Category: Mobilization

A few months ago, I read a blog in which some missionaries were talking about a difficult event that occurred with their children. In the comments on that post, a woman wrote something to the effect of: “If you have young children, it is clear: God has not called you to missions.” I was not really surprised. People have asked us questions about our children throughout the years that belied the same assumption: missionaries are unable to keep their children safe on the mission field. I have found that the main reason people do not consider missions is because of…

If you have read our most recent newsletter, you know that our kids are now attending a school in the capital, Yaounde, called Rainforest International School (RFIS). I cannot tell you how much of a blessing RFIS has already been to us, just over the last couple of months. Our kids are loving it, and it has freed us up to invest more time into the translation work and into the lives of the Kwakum people. Due to a COVID and other reasons, RFIS is struggling and needs your help. Without this school, Christian missions in Cameroon would be hampered…

I recently had a chance to address students at a missionary training school. It was exciting to see their expectation and joy at the thought of ministering to unreached people groups around the world. I can remember the buzz of expectation mixed with the anxiety of trying something new. Many of them are not sure what continent they will be living on two years from now, let alone what language they will be speaking, or food they will be eating. Spending time with them was fun and inspiring. Into this context I was asked to talk about our mission agency,…

The term “white savior” has come into vogue since we have been living in Africa. Because of its offensive nature (to someone who happens to be a white person ministering to black people), I have purposefully avoided learning more about what this term means. However, the mobilizers of our mission agency have told us that people are avoiding going into missions because they do not want to be labeled a “white savior.” Therefore, since this is something keeping people from the field, I will (reluctantly) address it. What is a “white savior”? According to Wikipedia… “The term white savior is a sarcastic…

We have been working through some objections that, at least in part, contribute to the lack of workers on the mission field. So far we have covered the objections: 1) “I don’t want to beg for money“, 2) technology induced sleep, and 3) it’s hard to leave mom. Today I want to consider an objection that I have heard from time to time: It is both more effective and efficient to support national Christians. The core of this objection is that the process of sending out expat missionaries into the nations is expensive and time intensive. Further, when we as…

Why are missionaries on the field so worn and spread so then? In the words of Jesus, it is because the laborers are few (Matt 9:37). But why are the laborers few? I believe that one of the reasons is because leaving the warmth and familiarity of one’s family is extremely difficult. The Kwakum people understand this. Many of them die in the same house that they are born in. Even if they do move to a different village, it is of utmost importance that they be buried in the front yard of their childhood home. Why? In part, it…

This Thanksgiving, we were invited to celebrate with a missionary couple, Barry and Desma Abbott who work among the Baka people. We piled into our car and drove along bumpy, dusty, dirt roads for hours. When large trucks would pass, the dust was so bad, we had to pull over until it cleared up so I could see the road. We drove, and drove, and drove, and then we started to feel…lost. We pulled over several times and asked people where we could find the Abbott’s village. We knew we were in trouble when they started to look at us…

If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20  Most Christians believe that prayer is powerful. We believe the Bible when it tells us that Elijah prayed and it did not rain for three and a half years! We believe that when Moses prayed the Lord opened the sea. And yet, we tend to pray for the small, the immediate. We pray for health and safe travel, friends and family. What would it look like…

I think that many Christians have a false idea of missionaries: namely, that they want to go off on their own and do ministry by themselves. Often we think of David Livingstone who literally disappeared into Africa to do his work and was hardly ever heard from the last six years of his life. In fact, a newspaper had to send a large party led by Henry Morton Stanley to find him. As far as I can tell, Livingstone liked this way of life. He was the quintessential lone ranger missionary. But is this normative? Should we send out our…

Fifteen years ago, at The Master’s University in Southern California, the Lord used a return missionary to challenge me to devote my life to the mission field. I feel indebted to this man and indebted to this institution for putting people like him in front of me to expose me to a world of lostness that I knew nothing about.Fifteen years later, someone from this same university asked Dave and I to stand in front of the student body and tell them about this same lostness that I had learned about while there. It was their Global Outreach Week and…