One reality of the missionary life is that missionaries will lose supporters. According to Ask A Missionary, most missionaries lose 5-15% of their support during their first two years on the field. It is very likely, then, that some of our readers will have to discontinue support at sometime. There are various reasons that you might want to stop supporting a missionary: financial problems, loss of a job, or a realization that you do not want to support their ministry any longer maybe due to theological or methodological convictions. Whatever the reason, I thought that I would offer some suggestions…

I have been asking myself the question how we can best love the poor since moving here to Cameroon. It was much easier to consider this while living in the States where there were no people living in houses made of mud and sticks right next door to me. There, “the poor” were more of a category as opposed to actual people that had faces and names. So let me begin by introducing one such man so that you too might begin to see their faces:   Introducing Simon Simon is an old widower that wears a white silky “Lancôme…

I try to read about translation methodology and principles as I am able. So, when I saw an article called “Microwave Bible?” I could not resist the draw. This particular article was about new methods being used to speed up Bible translation, a goal that I (theoretically) love. Here is a basic summary of the article: Wycliffe Associates (a sister organization to Wycliffe Bible Translators) has a program for rapid Bible translation called MAST (Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation). They seek out very small people groups that are unlikely to be targeted for a Bible translation project by any other organization. They…

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.” – Luke 6:20-26 We have at times been asked (and wondered ourselves) why we would choose to work with a minority people group when we could work with those who would be more likely to have a world-wide impact. The thinking is that if a Bakoum person comes to know Christ, he may be instrumental for the Kingdom among those who are in his village, but he will likely never travel nor write anything that could influence the masses. Conversely, if those who speak languages of wider communication…

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…

I was walking alongside a woman and her partner on Market Street a few years back. It was Saturday morning, 6AM, and she was walking toward the abortion clinic, so it really was not hard to guess what was going on. I tried to ask a couple of questions, but they just continued to walk, disregarding me. Knowing I only had seconds, I decided to cut to the chase. “Did you know that the child you are carrying was created in the image of God who is currently weaving her together in your womb?” For the first time the woman…

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…

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…

Called Not to be Colonists Like most first-term missionaries, we are thinking through many issues that are suddenly before us (usually “out-loud” on our blog). One such issue is the question of “tolerance” on the mission field. This question is intimately tied to the history of our people group. People in this region had been living in the jungles until the French and German colonists entered the area. It has been said that the Germans violently forced the people to set up new villages along a main road so that they could control them more easily. A few of our…