Team Nigeria is dispersing to their various normal duties. Missionary Dan Myers took the sea-going ship back to Cameroon early Wednesday morning. Jason Paltzer flew back to Zambia from Lagos on the same day, returning to his health and development work. Prof. Ken Cherney split away in Amsterdam on Thursday morning to head to Mequon. Beth Correll and Nigerian Liaison Doug Weiser will leave for Seattle later on that day. Funny how five people can grow so close by meeting new friends in Nigeria over a ten-day period! Maybe not so much “funny” as a promised blessing from our gracious Lord.[slideshow=91]

In a sense, we had a hard time tearing Missionary Myers away from the current class of 11 pre-seminary students. He came wanting to learn about the Nigeria seminary and what lessons he might apply to a potential restart of seminary classes in Cameroon. I planned one or two hours with the pre-seminary students, so I could get to know them and Myers could ask them a few things. Turns out, Myers met with those students for hours. He met with the students for extra afternoon hours, at their request, while the rest of us met other people. He offered worship and Bible study with them on a Sunday afternoon, coming back to the mission house after dark. We were impressed at Myers’ obvious pastoral teaching heart. He humbly answered that he had come to learn about seminary work, and what better way than to open himself to the students and learn from them.

Missionary Myers and I talked about many things common to our neighboring fields and things that are so very different. By the time we all hugged him “farewell” we knew that we in WELS have a faithful and zealous missionary in Cameroon.