“Standing On The Promises Of God!”

“Standing On The Promises Of God!(Gen.15:1-6).
In Bali Nyonga, it is the worst of insults for somebody to tell you that when you die, they will bury you with a stone in your palm. A stone in your palm means you cannot become an ancestor. You left nothing and shouldn’t expect anything from the living.
When pouring libation, the priest says, “Nikob, fa fu’ mfa ndzüii.”- God, give prosperity and give those to consume it. During Lela the Fon advises the people to cultivate potatoes because guests are on the way coming. The guests here refer to unborn children.
Who can truly stand on the promises of God when there is no assurance of continuity? Sometimes, the promises of God seem not to make sense.
Abram had such worries when in a vision the LORD told him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Abram dared to question the LORD the same way any of us in his situation would have done. Abram wondered what the LORD could give him since he remained childless and his inheritance was to pass on to his slave?
The LORD assured Abram that a slave will not be his heir. “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.'”
We are told “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
It is not works that make us righteous; it is believing in God, which is credited to us as righteousness. In response, we do works of righteousness.
We know there are people in similar situations like Abram to whom the LORD has not shown them stars to count. Be consoled that we all are clay in the potter’s hands.
A farmer sows seeds with the expectation of bountiful harvest, but at harvest time, she can only be thankful for whatever yield he has.
Like Abram of old, the Rev John Clarke and Dr. G. K. Prince, children of Jamaican freed slaves arrived Fernando Po in 1841. As they began work on the island, they also made visits to the mainland and made contacts with King William of Bimbia and other traditional rulers of Doaula. These two Jamaican Baptist missionaries were joined in 1843 by others, including the English man Rev Alfred Saker, Joseph Jackson Fuller, and Joseph Merrick.
Summarily, this is how the English Baptist Missionary Society established itself in Cameroon.
When the Germans annexed Cameroon, they soon became hostile to the English missionaries. They decided to park out and asked the Mission Board to send a German mission to take over their work in Cameroon. The lot fell on the Basel Mission since they were already working in Ghana.
Today the vision of Clarke and Prince has grown in Cameroon into the Cameroon Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, the Eglise Evangeligue du Cameroon, the Native Baptist Church, the Christian Missionary Fellowship, RAMAH, RCCI and many others that have sprouted within the last fifty years.
Today is the 68th anniversary of the autonomy of one of them: The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC). The historic autonomy was declared in the Ntanfoang church house – the first church house in the North West and West Regions of Cameroon.
The Church of Christ marches on because from missionary times till now there are daring men and women who brave all odds as they heed the word of their master, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that they can do no more….”(Lk.12:4f).
These daring men and women have the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation, tribe, language, and people…’Fear God and give glory…Worship him…'”(Rev.14:6-7).
Autonomy means indigeneity. How indigenous has the autonomous Church striven to become. Henry Venn proposed the three self formula for an indigenous church. Self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating.
While the church is succeeding in implementing the three-self formula, it still remains Western in outlook. It is time the church takes off the lawyer’s garb and design an African gown for her clergy and many other things to make the church truly African in outlook. So far, the inculturation progress is still skindeep.
Nevertheless, the church as a pilgrim people is marching on and standing on the promises of God as she counts the stars.
Anniversary prayer: LORD, thank you for what we have become and the blessed assurance of a future yet unknown to us. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Happy Presbyterian Church Day celebrations!
Rev Babila Fochang.
09/11/2025.