Mbɛ́mbə kíri ! (Ewondo for “Good day!”),
As we hope you have understood from our newsletters, 2017 has been an encouraging and challenging year. Matthew has taken on a variety of roles and levels of responsibility, while Teresa delightedly confronts the daily challenges of the little ones she teaches (as well as taking care of Matthew). It’s not hard to see how God prepared us specifically for the roles we fill here. As we seek daily to be faithful to the mission God has called us to in Cameroon, the Lord has been faithfully providing for us through his bounty and your generosity.
When leaving for Switzerland and Cameroon, our family budget was calculated based on older estimations. As we’ve both been healthy (praise God!), we have been able to meet all of our immediate needs through this budget, even though we’ve had little to put aside for later. To correct this gap, Wycliffe periodically recalculates (with our input) the estimation of financial needs based on our family situation, taxes, international travel, retirement, international exchange rates, health care, inflation, furlough, cost-of-living, a 10% assessment by Wycliffe, and specific needs. Due to major life changes among our partners, sometimes people have been forced to withdraw their support, and our current pledge has very recently dropped below even that initial budget, to a point that cannot fully meet our minimum expenses.
We now have a new and very realistic ministry budget target, but unfortunately, our current pledges fall 32% short of that target. Quickly reaching this new budget will help us as we prepare to return to the US at the end of this school year to continue work on Matthew’s Masters degree in Applied Linguistics at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in Dallas. The progress on this degree (Matthew is already about halfway through) has already made a huge difference in the quality and depth of support he can provide for Bible Translation and Linguistics across French-speaking Africa.
Partnership development is even more challenging from a distance than in person, when we can’t see you face to face, so we count on our prayer and financial partners to be advocates for us more than ever. God is good and we know that this distance is not a total disadvantage. One advantage of being tucked away here in Cameroon during the next 10 months is that we can continue to shower you with first-hand reports of how God is moving in Cameroon. Please check out the other parts of this newsletter for some of those exciting stories. If you know of anyone who might be interested in being a part of Bible Translation through our Wycliffe ministry, please let us know. When we return home this summer for furlough, we hope to reconnect with our faithful partners, as well as meeting the friends, family and new members of our ever-changing partner churches and strengthening any new bonds in person.
Lord willing, we still see ourselves returning to Cameroon after furlough for our next term, and stateside time will be in preparation for returning to our posts in Cameroon. Wycliffe firmly requires staff to be at 100% of our budget each time that we return to the field, and we have seen friends remain in the US for months (or years) before being released to leave. Please help us to bridge the gap and reach our target long before that point. We anticipate significant expenses during our time in the US, including school costs. We look forward to what God will do!
Abuí ngaŋ ! (Ewondo for “Thank you!”)
~Matthew and Teresa Lee
Your Wycliffe missionaries in Cameroon
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We would love for you to join our team either through prayer or financial partnership!
Ways to join our Wycliffe financial or prayer partnership team:
(1) Visit https://www.wycliffe.org/partner/302162
(2) For tax deductible gifts, checks should be made payable to Wycliffe Bible Translators with a separate note indicating "Preference for the Wycliffe Ministry of Matthew and Teresa Lee: Account #302162" and sent to Wycliffe Bible Translators P.O Box 628200 Orlando, FL 32862-8200 USA
(3) Contact us and we will get you started.
Teresa_Lee@Wycliffe.org or Matthew_Lee@Wycliffe.org
To learn more about Wycliffe and Bible Translation, visit: www.Wycliffe.org
Thank you to all who already partner with us in this journey!
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Back to School
Teresa has started her third year of teaching here in Cameroon. She has just finished up the first Joint Learning Session (JLS) to kick off the year. She had six students who were excited to start kindergarten. Some of the highlights of JLS were playing basketball (they learned to dribble!), practicing tying their shoes (a few of them mastered it!), having a Roman feast (they got to lie on the tables!), predicting what would blow in the wind (we had to postpone this experiment because the power was out!), and reading lots of stories (especially Harold and the Purple Crayon!)
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What is a Biblebox?
Is it a box of Bibles? A Bible in a box? A BibleBox is a set of inexpensive parts that can act as a portable server for digital Bible content. This little device allows people to download (and later share) copies of the Jesus Film, Audio Bibles, or Scripture Apps directly to a phone, tablet, or computer.
Our organization bought 23 of the devices for the Cameroon branch of Campus Crusade for Christ, and Louis Pascal and Matthew spent a few weeks configuring the devices and loading them full of audio, video, and text resources from 87 different languages spoken in Cameroon. We then worked with the staff and volunteers of Cru to train them in the use of the BibleBox before they went out to reach people in the streets of Yaoundé.
Here are results from Campus Crusade’s BibleBox campaign throughout Yaoundé:
Over 21 Days, in the markets, streets, churches, boutiques, taxis, buses, offices, and homes of Yaoundé, 1944 different devices connected to one of the 23 BibleBoxes, and 55,772 Files were downloaded in a total of 78 different languages! 76% of these files were in minority languages.
These people can now freely share these files with others!
Other evangelisation materials were presented, and at least 5 individuals said a prayer of confession.
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The man in yellow is holding a Biblebox (white device) so that others can download scripture.
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Praises and Prayers
- Praise that God is faithful in providing for us! Pray for new financial partners to step up and fill the gap in our budget needs.
- Praise for the BibleBox ministry with Campus Crusade. Pray for all those who will now have the opportunity to read or listen to scripture in their heart language.
- Praise that Matthew is able to travel to Dallas October 8th-18th for international meetings and to present a paper at the Bible Translation Conference. (Matthew's travel to Texas is financed by Africa Area.) Pray for safe travels, a good time of presenting and learning, and time to catch up with other colleagues from around the world.
- Praise that Teresa is able to fly into Virginia and meeting Matthew for a short visit from October 18th-29th during her October break from school here. Thank you for a special gift from family and friends to make this possible. Pray that she has safe travel to and from and a relaxing time with friends and family.
- Praise that the school year is off to a great start. Pray for continual strength and perseverance for both her and the students.
- Praise that Running Club is off to a good start. There are 20+ students who have been coming out to run. Pray for Teresa as she is helping out again this year. Pray for her knee and wisdom to take care of it.
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"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!""
Isaiah 52-7
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Click on the buttons below to ...
Follow Matthew on Twitter, look at pictures and posts from Teresa on Facebook, or read blog entries about our life in Cameroon
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