by Dave Have you ever heard of Caesar Augustus? His name might be familiar, as he plays a supporting role in the Divine Drama beginning at Jesus’ birth. You can read of him in the Gospel of Luke: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all of the world should be registered” (Luke 2:1). It was this decree that led Joseph and Mary back to Bethlehem where Christ was born. Augustus was the Caesar at the time of Christ’s birth and was really the earthly reason that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But did you know…

by Dave Can you believe we have been in France for 10 months!? It is amazing how fast the time has gone, and yet how slow at the same time. For those who have been wondering how things have been going… Kaden Kaden was a big sobbing pile of tears when we put him into school in Chambéry when we first moved to France. However, now that we are in Albertville he really has become excited about school. In fact, when we have vacation time he asks everyday if he can go to school. I asked him why he wanted…

by StaceyMatthew 6:26  “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”Last night Makyra and I went to the store and bought a week’s worth of groceries. Being that the shopping carts here are half the size of those in the States, our’s was overflowing. And since we do not have a car we borrowed the overflowing shopping car to get our groceries across the street to our apartment. After that, I would usually haul all the groceries…

by Dave I really like Switchfoot; in fact I can pretty much quote every line of every song in their first three albums. I went to see them in concert ten years ago and even was able to take part in a “town hall” meeting where they answered questions presented by youth pastors. In that meeting, a pastor presented a concern that as a band they were becoming less “Christian.” The lead singer, Jon Foreman responded much as he did in a recent post on CTKBlog. The gist of his statement is that there is no division between the secular and…

by Stacey There are hundreds of unspoken social rules for every society and when these cultural rules are broken, awkwardness ensues. Here are some examples of cultural rules that might be easy to violate: -> Crossing your legs in Cameroon communicates that you feel superior to those in your presence.-> Our son Kaden came home from school the other day sticking up his middle finger. Although I could not tell him the “why” behind the social rule, we explained to him that it was very rude to make that gesture in American culture. -> In some languages (like French) it is important to…

by Stacey8 months ago we arrived in France exhausted yet praising God that we successfully arrived in country with all our luggage and all our children. Lord willing, 8 months from now, we will arrive in Cameroon with all of our luggage and all our children. As we are at the half-way mark, we thought we would reflect on our last 8 months here in France:Turns out Language Learning is Hard On our flight to France, I was explaining to a girl I was sitting next to that French would be easy to learn since it has a lot of similarities to English. She…

Please be praying as we begin our A2 exams this week. Perhaps you could set aside 5 minutes on each day we have a test? We long to succeed in French so that our ministry is not hampered in Cameroon. Here is the schedule for our exams: Thursday, December 12: Written Comprehension and Biblical Vocabulary.Friday, December 13: Grammar and Written Production.Monday, December 16: Oral Production (two sessions).Tuesday, December 17: Oral Comprehension, Dictation, Oral Reading. If we pass these exams it will signify that we: Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very…

By Stacey The truth is that everyone has those days. Whether you are a Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist living in America, France, or India we all have days we want to give up. We all have days where our three-year-old loses some screw in his brain and spends the entire day screaming at the top of his lungs. We all have felt the deep, hollow, shock of losing a mom, sister, or friend. We all get frustrated with ourselves when we lose it and scream at our kid, spouse, or co-worker. We all have those days when it is just…

by Dave You may have seen a recent story about a French Catholic Priest that was kidnapped in the extreme north of Cameroon. The kidnappers appear to be an Islamic Nigerian militant group called Boko Haram, which was just recently designated a terrorist group by the Nigerian government. Nigeria has been rife with tension as groups such as the Boko Haram seek to take control of the country by force.We are fortunate that the situation in Nigeria has spread into Cameroon very little. The compound from which the French Priest was taken is only 15 miles from the Nigerian border, and it…