by Dave Do you ever get asked stupid questions? Try this one on for size: on a market trip the other day the meat vendor saw Stacey, Elias and myself and asked, “Hey, where is your black woman?” Polygamy is not rare here and he assumed I had another wife, or at least another woman on the side. This type of question is the norm as we walk around here, not the exception. Adoption outside of the extended family is rare in Cameroon, multiple women/wives is common, and seeing us with black kids leads them to certain cultural assumptions. But…

by Stacey  Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. – Psalm 12:1  Streets Filled with Violence I was studying one day when I  heard a young woman screaming in the street, “No mama, no mama.” I went outside to see what was going on and Dave told me that our neighbor was violently whipping her daughter with an electrical cable, even in the face, while her older brother was pinning her down. Dave told the mother that she needed to stop and with much frustration, she eventually relented….

By Stacey Oh there are so many things that I love about our lives here in Cameroon. One such thing is never knowing quite what to expect when we walk out of our front door each day. As far as our daily routine, each day, Dave and I study the language with a language partner and then in the afternoons we try to go out into the neighborhood and practice what we learned. And we usually learn a lot more then just Bakoum in the process. For instance, the other day, we learned how to pull of the legs and…

by Dave So far since we have been in Cameroon I have: killed three poisonous snakes around our house, spent an entire day carrying water from a well, stopped a man from severely beating his daughter, stopped another man from severely beating his dog, had two guys try to jump in my car for unknown malicious purposes, and watched a baby die. Though all of these things are fairly common place here in Africa, they are also experiences I almost certainly would not have had if I stayed in America. And to be honest, while I do not feel like…

By Stacey I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. –1 Corinthians 10:33  I have read this verse of Paul over and over again since our arrival in Cameroon and have asked myself the question, “What does it mean to try to please everybody in this cultural context?” I think I am slowly learning what this means, and it’s totally different than what I expected. I thought that pleasing everyone meant that I would live exactly like they do, but what I am discovering is…

By Stacey Yesterday was one of the happiest days of my life. Four years ago, during our visit to Cameroon, we met in a room at city hall and heard a handful of people explain why they wanted the Bible in their language. Yesterday we met in the very same room this time with over a hundred leaders in the community and watched them take concrete steps to that end. They elected leaders, they brainstormed about how to raise money for the project, and miracle upon miracle, they agreed to work together for the good of the project. They dreamed…

By Stacey Well tomorrow is the day. It is the launching of the language development project for which we have been praying and preparing for years. If all goes as planned, we will have this 6 hour meeting at city hall with over a hundred representatives who have been selected from each Bakoum village.  Jean Yves, the Cameroonian brother who is helping us mobilize the community, will be here tonight and will preside over the meeting. I am going to pick up a Cameroonian-style dress I am having made later today. All that to say, this meeting is a big…

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…