By Stacey I had a church history professor in seminary who said that Pelagius did not believe in original sin because he never had kids. Had he been a father, he would never in a million years say that people were born basically good. I could not agree more. That’s Just the Way it is… I think the new air that we are breathing here in Cameroon may have a slight twinge of fatalism in it (although that depends on the people group). For example: “Can you come pick up so-and-so and take them to their village to die?” (um,…

by Stacey Heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night. – Longfellow   We are experiencing many new adventures as first-term missionaries and in recounting them we often hear from our loved ones that we need to make sure we are not pushing ourselves too hard. Being the kind people that they are, they do not want to see us burn-out and go back home with remnants of what used to be a marriage, messed-up children, and the Bakoum people left without a…

by Dave We had an excellent opportunity to go to a city called Bamenda last week and have a short retreat. We had an American pastor, and for the first time in almost 2 years, we experienced corporate worship in English. And an amazing thing happened. I felt nothing! I knew that this should have been a great relief and joy, both emotions I saw on the faces of those other missionaries around me. But I just felt cold and unmoved. I spent the week reflecting on what to do, and did find myself worshipping in the end. And I…

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…

by DaveWe thought it was high time for a blog demonstrating the crazy things we encounter here in Cameroon. Hope you enjoy! Because we are staying in the forest, we often get hunters coming through our camp. This guy was quite proud of his most recent hunt where he bagged two blue faced monkeys. On a side note, I have not slept since taking this photo.  I am not really sure what they were getting at, but this is not what I want to see on my laundry detergent.  You may have already seen on Facebook, but we had our…

By Stacey With over a hundred languages without a Bible translation here in Cameroon, you can imagine that choosing ONE people group was a hard decision. But the decision has been made, we are going to, by God’s grace, translate for the Bakoum people. And in the meantime, we are living among a neighboring tribe called the Baka….who also happen to be without a translation of the Bible. It is hard to step out my front door in the morning and not be faced with the reality that these people need the Word. Let me share with you two simple…

by Dave It has been an intense couple of weeks here in Cameroon. We have visited a total of 19 villages and talked to innumerable chiefs and villagers. This has been an…interesting window into the culture as we struggle to not make fools of ourselves and also to understand what is going on around us. Here is a taste of some of the more wild adventures: 1. Drunk Man with a Megaphone In one village I spoke with the chief and several notable members of the community. Several of the men there were drunk and one of them had a…

Us and our friend Jean Yves who helped us talk to village leaders this week By Stacey Before our arrival in Cameroon, if you would have asked us why we wanted to spend our lives in Africa, we would have responded, “We want to translate the Bible.” As of today, this would no longer be our response. Let me explain why… A Previous Goal and Previous Methodology The Bible translators who preceded us in ages past came to the field with the same goal that Dave and I had: to translate the Bible. And, as can be expected their methodology…

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…

by Stacey      In celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I sat down and asked myself what I was thankful for here in Cameroon. Although there are many things to praise God for, I think one thing that I most appreciate about my life is that everything is new and very different. We thought we would share a couple such experiences…     On the lighter side of things…Snakes. When you think of Africa, you think of snakes right? Well, if not, you should. We are currently living in the middle of a rain forest and have seen a green mamba,…