Author: David M. Hare

by Dave In light of recent events and those upcoming we would like to ask for your prayer. Since we have been in France one of our classmates was diagnosed with cancer, three classmates have lost a parent, and just a couple of days ago one classmate fell down the steps and broke her right arm and fractured her left arm. On top of that two of our co-worker families in Cameroon have had to leave due to medical problems. All of this convinces us that we need your prayers. We know that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood”…

by Dave Unexpectedly we have had 3 house calls by Jehovah’s Witnesses since we arrived in France. We actually were not able to talk to them any of these times (the first two times because we did not speak French well enough and the last time because they came at a bad time). But considering these encounters got me thinking about the deity of Christ. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is not God, nor that he claimed to be God. Instead he is the archangel Michael and was God’s first creation. I have found that this is actually a pretty…

by DaveWe have been in France now for 11 months and I feel like that is long enough to begin to dispense some advice for our American friends. We are certainly not French culture experts, but here are 7 things that might be helpful if you decide to visit (or move to) France:— 1. Prepare Yourself to Feel Like a Giant We are pretty used to it by now, but when we first moved to France it was shocking how much smaller everything was. The people are smaller, the cars are smaller, the food portions are smaller, the refrigerators are…

By Stacey Do you have any friends that are going through language school for missions? Let me give you some insight into what is going on in their heads. (reading) “How are they to hear without someone preaching?…How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:14-15).(thinking) How in the world am I ever going to preach in this language?! And how beautiful are my feet if my mouth is incapable of communicating the Gospel?! We (missionaries) used to flip to Romans 10 to inspire ourselves during the long season of support-raising. These days we eye…

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…