Urgent Prayer Request-Cameroon!

Below is an excerpt from one of John and Marilyn’s prayer letters.

Dear Prayer Warriors,

  As I sit outside on our little patio area, there is a gentle breeze blowing-so welcoming-just as the people here are.  We feel at home and our enjoying wonderful reunions with Cameroonians and missionaries alike.  Despite the joyful reunions, many have a heavy heart for their loved ones living in NW and SW Cameroon.  Please read the following which will explain the heavy hearts and our prayer request.

We have an urgent prayer request for the country of Cameroon. Many of you may not know of the conflicts and bloodshed going on in the NW and SW of Cameroon. I won’t go into the politics of it all, but unspeakable atrocities are happening everyday to innocent people, like what occurred in Central Africa Republic several years ago and continues in certain regions of the country. Mission agencies in Cameroon have had to tell their missionaries serving in those regions to evacuate to a safer area of the country.  These missionaries did not want to leave not only their villages and homes but their people group that they were serving and their dear believer friends and Bible translators.  Homes are being burned, people are hiding in the bush for safety, innocent people are being killed.

Last Friday morning, we gathered together at SIL (part of Wycliffe), Cameroonians and missionaries, to worship and pray for the country. It was the most meaningful time of worship and prayer I have ever experienced!! We would read Scripture, pray, sing and pray some more. Collectively, we fell on our knees, prostrate before the Lord, crying out to God, weeping together for the mothers and fathers who have lost their children, mourning for the loss of lives and the trauma people are experiencing, asking God to intervene and to be glorified through it all. Satan comes to seek and destroy, but we know God is and always will be the victor.

So, my prayer request is that you will pray for Cameroon, to pray as we did, for the people suffering, for the believers to stand firm in Christ, for comfort to those who have lost loved ones, that God would intervene and stop the war and God be glorified!  I, also, ask that you pray for these missionaries that had to re-locate, the trauma and pain of leaving their people groups, and the Bible translators they work with.  Pray that God would heal their pain and they would see His hand and purpose in their lives right now.

Thank you for taking time to read this. Our jobs are going well, busy like you. Praying that we will use our time wisely but, also, to take time to build relationships and really listen to people. My devotions this morning mentioned that time is a precious commodity. Wherever Jesus went He was sensitive to people’s needs and reached out in love to them. “If the Lord allowed Himself to be interrupted on the way to the cross, will He not also stop and listen when we call out to Him in our distress?”  To follow in His footsteps, I must be willing to be interrupted, to reach out in love and give of my time to others that are hurting and in need.  Please pray that I will do that.

Thank you for your prayers, they are needed and appreciated more than you know.

Love,

Marilyn (for the two of us)

The compound where we live and the guesthouses.