“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15 NIV)
Cameroon is the oldest mission partner of the North American Baptist Conference. Through the years, we have had opportunity to rejoice with them as churches were planted, church leaders were trained, hospitals were built, and lives were forever changed by the in-breaking of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Today, however, is an opportunity to mourn with those who mourn.
This past Sunday, November 28, the Executive President of the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC), Rev. Dr. Charlemagne Nditemeh, called for a day of mourning and prayer in response to the most recent tragedy in the civil unrest in Cameroon; you can read his letter below. As his letter attests, this is not the first act of violence, but last Wednesday’s attack in Ekindo Titi, Southwest Region, hit the CBC family especially hard. A teacher and three students were killed in the attack. All three students and the teacher were members of the CBC, and one of the students was the daughter of the local CBC pastor. A brief account of the attack can be found at this link.
Because of the timing of the call to prayer, we were not able to get this out to our NAB church family in order to join the CBC in prayer last Sunday. However, we are asking that all of our churches take time this coming Sunday, December 5, to join our brothers and sisters in Cameroon in lament and pleading with God to bring peace to Cameroon.
In addition to your prayers, if you would like to contribute to the Cameroon Crisis Relief fund, you can do so by clicking the link below.
Give to the Cameroon Crisis Relief Fund
Fellow brethren of the Cameroon Baptist Convention at home and abroad,
Since the painful and unfortunate outbreak of protest actions by English-speaking teachers and lawyers of Anglo-Saxon obedience which morphed into an elusive crisis enveloping the North West and the South West Regions for the past five years and counting, we have lived excruciatingly with some unimaginable, indescribable, absolutely wicked, and very inhumane scenarios which sadly testify the inhumanity of humankind to humankind: Ngarbuh (February 2020), Kumba school massacre (October 2020), PCC Ntanfoang-Bali (August 2021), poor innocent kids Caroline Ndialle (October 2021) and Tataw Brandy (November 2021), just to name these few. The recent killing of a teacher and some students in Ekondo-Titi only adds a rider to an already cancerous situation.
In all these and other similar deliberate destruction of human lives in the North West and South West Regions, each of us mourned in a personal way. With Ekondo-Titi coming to add to an already very long list of killings, all Cameroon Baptist Convention Christians (wherever you are at home or abroad) are hereby invited to join in a collective peaceful mourning for the lives lost, human lives created and given out of love by God Almighty. We share a common humanity and are each other’s keeper.
SUNDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2021 is hereby declared as a day of MOURNING and PRAYER throughout the Cameroon Baptist Convention. Carry out your worship service programmes seriously factoring the mourning of the lost lives. As lovers of peace, let the mourning be very peaceful in your thoughts, words, and actions. Back home after church worship service, spend your time in prayers for the bereaved families, and for truth, justice, and peace to reign. When truth and justice meet, there will be peace.
For a human being to die is one thing. For a human being (worse again, harmless innocent children) to be killed is another different thing. As human beings, we may never know the perpetrators of these heartless acts. We can console ourselves with the certainty that God knows every detail. If human beings would fail to deliver justice for these killings, Heaven will unmistakably settle the score. Ours is to pray for the repentance of the perpetrators. In our MOURNING and PRAYER, may our eyes be fixed on Romans 12:15. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is on the throne, no matter what, and He lives (Job 19:25).
Very truly yours in the pilgrimage of our common faith.
Rev. Dr. Charlemagne Nditemeh
CBC EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT
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