Unedited

"Therefore, I'm being a good, kind husband and letting my wife
push the car... Sharon, where in the world will you get blog
material when you aren't around us any more?"

Context

My peers' favourite line for a while, in university, was "Context
is overrated." I admit to having used it a few times myself.

Perhaps it is overrated, when your concern is to make Abelard say
what you really want him to have meant in the first place. But
have you ever tried to recognise an acquaintance in the wrong
context?

These situations happen a lot in the missionary community. I
mean, you may have a brief conversation with someone in the SIL
office in Bamenda while waiting to meet with a consultant, and
then a year later see that person playing volleyball at a North
American Baptist field conference in Kribi. That's when you
rack your brain, trying to figure out why this person looks so
familiar and where you met them last time.

Being on the receiving end of this can be even funnier. Dan,
Lisa, Rachel, and I visited a dinner, attended by mostly SIL
missionaries, when we were in Yaounde last week. Dan commented
that he knew most of the people in the room, from one context or
another... after 8 years in the country, he has had reason to
make connections with just about the whole breadth of the
missionary community here. One woman at the end of the table
greeted Dan and Lisa, whom she had met in French school nine
years ago, and then gushed to her neighbour, "I knew these two
when they were babies."

It suddenly occurred to me that she was gesturing at Rachel...
and me.

Um... at twenty-four, I'm not sure whether I ought to be
insulted, nonplussed, or pleased at being mistaken for less than
half my age. Maybe I'll just hide and say that context is
overrated.

Do you ever say, "I laid on the couch?"

My theory: the distinction between the English verbs 'lie' and
'lay' will be completely obscured in about 15 more years.

However, it is still assiduously taught by prescriptive language
arts textbooks, fighting a losing battle to maintain the language
the way it was 50 years ago.

This is language change. Contrary to popular opinion, language
change is not bad. It is not necessarily careless (though one of
the core principles of linguistics is 'people are lazy'). It is
not deliberate languicide. It is, in fact, inevitable.
Eventually, the prescriptive language books will change their
then-archaic charts of the distinction between 'lie' and 'lay' to
reflect the usage that has then become standard (i.e. whatever
was 'natural' 50 years before that unknown day).

The funny thing seems to be that in literate cultures,
prescriptive efforts at preservation (however fruitless) seem to
be as unavoidable as language change itself.

At least there are a few left...

Our stapler is now a single-fire machine, requiring inefficient
reloading after every discharge.

At least until we get a new box of staples.

Is there a cultural value to be learned here...?

Early in my time here in the village, sometimes I would write
home that I was "practicing my greetings." I'm not sure this
always made sense to the recipient. After all, how much can
there be to learn? "Hi," "hello," and how about "good morning,"
"good afternoon," and "good evening." That should pretty much
cover every situation, right?

Well, not exactly. One afternoon, I decided to count how many
different greetings I used in my short walk to church and back.

First, I greeted someone on our front porch with a common evening
greeting.

Then I met two men coming down the path beside the bunye tree.
So I used the evening greeting for more than one person.

The next person I met was carrying a load of firewood on her
back. So I greeted her with the greeting for someone who is
carrying something heavy.

A younger woman was working in her egusi patch in front of her
house, and for her I decided to use the pidgin "ashia" (commonly
used for a greeting to acknowledge that someone is working).

After I had waited at the church building for a little while,
someone else came. I greeted her with one of the "welcome"
greetings.

Then, on the way home, I greeted someone inside his house, and
used the afternoon greeting for someone inside.

And that doesn't even include the common greetings for morning
time, for people eating, for people celebrating, or for someone
who has stayed home from the farm that day. Not to mention that
each greeting has two forms: for one person and for more than one
person.

Now here is a further dilemma: how do you greet a woman with a
sleeping baby tied on her back? Is she singular or plural?

One month

Since it is officially one month from today until I will be
standing in the LA airport, I thought this would be a good time
to let people know when I'll be coming in-- just in case anyone
in the area happens to have the chance to come to the airport.
:-) I realise it's smack dab in the middle of a work day, but if
anyone is free, I'd love to see you...

So-- I'll be getting into LAX on Wednesday, the 24th of May, at
10:56am, on United flight 193V from Philadelphia, arriving in
Terminal 7. Moreover, I will probably be over the worst of the
jet-lag, as I'm spending a few days first in Warrington,
Pennsylvania, at the World Team office. :-)

One month. It doesn't seem possible.

A bad day for the disciples

I was reading through Mark and came to the story of the feeding
of the five thousand again. It really hit me this time, from a
very human perspective, how hard it must have been for the
disciples to appreciate the miracle.

They're exhausted, having just returned from their "ministry
tour" (NLT). But they don't have time to rest-- they and Jesus
don't even have time to eat, because people are constantly coming
and going, wanting Jesus' attention and help. So Jesus says,
"Let's get away from the crowds for a while and rest."

But the crowds ran ahead and followed them. Can you imagine the
sinking feeling in the disciples' stomachs as they pulled up to
shore and saw the crowds waiting for them-- again? I probably
would have been muttering under my breath, "Just go away. We're
tired. We can't deal with you right now. Can't you give us ANY
time alone with Jesus?"

But Jesus stops. He has compassion on the crowds, because they
are "like sheep without a shepherd." He teaches them until late
in the afternoon.

Now, I don't know this for sure, but I imagine the disciples
weren't too happy about being flexible when the plans for a quiet
retreat got changed into a busy afternoon with the crowds. I
don't think they were too kindly disposed toward the insatiable
crowds, either. Sending them away to buy food-- because this was
a "desolate place"!-- was surely an unanswerable reason to
finally get the peace and quiet they'd been waiting for.

But Jesus said, "You feed them."

Huh?

What the disciples said was, "Where and how are we going to get
all that food??" But I wonder if they weren't thinking, "These
people got themselves into this mess. We sure didn't ask them to
come all the way out here to meet us and delay us. Why should we
be responsible for feeding them?"

Did the miracle change this attitude? I'm not sure. Because in
the next story (after they've been caught in a violent storm on
the Sea of Galilee-- a non-restful ending to their non-restful
day), "they still didn't understand the significance of the
miracle of the multiplied loaves, for their hearts were hard and
they did not believe." Ouch.

Is it possible that I can miss seeing God's miracles simply
because they are not in my plans and expectations? Open my
heart, Lord.

On Coconut, Flaked

In North America:

1. Buy 4 oz. bag of flaked coconut at grocery store.
2. Take home.
3. Open bag.
4. Dump contents into mixing bowl.

In a rural village in Africa:

1. Haggle with child about price of coconut. Offer one-fourth
of original outrageous price and eventually settle on something
slightly above market value.
2. Stare at coconut and regret the absence of Dan's
pocket-knife.
3. Select a paring knife and pretend it is a drill bit. On the
third attempt at a hole, listen with satisfaction to the hiss of
escaping pressure.
4. Drain coconut water into cup. Save some for cooking rice,
and divide the rest for immediate enjoyment.
5. Stare at coconut again and regret the absence of Dan.
6. Resolutely take a hammer, place coconut on cement floor, and
strike hard.
7. Watch unbroken coconut go bouncing across floor.
8. Repeat steps 6-7 several times.
9. Watch in satisfaction as crack widens in coconut shell after
repeated blows.
10. Break coconut into several pieces.
11. Pry coconut flesh from shell, using the paring knife as a
wedge and a kitchen knife as a lever.
12. Nurse wounds sustained from contact with kitchen knife.
13. Rinse coconut pieces successfully wrested from coconut shell
in filtered water.
14. Grate coconut pieces into bowl.
15. Nurse wounds sustained from contact with grater.
16. Measure one cup of flaked coconut and dump into mixing bowl.

On classes we'd rather not take

Sign on closed door in internet cafe:

CLASSROOM FOR CRASH PROGRAM
DO NOT KNOCK

I guess I'm a prodigy. I learned how to crash programs all by
myself.

mixed-up posts

Email problems again! This is just to explain why a) there has
been another big gap in posts and b) my Holy Week posts are both
out of order and exceedingly late. :-) (Normally, they'd be
late. One or two days. But not this much.)

Oh, and if you happen to get an email from me twice, or some
reply to your email is really late, that's due to the same
problem. Please forgive the inconvenience...

But we think it's fixed now. Hurray!

Blessed Easter!

'Tis the spring of souls today;
Christ hath burst his prison,
And from three days' sleep in death
As a sun hath risen;
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark, is flying
From his light, to whom we give
Laud and praise undying.

~St. John of Damascus

Holy Week and Good Friday

In thy most bitter passion
My heart to share doth cry,
With thee for my salvation
Upon the cross to die.
Ah, keep my heart thus moved
To stand thy cross beneath,
To mourn thee, well-beloved,
Yet thank thee for thy death.

~Paulus Gerhardt, 1656

O to know the power of your risen life
And to know you in your sufferings,
To become like you in your death, my Lord,
So with you to live and never die.

~Graham Kendrick, 1993

Holy Saturday

Sepulchre

George Herbert

O blessed bodie, whither art Thou thrown?
No lodging for Thee but a cold hard stone!
So many hearts on earth, and yet not one
Receive Thee!

Sure there is room within our hearts good store,
For they can lodge transgressions by the score;
Thousands of toyes dwell there, yet out of doore
They leave Thee.

But that which shews them large shews them unfit:
Whatever sinne did this pure rock commit
Which holds Thee now? who have indited it
Of murder?

Where our hard hearts have took up stones to brain Thee,
And, missing this, most falsely did arraigne Thee,
Onely these stones in quiet entertain Thee,
And order.

And as of old the Law by heav'nly art
Was writ in stone; so Thou, which also art
The letter of the Word, find'st no fit heart
To hold Thee.

Yet do we still persist as we began,
And so should perish, but that nothing can,
Though it be cold, hard, foul, from loving man
Withhold Thee.

News Flash

Missionary Admits Being "Power-Hungry"

In a question-and-answer session early Wednesday morning,
missionary Dan F. admitted his hegemonic view of power usage in
Cameroon. "We've been a bit power-hungry these last few days,"
he is reported to have said. Meters show that his solar system
had been bringing in as much as 17.5 amperes since Monday, when
the panels were adjusted after the vernal equinox.

Despite the large amount of incoming power, the power consumption
of the household has apparently outstripped it recently, draining
the system's batteries little by little. This phenomenon is
thought to be related to the amount of technological hegemony and
computer usage in the household.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday was beautiful.

We weren't sure anyone would be at church. There were two
conferences scheduled for the same weekend: a youth rally in
Ekombe Bonji (which I couldn't attend because Dan and Lisa were
away at a Literacy Committee meeting through Saturday, and I was
in charge of the house-- and honestly, I don't think I was quite
ready for another youth rally yet), and a church Bible conference
in Small Ngwandi.

But there were still about twenty or thirty people there for Palm
Sunday. And the service was just incredibly encouraging.

Levi thanked God for all the people who weren't there, instead of
scolding the people who came to church for not being at the
conference.

He preached in the language, not in pidgin, and very engagingly
told the story of Palm Sunday, and asked for discussion and
questions at the end.

And they were interested, and the discussion was lively. Many of
the old men, who know the language very well but don't know
pidgin all that well, were valuable contributors instead of
having to just sit there. What, exactly, is a donkey? Is it
like a horse (the Mbonge name for horse, by the way, means "cow
of white man"-- which tells you how common horses are in the
rainforest)? Why did Jesus ride one? The people were giving him
honour and respect, and that was really good. But we don't like
knowing that these are the same people who are going to want him
killed on Good Friday. Why did he go away to Bethany instead of
staying in Jerusalem?

Please pray for the church in Bekondo during Holy Week. More
storytelling and discussion is planned for Good Friday and Easter
Sunday, and copies of the Easter story in Oroko have been
distributed for use in other churches. May the glory of the
Resurrection be more understandable to the Oroko this Easter than
ever, ever before!!

The Iowa Test of Basic Skills

I'm very familiar with the little round bubbles. With the
instructions that say to use only a number two pencil, and to
make no marks in the test booklet, and that you WILL NOT finish
the mathematics computation test. (I got within one problem of
finishing when I was in sixth grade... but I digress.)

However, I have never, ever seen the results of an Iowa Test.
Until this week. It always seemed a huge, mysterious secret.

Rachel did very well, and I'm proud of her. But it still seemed
a little risky to be looking at a paper that carried such an aura
of clandestine grown-ups-only-ness...

I guess I'm a grown-up now, if I'm qualified to be initiated into
the inner circles of Iowa Test results.

...and his ways past finding out

My best isn't good enough.

I often forget that, in a culture where I can be competent: where
my wholehearted efforts can bring acknowledgment, approval, or
even praise. Here, where my best efforts are often stupid,
laughable, and humiliating, even cause for rejection, it's hard
to forget. My best simply isn't good enough.

I was still smarting from the youth rally this weekend, when the
lectionary said I should start Exodus. All of a sudden, Moses
was taking words out of my mouth. "God, I'm not good enough.
You don't want me, honest you don't. Send somebody else." I
can't help but wonder if Moses was thinking of past failures and
humiliations. "Look how badly I mussed it up last time." Maybe
he wasn't, but then again, maybe he was.

" 'Who makes mouths?' the LORD asked him. 'Who makes people so
they can speak or not speak, hear or not hear, see or not see?
Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and do as I have told you. I
will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say.' "

My best will never be good enough, but who am I to think God
doesn't know that? ...or that my weakness is going to somehow
prevent him from accomplishing his purposes?

And even when Moses still resists-- even when God becomes angry
with him because of his unbelief-- God still sends him the help
that Moses thinks he needs.

And thus begins the defining event of Israel's entire history.

What grace!

The sun and the moon

A quick acknowledgment that I was HERE in Africa to experience
the 80% solar eclipse on March 29. Very cool (although the sun
was behind a cloud half the time... hazards of rainy season).
The most dramatic part was watching the sunlight fade without
changing quality. It was still there, still direct, still
intense, but there just wasn't as much of it. It was a little
bit bizarre.

Can anyone tell me why punching a hole in an index card and
letting the sun shine through it onto another one-- i.e.
attempting to watch the progress of the eclipse indirectly--
didn't work? I remember it working last time there was a solar
eclipse in CA. Is it because we're almost on the equator?

A child of the computer age, part II

During school one day, I assigned Rachel to read an excerpt of
'The Magician's Nephew' from a book of various excerpts.

Later that day...

"I think we should go back and read 'The Magician's Nephew'
again, Dad," Rachel commented. "I haven't heard it in a long
time. And I'm interested because I just read the demo of the
book today."

Rain, rain, don't go away

It is now officially rainy season. I think I can pinpoint the
exact rainstorm that started it: the one that woke us all up at
3am with a torrential downpour and violent explosions of thunder,
and then (this is the key) kept raining steadily until the next
morning.

Gone are the intense flash storms of transition season. The dust
of dry season is now soggy, slippery, sloppy mud. Rainy season
is upon us, with its cloud cover, long soaking rains, slow email
speeds, cool breezes, power shortages, 80% humidity, and cold
showers.

But also with its smorgasbord of fruit. We have a whole stalk of
bananas sitting on our floor, about to turn ripe all at the same
time. A green papaya is reposing on the table until it starts
turning yellow. The neighborhood kids come to the door with
oranges (which, by the way, are green even when ripe) and
avocados for us to buy nearly every day. And it's just starting
to be mango month... mmmmmm...

This is why I like rainy season. :-)

Posting in large amounts...

...may be hazardous to your internet connection. At least if
it's in an internet cafe in Kumba.

But I'm going to try it anyway. Our email has been down for 3
days, and it's going to be down for another three. So, while I'm
attempting to download firewall updates and virus software
updates, glance at a couple of blogs, and check my hotmail and
bubbs accounts, I'm also going to post several things that have
been waiting for several days.

If the internet connection survives my attempts, enjoy. :-)