Correspondence
from Ryan on this page is listed in chronological order.
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14 October 2006
Dear friends,
Greetings from rainy Cameroon! It is a sunny Saturday morning here, but the tall grass in the yard and the thick mud on the street outside give testimony to the fact that we are in full rainy season. On each of the past several evenings, God has sent us impressive thunder and lightning shows with long, heavy downpours. Just as He does in nature, God continues to show Himself powerful in the work here and abundant in pouring blessings into my life.
Since I last wrote, I have been blessed by the addition of a housemate! Thomas Nyffenegger arrived from Switzerland about three weeks ago, and is adjusting well to his first experience in Africa. Thomas is about my brother’s age and is a fun and energetic guy. I am happy to have some company in the house, and the Christian fellowship of a Swiss brother! He will be working in the SIL-Cameroon computer department for this year.
The school year is well underway, with one academic quarter successfully completed and a second recently begun. The music program continues to grow artistically and numerically. The student interest in music is encouragingly high. For example, the high school choir has grown from 28 students last year to 43 this year. There was also a high number of students interested in private music lessons. As you can imagine, as much as I’d like to be able to teach them all, I don’t have time in my schedule for over 40 individual lessons! Thankfully, I was able to communicate and coordinate with other musicians in the missionary community, and between all of us, we are giving music lessons to many of them. This represents many hours of practicing and much personal improvement for each student. I look forward to hearing them at our semester recital later this quarter.
Of course, I am excited about more than just the musical development happening here at RFIS. As I continue on for a second year in the same place, I can see more and more opportunities to play an important spiritual, developmental role in the lives of these students, as they open up more to me. Through continued interaction with the students, in and out of class, and through my roles as 12th grade class advisor, running club sponsor, and small group Bible study leader, I am thankful for the moments of mentorship and encouragement God gives me with the kids. Tonight, for example, I will be going over to school to chaperone a “canteen night,” when students can come to school to hang out together for the evening, play sports, buy snacks from the canteen, etc. It will be a fun opportunity to interact with the students outside the classroom.
My small group is different from last year, in that I have 9th and 10th grade boys, instead of seniors. I have been impressed by their eagerness to study God’s Word together, as participation in a small group is entirely voluntary. A few weeks into the school year, I had them all over to my house for a sleepover. We stayed up late playing games and watching movies, and I was reminded how much six high-school guys can eat!
I continue to thank God for His goodness and protection in keeping me healthy throughout a physically active school year! As a running club sponsor, I continue to run with the club and on my own several times a week. Add to that a semiweekly weight-exercise routine with fellow teachers, intramural soccer with the students, and ultimate Frisbee with the missionary community, and the days fill up quickly with sweat and sports! I thank God often for giving me the health and strength to enjoy an active lifestyle.
The Lord continues to open doors of opportunity for friendship and ministry at church also. I continue to translate biweekly, which challenges my linguistic skills and helps the Anglophones who don’t speak French! More recently, I have also been able to deepen my friendships with some of the young Cameroonian guys in the church, by inviting them over for lunch after the service, or by going running with them through the neighborhoods on the weekend.
Another door of ministry opened up recently when God brought Michel to my door. (Michel is pronounced “me-shell” and is French for Michael.) Michel was in a serious gas explosion at work some eight years ago, and it has left his face significantly burned and melted. Most of his outer ears are gone. Several of his fingers were also broken in the accident, and were never reset properly, so that they have healed at strange angles.
Seeing Michel reminded me of a poem by the poignant poet, Steve Turner, entitled “It Must Be Hard”:
It must be hard for those
whose faces make children cry,
whose voices make adults embarrassed,
whose skin turns our eyes to lovelier things.
They must get used to silence.
They must think of humans
as those who turn away,
who withdraw their smiles and sounds
like hands from an angry dog.
There is nothing as evil to us as ugliness.
It deserves only a room to hide itself in,
some air, and a little light.
Meanwhile, we help by telling
children not to stare
and by keeping the jokes to ourselves.
Like many beggars, Michel had no difficulty ringing my doorbell and pouring out to me all his woes and problems. He complained of severe pain in his teeth, and said he needed money to see a dentist. Well, I learned a long time ago that dumping money at problems is not the best solution, even if it is often the easiest thing we rich Westerners like to do. When one hands out money, it’s hard to identify the true problem, one is not personally involved in bringing about change, and one cannot verify how the money really ends up being used. So, when I am confronted by a need like Michel’s, I know that I must be willing to give first my time and then my money. This is much harder for us to do – we tend to value our time very highly! Rather than dumping money into Michel’s broken hand and sending him on his way, I asked him to come back the next day, and told him that I would accompany him to the dentist’s office. Since so many of the “needs” presented at my door are just attempts to get money via bogus problems, I was somewhat surprised – and pleased – when he showed up the next day and came with me to the dentist. After spending much of the morning waiting, Michel’s teeth were finally examined, and the dentist confirmed several problems. We made an appointment to begin working on them another day, when I could bring more money, and bought some prescribed pain medication at the nearby pharmacy for the meantime. In our time waiting, we talked about many things, including spiritual matters, and Michel claimed to be a believer, though he admitted that he did not attend church regularly. I invited him to come to my church the next day and was once again pleased to see that he came. He said he enjoyed the service very much and was challenged by it. He hopes to keep coming every week. Since then, I have taken him down for the first of two dentist visits, and paid for the more urgent dental problems. I am trusting that God will use this experience in Michel’s life to draw him closer, or to save him, if he does not know Christ, and that meeting some of his physical needs will be a gateway to meeting his spiritual ones.
Finally, I want to ask you to praise God with me for the work He continues to do in my own spiritual life. I am confident, as was the apostle Paul, that He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion. This promise is a great encouragement to me, and I am always thankful to see evidence of God’s continued work in my heart. Most recently, within the past several months, I have experienced some great spiritual victories, learned some important lessons along the way, and have felt my fellowship with the Spirit and my walk with Christ become much deeper than ever before. These seasons of growth and forward progress in the journey are truly blessings poured out from God.
Thanks to each of you who sends encouragement and aid in the form of prayers, financial support, and warm emails and letters. You are an important part of the work here in Cameroon.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit!
In Him,
Ryan
P.S. Here are some statistics for all you numbers people! Let’s count our blessings…
6 – number of 9th and 10th grade boys in my small group Bible study
31 – number of people running in running club
32 – number of students getting music lessons
40 – number of tacos six high-school boys can quickly consume at a small group sleepover
43 – number of students who wanted to take music lessons
49 – percentage of high-school students in choir this year
88 – number of kilometers I have run – safely on busy roads! – since September 1st
1237 – number of kilometers our running club has collectively logged since September 1st
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February 2007
Dear friends,
This email update is a bit overdue, in that I dislike having two months go by without writing you! Most recently, I was deliberately postponing my letter because my life was still in the process of a significant transition. You might say I was too busy steering through the curves of life to stop and describe the ride! While things are still in transition, I think the time is well at hand to catch you up to date on an important change God has brought into my life.
Well, if you couldn’t tell by the subject line of this email, the exciting news all at once in a nutshell is this: I’m engaged! I know, I know, most of you didn’t even know I was dating. Sorry to spring it on you all at once. In response to your looks of surprise and exclamations of amazement (I’m imagining them across the miles…), let me say that I too am surprised and amazed! We have known each other only since she arrived in Cameroon last August, and only dated for two months before I popped the question! But the timing has seemed perfectly coordinated by God. Let me just back up and tell you the story…
Rachel Ekstrand and I first met last August when she arrived back in Cameroon. Why “back” in Cameroon? Well, Rachel is a fellow MK from Africa, having spent much of her childhood in Zaire. After evacuating from that country twice during a few of its past unstable moments, she spent her high school years at RFIS here in Cameroon, graduating in 2002. (She is 22.) Rachel then attended North Park University in Chicago, from where she graduated last year with a degree in Sociology. As she weighed the options for her first step after college, God led her to return to Cameroon this year, to help fill needs here and to give her a chance to evaluate what it might be like to be a teacher. Rachel team-teaches Middle School Bible and teaches an Algebra class at RFIS. She also serves as the hostel assistant for the two boarding hostels, giving each of the sets of hostel parents one night off per week and one weekend off per month. As she contemplated her return to Cameroon and to RFIS last summer, Rachel wrote, “Through it all, I am excited to witness how God will move and transform me. I look forward to learning more about how to make my heart’s home in him, trusting that he will provide, and seeing more pieces of his plan for my life unfold.”
As I got to know Rachel this year, I found in her a godly, Christlike spirit, a desire to serve God with all her heart wherever that might be, and a great love for others. I also found a good friend, someone with whom I felt very comfortable and “at home”. She is a kindred spirit in many ways, in terms of experience, interests, and passions. Gradually, we discovered that we had developed a special love for each other, so we discussed our relationship and began dating on December 10th. Over the past two months, God made His leading very clear to us, that He had brought us together and that this was the kind of relationship on which a marriage could be built. Sooo…this past Monday, February 5th, I took Rachel out on a picnic and asked her to marry me. And she said Yes!
I wish I could introduce Rachel to all of you, but I can only describe her (in whatever limited way English words allow) for now.
We have yet to get really good pictures taken together, but you can be sure that I will pass them on in my next newsletter!
We don’t know for sure yet when the wedding will be – there are many details to discuss and things to consider – but it is likely to be this summer (June or July), somewhere centrally located in the US.
How can you pray for me? Well, first, please thank God and praise Him for this great blessing in my life. Rachel is so much more than I expected! (Why do we limit God by dreaming small dreams?) Second, as you can imagine, adding wedding planning to an already busy schedule can be quite overwhelming. Finally, please pray that God would give us clear direction for the years ahead. I still feel God’s calling to remain here in Cameroon, working with MKs and the students at RFIS. Rachel, too, has a love for the MK school setting and had even decided to return for a second year before I asked her to marry me. Her role for next year is still unclear, though she hopes to continue co-teaching a Bible class and may be able to fill a gap in the office left by our departing secretary. (Don’t forget! There are many positions still vacant at RFIS next year – would you consider coming to help for a year? or more?)
Thank you so much for your constant support, your love, and prayers for me… now for us!
Praising God for HIS amazing love,
Ryan
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