What’s Inside....
3 — Cal Bratt returns to Lynden after a year abroad
8 — Ferndale Community Services volunteer Karen Nipges helped grow the clothing bank program to its current size
A supplement of Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Back home after a year in Africa
Green lawns, level streets, fewer people are impressions of Lynden now
By Cal Bratt For the Tribune
Our feet are firmly back on Lynden soil. We are reappreciating the tidy green lawns, the broad clean streets (including the shady canopy over Front Street) and the efficient operation of everything.
We are noticing a few new things such as Schoolyard Park structures and the CityGate building, but also much that appears the same. Mount Baker still stands glorious in the distance. All in all, it evokes in us a sense of being pictureperfect.
After 11 months away in a developing country, one takes fresh notice of the old fa-
The Bratt/Penkoff family at a Valentine’s Day school event in Cameroon, Africa. "After 11 months away in a developing country, one takes fresh notice of the old familiar things. Compared to Cameroon, it seems there should be more people crowding the streets, a few more organic smells in the air, certainly more heat and humidity." (All photos courtesy Cal Bratt)
See Cal Bratt returns from Africa on next page
Above: Cal and Melinda Bratt at the Rain Forest International School graduation. Below: Granddaughters Alexa and Anika with friend Carmen.
miliar things. Compared to Cameroon, Africa, it seems there should be more people crowding the streets, a few more organic smells in the air, certainly more heat and humidity, and the sounds of roosters and dogs nearby.
Melinda and I passed up the opportunity to do a formal debriefing with our sending organization, TeachBeyond, so this column may have to serve the purpose. What does it mean to have had a cross-cultural immersion? What do we take from experiencing an altogether different culture? How do things seem back home now?
The easiest thing to say is that we were stretched out of our comfort zone.
Last August, we were suddenly living in a French-speaking Third World city of 4.6 million in the racial minority. We started out there knowing only our oldest daughter Rachel, her husband Brandon and their three daughters – they, of course, being our personal reason for doing this in the first place. We lived just 90 steps away from them in our unit 16 of the wellsecured Newland compound. In short order, we got acquainted with dozens more folks in the general missionary community based in the capital city of Yaounde’. We did not drive a vehicle the whole time
we were there; one must be a driver familiar with the tight, chaotic traffic on rough streets.
English is the language at the two schools where we taught, Greenhouse elementary and the 7-12 Rain Forest International School. These schools serve the missionaries as well as more and more Cameroonian families. The primary mission organization, in a country of some 250
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Hamming it up after the Greenhouse School musical.
Above: Checkout at the Carrefour grocery store. At right: The red soil of Cameroon, whether muddy or dry.
Above: Melinda with a kindergarten student and her mom. At right: Granddaughter Michaela, a hearty eater.
original tribal languages, is Wycliffe Bible Translators and partner agency Society for International Linguistics (SIL). By 7 a.m. each weekday we were on our way to our schools, Melinda leading kindergarten and I teaching social studies and writing at RFIS.
We survived, maybe even thrived, in our one year of doing this, even while pushing age 70. I feel that we got halfway to being cross-culturally adaptive.
I believe we were carried forward each day, spared any serious illness, and strengthened for our duties by the prayers of our supporters, many of them from the Lynden area. Thank you.
The developing world, as you know, is the wave of the future both for the Christian church and in terms of population growth and global dynamics in general. There were times I felt that Cameroon was like the United States of the 1950s-60s: a robust birth rate, more uniformly Christian, looking to its potential in the future. This is true of most of the African continent. Do you know that Nigeria will pass the U.S. as the world’s third most populous country by 2050? The so-called Third World is rising to be recognized and given its place. We had a chance to get a glimpse of that.
While it may seem a way off, perhaps someday even Cameroon will have level paved streets, no arbitrary power outages, and safe drinking water from the tap. Meanwhile, we learned something about being content in all circumstances, whether with or without our many American blessings.
traffic congestion on a detour route.
Whatcom County Cemetery District 10
Clothes, clothes and more clothes
Karen Nipges began volunteering with the Other Bank with Ferndale Community Services in 2014, not long after she moved to Ferndale. She noticed that the need for clothes was much larger than the one rack could accommodate, so she decided to do something about it. (Photo above and photos on opposite page by Racquel Muncy/Ferndale Record)
Ferndale's Karen Nipges is key to community clothing bank
By Racquel Muncy Staff Reporter
Everything Ferndale Community Services does is because someone in the community felt strongly enough to take it on as a passion project. That’s how it all started in 2000, as a cooperative of services.
Karen Nipges began volunteering with the Other Bank with Ferndale Community Services in 2014, not long after she moved to Ferndale. She noticed that the need for clothes was much larger than the one rack could accommodate, so she decided to do something about it.
“I noticed a lot of people needed it,” she said. “I wanted to help.”
Nipges began to call around to garage sales to find clothes and have the extra at the end of the sale donated.
“That’s how we started expanding,” she said.
For a while the clothing bank received just enough clothing to regularly have enough to replenish the stock.
“Those days are long gone,” she said.
Now Nipges can regularly be found sorting clothes nearly every day of the week. A few other volunteers join her throughout the week and once a month they have a sorting party where a large group volunteers to help out a major dent in the donation sorting. The next sorting event will be held on Aug. 15. More information of the event and other volunteer opportunities is at ferndalecs.org/volunteer-with-us.
She said 99% of what is donated is in excellent condition and there are almost enough clothing donations to fill a garage from floor to ceiling. Until the donations are gone through, Ferndale Community Services has momentarily stopped accepting donations. At the moment, Nipges said she does about 15 loads of laundry each week.
Anything that isn’t of a high enough quality to go into the clothing store goes to the Ferndale High School Band. As a fundraiser, they are able to recycle the clothing and get paid per pound. Nipges said this started during the Covid-19 pandemic when other fundraising methods were not possible.
“We helped them earn over $5,000,” she said.
She also pulls out any prom dresses that comes across the donation pile and puts together a closet at the high school for students to get a dress.
While it may seem overwhelming to some, and Nipges said she certainly has her
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Karen Nipges can regularly be found sorting clothes nearly every day of the week. A few other volunteers join her throughout the week and once a month they have a sorting party where a large group volunteers to help out a major dent in the donation sorting. The next sorting event will be held on Aug. 15. More information of the event and other volunteer opportunities is at ferndalecs.org/volunteerwith-us. (Racquel Muncy/Ferndale Record)
days, she enjoys the sorting. More than that though, she enjoys knowing the difference she is making in her community. People may come in to get clothes for a job interview, which helps them to get into a better position in life. Or they may be getting winter clothing so they can afford to be warm and pay rent.
“I’m just happy to help in any way that I can,” she said. “It gives me a purpose.”
During times of emergency the clothing bank has been able to help people, such as the victims of the November 2021 flooding or when people were in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s gratifying,” she said.
Ferndale Community Services Executive Director Sara O’Connor said working through the pandemic and flooding.
“It was a different kind of work and put us on people’s radars in a different way,” O’Connor said.
She said this time was game changing for Ferndale Community Services. Not long after the flooding, the organization was awarded some American Rescue Plan Act funding. This brought the organization from a fully volunteer run to having 10 employees. However, the volunteers are and likely always be the heart of the organization.
Nipges said she also enjoys the people she volunteers with, she only wishes more people would volunteer their time.
“I just wish more people would help,” she said. “The more the merrier I guess you would say.”
She said she never expected to be spending so much time with the clothing bank, but the sense of volunteerism “grows and grabs you”.
Fellow volunteer Sabrina Johnson said Nipges makes it a pleasant environment to volunteer in. Each volunteer brings in their own personality and that leads to plenty of playful banter passing the time. Johnson said that banter is what she most enjoys. It’s a bonus that Nipges will occasionally bring candy.
O’Connor said the clothing bank would look very differently today if not for Nipges.
“I call Karen the goddess of the clothing bank,” she said. “She is an inspiration.”
She said what Karen does day in and day out is more than just simply volunteering.
“What she does is love,” O’Connor said. “She has loved her community for over a decade through the clothing bank.”
-- Contact Racquel Muncy at racquel@lyndentribune.com
