Author: Stacey Hare

This coming Saturday will be a big day. On the literacy front, we will be administering a 10-page exam in Kwakum to determine who among our students is ready to receive a diploma and an “I can read in Kwakum” T-shirt (one of the many tools that we are using to get people reading…). In addition to students reading various texts and answering comprehension questions, they will be required to teach someone who has not participated in a literacy class the ABCs. We’ve set the bar high in literacy and so far people are rising up to this standard. On…

I have told the story before of one of my neighbors was being routinely abused by her boyfriend. Although she wanted to separate from him, fear wouldn’t let her. Feeling at the end of herself, she reached out to a Christian woman who told her to pray against the power of the boyfriend in the name of Jesus. This woman did just that and then watched as her boyfriend’s feet became glued to the ground when he tried to walk into the house to do her harm. He struggled and struggled to be set free, but was unable to touch…

Hurdles When we first moved to Cameroon, I was introduced to the machete which is all so common in daily life here. It is used to kill snakes, cut fingernails, slice vegetables, clear a field in the bush, plant seeds; it is used for absolutely everything. And yet, I had never known life with a machete, so I frankly didn’t see the immediate value of it (that has since changed). If “my people” have survived for generations without a machete, is it really that important? This is exactly the same question that is often asked among illiterate people when being…

Yesterday, we, along with about 50 people, sang praise songs to Jesus and danced in the streets for hours. Why? Like my son Kaden said, it was because we were joining in with the angels in Heaven who were rejoicing over sinners who had repented of their sins. We walked through villages as people came out of their homes to see what all the singing was about until we reached the river where three Kwakum people were baptized (two out of the three are our close friends). Let me tell you how the Lord has dramatically changed the lives of…

Yesterday was the most encouraging joy that we have had since coming to Cameroon in 2014. It started by going to a Kwakum church in a different village. The pastor has been our language partner for a number of years and since we’ve started Oral Bible Storying, has been our right-hand man. We usually attend his church a couple times a month and walk away discouraged because he preaches works salvation and often his teachings are far removed from the text of Scripture. However, this Sunday he stood up and from memory recited all of Genesis 3 and then preached…

I have talked to many young women about coming to Cameroon for a year on a short-term trip and, without fail, one of the first questions they have for me is about the state of the local church among the Kwakum. They are curious about what kind of spiritual resources and accountability will be available to them if they were to come. In our circles, there is, rightly, a huge emphasis on the role of the local church in the life of the believer. There are no “lone ranger” Christians – we are part of a body. We are “living…

A couple days ago, I ventured off the beaten path in order to reach remote Bakoum villages with a couple of my Bakoum coworkers. Our goal was to see if there were any people in each village who feared God and who would like to be a part of our Oral Bible Storying (OBS) workshops. The response was very positive which means that we should at least 2 representatives from every Bakoum at our workshops. Tomorrow we will be studying the creation of the world (a summary of Gen 1-2). One of our Bakoum co-workers, Bosco, will start the meeting…

You may remember from the Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis, “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” Eustace mocks the Pevensies for their belief in Narnia, boasts of his many great achievements, and is truly insufferable. It is with great dread that Lucy and Edmond come to spend a summer with him, and he does not disappoint their low expectations. Even in the wonderful kingdom of Narnia, Eustace spends most of his time complaining about and denigrating his magical surroundings. Many of us have a Eustace in our lives (or more…

The curtains are hung, the furniture is in place, the books are in their shelves. It is time to get this ministry party started. This literacy and translation center (“Kwakum House”) is designed to be a hub of Christian and literacy efforts among the Kwakum people. Our dreams for this place is that the Lord would fill it up with education and spiritual truths to bring change among the Kwakum and to bring about worship of Christ. In September, we plan to kick off women’s Bible studies going through Firm Foundations (an evangelistic curriculum that goes from Creation to Christ),…

Speaking from the perspective of one demon to another, Randy Alcorn writes in The Ishbane Conspiracy: “Unfortunately, the Enemy is a subversive opportunist. We must continuously feed them secondary causes. Otherwise, they could see through the smoke and mirrors and turn to His primary cause.”  The other day someone came to my house and told me about a neighbor who had given birth but soon after the baby stopped breathing. The woman telling me this was visibly upset and I too was in shock, having seen the pregnant woman walk by my house for the past few months. In the…