Reflections from the mission field: Cameroon

This story is an excerpt from What Happened!, a memoir by Norm Scott, a resident of The Emerald at Elim Village Fleetwood. The book chronicles his life and mission work with Campus Crusade for Christ around the world.

By Norm Scott
Resident Contributor

The next project I went on was in 1990 to Cameroon, West Africa. Before leaving, one of the men at Willingdon Church said he hoped I would reach thousands of people. I remember thinking at the time that this might be overly optimistic. As it turned out, about 100,000 people saw the Jesus film and it was not at all unusual to have 2,000 people at a showing.

When we arrived at the airport, we were met by a representative of the seminary. As we were walking along, a young man helped me with my baggage and took it to the truck. I assumed he was one of the students, but it turned out he wasn’t and wanted payment in American money for being my porter. When I told him I had none but would pay him in Canadian money for his assistance, he refused and the next thing I knew I was surrounded by a gang, the leader of which demanded US currency. I told him I had none and it was Canadian or nothing. The next person on the scene was a big police woman with a drawn revolver, who made the gang leave pronto.

Leaving the airport, we went for about one kilometre and the bus stopped. The driver got out, never said a word, and walked away toting a five-gallon jerry can. Someone said, “welcome to Africa.” A few hours later he returned and we were taken to a hotel to await our transportation. This had all been arranged and paid for in advance, but the transportation never showed up. Another bus was chartered, but could not hold all of us, so six of us waited a couple of extra hours for a small van and driver for the approximately seven-hour drive to Baminda.

This was a very dangerous mountain road and the missionaries later told us that whenever they had to travel it, they called for a special prayer meeting for their safety. Our driver was a speed demon and basically never touched the brakes, taking blind corners on the wrong side of the road using only his horn. I told him we would not pay him if he did not slow down, but it had no effect on him. On top of this, he stopped every little while to drink more palm liquor. He was speeding through local markets where people were shaking their fists at us and we even ran police blockades.

On one occasion we almost had a high-speed head-on collision—it couldn’t have missed by more than one inch. One of the young fellows got off his seat and sat on the floor covering his face as he couldn’t look anymore. He also said, “I think we just killed our guardian angel.” This fellow later went back to Cameroon for a couple of years and witnessed a number of brutal things: i.e., “jungle justice,” but said the drive to Baminda was his most harrowing experience. I was not too concerned because I felt strongly before I left home that I had a verse appropriate for me at the time: Psalm 138:7 “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand will save me,” but then I thought the other fellows probably did not have that comfort.

Shortly after this, we passed the bus with our main group that departed way ahead of us and when our driver stopped at another bar for liquor, we all got out and waited for the bus to catch up. Since I was the “old guy,” I got into the bus and some of the big young guys waited most of the night until transportation was arranged to pick them up.

The first showing of the Jesus film was on the mission compound at Baminda. We covered the local area with advertising which included the four spiritual laws on the back. We weren’t supposed to go alone, but since there was no one for me to pair with, I did anyway and got into some real shanty areas. Coming back, I still had about 800 flyers left, so I stood at an intersection where three roads converged. In about 10 minutes all my supply was gone—people swarmed by foot, bicycle, cars, etc. Just getting back in time for the evening film showing I counselled seven or or eight young men who responded to the invitation. I started out by saying “don’t do this unless you really mean it.”

At the conclusion, I got very ill and Dr. Henry Brandt came over and asked when I last had something to drink. I hadn’t had any fluid since lunch and consequently was suffering from heat stroke. At this showing, the compound was lined with the military as the President of the country, who was a Christian, felt there was no way we could have this number of people without a riot. Since that did not happen, he told the organizers to advertise the showings on the radio-free of charge.

A number of teams, mine included, journeyed up to the grasslands of the interior. The dust was incredible and often the road was a dry riverbed. At times we all had to get out of the vehicle so it could make it over particularly bad areas. In this part of the country, it was like stepping back hundreds of years in time. Tribal law was the rule.

In every village we needed to get permission to do any showings from the tribal king who was called a Fon, and under him, scattered in various villages were officials called Big Men. One of the Big Men showed me his palace—a wooden-like palisade —where he conducted trials etc. There were sticks with chicken feathers and blood sacrifices (poultry) in this setting. Knowing he was a Christian, I raised my eyebrows and he said that if he did not allow it, his people would think he was a bad man. I did not take a picture of the chicken sacrifice because it was embarrassing to him.

Polygamy is rampant in the Cameroons and this man had many wives and about 50 children that I saw. In one village I went to an open-air canteen. When the owner came over and said, “we don’t want you here,” I replied “how do you know? I haven’t said anything yet.” Then some of his patrons asked for the pamphlets 1 was holding and pretty soon nearly everyone wanted one. Finally, the owner himself asked for one. One woman asked me to buy her a drink and when I said no, she said, “then take this pamphlet back.” There were only two occasions the pamphlets I distributed were rejected, this instance and one by a Muslim woman.

In one remote area, we had a showing in a recently cut field with lots of grass still lying around. There was a large crowd and as I was walking around the perimeter trying to get an estimate of the numbers, I was very conscious of snakes which come out hunting at night. Finally, I just said, “You know where they are Lord and you know where I am.” The two girls in our group came to me and said they were scared. All I could say was stick close to me.

When the film was over, I told our team member responsible for lighting from our generator, to put on the lights. He returned saying he couldn’t as he had hooked it up wrong. I told him to correct it, but in the meantime it was pitch black and you could smell the booze and drugs, and the atmosphere was totally charged so that it felt you could cut it with a knife. Into this vacuum came about five or six ladies from the local church, singing Christian songs which completely diffused the tension.

After this showing, a man came up to me and asked if he and his wife could ride back with us. Since we had a full load, and I didn’t know who he was, I said if Laban John, the African missions pastor we were working with agreed, it would be okay. It turned out that he and his wife had walked ten miles to get to the showing and were understandably apprehensive about doing this in the dark when animals and snakes were out hunting, never mind the distance. In gratitude he gave us a live chicken! When we returned to Canada, Laban John requested assistance for continuing his theological education in Nigeria. For a couple of years, we sent money enabling him to do so. Fortunately, all of it arrived as needed until he graduated. He was married with 6 children and had responsibility for the pastors of the churches.

I also gave money to pay off Gabriel’s seminary debt. Gabriel and I were walking along a jungle trail giving out flyers advertising the evening showing and he would call out something like “hurry up and get your chop, chop” and unseen people would show up and take a pamphlet. I felt I could understand how Paul felt when he said he wanted to preach where no others had (Romans 15:20). Gabriel is now a translator with Wycliffe in Cameroon.

On one occasion I came down with an extremely high fever and the missionary doctor came to see me and asked me to go to the hospital the next day for tests. I hesitated to let them take blood because of AIDS, but thought if it was a tropical problem I wouldn’t find the answer back home. I gave the OK and they took out a syringe from a number in a tray of solution, which I hoped was well sterilized. They never did find the cause.

Cameroon has an incredible number of venomous and non-venomous snakes and I was very conscious of this danger a number of times. On one occasion I saw something strange in a bamboo grove and as I was going over to check it out, I heard an inner voice say stop—which I did instantly and backed up. The next day they killed a viper in that immediate area. At home Kay woke up one night, having seen a coiled snake ready to strike and then after praying, saw it back down.

I struck up a conversation with a man who had a suitcase of items to sell, and invited him out to a showing, pointing out that there would be one just a short distance from where he now was. He insisted he wanted to go where I would be showing the film. It was from this man I bought the carved horn. He then asked where we would be going next, and I gave him the name of the place. When told he said, “I know you are a Christian man, but be careful. There are many bad people there.”