The death of John Allen Chau in India has brought out an onslaught of internet hatred. While some of this hatred has been aimed at the methodology of this particular missionary, much of it has been against Christian missionaries in general. And as much as I would like to imagine that these comments represent only those who are not believers, I fear that such thinking has also invaded the church. So, I thought I would address some of the accusations… 1. Missionaries are not wanted. In the surprisingly not so distant past, Europeans still had control over Cameroon (where we…

I have had numerous conversations with single Christians, wondering if their standards for the ideal spouse were too high. Perhaps, they thought, they just need to bite the bullet and settle for that less-than-ideal guy. What’s funny is I have also heard Christians speaking the same way about missions teams and organizations. In some ways, joining with a missionary team is even more sober than deciding who one will marry. The typical married couples in the States will not have to endure the same kinds of stressors that are put upon missionary colleagues. Missionary teams plant churches together, make translation…

When Stacey and I were teaching the Kindergarten – 1stGrade Sunday School class in Dallas, we studied and prayed for the persecuted church (using a curriculum put together by Voice of the Martyrs). When the kids left we would give them some prayer requests to pray through with their families during the week. In handing a prayer sheet to one of the kids’ mothers, she said to me: “This is pretty heavy stuff for a Kindergartener.” I thought about what she said, and I agree. It is heavy. However, I do think it is worth it to teach our children,…

When we came to Cameroon on our vision trip in 2010, I asked our colleagues for their highs and lows of Cameroon living. Without exception, each person told me that one of the hardest parts of living here was dealing with money. Knowing about these challenges we read a ton about the subject before crossing into a new culture. We found that most books written for Westerners moving to Africa deal extensively with the question of finances. We have already written about some of what we have learned from books like African Friends and Money Matters (read HERE) and When Helping…

My day began by watching my deceased neighbor be buried in his front yard. My day ended by watching another neighbor beat a little boy violently. It has not taken long for us to remember that death and violence are a part of everyday life here in the village. And there is a part of me that asks the question: Is it ever okay to put my headphones in to drown out the constant strain of yelling that surrounds our home? Is it okay for me to look the other way while a grown man beats a whimpering child? Is…

As many of you  know, our family has spent the last 17 months in the US. And now, we have been full time back in the village for a couple weeks. Our hearts have been delighted to see the smiles of our friends and to hear them welcoming us back (and even understand them!). We see new babies and new houses. Our church has worked hard and is now a mud-brick building with a tin roof.But nearly every encounter is also a reminder of loss. Our dear friends Simon and Carine died while we were away. Carine’s father actually died…

When we were in Cameroon our last term, we would often spend our Saturday mornings working on our “yard.” This means that we tried to tame the jungle with a couple of machetes and a handful of 1st graders. We have about an acre of land and planted grass more-or-less blade by blade. Other missionaries gave us cuttings of their trees and we planted them in our back yard. Through the years of our first term, we tried to convert the land around our house from the wild jungle into something manageable and something beautiful. We worked really hard but…

We are so thankful to live in a country where the government is not opposed to missionaries. We entered Cameroon originally on visas that listed our role as “missionaries” and have never felt any tension in that regard. However, governments change, and even within an overall supportive government you can sometimes have individuals that can oppose you. We were told when we first met with the mayor of our town that if we did not have his blessing we might as well move onto a different people group. All of that to say, the government leaders in Cameroon can greatly affect…

As we go to Cameroon we have a lot of goals and there is much that we want to accomplish. We want to translate the Bible, teach people to read, help build the still small and weak Bakoum church, and all along raise our family and minister to our neighbors. But we also recognize that we can do all of that without love, and as a result it would be worth nothing. And we know that because God first loved us, we can go out and love others. Pray that God would give us a heart to love our neighbors,…

As we have been saying goodbye to friends and family, people have been asking us how we feel about going back to Cameroon. In the midst of trying to see how much we can shove into suitcases and eating as much ice-cream as we can, there are three main feelings that keep coming to the surface: Dread, Trust, and Resolve. Dread We know that we are soldiers going back into war. Our war is not one involving guns or tanks but instead we battle and against the spiritual forces of evil that have held the Bakoum people for generations. We…