Thursday morning we drove west to Mokolo over a very good road (80kms.) and then on to Roumsiki over what one has difficulty in naming as a road. My Honda CRV wouldn’t have made it.


Val and I visited Roumsiki in 2000. The landscape here is absolutely breathtaking: cameras cannot truly capture the beauty. Rocky pinnacles reach up like groping fingers in the foreground with rugged mountains standing guard along the Nigerian border. Deep precipices reveal smoother rolling valleys beginning to green with the touch of the first rains of the season.

We experience one of these rains Thursday evening which caused the temperature which is already cooler because of the higher altitude, to drop even further. Our bodies totally confused by the heat of Maroua respond with shivers. The evening rain was accompanied by a continuous barrage of thunder, but no visible lightning. This would be in stark contrast to a storm we would experience on our return where lightning bolts ricocheted from cloud to cloud and pummeled the earth with frightening consistency.

That evening in the village of Roumsiki, and at the Pastor’s village home we ate outside in the dark. The village people seem to know that manioc is not a staple of our diet and they go out of their way to feed us rice. In Maroua they served us macaroni. Whether you are served rice or manioc it is always accompanied by a sauce, some spicier than others, with either chicken, goat meat, fish, fish heads and /or bush meat (??). The food is very good.

We have introductions and prayers in the local village mud brick church, before proceeding (after we eat) to a market area where we set up a generator and a digital projector to project videos portraying avenues of Christian faith to follow.


The children and women greet us – they are hoeing and planting arachides (peanuts)

In the morning we depart for Mokolo: the return route always seems shorter. But just as rough. We stop and visit an EELC village congregation of Gouria. Some children and people greet us with great exuberance, but most of the people are out in the fields taking advantage of the rain softened soil. The women are hoeing and planting arachides (peanuts). They gave Val some to plant in her garden.  A few brief visits in Mokolo, which is a fair sized village, and then we return to Maroua.

Maroua (over 100,000 pop.) is the last major stop before heading north into Chad. Ndjamena is about 250kms north of us. There was great concern several weeks ago as opposition forces had the city surrounded before being driven back. We see convoys of UN vehicles proceeding north. Etienne was especially worried: his son Samuel attends school in Ndjamena.

While in Roumsiki Val and I were asked the possibility of a bicycle for the youth evangelist, and we told them that the formula for getting a bicycle was to have 15000Fcfa up front. Someone immediately waved the money in front of us. Etienne Fomgbami the Vice President of the EELC being in charge of distributing motos, bicycles and the installation of church roofs, nodded his approval. We bought the evangelist a bicycle (total cost 65000Fcfa).

The next morning we are off to Moulvoudaye, a village about 65kms east of Maroua, and an area which is far from the headquarters of the EELC, but where there have been many conversions to the Christian faith. We arrive in Moulvoudaye in the late afternoon. About seventy people from neighbouring congregations have gathered to welcome us. We have also been joined on this leg of our journey by Finn Ove Kahldol, a Norwegian Missionary who has helped evangelize this area. We are greeted with much singing and great joy from the men and the ladies. Not only are they happy to see that the Vice President will come this far to visit them, but there are also white people, including Finn Ove, whom they know quite well. The two white people from Canada are especially greeted as they are the ones who brought the motorcycle for their pastor.

There is much more singing and many offerings of thanks. Valerie finally stands and, through an interpreter, informs them of a group of Lutheran Christian ladies of a circle called Mary-Ruth from Kenora, Ontario, Canada that had donated to them a brand new Moto.
With sincere emotion she tells of the efforts of the Mary-Ruth Circle (Bethesda, Kenora) in sewing, knitting and baking goods for sale in order to have the funds available for a Moto. The people clap and sing in response to Valerie’s words. There is much joy in Moulvoudaye as the people gather about the motorcycle that has bold red coloured letters on a gold background that spell out “Mary Ruth”.

There is a tragic part to this story. The motorcycle was purchased from a Garoua Muslim family in the Moto business. One of their sons (early twenties) was accosted by bandits while delivering the intended motorcycle from Nigeria and was robbed and killed. We were devastated by this tragic news. The Muslim family replaced the motorcycle.

Valerie and I visited with the family in Garoua where we greeted the mother, offered our sympathy and a gift of condolence. I witnessed an unforgettable scene: a Christian mother and a Muslim mother embracing in understanding the tragic loss of a child. 

It is late afternoon on Saturday and we have two more villages to visit. We are following the Norwegian Representative and unfortunately he makes a wrong turn and we are lost in semi desert like terrain. The decision is made to cut cross country, swerving around four foot high shrubbery, dodging thorn bushes which invite tires to be flattened, we finally after many kilometers arrive on a trail that is the right one. The village of Caplla is found, the chief is greeted and the people again celebrate our arrival. Val is in wonder over the number of children!  The Norwegian   Finn Ove will remain here to show a film while we must move on south to another village. My greatest fear is in not finding our way: being lost in this desert-like terrain does not seem too appealing. But we have the local pastor who does know his way out: we have traveled about twenty kilometers to go twelve.

We head back towards Maroua going about 15 kilometers and then turn onto another bush road and after 7kms. arrive at our destination village of Baknyn.

Again we have a great welcome. The generator is started and we watch an introductory film and the story of Esther in French. Prayers are said. We are fed, and Etienne, Val and I depart in total darkness. We emerge from the bush road in about twenty minutes and turn onto the main road for home. I would like you to imagine driving down a narrow rough road through a semi desert area where every few kilometers you cross narrow open bridges without railings that span dry river beds awaiting the rain. One grips the wheel tightly.

A fork in the road appears and we take the straighter path which happens to be the wrong one. A short distance later the road is overflowing with water in a place I fail to remember. We are mired in mud: unable to move. It is 11:30pm and we are in a strange land about 30kms from the Chad border.

Our vehicle is an older model and to change to 4 wheel drive one must get out of the car (which is in at least a foot of murky water) and change a setting on the hubs of the front wheels. I am now driving in muddy bare feet, but the 4 wheel drive responds at full throttle
and we emerge like Nautilus. My theory is that God has stopped us from going further the wrong way, and has even allowed young people to walk along the road this late at night to inform us we are indeed going the wrong way.

We arrive at our guest house at 12:30am. I wash my feet and go to bed.

I forgot to mention that we also arranged for a bicycle to be delivered to an evangelist in Moulvoudaye also.


On the road from Maroua – the Mouda village church on Sunday

God’s blessings, will continue tomorrow…  Jack  & Val

P.S.  We have changed plans AGAIN… taking train out of N’déré on Monday, June 2nd to Yaoundé. Bus to Bafoussam – then by car with a Cameroonian pastor friend  to the village of Mayo Djiinga, to see their new roof being constructed and a visit with Djang Robert. Bus back to Douala on Thursday very early to catch flight out at 5:35 a.m. on Friday to London. Should be in Pinawa before June 14th after we pick up our vehicle at Allan’s.