History The International Churches of Christ (ICOC) are built on the conviction that everyone must first of all make the decision to become a disciple of Jesus and then get baptized in to the fellowship of saints ( Mathew28:18-20). This conviction is based on the fact that the disciples of Jesus were given the name 'Christian' for the first time because of their Christ-likeness (Acts 11:25-26). As a church, the ICOC is fully committed towards Jesus' Great Commission of going to all nations and making disciples and hence lays emphasis on building a fellowship of people from every tribe, language, culture and nation. Each member of the body is called to develop a personal relation with Christ Jesus who is the Head of the Church ( Col 1:15, John 15:1-5). Bamenda is the largest English-speaking town in Cameroon, famous for its key role in most revolutions touching the social and political life of the nation. In the 90s Church became big business and Pastors and denominations protected their turfs like the mafia of the 60s did in the cities of New York and Chicago. Corruption, sin, and confusion about the nature of true conversion characterize the churches in Cameroon. Church leaders have not taken a stand against syncretism, adultery, polygamy, and other cultural sins. As a result, these and a myriad of sins are routinely practiced both by self-professed Christians and by many of their pastors. The church is desperate for leaders who are "not ashamed of the gospel" and will stand firm by the word of God. With almost nothing in hand or saved as we received our meager tax returns in February of 2004, we whole hearted turned it over for the mission and prayerfully asked God to use it mightily if that was His will. Jahovah-jireh - God will provide - Gen 22:14 was the only driving force for us. Empowered by the willing support of then lead Evangelist Blaise Feumba of Abidjan who agreed to select and send dedicated disciples for the planting we saw our dream coming true. After much prayers, Gilbert Kimeng and Elizabeth Crawford were chosen from The Abidjan church of Christ to lead the mission to Bamenda. Passing through Douala, Mr. Ekwalla Ebenezer and his wife Régine Ekwalla were prayerfully chosen from "Eglise Du Christ, Douala " to support the team. Gilbert & Elizabeth      Ebenezer Ekwalla      Régine Ekwalla  They arrived Bamenda by mid May 2004 to meet a friend of ours, Lawyer Samuel Achu who had dedicated a lot of his time to arrange for accommodation contacts, and even postponed his trip to the USA while waiting for the evengelists to arrive. Mr. Samuel showed them around town and invited them to meet his pastor, Ma Pauline Forkwa. Pastor Ma Pauline ended up studying the Bible and eventually became the first disciple to be baptized in Bamenda on June 11 2004. She gave up her career as a pastor in obedience to the Word of God and some of her disciples are now faithful disciples of Jesus. Lawyer Samuel finally got baptized on September 2 and went to be with the Lord after a brief illness on September 9th 2004 in Bamenda. He was the most fired up in the group even before his baptism; he shared his faith and conversion story with all his friends and all he met up till the day of his passing away to be with the Lord.  Pastor Pauline's Baptism (1st in Bamenda)     Rockzane's Baptism (2nd in Bamenda)  April 2005 Evangelist, Gilbert Kimeng was recalled by Abidjan for financial reasons. The administrator, Ebenezer Ekwalla continued teaching and preaching while Sister Elizabeth Crawford led the women until she was also recalled by Abidjan in July 2005. Two disciples, Basil and Helen were sent from the Douala church to support the Régine and Ebenezer Ekwalla. It was tough and challenging for these French speaking disciples to catch up with the culture and language in Bamenda but they did the best they could. Back in the USA God was working and The Montgomery County Church of Christ heard of the lack of leadership and teachers in the Bamenda Church due to the economic crisis facing the Abidjan church was facing and after many payers, decided to take up the sponsorship of Bamenda as of September 2005. The first contributions from the MCCOC reached Bamenda in December after many attempts to send to the administering church in Abidjan failed. Sister Elizabeth arrived Bamenda on December 30th to continue the work. Basil and Helen returned to Douala . June 2007 God continued to encourage His church in Bamenda; especially with the wonderful visit to Bamenda by David Luckett to Bamenda, representing the Montgomery County Church of Christ, God's Spirit of unity and love continues to reign in His Church. Gilbert Kimeng, who's now based in Bamenda, has also joined the team in continuity of the good work he began in 2004. June 2008, the lead leader of the Montgomery County Church of Christ, Ruben Marlbury arrived Bamenda with two leaders of the ICOC Lagos (Bayo and Sam) arrived Bamenda to meet the church and rearrange its leadership. Sheperding was officially handed over to the Lagos Church for cultural and proximity reasons which were lacking from Abidjan. Gilbert Kimeng was appointed the main leader and Ebenezer moved to Lagos for further training. By January of 2009 Lagos commisioned Toni Ogbokri and his wife to join Gilbert and Elizabeth Crawford in Bamenda. Elizabeth returned to her home country of Liberia by spring of 2009. TBC Hope you are encouraged. Awundaga M. C. Proverbs 29:18 (NLT) when people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is happy.