Category: Africa

We always knew that Bible translation was a life’s work and that fruit from it would likely not be enjoyed for many years. We have contented ourselves in the fact that ensuring that the Word of God was translated faithfully and understandably was worth the time investment. Some things are too sacred to be rushed. Further, we know that not one of God’s elect will be lost. However, since we have been in the States, three of our friends in our village have died. We know that in the 20-ish years that it’ll take to translate the Word of God,…

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela By God’s grace through much coffee, loud dance music, many late nights, hundreds of neglected emails, and a year’s worth of dreams about tone, we now have a writing system in the Bakoum language!   If I was not convinced that revisions will be necessary, I’d consider getting a tattoo of the Bakoum alphabet – just as an expression of my joy.   Not only do we have a system of writing (with tone markings, I might add), but through Dave’s work we have a solid understanding of how the…

I’ve been heavy-hearted recently. Heavy hearted for the political unrest occurring in “our” region of the world: Cameroon, Africa. And heavy hearted for the “unrest” among my four second-graders. There are likely grave injustices in Cameroon that have gone unaddressed for years and now the alleged oppressed are lashing out towards the alleged oppressor: the government. Some are expressing concerns peaceably and others are taking this opportunity to burn villages and murder the innocent. Thankfully we do not have any burning or anything of the sort among our children, nor do we have (physical) murder. And yet, there is nonetheless…

One day, the title of this blog will be about Kwakum. But for now, we are rejoicing with our co-workers that have spent the last 20 years working on the Oroko New Testament in Southwest Cameroon. Check out the letter below from our Field Director: —- World Team Cameroon is approaching a new milestone. Our first New Testament translation is about to be published! Rejoice with us that the 140,000+ Oroko people will soon have God’s Word in their language! World Team Cameroon’s Oroko Team, Dan and Lisa Friesen and Mike and Becky Scott, have been working alongside the Oroko…

by Lisa (guest blogger) My name is Lisa, and I am a World Team missionary among the Fulbe people. I grew up in the Prairies of Saskatchewan and am now living and working in Cameroon, Africa. I have been here for almost two years, just about to complete my first term. My main focus is children’s ministry (kids camp), with my heart’s desire to see the Fulbe children freely proclaim the praise of Jesus! My childhood holds many bright and loving memories of my family and friends and involvement in the communities I was a part of. As I have…

We are currently out on our American Tour, and are talking to people about what it is like to be a missionary. We have found that there is a very common perception that certain people are “called” to be missionaries in a unique way. While I certainly have met a lot of unique missionaries, I believe that there are some misunderstandings undergirding this belief. Below are four of these misconceptions I hope to clear up in this post. The first misconception is that… 1. Normal people are not “called” Stacey remembers hearing a song in her church where she grew…

I will not make you raise your hands, but I want you all to consider a question. How many of you have ever questioned the wisdom of God? Perhaps it was in a personal situation: “Why did God let my sister die?” or “Why is God not answering my prayer for the salvation of a friend?” I recently read an atheist mocking the God of the Bible by saying that the idea of creating an exclusive way of salvation is foolish. Even more, he said that God’s choice to send out his foolish message by word of mouth was absolute…

I had an interesting conversation with a couple at church a few Sundays ago. They both were born in Africa, but have lived in the US for a number of years. In discussing children, they told me that they were concerned about raising their daughter in America because of the dangers here. Without a second thought, I knew exactly what they were talking about. As Americans we have become accustomed to comfort, such that we think we deserve it. We have grown cold to the suffering of those in the majority world, and we are greatly tempted to live only…

We are set to arrive in the States in just 9 days and as we talk to our children about American culture, we have realized that it may be helpful for our friends in America to understand a bit of the culture that they are coming from. I used to think of them as American. They are being raised by American parents, we speak mostly English in our home, and even occasionally watch an American movie all together. But then, we had a homeschool teacher show up in August who later shared that she had no idea how many cultural…

In just a few days, we will be packing up to leave our village so that we can spend 16 months in the States completing our MAs in Applied Linguistics / Bible Translation. As we pack up our suitcases, we are reminded of the thoughts and feelings that we had when we left America 4 years ago. We are coming to realize that many of the perspectives that we held to on the plane ride over have changed. For instance, we now realize that… Language Learning is a Beast. On the plane ride over, I was sitting next to a…