Author: David M. Hare

We just finished our annual field conference in Yaoundé. We met with our co-workers from all over Cameroon. It was a very encouraging time that led to a better understanding of what God is doing here. It also led to a better understanding of needs throughout the country. As many of you often ask what you can do to help our ministry, I thought I would give you the opportunity to recruit for our field. Below are some examples of needs in Cameroon right now. Of course we are always looking for church planting/Bible translation types, but look also at…

“Can you help me? My daughter is sick,” my neighbor asked me the other day. He showed me her swollen stomach and her hands are turning yellow. I looked into her sad eyes knowing that children die here often, usually from curable diseases. My missions professor in seminary called it the “stupid stuff.” There are so many people dying from preventable causes, and that is how it feels: stupid. It is stupid that this little girl might die because of intestinal worms that could be cured with one round of meds. But then again, it could be that she has…

I am coming down off of a pretty difficult time with my own attitudes regarding missionary life here in Cameroon. I can honestly say that right now I feel content, excited, and motivated. But not everyday is like that, and some worse than others. When I mention these struggles what comes to your mind? What do you think is the hardest part of being a missionary? People have told me the hardest part would be the heat, bugs, snakes, isolation, sickness or language learning. But I would say that none of these things are the “hardest” part of being a…

Most missionaries are not scared of death, at least not substantially. We have weighed the risks. We chose to become missionaries even though there might be terrorists not far away and we live in a region where nearly invisible bugs can bite you without you knowing and deliver an illness that kills more people in the world than any other. Early missionaries packed their belongings in coffins, and it is not surprising to me that ominous warnings like “You will be eaten by cannibals” did not keep men like John Patton off the field. Why? It is simple really, we…

It is interesting the things you notice when you jump into a different culture. We live in a small village next to a small town. On most days people are dressed in tattered clothing that is filthy from the field. Diapers are uncommon, so most toddlers just wander around without pants. The majority of houses in our village have dirt floors, and even with our cement floor it is impossible to keep our kids clean. But Sunday, that is a different story. On Sunday families wear matching outfits, clothes bleached to an incomprehensible white (seriously, I have no idea how…

If you have followed our ministry for a while, you know that we have spent a good amount of time with the Baka people. We visited them during our field visit, we lived among them for a few months while waiting for our house to be built, and we work right next to them here in Dimako. If you were to come and visit the Baka, one of the first things that you would notice how desperate their physical plight is.The Baka have for known history been hunter/gatherers and therefore lived as nomads, never settling in one place. However, with…

I often find myself daydreaming about how I could really make a difference here in Cameroon. When I look around me I see people trapped in their traditions and who literally cannot imagine any other way of life. I see poverty so extreme that some have no source of water other than a dirty river, and they are always sick. Their children die from measles, and improper sanitation, and lack of access to medical care. I see people that deal with conflict the only way they have ever seen yelling in the streets and threatening each other with machetes. And I sit…

I had a great idea my second to last year of college: move out of the dorms, move in with some friends, and save a ton of money. So I moved to an apartment, not far from campus and began to live the liberating off-campus life. I should have suspected that there would be trouble the first day I moved in, what with having to spend hours cleaning the kitchen and all. Three hours to be precise. And it was a small kitchen. It was the first time that I had to deal with messy roommates, and it was painful….

by Dave “Thank you for calling Merchant Services, my name is Dave, WITH WHOM do I have the pleasure of speaking?” I could, and probably do, chant this introduction in my sleep. For 2+ years I answered hundreds and thousands of tech support calls in the windowless Louisville call center for Bank of America Merchant Services. In my final six months I spent little time taking calls and a LOT of time listening to calls, as I became a part of the Quality Assurance Team. I awarded and deducted points from my co-workers’ scores based on their tone, technical prowess…