Gateway Teams

Cameroon Gateway Team

Maybe you heard what seemed to be a somewhat brief headline here in our part of the world regarding a plane crash in Africa?

See http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/05/07/ap3692239.html for the story). I saw the headline first on Sunday afternoon after being out of touch for the weekend; a Kenya Airways jet going down and leaving from Douala, Cameroon and my thoughts went immediately to a Gateway Team from California that we had in Cameroon that I remembered was flying home this past weekend sometime and going through Kenya....

I read a little more of the article and saw that among the 114 aboard there was only one American, and was somewhat relieved that the team was probably not on the flight. But I called the Team Leader and left a voice message just to make sure; and received an email this morning that the team was on the same flight 2 days earlier and had considered at one point staying over a few extra days to be on the flight that crashed.

So....relief yes, but sorrow for all of these people that did die in a country that many people have to be shown a map just to know where it is. For us, Cameroon is a place we hear about often, having many North American friends there as missionaries and Cameroonian friends that we have been partnering with over the past years. So, I guess it kind of feels like it hits closer to home.....

Sometimes it can seem like an after-thought to me - "pray for the safety of our Gateway Teams as they go travel" - but then something like this happens and it reminds me that this is not a trivial or trite prayer....

So, to our prayer supporters - please, pray for the safety of our teams as we'll have around 13 more going out before year's end.

Let's thank God as well, for keeping this Cameroon Gateway Team safe from harm.

And...let's pray for the families of those that were on that flight....this tragedy is hitting a number of people very close to home.

Thanks,
Randy