I discovered a new ego booster today.
Dan and I were searching for my (cleverly hidden) email address
book file, in order to back it up. When several efforts had
failed, Dan suggested that we make a slight change in the address
book, and then search for any files that had been modified on
today's date.
The results? As of 3:50pm, my computer tells me that I have (so
far) modified 265 files today. I now feel productive.
Oh, and we found the address book.
Today was a prime example of why I come home from youth meetings
frustrated.
I came in to find bits of the Great Commission and Acts 1:8
written on the chalkboard, in some version vaguely reminiscent of
King James-- but not quite-- and interspersed with the following:
"Chorus: The sing to my soul, my Savior God to thee, how great
you are, how great you are."
Then someone said, "That is not correct," and rubbed out "you
are" and wrote in "thou are."
Then someone said, "I know another verse to that," and wrote:
"O Lord my God, when I'm in handsome wonder
Consider all the world thy hands have made."
Then, after they had practiced singing the Great Commission and
following to the tune of the first half of the verse of "How
Great Thou Art," and were beginning to practice the above two
lines, a church leader popped in and said, "That is not correct.
The verse does not end there. And the chorus repeats itself.
But unfortunately I do not have the rest of the words."
Ok, sure, I did end up speaking up, and volunteering my own
knowledge, in every place I could appropriately do so. But it
was with rather a hopeless feeling, and all the time suspecting
that I was doing it more for the sake of the hymn I love than for
the benefit of the people who were there. Correcting the archaic
English may make it more correct, but not more understandable.
And I'm not sure what to do to help change this. As long as
learning songs is about "making a good showing" at a youth rally
or a Bible conference, it's not likely to change. Please pray
that someday, the Oroko youth will "sing with the spirit, and
sing with the understanding also."
"Bot e di fain mi na sei fo insaid choch meik A tok faif ting weh
dem min som ting dan fo tok ten tasen ting dem fo tok weh man no
fit hia."
-De fest leta weh Paul bin rait-am fo Corinthian pipul dem 14:19
...do you suppose cats ever walk by our beds at night, on their
way to do all the prowly things on their to-do lists, and say,
"Goodness, human. You live a rough life. Sleep away the whole
night. I wish I could do that." ?
One Monday, which is a market day, ten good fish were purchased
by the women of church A. These women had agreed to prepare a
meal for the translation teams on Wednesday.
The women, being prudent, brought the good fish to the house with
the refrigerator, where it might reside until such time as it
could be cooked.
On Tuesday, by mistake, the women of church B prepared for the
translators, not one meal as arranged, but two.
Therefore, in the interest of practicing the virtue of
flexibility and eschewing the vice of waste, the second meal was
saved and reheated for Wednesday. The women of church A
graciously agreed to postpone the cooking of their meal for one
day.
On Wednesday evening, the good fish began to stink, through no
fault of the refrigerator.
On Thursday morning, which happened to be another market day, the
stinky fish were thrown into the freezer and designated "no
longer fit for human consumption." The women of church A were
given money to buy good fish once again. They cooked these good
fish in an excellent fashion, and after lunch the good fish were
no more.
The stinky fish caused its odour to permeate the entire freezer.
The first time the stinky fish was cooked and fed to the animals,
the animals devoured it quickly.
The second time the stinky fish was cooked and fed to the
animals, they devoured it quickly the first day and sniffed it
suspiciously the second day.
The third time the stinky fish was cooked and fed to the animals,
it caused its odour to permeate the entire house. The human
inhabitants of the house pronounced that it stank prodigiously.
The dogs eagerly devoured double portions while the cats turned
up their noses.
In the final debut of the stinky fish, its powerful odour mingled
in the air with the odours of blue paint and baked mud. The dogs
rejoiced that they were allowed to eat all of the stinky fish
immediately. The human inhabitants of the house could only
rejoice that the saga of the stinky fish had come to an end.
When Dan brought the groceries home from Kumba last night, one of
the first things we did was fill up the sink with bleach water.
After all, fruits and vegetables need to be soaked for twenty
minutes before they're safe to eat.
This suddenly gave me pause. Is it really true that in the
States, I used to give my apple a cursory rinse under the tap and
then bite into it? How can that be healthy? And dishes. I
don't think bleach used to be a part of routine dishwashing...
I have this premonition that I am going to feel compelled to use
copious amounts of bleach, despite the apparent cleanliness of
the States, in order to feel safe and sanitary. How awry...
Rachel proudly showed me her coloured-pencil drawing.
"Look at my chameleon. I only had one picture to copy it from.
And it wasn't even the same size! I had to maximise it!!"
Recently, I've been reading J. I. Packer's "Knowing God." It's
definitely chewy theological meat. I prefer to imbibe my
theology through narrative, poetry, and image... but it's
probably good for me to plow through some straight analysis once
in a while. --Perhaps Lent is a very good time. Anyway, though
I disagree with Packer on a few points, I have generally found
the book thought-provoking, helpful, and challenging.
What I read last night, however, completely floored me. I can't
figure out how an author as well-read as Packer seems to be can
make this statement (this is in a section discussing the
consequences of choosing to ignore God's severity and concentrate
only on his benevolence):
"It is no accident that when belief in the 'good God' [referring
to what Packer calls the 'celestial Santa Claus'] of liberalism
became widespread, about the turn of the century, the so-called
'problem of evil' (which was not regarded as a problem before)
suddenly leaped into prominence as the number-one concern of
Christian apologetics."
The problem of evil hasn't been "regarded as a problem" before
the twentieth century?? Can anyone help me understand what he
means by this? Job spent an entire book of the Bible (probably
one of the oldest) struggling with seeming injustice on the part
of God. Augustine wrote a ponderous tome on the subject after
the sack of Rome, asking (in part) what the purpose and the
origin of evil could possibly be. Boethius' "Consolations" is a
cry for help in understanding why bad things happen to God's
people. Calvin's "Institutes" wrestles with the question of
whether God is the author of evil.
I could continue right up to C. S. Lewis, but it has always
seemed to me that "the problem of evil" is one of the questions
we will never have a full answer to until we see God face to face
(cf. the end of Job)-- and thus, one of the questions that
Christians have always struggled with. If anyone has an insight
into why Packer might have said what he said, I welcome it.
The math book said, "A $1 bill weighs about 1 gram. How much
would a $5 bill weigh?"
Logically, but incorrectly, Rachel answered, "5 grams."
It's difficult to reason myself into counting points off for this
answer. After all, she hasn't handled United States currency
since she was four. Which is more than half the life of an
almost-nine-year-old. Moreover, in Cameroon, 1000cfa bills are
actually larger than 500cfa bills. Not twice as large, but
still, larger...
It's amazing, the amount of cultural knowledge required for Saxon
math.
My hair is finally long enough again that I can twist it up on
top of my head (and maybe, just maybe, it will stay there of its
own accord). This is a happy milestone. :-)
If you have:
One sack,
Fifty pounds of flour,
At least a hundred little stitches holding the bag closed (which
don't seem to want to pull out all at once like they should),
Three people working on the problem,
And approximately fifteen weevils crawling around on the rim of
the sack at any one time,
How many weevils are in the sack when you finally get it open?
It looks like the email is fixed now. I'm still not sure what
the problem was, exactly-- something to do with forwarding,
probably on the Cameroon end.
Anyway (this is where the announcement part comes in), if you
sent me anything between Mar. 3 and Mar. 9, it may have been lost
and I'd greatly appreciate you sending it again. Sorry for the
inconvenience!
It's very odd, how the prickly sounds coming out of a
medium-sized black plastic box can evoke strong emotions.
A sharp, punctuated buzz means connectedness, expectation,
anticipation, and happy thoughts.
A weak fuzzy static means disappointment, frustration, and
hope deferred.
If this email actually makes it to my blog, thank God with me for
the sharp, punctuated buzz...
Debi asked me, as we were packing the vehicles at the end of the
conference, to write down my email address. "Do you have
something to write on? Oh, wait, let me get my address book.
That's even better."
She returned a couple minutes later with her address book.
"So... do I put you under 'B,' or under 'H'?"
Forget packing to go back to the village. I am suddenly
confronted with the very odd sensation of packing up and moving
to a different position in the alphabet.
~Watching Rachel perform a piano piece for the first time in
public!
~Watching her pull off T. S. Eliot's "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"
(her choice, not mine!) with flair and drama, and her own special
"mischievous cat look" at the end
~Skipping around the circle with Ahava and realising that
skipping with a little girl is ever so much more satisfying than
skipping by oneself
~Jumping around to happy music with preschoolers, pretending to
be birds, elephants, sharks, rabbits, fish...
~Helping with the older kids' music class, where they were
learning to play African rhythm instruments (teachers can sneak
some learning in there, too!)
~Throwing myself wholeheartedly into wedding planning via
internet (which resource was amazingly cooperative, considering
that last time we were in Bamenda, it worked for a total of maybe
4 hours)
but especially
~IMing almost every evening (!) with Jim, my family, and/or
several other friends in the States :-)
