Category: Current Events
Homeschool Teacher Needed
For those of you who did not see our post about this on Facebook, we are looking for a godly young lady to come live with us to homeschool our kids (4 2nd graders) for the 2016-2017 school year. Here are some details for anyone who might be interested: The Opportunity See the missionary life up close! You will live with our family and be an essential part of our ministry. It will challenge your worldview and help you understand the “real” missionary life first hand. You will also have the opportunity to greatly help us as we set out…
2 Week Dialect Survey Starting Monday
A couple months ago, a group of riotous, drunken village leaders threatened us, “If you do not choose our dialect for your Bible translation, then we will not read your Bible.” We had heard about such threats in linguistics school, but now here we are on the brink of having to make a decision about which dialect to make “the standard” as we can only choose one to write down. So which one do we choose? So, for the next two weeks we are going to gather as much linguistic data as we can in order to make an informed…
One Year Since our Arrival in Country: Much to be Thankful For
This past year has been a whirlwind. We arrived in Cameroon with 16 suitcases and four children and that was pretty much all we had. We were a bit lost, uncertain about where we would serve, and at times wondering what we were doing moving our family across the world. Now, a year later, we have a house, are well established in our people group, we have a language committee, language partner, public school for the children, home school teacher for the children, those whom we call friends, a weekly routine (thank God), a local church and even a dog…
Much to be Thankful For: Recap on Kids’ Bible Club
Yesterday our Kids’ Bible club came to a close and although we are exhausted we have much to be thankful for. Each day we started by playing a game like Red Rover, Leap Frog or Tug-of-War and the kids had a blast. There were even kids lined up in anticipation outside of our house well before we were ready to start the club. After that we taught them catechism songs which they loved. If nothing else, we are so encouraged to hear sung throughout the village “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God almighty who was and who is and…
Kids’ 5-Day Club Starting Tomorrow at the Hares
For our first term we are charged with the task of learning Bakoum, analyzing it, and learning the culture. But then there are always bored children on our front porch looking for something to do or for someone to teach them something. We talk to them in Bakoum some, but are nowhere near the place where we can teach them the Bible in this language (need to get it translated first!). But we have more-or-less decided that would rather not wait to teach these kids the Bible and hopefully some of them can understand it in the French (this would be on…
Village Joys
By Stacey Oh there are so many things that I love about our lives here in Cameroon. One such thing is never knowing quite what to expect when we walk out of our front door each day. As far as our daily routine, each day, Dave and I study the language with a language partner and then in the afternoons we try to go out into the neighborhood and practice what we learned. And we usually learn a lot more then just Bakoum in the process. For instance, the other day, we learned how to pull of the legs and…
Introducing the Bakoum Language Committee
By Stacey Yesterday was one of the happiest days of my life. Four years ago, during our visit to Cameroon, we met in a room at city hall and heard a handful of people explain why they wanted the Bible in their language. Yesterday we met in the very same room this time with over a hundred leaders in the community and watched them take concrete steps to that end. They elected leaders, they brainstormed about how to raise money for the project, and miracle upon miracle, they agreed to work together for the good of the project. They dreamed…
Launching of Bakoum Language Development Committee Tomorrow: Please Pray
By Stacey Well tomorrow is the day. It is the launching of the language development project for which we have been praying and preparing for years. If all goes as planned, we will have this 6 hour meeting at city hall with over a hundred representatives who have been selected from each Bakoum village. Jean Yves, the Cameroonian brother who is helping us mobilize the community, will be here tonight and will preside over the meeting. I am going to pick up a Cameroonian-style dress I am having made later today. All that to say, this meeting is a big…
Feeling a Bit Like Moses…How you can Pray
By Stacey But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” Exodus 4:10-12 We are spending a couple days in the capital in order to get all dressed up and…
Survey Trip Planned for this Week
By Stacey Starting tomorrow, Dave and I will be traveling to do a week-long survey among the Bakoum people. Our three two motivations for doing this are: 1. To gather more information about the people group. On the linguistic side of things, we hope to ask them things like if there is more than one dialect of the language or if they can understand the other languages groups which surround them. And then, on the more general side of things, we hope to map out exactly where all the Bakoum villages are located, how many chiefs there are, and who…
