Author: Stacey Hare

One of the main questions we get from our friends and family now that we are in the States is, “How are the kids adjusting?” so we thought we’d take a minute to type up a fairly detailed response. In a word, they are doing great. I suppose it’s kind of hard not to be doing great coming from a poorer nation to a nation of toys and shiny things. In the words of Dave, “Moving our children to America is kind of like moving them inside of Toys-R-Us.” It’s pretty hard for them to not be excited about everything….

Imagine moving into a new house. After getting your stuff situated you go about organizing, cleaning, and landscaping the yard. As time progresses the grass is looking good, you have flowers in planters, and even a swing set for the kids. But casting a shadow on all of it is the neighbor’s fence. It’s old, leaning heavily into your yard and in desperate need of paint. A month passes, then a couple more. After a year the fence is only looking worse. You see your neighbor from time to time and struggle with angry thoughts. Your neighbor never mentions it,…

by Guest Author: Reda Anderton, DOThe young mother came screaming up to my porch at 2 am. “My child! My child!” she cried. As I jerked awake, adrenalin streaming through my body. I heard a high-pitched abnormal cry from the baby mixing with the mother’s screams. Quickly throwing a robe over my night clothes, I grabbed a solar lantern and headed out to unlock the screen door, letting the hysterical mother and her convulsing baby into my screened-in porch. The baby had been okay when he fell asleep earlier, but later awakened having convulsions and a high fever. A quick…

It is the glory of the Lord to conceal things. Proverbs 25:2 One of my all-time favorite movies is Arrival where a renowned linguist is called upon to figure out how to communicate with aliens (who don’t have mouths…). I love this movie because I now have a point of reference to describe my work to people: “What I do is like what the linguist in Arrival does except that it takes a lot longer and we work with humans, not aliens.” People seem to get that. And, within the movie, my absolute favorite part, which totally describes how I…

by Lisa (guest blogger) My name is Lisa, and I am a World Team missionary among the Fulbe people. I grew up in the Prairies of Saskatchewan and am now living and working in Cameroon, Africa. I have been here for almost two years, just about to complete my first term. My main focus is children’s ministry (kids camp), with my heart’s desire to see the Fulbe children freely proclaim the praise of Jesus! My childhood holds many bright and loving memories of my family and friends and involvement in the communities I was a part of. As I have…

Right now, in the North American church, there is a huge emphasis on Christian community, small groups, and doing life with other believers. I think this comes as a reaction to a culture that becomes more and more individualistic by the minute. So, instead of withdrawing from others who are different than we are, the church is saying that “in Christ” there is no longer black, nor white, rich, nor poor, male nor female. We are all one and thus we ought to live in a community that demonstrates this bond. I think this is a beautiful and biblical message….

Dave and I were asked to speak at a missions conference at Kaleo church in San Diego, CA last weekend. We were praying that the Lord would use us to encourage others towards missions, but we had no idea that we ourselves would walk away as encouraged as we did. The conference started out with an African choir leading us into the courts of Heaven through their four part harmonies, bight dresses, and dancing unto the Lord. However, this time of joy was accompanied by some moments of sobriety. It’s “On Us” The pastor of Kaleo Church, Tim Cain, preached…

I fear that when we think about going into missions, we can often turn too introspective. We tend to meditate day and night on the all the questions that flood our minds: “Do I have what it takes?” “Am I ready to go into missions single even knowing I may not meet someone on the field?” “Am I qualified?” “Am I called?” “How do I know if I am called?” “How will I be able to learn another language and school my children?” “What agency would I go with?” “What would I do on the field?” There is an aspect…

Missionaries are generally disliked by the secular linguistics/anthropology community. Why? Because missionaries do not come to the field as neutral observers, but with a desire to see change. Missionary linguists do not come to merely preserve and describe languages, but to see the Bible translated and then confront the culture. And Dave and I desperately want to see the Bakoum culture confronted and changed.  Do not get me wrong, there are aspects of Bakoum/Cameroonian culture that I love and miss. I love the brightly colored cloth custom made into form-fitting, eccentric dresses. I love walking down the street and seeing…

We are set to arrive in the States in just 9 days and as we talk to our children about American culture, we have realized that it may be helpful for our friends in America to understand a bit of the culture that they are coming from. I used to think of them as American. They are being raised by American parents, we speak mostly English in our home, and even occasionally watch an American movie all together. But then, we had a homeschool teacher show up in August who later shared that she had no idea how many cultural…