Author: Stacey Hare

Dave read a book a few years back that described the history of missions in Africa. One striking characteristic of the missionary community was that they achieved a mastery over local languages to the point that they were called teachers of the Bakoum language to the Bakoum (for example).This is what we want.We want to be conversant in the language, we want to teach abstract spiritual truths in the language, tell jokes, give a simple gospel presentation to a child, and disciple new believers. We want to know the grammar of the language, the various tonological processes, how to read…

Mary T. Lederleitner in her book Cross Cultural Partnerships says: In order to work together well we need to listen to one another. We need to not only deeply grasp how our partners feel and what they believe but also take the additional step to understand why such feelings and beliefs are wholly logical within a given context. If we can see the logic of a person’s worldview, if we can value it as being wholly reasonable given a unique cultural heritage and history, from that place of mutual respect and dignity we can find new and creative ways to…

We are scheduled to fly out to Cameroon on August 20th and are feeling our great need of the Lord and of people to intercede on our behalf. So, for the next 10 days we will be sharing a specific way you can be praying for us as we transition back to Cameroon. Our first prayer request is that this will be the term if great fruit… This is the term that we have patiently waited for for over a decade. I committed my life to missions my senior year of college, and now, FIFTEEN years later, we will finally…

Often in the face of dangers, missionaries reassure themselves that if just one soul is spared from Hell and spends eternity worshipping Christ, or if there is a Bible left behind, or a church is planted, then their missionary service is worth it. The crisis for the missionary comes when there is no visible fruit. The scales in the mind of a missionary are constantly weighing the cost-benefit of the choice made to leave the familiar and embrace the foreign. It is when the costs are forefront in the mind of a missionary and the benefits are non-existent that a…

We are looking for a woman to come to Cameroon to homeschool our children for the 2019-2020 school year. They would all be in 4th grade during this year. Please help spread the word because we would like to speak with anyone interested before we head back to Cameroon on August 20th. We will be in Louisville July 13th – August 11th, and then in Colorado Springs August 11th-20th. We would love to sit down with anyone interested to talk about the possibility. The Mutually-Beneficial Opportunity: Coming to Cameroon to be a homeschool teacher is beneficial both to Dave and…

In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. – Luke 10:21 As John Piper points out in his article What Makes Jesus Rejoice, the verse above is only one of two places where Jesus is described as rejoicing. The reason for his joy was because when the seventy-two disciples returned from their preaching tour, they told him that the Gospel message was…

We always knew that Bible translation was a life’s work and that fruit from it would likely not be enjoyed for many years. We have contented ourselves in the fact that ensuring that the Word of God was translated faithfully and understandably was worth the time investment. Some things are too sacred to be rushed. Further, we know that not one of God’s elect will be lost. However, since we have been in the States, three of our friends in our village have died. We know that in the 20-ish years that it’ll take to translate the Word of God,…

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela By God’s grace through much coffee, loud dance music, many late nights, hundreds of neglected emails, and a year’s worth of dreams about tone, we now have a writing system in the Bakoum language!   If I was not convinced that revisions will be necessary, I’d consider getting a tattoo of the Bakoum alphabet – just as an expression of my joy.   Not only do we have a system of writing (with tone markings, I might add), but through Dave’s work we have a solid understanding of how the…

Dave and I graduated from The Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics both with Masters in Bible translation. We are thrilled to be done and tremendously grateful for this institution that has equipped us well for the task of Bible translation. And yet in this season of accomplishment and relief, the Lord through his Word reminds us that his calling is higher than just letters behind our names. Paul says that even IF we speak multiple languages, if we speak them with loveless hearts, we are simply obnoxious. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have…

I believe that at times Satan tries to convince us that the best way to honor God is to fight with one another. We criticise one another and sometimes pit two doctrines, or two pastors, or two methodologies against each other unnecessarily. In this vein, we have sometimes heard in the missions community a criticism of linguistics/linguistic education OR on the other side, a criticism of theology/theological education. If you know Dave and I at all, you probably know that we have pursued both theology and linguistics. And in doing so, we have discovered that training in linguistics and theology as…