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Daniel J. Duke, Missionary in Cameroon Africa

To my dear young friends:

In my last letter I was about to travel to Central Africa Republic to attend the dedication of the gospel of Luke in the language I had worked with there and to have a goodbye visit to my old village. That all happened: I was there, and now I'm back (in Cameroon). It was a lot of traveling and a lot of emotion, and I really appreciate everyone's prayers.

I flew commercially from Yaounde to Bangui: that meant waiting in airports for three days as the flight kept getting delayed. When I finally arrived in Bangui, there were friends waiting to welcome me, and we went right to work planning our trip to the village and arranging things for the dedication.  The next morning we were on our way to the village of Londo, my old home.

We got a good start around 11 a.m. but then had car trouble, so we had to come back and find a mechanic. Finally at 5 p.m. that evening we had the car fixed and were on our way again. I had been getting more and more tired, and by this time I had a full-blown fever (probably from malaria).

The next ten hours we were on the road, driving through the night, first through settled land and then through rain forest. At one point we stopped because there was a campfire on the trail. It turned out to be pygmies from the Bofi tribe gathering termites by firelight. We helped attract the tasty insects with our headlights. I didn't eat any at that time, although I usually partake whenever termites are available (they taste like bacon.) That was when the fever was at its worst, and I was shiverring and fighting intestinal problems.

We did make it to Londo about 3 a.m. Sunday morning. I got some sleep and then was up at 8:00, got cleaned up and went to church for my goodbye service. I said a few words and sang a song, and I challenged the Bayaka that it is up to them to carry the work forward now. It was good to be back in the old church in Londo. Some of my old friends were still there although others had migrated elsewhere and several had passed away. I was glad people remembered me and seemed glad to see me.

That afternoon I cleared out all of my things from storage. I had planned to take most of my things to Cameroon, but I didn't have the heart to take things that could be useful for my Central African colleagues, so almost everything stayed there, which is fine. I did bring back some books, lots of my photographs, and various things. About three footlockers in all.

The next day we travelled on to the village of Sciplac where the dedication was to take place. Again we had a late start and we drove all afternoon, evening, and night, stopping to rest at 4 a.m. We made it to Sciplac that next morning, and I stayed there with my luggage while Dominique returned to Bangui to return three days later. The rest of the week was leisurely local preparations for the dedication, and I enjoyed making new friends.

The dedication finally happened Sunday, June 13. It was quite an event, with all kinds of church leaders and government leaders coming and with Bayaka walking up to four days to get there. The ceremony went on over five hours, and then there was the big dinner, and then people had to be leaving, and I went with some other SIL missionaries to the village of Nola near the Cameroonian border. That is where we were picked up by the SIL airplane two days later, and so we returned to Cameroon.

That was just over a week ago. Since then I've been out to my new village assignment, and I leave tommorrow (June 25) to go move into the house I just arranged to rent there. Things are moving pretty fast. I'll be back to Yaounde in a couple of weeks for a course we are having, so I'll be able to write again then.

Thanks again for all of your prayers. God bless you richly, --Dan

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Last Updated: 01/08/2008