Update of Danielle’s Experience in Cameroon 2016

Greetings family and friends!

I hope and pray that you all are doing well and experiencing the Father’s love over your life more and more everyday! I am in my third week of being in Cameroon now, and am grateful for the chance to write to you. As expected, being able to have internet access is a scarce thing during my time here so when I do have it I am happy to write to you in hopes to update you and thank you for playing a part in my life and in my short time spent here in Cameroon.

As you know, my connection here is Shaping Destiny (the non-profit that I work with), whose mission is to inspire and empower people to shape their destinies. My time spent in Cameroon has been full of learning, meeting the children and families that I have the opportunity to serve from the states on a day-to-day basis, and getting to tag along and build relationships with the SD team here. It has been such a joy and encouragement having the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people – people who were once hopeless that now have true hope; those who were once overwhelmed by sadness now have everlasting joy; and people whose destinies have been redirected to a life spent with God on their side.

Many of the children we serve and lift up are complete orphans – they have either lost both of their parents to death or have been abandoned by their parents. For children in this situation, education is not an option, fighting for your life and, often times, for your younger siblings lives as well becomes your life. You begin to take on any job you can get and can expect to lose it at anytime. Hope for your future can seem unrealistic. We are thankful to work with churches and people in the community who help us identify children in these situations so that we can help lift the burden from their shoulders and help them to see past their current situations. We take them into our Child Sponsorship Program which allows them to have a sponsor (from anywhere in the world) who will be a friend and can encourage and pray for them, help cover school fees, and medical fees. Not only that, we help place them with a loving local foster family who cares for them, nurtures them, and disciples them in the Word of God…which ultimately gives them hope for their lives and for the future that they did not have before.

I want to thank everyone who has helped me continue to serve full time from the U.S. and for helping me get to see the work done hands-on. The part you play in shaping the destinies of the children and young adults that we serve is incredible and I can’t express my gratitude enough!

During my time here in Cameroon, I have been challenged to evaluate the love I have for my neighbors and to understand what Jesus meant when he commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. It makes me wonder if he would be pleased with the way his people have loved. Immersing yourself into a different culture for a period of time can be difficult, we all know and can expect that, but I have learned something amazing. All of the humility, joy, lessons learned, and relationships gained are compelling me to remove myself, my own desires, and expectation and that is an incredibly true gift from God. You really gain more when you aren’t focused on your own gain. Not only that, it gives room for love. When we are caught up in ourselves, in our wants and desires, there is no room left for love or for sacrifice. How did Christ himself love? Christ removed himself from the throne (which he rightfully sits) to come and be with and walk with his people. He removed his own desires when he made his way to the cross, though he had all the right not to desire to die the way that he did or to die at all for that fact. He let go of the expectations he could of had for us to receive his grace and a relationship with him. He simply loved us, which has opened the door to each of u,s as undeserving sinners, to have a relationship with the founder of love and to have a joy-filled life!

So I’m challenging myself…and you…to take a step back and see where YOU are getting in the way of loving and connecting with others. Do you ask more questions or do you talk more about you? Are you receiving more than you are giving? Are you easily upset when people do not meet your expectation or when things do not go your way? Do you seek to please your brothers and sisters desires above your own?

Ask yourself these questions and answer honestly! I too am letting these questions be on my mind as I am meeting many people, building relationships, growing current ones deeper and hoping to make a positive influence because we all have influence…but what kind of influence you have is up to you!

 

 

 

I wish I had more time to write and share pictures and stories of some awesome people that I have met but I do want to share with you a few pictures that I have gotten to capture here so that you can get a glimpse at some of the people I get to spend my time with!