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Our Overseas Missions
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Baka Mission
L-R Nelson, Reda,
and Noah Anderton
Right Top: Scott and Naomi Dabrowski
Right Center: Candice, Anaya, and Nicholas Anderton
Right Bottom: Nathaniel and Kathryn Anderton
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Baka Mission
The Conrad
Family
L-R (standing): Boaz, Nandry, Nathan, Laurel, and Asher
L-R (seated) Jennifer Jesse, Barry Abbott with Brianna,
and Desma Abbott with Brendan.
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We at Chepachet Baptist have enthusiastically supported a variety of overseas missions for many years, and we
continue to do so today. Ten percent of our weekly collection is set aside for missions. Although these funds are for both overseas and home missions, the majority of these funds goes to support overseas programs.
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Tarin
We contribute
to Tarin's support through World Vision Bangladesh
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Through the organization World Vision, we contribute to the support of Tarin, a child growing up in Bangladesh, who is currently in Primary School. Her family has benefited from many services provided through this organization,
including preventive and curative health care support, nutrition programs, social awareness programs for children, and income-generating activities. Tarin herself, whose favorite class is Bengali (the
national language of Bangladesh), is also learning English. Her principal hobby is reading, although she also enjoys singing and sports. She is in good health,
walks to school, likes cats and water lilies, and enjoys socializing with friends. We believe that World Vision has made a difference to her life, and we are proud to contribute in a small way to its programs.
We also help to support a missionary team in Cameroon, West Africa, with which we have a long-standing relationship, and to which we have a very close connection. Paul and Lyn Anderton,
long-time members of our congregation (although now living in Illinois), are the parents of the late Phillip Anderton, who went to Cameroon, West Africa, in 1992 with his wife, Reda,
to begin missionary work. They were sponsored by the faith mission "Regions Beyond," now a part of "World Team."
The team is bringing the Word of God to the Baka, a people who had never heard the Gospel in their own language. Phil's role in
transformational development and Reda's role in medicine (she is a doctor) supported the team's holistic approach to church planting. In 2005, God called
Phil home to heaven, and the Andertons' work was continued by Barry and Desma Abbott and by Nathan and Laurel Conrad until Reda was able to
return to Africa in 2008. The World Team missionaries rotate home periodically. Reda, who has recently been back here in the States, now plans to return to Cameroon in February, 2015,
accompanied by teenagers Nelson and Noah Anderton, the youngest of her five children. The Abbotts, too, have
been in America (while Desma has been recovering from a serious illness), and they plan to head back in May.
The Baka are a people of about 30,000 who live in an area crossing three countries in central West Africa. Cameroon is the western third of the
area. The Baka are hunter-gatherers who live off the jungle. They move often and make leaf shelters as they go from one food source to another. In recent
times, the logging industry has taken a large portion of the trees that are crucial to their food supply. They are therefore being forced to find a new way of life.
Given their heritage, they find it hard to stay in one place, and farming is to them a strange way to live, but many feel it is their only hope for a future. Their Bantu neighbors are often of little
help.
Addressing some of the Baka's needs, Phil helped them plant a community orchard, which is thriving, and a lasting reminder of his mission among them. Recently, Heidi Renkama, a
missionary team member from Canada, spent serious time helping to teach orchard management principles to members of the Baka tribe. In addition to their need for transformational agricultural
skills, the Baka people, our missionaries believe, also desperately need the hope that a life in Christ will bring. There are many examples of this. A recent one involves Nestor,
an elder in the local Baka church, who has wrestled consciously and subconsciously with fears stemming from traditional beliefs in evil spirits, and who is now
overcoming those fears through a living faith in God (see the Baka Bulletin, Winter, 2104).
The Bible has been brought to the Baka people by the Andertons, Abbotts, Conrads, and other members of the World Team. Phil and Reda began
their mission with a dedicated effort to learn the language (which is an unwritten tonal language). Assisted by other members of the team, they participated in a major effort to
translate the Bible into the Baka tongue. As part of this effort, they wrote Old Testament Bible stories which they read to the Baka, and then
continued the series with the New Testament Gospels. The Abbots and Conrads have continued this important effort which forms the basis of invitations to accept Christ as Savior.
The team has built a language center house, to which the Conrads have recently completed an addition. In early 2015, the team was joined by Tabitha Odediran, a Nigerian-American linguist, who will give
further impetus to the translation efforts.
Health care has also been brought to the Baka people. Reda, who is a physician, has donated her much-needed medical skills to the Baka
people, and began a medical mission which she hopes to continue upon her return. This has been for several years in conjunction with Jennifer Jessee, who
has spent time in Cameroon, but who also has spent important time in the United States studying missionary medicine, and time in Quebec learning French.
Having two people to support each other in performing much-needed medical services to the Baka people is very important, since team members rotate home.
The mission center where the Andertons, Abbots, and Conrads have worked is near a Baka village on a coffee planation owned by a man called
Pierre. Most of the land where the Baka live in Cameroon is government reserve land, but old claims like Pierre's are scattered throughout the reserve lands. These are
the only places where a mission center can be safely built. The Baka at times work for Pierre and they consider him a patron. Pierre, in turn, helps stabilize
the Baka community. He is not a Baka, but cares about them deeply. He is a college graduate and knows 20 languages, three of them European. Four years ago he accepted Christ
and was baptized. He has shown real maturity in the faith since that time, he has been deeply involved in the Bible stories written by Phil and Reda, and he helps tell them to the Baka.
The missionaries travel. They spend time both in town and at the missionary center. They get most of their food from the capital eight hours away where French is the main language. The travel
back and forth is the most dangerous part of being in the Cameroon because of the narrow roads and the logging trucks. Driving in the cities is also dangerous. Once, the Conrads were returning to
a guest house from a supply trip into the city when an out-of-control truck in the land opposite them hit a car in front of it and careened over to the Conrad's lane, smashing their truck and injuring
their son Nathan.
The Mission is aware that the Baka they work with are only part of a much larger Baka group, and that they are only one of many missions to the Baka people. To broaden
their perspectives in this regard, Abbots underwent a survey and exploration trip to find out more about the Baka who live beyond their little corner of the Baka population. They visited Baka
encampments along a road stretching from the northern edge of the Baka territory to the southern tip of Cameroon. One purpose was to observe differences between and similarities with the
lifestyles and language of the Baka in their own mission area. Another purpose was connect with others involved in outreach to the Baka. They found that several church groups had engaged in
missionary work along this road during the last 30 years. These included Catholics, Presbyterians, and Full Gospel missionaries from Germany. They attended worship at chapels along the way, and
returned convinced more than ever of the need for a Bible translation into Baka.
The pace of contact with civilization is increasing rapidly in the Baka territory. In some ways this is helping the Baka, and in others it is not. In either case it is lending urgency to the mission,
and we ask everyone to keep them in your prayers.
During 2016, Reda Anderton has been in Cameroon meeting many challenges. Last spring she was faced with four cases of infant cerebral malaria -- an unusually high number
for the community in which she works. She and her colleague Jennifer Jessee provided emergency medical treatments and three of the four children survived. They have also been treating women who
are victims of domestic violence, often caused by drugs and alcohol, in a region where there are no laws to protect them and no shelters to which they can go.
Alcohol is freely distributed to the Baka people by government officials, non-profit organizations, and tourists -- and addiction is widespread and growing. The Abbotts had to face an
epidemic of wood-alcohol poisoning in their community, with more than two dozen deaths and many cases of blindness. Although the perpetrator was arrested, the devastation to the community was
enormous and there are few guarantees against recurrence. Reda and her colleagues are fighting a constant battle against Baka addiction, trying to convince them that Jesus provides a far better path to follow.
The tasks for the mission are great and progress is slow. The pull of traditional culture with its superstitions is often difficult for the Baka to resist. But our missionaries are inspired and
strongly devoted to their tasks. At Reda's location, they are in the process of expanding their facilities by acquiring a nearby piece of land, and at the Abbotts camp, they are planning to build two new
dormitory-style buildings to hold training sessions for Baka folks at that location.
The palm trees and fruit trees that Reda's late husband, Phil Anderton, planted are now producing crops. A press to extract palm oil has been procured, and Reda is optimistic that this will
enable the local folks to produce cooking oil for the market. This form of transformational development is something that Phil was greatly interested in, and he felt that believers would take the lead in
bringing it about. May God prosper this venture.
Please keep our missionaries in your prayers. May God give them the strength and courage to brave the enormities they face almost every day.
***
We in Chepachet have supported this mission, not only with our annual contributions, but also throughout the years with a series of fundraisers organized by Lyn Anderton. These
"Missionary Teas" took place in the vestry of the church and were designed for fellowship, instruction, inspiration, commitment, and even to evoke a bit of nostalgia. Beautiful hand-made
invitations were sent out to church members, friends, and to other churches.
The idea was to hold a Victorian tea, giving organizers the opportunity to dust off their old china and tableware and bring it to the church, where it was arranged artfully in decorative patterns
and then used for the enjoyment of the guests (who included not only our own parishioners, but also people from other churches). Home-made sandwiches, pastries, and sweets in great abundance
were available for the delectation of those present, and there was plenty of time for folks to greet each other, renew acquaintances, and meet new friends.
After the tea and the delightful repast, the participants listened to an
illustrated presentation about the mission by team members home on leave, followed by an opportunity for questions and answers. Phil and Reda Anderton
spoke at the early teas; after Phil's death, we heard from Reda, assisted by her children; and on another occasion, from Barry and Desma Abbott.
Hearing first hand from the missionaries we support is always an inspiring experience, for which there can be no substitution, short of a trip to Africa itself.
We are honored to be able in our small way to support their mission of bringing Christ and healing to the Baka people.
Photos courtesy of Reda Anderton
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