28March2024

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Since the year 2000 our annual reports provide an overview over the progress of our projects. Apart from summaries concerning the current project this section also covers completed projects. Thereby we trace the history of “Active Direct Help”. Additionally we regularly publish the recent developments to our current project in detail.

Annual Reports
Mar 2003

Help for the Pygmies

Imagine yourself living in the woods without electricity, running water, gas, oil, stove, fridge, table, chairs, mattress, no TV, CD player, DVD, car, computer, Internet, disco, bank account, money,  no IC-card, birth certificate, health insurance, hospital, pension, no shops or streets, none of the luxuries of modern society or what some of us consider necessities. A thing of the past, out of the storytellers books, fairy tale or movie? No, indeed there are still thousands of people living like that in this country, similar to our forefathers, and that not even so long ago.

They live in huts made out of bark, sticks & , big leaves, beds and benches are made out of wood. They live on what they find in the woods and hunt, with simple spears, nets, dogs and a lot of God-given instinct, wisdom & knowledge which we studied people wouldn’t know a thing about. I was told that they can catch a monkey in 5 minutes, which we wouldn’t even find or be able to do even if we shot 50 bullets at it.

They live like nomads and have no formal education, are very friendly, live peacefully with each other and know how to survive where we would starve. Their life would go on as if nothing happened - in fact they wouldn’t even find out - if the world would start World War 3, if we would have another oil-crisis, war in the Mid-East, a worldwide financial crash or if the Anti-Christ would rise to power.

Since greedy people cut down the big trees of the forests, it slowly kills their livelihood & forces them to learn other ways to survive. Some of them are starting to settle near the dirt-roads through the woods, learn to farm a little plot of land and start sending their kids to schools where available. We were told that their kids are more intelligent in general than the villagers around.

Until recently and often still today they are looked down upon - not just for their short statures - as underlings, something between animals and humans. The ones who didn’t settle own no land and are still often considered properties by the villagers around. This means when they hunt something, it might be taken away from them.

They believe deeply in God but hardly know anything about Jesus, and are happy to learn more about Him. Since they can’t read, we talk and give them pictures about His love and care, which they really appreciate.

In the same country, not to talk about the rich nations, live people with up to 8 body guards, several prohibitively expensive cars & mansions as big as a castle. While some people are poor physically, some are poor morally, some spiritually.

This is just one of the many signs Jesus mentioned would happen before His return according to Matthew 24. “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Mat. 24:12). You can read the whole Chapter about the other signs like the many famines, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars etc which we have nowadays, and you can see that we live in the time Jesus talked about would come before His return. Until then let’s do all we can to prepare for it, not neglect to feed our souls and help the poor.

Jesus gave us His Law of Love in Math 22: 36-40: “Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” If everybody would live like that, it would stop all the wars, hunger, poverty, physical and spiritual pollution, like the madness of many of the modern movies, music, media, with all its violence and demoralization in the endless TV channels etc - if we all would only love Him and our neighbors more and be more happy and content with the simple beauties of life.

As you can see, our contact with the pygmies really spoke to me. Coming out of the woods, back to “civilization”, makes you think about what’s important in life. Let’s remember that we can’t take a penny with us when we leave this world, which we all have to do one day. And the most important things can’t be bought with money: health, happiness, love, life, real friendship, intact families, safety, the future or even today. Only God can give us these gifts.

I think everybody agrees with us that the pygmies surely are the most needy people here. We experienced some of the most intensive and  inspiring days of our lives distributing clothes, shoes, sheets and God’s love to these lovely people. In the next newsletter we will share more about the rest of our distribution. We are very thankful that we finally got the container through customs and could help a lot of people. Of course it’s only “a drop in the bucket”, but many drops make the ocean. We want to thank everybody who helped and made this project possible. It sure was a sign of Gods love to a lot of people who have less than their needs.

Image Gallery
As thanks: traditional dance with music.Rain complicates our transport.By rain late in the evening: the baby on granny’s arm &...Canoe-transport to Pygmies, which never saw white men before.with Lenka had lost it’s mother through sickness.Jean Pierre, Dr. Essama (in white), who helped us a lot in the distribution, Wolfgang, Lisa and Naomi with the Pygmies.Wolfgang distributing clothes.Pygmychildren in a school: Lenka and Johnny give a bible-story with a translator.Marianne and her friends help Daniela loading in Tonna - unloading in Douala: over 10 tons of humanitarian aid.One night we were stuck in the mud from one to 5 o’clock in the morning.
 

Our Annual reports

 The poor infrastructure makes it difficult for us to break the vicious cycle of poverty and the many obstacles in the interior.

School building for Mushapo

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