whisperer got her horse in a matter of a few seconds. Kathleen and I, well, it was not so graceful, and it took us about fifteen minutes of stepping in sinking mud and walking through sticky wet bushes to track the two horses down. When we did, we bridled them up, oh yeah I know all the horse terms, and we began to trek up to the Jackson house.

The man who owns the property told us to walk out with a horses a different way. So Katelyn walked out with her horse, nothing wrong, Kathleen walked out with her horse, nothing wrong. Then I come through with my horse. (So the three of us have our horses that we ride all the time. Katelyn rides her moody teenager of a horse, Macchiato, Kathleen rides her multi personality horse, Thomas [yes we named him after the jerk from Downton Abbey], and I ride my horse, baby.)

One thing you should know about baby: he is actually a baby horse. He is old enough to carry a 117 pound girl, so do not worry...I am not breaking his back. Another thing you should know about baby: he has no idea how to ride with someone on his back, much like how I have no idea how to ride on top of a horse. Another thing you should know about baby: he likes to “space out” from time to time, so when I tell him to stop, eventually gets there, but he has to side swipe every horse while doing it.  Baby = me in horse form. Me= baby in human form. We are kindred spirits.

So here we go, my turn to walk baby out into the road. One thing the man forgot to tell me when walking out of the gate, on the ground is a wire, and that wire has electricity flowing through it. I, spaced out much like baby, and not aware of my surroundings, happen to walk on the wire. Begin the shrieking and yelping! I must have kicked the wire up or something, because next thing I know, it is stuck on my leg electrocuting me. I cannot get this wire away from me. I somehow get the power to just run. Baby, spaced out as well, gets all FOUR of his hooves stuck on the wire as well. He goes ballistic! I forgot to mention one little thing, as baby is getting shocked and going ballistic, I still am holding onto the rope. Next thing I know, he takes off fifty miles an hour down the road. I am hanging onto the rope screaming, “I am losing him Katelyn! I am losing him!!”

He was jumping and bolting so fast, I ended up letting go of the rope. Baby takes off alone down the street with cars, and people all over the place.

This is no joke; a scene from Jurassic Park began to unfold. Cameroonians HATE horses, they are afraid for their lives whenever they see a horse coming. Now, this is a horse that is walking alone, with no one leading it. Cameroonians were screaming and running for their lives. It was as if a MASSIVE T-rex was taking people out. We yelled at one Cameroonian man standing there, frozen, to grab the horse for us….he couldn’t do it. His legs were literally shaking. Luckily, baby stopped right in front of the man, spaced out, and Katelyn grabbed him.  

Now, like I mentioned before, I have been shocked before, but not like this. My entire body was shaking; I was dripping sweat like I had just run 20 miles, and my left arm went dead. I was so afraid, I had no idea what was going on. As we made our way to the house, Katelyn, who was way ahead of me turned and said “I think I know why baby freaked out like that.”

“I think I know as well.” I said dripping in sweat dragging along my non-responsive arm.

I ran into the house, jumped into the shower, and rubbed my dead arm down with steaming hot water. I think I sat in the shower for about twenty minutes, totally spaced out. Kathleen and Katelyn came in a couple times to make sure that I was okay, and I was, trust me, I just have never been hit like that with so many volts of electricity before. A few hours later, I was able to feel my arm and everything was back to normal.

After that joyous occasion on Friday, Saturday came and went. Everyone was wiped out. We needed a weekend without any large groups of people coming and staying the night, so we had a small pizza night, just with the Jackson village. Sunday we had church, and then Kathleen took some girls horseback riding, and that is the extent of our weekend.

I am now down to six weeks left in Cameroon, kind of crazy, but I have been slowly preparing my mind and getting emotionally ready for the big move home. In about a week and a half the Jackson Village will be staying in Yaounde for two weeks (we have SIL meetings) so, that means that I have now only four more weeks in Bamenda…..AH!

Where has the time gone?

Well, I need to get back to work; I have been “painting” coloring pages all day. (Chris bought this new art program that fills in line art. So I am currently colorizing pictures that need colorizing for the lessons!)

I have been listening to the same song for the last three hours on repeat. (My favorite band released their new single for their new album...it is really great. I have been waiting for this single since 2009!) Random pointless information sometimes is the best isn’t it?

Well, remember kids, the life lesson from Sarah Newman: DON’T WATCH JURASSIC PARK WHILE TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP!

Have a glorious day,

-Sarah