February 2008

Dear Supportive Friends and Family,

Greetings from Cameroon! We trust you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year. We thank God for another year of ministry and the eternal fruit harvested here in Cameroon, and we thank you for your faithful prayers and support. Just yesterday I had the wonderful privilege of leading a man to Christ in whom we have been planting and watering for months. Yesterday, after more than two hours of one-on-one teaching and discussion, Nester bowed his head and heart to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior! To God be the glory!

I want to take this opportunity to present you with a project that could greatly expand the ministry and our outreach here in the city of Bamenda. While rumors of recession are developing over statistics like >5% unemployment in America, Cameroon suffers from >30% unemployment year after year. Most of our church members are unemployed and many would be thrilled if they could find a job earning just $3 to $4 a day! This kind of poverty makes church attendance a real sacrifice, and for some an
impossibility. Aside from one member, all of our people walk to church or pay a taxi to bring them. We now have believers all over the city of Bamenda, and many of them cannot afford transportation to church.

Let me give you a true example. John and his wife have three children. At 60 cents per person, it would cost John $6 round trip to bring his family to church for one service. John has been unemployed for months, and consequently his entire family has been financially unable to attend church in several weeks. Our heart breaks when we lead someone to Christ but have no means to get them into church on a regular basis. Last Sunday we carried 12 people in our five-passenger Toyota Corolla, and if we had a van, we could have carried 10 or 20 more.

We have been praying, and we have asked our people here to pray for God to provide a church van for us, so we can offer free transportation to church. I believe this would make a huge difference in our church attendance, our visitor attendance, and would tremendously help in our efforts to faithfully disciple our new and mature believers. We realize that the US economy is tight and uncertain right now. We realize that many of you are already financially supporting us on a monthly basis. We do not take your faithful support lightly, but would you still consider asking God if He might want you to help invest in this project? While used vehicles in Cameroon normally cost approximately twice as much as they do in the States, we have made some preliminary estimates. We believe that we can get a decent used 14-passenger van, imported from Europe, for about $8,000. A 14-passenger van here in Cameroon can easily carry more than 20 people, and we have already thought about the possibility of making two trips before each Sunday morning service. If the Lord directs you to help with this project, please send your donation of any size to Baptist World Mission, PO Box 2149, Decatur, AL 35602. Please designate your gift to the “Sinclair Van Project.” Thank you so much in advance for your consideration of this project. We love and appreciate you all.

All to the glory of God,
Ben Sinclair and family