So
we are getting pretty regular emails from friends from the US who have heard about
the attacks from the Boko Haram and are wondering if we are safe. The short answer is yes we are very safe.
The
long answer is that safety is relative. In history, there have been many who
felt very safe and yet within a minute their whole world change. Others live in perilous situations for years
and come out without a scratch. Last week, I watched as a dear friend, two
inches in front of me, get hit by a motor cycle and fly at least six feet down
the road. She stood up praising God,
with only a cut foot from the accident.
Our
relationship with the Muslims continues to be friendly and peaceful. Jessica
has weekly horseback riding lessons from a Fulani (Muslim) man and we live just
a short walk from the beautiful Mosque and Muslim quarter. We walk through
there and are greeted warmly.
One
Muslim said to me “They are not even Muslim. They burn down our Mosques and
they do not kill in self-defense, they just kill”.
Another
factor for us is that it is about a twenty-hour (or more in bad weather
condition) drive from Bamenda to the Northern area where the fighting is
occurring. We do border Nigeria in the
south west of Cameroon, but there has been no violence there.
What
will happen here in the future we do not know. But we know that the safest place to be is in
the hands of God and so we feel we are exactly we are supposed to be.
I do
not agree with some of the customs of Muslims, but to lump all Muslims into one
category is more extreme than lumping all Christians together. This last
picture looks like a Muslim with a gun, but in fact it is an umbrella for
protection from sun and rain. It is so easy to see what we see in fear - not
reality.
-Joy
