Latest Newsletter

To All Family and Friends

Praise be to Him! I think every day to myself, "You,You are the one
who is in control, who is taking care of Your children." This
frequently comes to mind anytime I am in a car or near the road. It
feels as if Jesus has just been sending me love note. Due to my
frequent feeling of helplessness, I have been forced to stress and do
things on my own or turn to Him in such a different way. As school
has finished, I have struggled with sadness due to the loss of a few
staff that will be leaving along with students. Even though it is a
Christian school, a relationship with Jesus is not a prerequisite for
parents or students in order to attend RFIS. Some students are
Christian; however, their parents are not. As a few of the students
leave, I pray that they will truly see the light of Christ through the
community of students and teachers.

We will be meeting with Peggy about what she has been coordinating for
summer village teams. I think there are 3 options, so we are seeking
direction as to where we will spend a few weeks serving. It has been
really amazing hearing many different missionary parents share about
how they are reaching people with God’s Word here. There have been
different missionaries who use audio recordings of scriptures when
they are working with language groups who are from oral cultures along
with writing God’s Word in their own language. One of the parents of
our students shared how they had been working on translation and often
would read back what they had translated, and the language helper
would fall asleep. So one day he decided to read a translated passage
in cultural fashion, the way the people group actually tells true
stories. They were so excited to hear God’s Word in their own language
and storytelling form.

The plans for next year - we will no longer have our school counselor,
so Mark has been asked to join a group of staff and students to insure
that students will have someone to talk to. That being said, it is
crazy to think we have been here 4 months! That’s the longest I think
either of us has been away from The States, but time here has gone
quickly.

Just as we are finishing this newsletter, we have finalized plans for
moving into another missionary family's house while they are on
furlough until January 2012. We are very excited because we had begun
to look into housing options outside of our mission organization’s
housing. We began this for two reasons: the first was we heard we
could save money by moving into the local community, and the second
was to join the surrounding local community and to live by
Cameroonians. We found this opportunity with the Gaults as they are
missionaries that just left for 7 months to help their daughter that
just graduated from RFIS settle into college. As we mention below, we
hope that this can help extend our stay with the combination of a few
more monthly financial partnerships.

Fundraising update
We have approximately 85% of our full support for our original 2-year
assignment, but to stay the additional 4 months they have asked of us
we currently are only at 70%. Please pray and share with your family
and friends so that we would have enough support to stay until June
2013.

Praises
That staff and students have survived another school year!That transition in Cameroon feels completeFinding housing that allows us to save money

Prayer Requests
Decision on where to serve for a couple weeks during the summerSafe travel for staff that are flying home for the summer or leaving Cameroon for goodSmooth transition for all the staff and students that are not
returning to CameroonMoving into the neighborhood - for safety and to bless othersJoy and Peace in Christ,
Mark and Leah Janowiak

Mark's Birthday

Hello Family and Friends

So, life has been busy since the middle of May I have had little time to blog: projects, end of year school events, planning for next year, creating summer project lists, meetings with our administration team, and my BIRTHDAY! I will say I have been blown away by my wife for my birthday this year. This year Leah decided to have a 26 day celebration for my 26th birthday! SO, since the middle of May Leah has been giving me a piece of paper every day giving me hints of what I may receive, happen, or do for the day. I may be gushing, but I am very blessed to have such an amazing wife. Also, thanks to everyone that sent Birthday geetings to me!

Another year older and I pray that I am another year wiser. The day of my birthday was most excellent! I did have to work, but I do enjoy working on my birthday as you are able to enjoy your birthday with co-workers and friends. After work around 3:30 there was a planned soccer match between staff and students. I am not sure how it happened to be scheduled on my birthday, but it was a lot of fun! After soccer I was exhausted! I have played soccer here in Cameroon, but this was the first time playing soccer on a full size field for a full 90 minutes. After soccer, I came home for a quick shower and then Leah and I headed out with our friends Samantha and Jeongho to dinner. Leah had picked out a restaurant, but it was unknown to me until we arrived. Well, we took a taxi and we ended up at La Plaza (French/European food) which was a new restaurant to me. Dinner was excellent! I had filet minion of pork with mushrooms and a side of potatoes with garlic. I was stuffed and still had leftovers, but I had to have dessert and ordered THE BEST chocolate mousse! The waiter only knowing a little English came out singing the first line of Happy Birthday to me! It was great as everyone else chimed in and we all shared my birthday mousse. We ended the evening after I was more than stuffed and thoroughly exhausted after a long, but awesome birthday!

Then, on the Saturday after my birthday Leah bought me and two of my Cameroonian friend’s tickets to the Cameroon vs Senegal soccer match! It was the first opportunity I have had to watch a soccer match in person. This match was very exciting as it was a qualifying match for the African Nations Cup, which is a month long tournament next January 2012. We made our way into a packed stadium to cheer on the Indomitable Lions as they are called, and was greeted with lots of crowd chants and drumming. Once the match started everyone was on the edge of their seat, jumping up every time Cameroon had an opportunity to shoot! Cameroon quickly controlled possession in the match and had a few good shots on goal, but Senegal’s defense was good. At halftime it was 0-0 and my friends were disappointed as Cameroon had the strong advantage in the match. The second half started as the first did with Cameroon controlling possession and having all the opportunities on goal, but was unable to score. As the second half went on you could feel the tension as the urgency of Cameroon needing to score. Five minutes before the end of the match a Cameroonian player was tackled in the Senegal penalty area and a penalty shot was given! Everyone was so excited and full of suspense as Cameroonian’s famous striker Samuel Eto stepped up to take the penalty shot. As Eto took the penalty his shot hit the top of the crossbar and came back into the field (he missed) and was cleared! Everyone was in shock! The match ended 0-0 and we came back home disappointed, but thoroughly enjoyed watching Cameroon play!

Mark Janowiak

ps below are some pictures, but I forgot my camera for both my birthday dinner and when we went to the football match! :-(

What Do We Desire From God

So yesterday’s devotional was a difficult one for me. It asked what my desires are for God. I don’t think I have ever been posed this question before. I could tell you want I want in life, what things I think I need, what I think about buying or doing. What my heart’s desire from Jesus? What am I desperately seeking from God, what is it that I desire above all things in my life from God? Now as I reflect on it I think isn’t this the very prayer Jesus wants from us, what at our core do we long for from Him. I know typed this could come off as cheesy; well I guess I am then. But honestly we it got down to it would be I WANT TO BE CLOSE. The most desperate thing in my heart is to be close, I just feel like in the time of peace and calm I need to examine my relationship with Him. How does he show up when there is no big crisis in our life? How do we draw close to Him when things are mundane? So my desire is to be close, for Him to show up in little ways. Part of me longs for the spectacular but I think Jesus wants me to learn how to be close in the mundane. Because he has been so faithful, he has been pursuing and constant, why is it that our hearts always need reminding?

Leah Janowiak