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…

Just before we left for home assignment, I had an interesting conversation with one of our most trusted language helpers, we will call him Pierre (not his name). Pierre is very well educated and one of the only Bakoum people I know that enjoys reading (in French). I was driving him back to his village and recounting a story that I found to be humorous. I told him that fairly often people will come to my door and we will have this conversation: Them: “I have some chameleon eggs for you to buy.” Me: “Oh yeah, and why would I…

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…

Where we have been. We arrived in the US in March 2017, and you may be thinking we have just been vacationing. Au contraire my friends, we have been quite busy. Let me tell you what we have been up to. STUDY. The majority of our time has been spent in Dallas, TX where we have been studying at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. The reason we were here is because we knew that we needed more training before we began translating the Bible. At GIAL took the following classes: Advanced Grammar Advanced Phonology Cross-cultural Teaching Seminar Discourse Analysis…

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…

My fear for you is not that you will fail, but that you will succeed in doing the wrong things. Dr. Howard Hendricks (to his students) As we approach missions there are so many different options. Just in Cameroon we know missionaries that work as: doctors, nurses, church planters, educators, agricultural specialists, librarians, linguists, and even a couple that are starting gyms. If you read this blog, you know that Stacey and I are working as Bible translators and most of our time so far has been invested in learning and analyzing the Kwakum language. In all that we do,…

I’ve been heavy-hearted recently. Heavy hearted for the political unrest occurring in “our” region of the world: Cameroon, Africa. And heavy hearted for the “unrest” among my four second-graders. There are likely grave injustices in Cameroon that have gone unaddressed for years and now the alleged oppressed are lashing out towards the alleged oppressor: the government. Some are expressing concerns peaceably and others are taking this opportunity to burn villages and murder the innocent. Thankfully we do not have any burning or anything of the sort among our children, nor do we have (physical) murder. And yet, there is nonetheless…