The White Cameroonian, Pre-historic Rats and Called to Preach!

Dear Friends and Family,

First off, for those who have been receiving blank emails from me, I apologize. It seems that my hotmail account has fallen prey to some sort of virus. It's Thursday, which means that by God's grace I have survived another week of teaching. In all honesty, each Thursday after I walk out of my final class, OT Intro., I throw my hands into the air thanking God for His grace and strength to persevere. Six hours straight of intense biblical-theological teaching is awesome, yes, but at times it is enough to cause my head to explode. Presently, in my gospels' classes we have finished Matthew, conerning OT we completed the book of Ezekiel today, which was awesome by the way, and in Hebrew we are now in the Niphal verbal stem (passive/reflexive simple action). I love teaching--man, I love teaching. There are still days when I want to cry, but by God's grace I am being carried through. You do not know how much your prayers mean to me. Alright, before my computer spazzes out, or something else unforseen occurs, let me comment on the titles above. Concerning, "The White Cameroonian," I was recently addressed by a student and fellow teacher as a "White man with black skin underneath." I was blessed by such a comment, but had to laugh a bit. Also, some of the students who were watching the football match last Saturday approached me after the game and said, "Professor, you play like a black man." I though my performance that game was pretty poor, but was enouraged by such a comment. Alright, about the rats: I have been invaded by zebra-sized bush rats. These little suckers seem to be inpervious to my MacGuyver-like wits. I've put out poison, traps and have even waited over their hole with my stag-handled bowie knife with no luck. I may need to bring Scamp, my wild dog, into the home to take care of this problem. I was hoping that the rats and I could be friends, but it does not look like this will be the case. They must die by my hands---Arrrr! Lastly, I found out today that I will be preaching in chapel on Monay--Holy Smokes! Usually I devote my entire weekend to lecture preparation for the following week. Pray that I would be able to prepare both my lectures and Monday's sermon this weekend. It's going to be a challenge, but I'm not too worried. I'm leaning towards the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. It's hard to believe that my time here is moving to a close. There remains 4 weeks left of teaching in the Spring semester, followed by graduation and lastly the one week Hebrew exegesis intensive I have been asked to teach one week prior to my departure. Some days I feel that I may be ready to return home, but other days I find myself absolutely loving my situation. Of course ministry is not meant to be easy, but in all honestly this has been the most difficult minstry I have ever been involved in. At the same time it has probably been the most enjoyable minstry experience of my life. Many students and teachers are encouraging me to stay, but this is clearly something that I must seriously pray about. I have grown quite fond of the Cameroonian culture, especially the food, and am overwhelmed at times by the numerous needs and challenges addressing the church here in West Africa. May God's will be done! I must leave, but again, thank you so much for your prayers.

For His glory,

CT