Mark and Jessica Spangler

So, I blogged a few weeks ago about digging the foundation for our church. Here are some pictures and I will post even more later.

My friend working even while her baby sleeps on her back. That is hard work and dedication!

Rain or shine we all bring our tools and get to work. The pastor calls it fellowship, and I think he is right! God is good!

These are all picture of a day when the Pastor and Mark flew to a nearby village for a special purpose. If you want to know more email us. The pictures are great. They flew overhead a few times looking for somewhere to land. Many people came to see if they died hahaha. Because they circled the people thought they were crashing. Even the “chief” came!

What a day! I have to just look and the pictures and listen to Mark so I can live vicariously through him.

So, not too many Mondays ago we took the day off of school an went down to a local event called Youth Day. For about two weeks the kids practiced and practiced how to march and dance so they could show off for everyone on Youth Day. So, we thought it would be great to go see everyone. Our kids saw all of their friends march!

Here are a few pictures of what we saw.

We know of few of these young ones from church and the neighborhood. They were lined up ready to march.

This school was lookin good and the girls in yellow were twirling hoops.

Here are some older girls waiting to march.

Here are some friends marching.

So, we asked a lot of questions and couldn’t seem to grasp the idea behind the day and the marching. It sure was fun getting out as a family and seeing most of our friends and kids friends. We took loads of pictures for our friends as most of them don’t have a camera. Now to get them printed out! Hahaha! Maybe next year we will learn more about this event.

In January we took a vacation to the capital city to visit with friends and stock up on supplies. We had a great time but the drive there was taxing. I must say we appreciate aviation in this country! Let me do my best to explain out drive. We had a ten hour drive starting at seven a.m. The first 2&1/2 hours of road is bumpy to say the least. There are potholes that are so big and nasty that they should have a new name. We crawled along for thirty minutes before it happened. Yes that’s right Caleb threw up in the car. We pulled over cleaned up as best we could, changed his clothes and shoes and got back on the road. Then he threw up again and again we cleaned up. Then he threw up again and before we could stop Zoe and Micah both threw up. This mess carried on until we got to paved roads a few hours later. To spare the details we still weren’t even half way there! Thankfully our tummies felt better soon and we arrived in the capital in time for dinner. We started our vacation the next day with a full load of laundry, including shoes and then several other loads full of car seat covers and also the removable covers on all the truck seats! So, as delightful as that was, as soon as I heard there was a flight headed to Banso with room for a few passengers that happened to be departing the day we were leaving, it didn’t take much persuasion for Mark to put me and the two youngest (who are most prone to car sickness) on the flight. We were able to make it home in time for me to kill the bees living in our chimney and fall asleep on the couch with a fever. Can I say again how grateful I am for aviation! So here are a few pictures.

We will be flying again but hopefully with the entire family next time!

These were taken by a tea plantation.

Bad roads

Because they are MKs!

Well, today went off as planned. I prepped our food for the day, made breakfast and extra foleri (a local red tea drink made from hibiscus leaves, similar to jamaica) because this afternoon we were going to a church work project! That’s right, just like on a short term mission trip, we were building a church. But, this time it is our church, and we were digging with our shovels and pick-axes along side our friends. We laughed, there was a bit of singing and joking and a ton of digging!

Our church has been saving and saving to buy a plot of land so they could build a covering to have church services under. We currently have services outside with little shelter and in a country that rains a lot! We are so excited to be a part of a body of believers. These people, even though they are very poor by American standards have come together and managed to buy a plot of land to build a church on. Everything where we live is on the side of a mountain, including this plot. It is so steep shallower paths have to be cut through or steps are carved out so people can cross it. So, today was our work project and the Spanglers arranged our day for Mark to get home in time for us all to go. So, with a backpack filled with cold foleri and water, two shovels and a pick-ax we all hiked, yes hiked our way down and around this small area of mountain we live, to our new church plot. We were the first to arrive (no surprise), so the pastor prayed and we started digging and carving out the side of the mountain. The area was marked for the building site and the youth group came last monday and had started the digging, so all we had to do was get to work. As we dug more and more and more people arrived. There was so much dirt and dust everywhere that not a person near was clean. With dirt flying and everyone working so hard we were so happy to be a part of this project. There is nothing quite like physically laying down dirt to level the slope and carving away dirt from the top area to make a flat surface large enough for our church. Anyways, I was reminded so much of all those trips I made to Mexico to help build churches in my high school and college years. But this time it is different because I am working along side of my friends and my church. We are so blessed that we can be a part of what God is doing in Cameroon. We are so blessed to be a part of things that seem so out of the ordinary. My world is constantly changing and I pray that it is changing because I see it a bit more through God’s eyes everyday.

We didn’t have our camera, although we both would have love pictures to show you all but today will remain in my memory.

We have really been enjoying our new puppy, Beni. He is very cute and surprisingly calm. He is a nipping, chewing, biting fool though! He likes to play with our dog Shadow and anyone else who will play with him. We are thankful he also enjoys sleeping. He is a delightful addition to our home and we hope he will prove to be a good watchdog just as Shadow is.

Mark brought home a new puppy today. The pictures aren’t great but they are something to share. We aren’t sure what to name him quite yet. Stay tuned. So far he is super calm and loves to chase Zoe when she runs by.

These ladies will be our egg layers.

They are escape artists and so we have already lost two. They escaped and got eaten by wild animals! Ouch.

Grazing and scratching in the pen. The white one was eaten by a hawk when he got out.

These fatties are the ones we raised in our living room when they were chicks. We had five and one was eaten by a stray dog and one is now in my freezer :). Yumm.