Holy Week – Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Lord, you did what terrifies us, and won our redemption. Strengthen our hearts to do what we have to do—C.S. Lewis. 
Good Friday we will be travelling to two of our village churches with clothes, hats, tee shirts and mainly greetings in Christian love.
Our time here is drawing to a close, we are very busy putting closure to gathering viable project ideas. Upon our return we will have much to share. We continue to attend daily devotions /service at the hospital chapel – we leave the house at 7:30 a.m. – we will miss this.
We look forward to Bishop Elaine and Pastor Rick Sauer’s visit.
We travel by train on Sunday to meet them.
The daily knockings on our door persist – some are very difficult. This morning at 9:30 a member of Cross and Crown (C&C) came wanting help for his daughter to continue her schooling at the cost of 30,000 cfa/year. Another project?: A Scholarship Fund.
We feel bad for this family, he is going to be 60, he has a much younger wife – still having babies! If this daughter has to quit school, what becomes of her? So often – they get involved in misadventures to support themselves. Pregnancy and HIV/Aids infection run high in this young age group!

Above: We traveled to two different mountainous villages last Thursday with the Social Worker, Fanta. We met four different families with orphaned children, one of the mother’s has 10 orphans (not all her own), the husband is dead! The conditions are terrible. The room inside is void of furnishings, all except for one sack of grain(?).

The morning into mid-day (12:30) was extremely hot (they say our hottest day) – we had to walk when the road came to an end for both villages. The second village was just past Burkina – called Jerusalem. Now I can say I’ve been to Jerusalem… surrounded by craggy large rock formations.

How about a juicy mango? They are at their peak right now – at least the children have the opportunity of this delicious fruit – free for the picking.
All our Love – God Bless…          
Jack and Val
Aka Mom  &  Dad

P.S… reflections from Jack
It rained twelve days ago.  Since that time, we have been teased by high flying clouds and the distant blackening of skies, but it has not rained – but, it is HOT! This morning as we walked to the hospital chapel we cast an eye upwards to see again the high clouds and thought perhaps today the dust will be subdued and that silty stuff blown from the Sahara will meet a watery adversary, but it did not rain.  Then we heard the roar in the distance and saw the sky turn dark and darker, and the shroud of something… it must be rain, moving towards us. The air howled and the shroud moved towards us with increasing intensity. Look at the rain coming, hear the rain coming! Like a raging animal it came towards us. Discarded black garbage bags, a trademark here, virtually became alive and flew before the onslaught of air. Distant rolling thunder quelled at least for the moment, the arid sense of the stifling heat and dust filled air. The rain was coming, but then the thunder seemed more distant. The wind abruptly subsided, the black plastic reverted to a lifeless state, and the sound we thought was beautiful refreshing moisture laden drops just ceased to be. It was still - it had not rained! 
An afterthought to the p.s. – it did rain about 8 in the evening – not much, but the few drops had Val out sitting on the porch, languishing in the freshness.

And, it boomed thunder with much rain on Thursday, knocking out power and the internet – have not been able to connect since Wednesday. The rains have definitely returned – each evening around 6 – 7. We travel tomorrow by train – Easter Sunday – to meet Bishop Elaine and her husband in Yaounde on Monday – returning on Wednesday.
Until next time -  Bénédictions de Pâques.
Life continues to remind us of how fortunate we are in Canada…let us count our blessings.