CAMEROON MISSION FUND MONTHLY REPORT – JANUARY 2009
As birthdays ‘pile up’, time seems to fly at a faster pace. Is it truly possible that we have entered 2009?! The Lord has been so good to me over the course of my lifetime and He has truly blessed this ministry. It does not seem possible that we are in our 18th year of working under the oversight of the Buckingham Road Church of Christ elders. Linda and I have been so blessed to have this association as these men truly love the Lord and are seeking to do His will. I am also grateful for the mission committee of this great church. They work tirelessly to oversee not only this ministry but works in Russia, Jerusalem and Mexico. Our prayer is to do all that we can to further the Kingdom of God in our small way.
A new year gives pause to reflect on what has gone before. It is not that we dwell on our failures or successes but hopefully we learn from them. We also are able to see that the Lord is working in a great way. I never forget that it is He who is at work and that we are simply His vessels. I am grateful to each of you that work so diligently in the Kingdom in many various ways. Your partnership in this ministry is such a comfort to me and to many others that are coming to know Christ. I will continue to remind you that every decision we make and every effort that we attempt is with the view of defeating Satan and his army.
Our work with World Bible School continues to be very fruitful. Last year the Lord enabled me to work with 13 congregations and witness over 500 of their members become involved in sharing the gospel with over 600! WBS currently has about 12,000 teachers and on average, each teacher will have a little over 2 baptisms per year! The 600 students that the above churches began with will ultimately number in the multiplied thousands. While WBS has students in approximately 200 nations around the world, the vast majority are in 3rd world countries. These nations value printed literature in ways that an American cannot comprehend. When a WBS lesson is sent to one person there are many who will read the material. Only the Lord knows how many millions will one day enter heaven because of American Christians who were willing to share the gospel with others via WBS. Please continue to pray for the work that I am doing in going out on weekends to share the WBS story with congregations.
The part of this ministry that gets the most press is our work in Cameroon. As you know from the report I made upon our return in late November, the Lord truly blessed that effort. We are doing our best to help motivate the brethren in Cameroon to take responsibility for the work in their area. Many of us were raised in the church and worship in congregations that have a long history of involvement in the work of God. While we have our share of ‘pewpackers’, we also have a much larger percentage of mature Christians than a typical Cameroonian church possesses. It is truly difficult to convey the problems that we are facing in helping the church in Cameroon become full-grown. Let me illustrate in this way using your congregation as an example: picture your church having a total attendance of 50 including children. Within this number there is no trained minister nor are there any truly mature brethren. Possibly you are a congregation that has a few mature brethren. In essence, you have babies nurturing babies. Now Linda and I have 9 grandchildren with the oldest being 7 years of age. Now he is a sharp little guy but I don’t think his parents want to put him in charge of taking care of his 3 brothers. I certainly know that his aunts and uncles would not let him take care of their 5 kids. It takes years to mature an individual and the same is true of a congregation. If you have any age on you then you know that change must come slow if it is to be of value. If I could snap my fingers and the church in Cameroon would become mature, I would ‘snap away’. We need each of you to continue to pray for the maturation process of the church in Cameroon.
Next month we will conduct our 11th annual leadership training seminar. As I have stated in past reports, it is my firm conviction that these seminars are the most important part of our work. Over time we are seeing changes in the way the brethren think and that is essential if they are to grow. Paul will exhort the Corinthian brethren in I Corinthians 14:20 that “in regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” The Hebrew writer will say in 5:12: “though by this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again.” Going back to I Corinthians Paul will lament in chapter 3 that they were not ready for solid food but still needed milk. Our seminars serve to mature our brethren but the growth process cannot be done quickly. I am excited about the class that Terry Smith will conduct. He is going to build on what Richard Sutton taught last year regarding Servant Leadership. Terry is going to assist the brothers in developing a closer walk with the Lord. He wants to help them assist the brethren in going beyond the church hall. Here is what I mean; too many of our brethren in Cameroon believe that Christianity begins and ends in the worship assembly. As we clearly understand, Christianity involves a daily walk with Jesus and Terry will be working to help the brothers in this area. Vonda is going to continue her work with the sisters regarding the teaching of the children. She is going to invest more time in working with a select number of women who will ultimately be sent out to congregations to help the local church regarding their Sunday School program. I am convinced that the church in Cameroon will take decades to build and a big part of that growth will take place with our children. I am going to begin a class that will focus on the way Jesus saw things. My purpose is to help our brethren become those who mimic the mind, speech and actions of our Lord. Lasting growth will never take place as long as we are focused on the externals. Please be in prayer that the Lord will bless us in sharing His Word with the leaders we will be helping.
You are aware that God gives ‘gifts’ to all of His children. One of my ‘gifts’ is that of harassment. I am coming to you again with my hand firmly held out! The main headline in the Christian Chronicle for January is: Economic outlook for churches: Less money, more need? The reality is that when hard times hit, mission programs are also hit. As I pointed out in my August report; we have 5 churches awaiting roofs but we cannot help even one because of a lack of funds. The Cameroon Mission Fund has a new contributor but we lost two and the net result is a negative $450 each month! You will recall that we have a work in Yokaduma and we have placed a new man in that town to build the church up. We had to establish a second congregation because the first one was too far from the city. The result is that we had to spend a little over $1,000 which has put us with a small amount of ‘cash flow’. I understand that this is a bad time to be making requests but I am hopeful that some of you can come to our aid with a one-time gift. Maybe you could give $1,000 or even more. Perhaps you can become a regular contributor. As I have said in past reports; make any checks payable to Buckingham Road Church of Christ-CMF and mail to:
Buckingham Road Church of Christ
Bro. Jim Corner
3630 Buckingham Road
Garland, TX 75040
The final paragraph of each report is always the most difficult because I am trying to convey my heart to you. I want to have words that will somehow tell you how grateful I am. I am convinced that you will see that gratitude in full only when you reach Heaven and see all of those who became children of God because of your prayers, effort and giving. THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!
In Christ,
Jim Corner