Author: Stacey Hare

In just a few days, we will be packing up to leave our village so that we can spend 16 months in the States completing our MAs in Applied Linguistics / Bible Translation. As we pack up our suitcases, we are reminded of the thoughts and feelings that we had when we left America 4 years ago. We are coming to realize that many of the perspectives that we held to on the plane ride over have changed. For instance, we now realize that… Language Learning is a Beast. On the plane ride over, I was sitting next to a…

Today was one of the happiest days of my life. Our 7 year old son Kaden has announced to a large, boisterous crowd of people that Jesus Christ was his Savior and Lord! I invited pretty much everyone I knew to his baptism and was overjoyed to see friends steeped in animism walk into church to listen to Kaden read his testimony. We listened to a sermon and then people from our church walked through the dusty streets singing praises to the Lord all the way to the river. It was an incredibly joyous time. I praise God for his…

When considering employment, we often look at all the benefits and make a choice based on what job has the most to offer us. We take into account the salary we would receive, how much vacation time we would be allotted, how well the job would work with our family life, and things like medical benefits. We put all the variables side and by side and then choose a job based on what bests suits us.For those considering missions, our list of variables is a little different. Even though things like vacation time or medical benefits may not make it…

The joy that comes in serving others is grossly underrated.It is true that Lord has created all things for us to enjoy. Spending time with family, enjoying the beach, hearing children laughing, playing with your pet bunny, or seeing a great movie are all things that bring joy and refreshment. God deserves praise for these gifts and we should not feel guilty in experiencing them. And yet, I would say there is a different type of joy that comes from self-sacrificing service that can only be tasted by those who lay themselves aside. I would imagine that the exhausted fire-fighter…

Missions is a lot like marriage. Marriage is not a one-time commitment at the altar. Marriage is instead lot of little daily commitments and recommitments to love one’s spouse. In the same way, I thought missions was a once-and-for-all sign on the dotted line, get the visa, get on a plane commitment. But I was wrong. Missions, like marriage, is a day in and day out decision to stay where you are, to keep learning the language, to cherish the name of the Lord, to love people who are difficult, and to honor the Gospel. It is a life of…

Reverse culture shock is real.A couple days ago, I made the long, long voyage from Cameroon to Turlock, California where I am staying with my parents to support my mom through an operation (which was a success by the way!). I have left one of the poorest places in the world to come live in one of the richest places in the world. I have left a place where finding clean water is a serious problem, leading many to spend hours hauling water jugs back and forth to their homes. And here I am in a land where we have…

Imagine a child, just before his first trip to the ocean, telling you he is going to fit the whole ocean in his toy bucket. It is only when he stands on the seashore and soaks up the immensity of this body of water, that he is able to see the ridiculous nature of his ambitions. Why? Because no matter how hard he tries the ocean is simply too big for him to master. This is how we feel about the problems in which we face on a daily basis: poverty, injustice, corruption, sexism, illiteracy, abuse, false gospels, and lack…

I distinctly remember saying that I was willing to be a Bible translator but I was unwilling to translate the Bible for a tonal language, because that would be just too hard. But after support raising, French school, culture shock, all with four young children, a tonal language did not seem so bad. Every stage of our missionary journey has seemed impossible, so why not add learning and analyzing a tonal language to the list? We have sought not to focus on the life task of translating the Bible, but instead have tried to just conquer what is just ahead…

I cannot tell you how I felt when I first heard the news. Like, you know you should be feeling loss, but in reality all you feel is complete disbelief. She was only 36. She was a wife and a mother of six children. And she was gone. Even living here, in Cameroon, this would be surprising. But I am not talking about my neighbor. Lynn Shreve, a young American living in Louisville and attending every week our main sending church died in her sleep Thursday night. This is a tragic loss for her family and for our church, and…