D is for Dallas

D is for Dallas.

In August of 1995, Lori and I packed up all of our wedding gifts, a few pieces of furniture and headed to Dallas.  Actually it was to Denton, just north of Dallas, but close enough.  We lived there for four years and made plenty of friends and enjoyed ourselves in our "before kids" stage of life.

Now, we look forward to heading from Lynchburg to Dallas again, but with three kids in tow.  This time it's only temporary.  We are going to Dallas to study at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in preparation for our assignment in Cameroon.

 
At GIAL, we will both be studying anthropology and some basic linguistics.  Chris will also have a host of world arts courses to complete.  We will be leaving for Dallas a couple of days after Christmas and remain there until mid-December 2012.  Our home there will be on the campus of the International Linguistics Center, the home-base for SIL International, one of Wycliffe's partner organizations.

The kids are looking forward to the change of scenery, mostly because they don't know much better.  Noah is particularly excited to be "repatriated" to Texas, the state of his birth (never mind the fact that he was born 500 miles from Dallas).  He doesn't remember Texas at all, but he stirs with pride at the thought of returning.

C is for Cameroon...

Well, this one seems to be obvious.  C is for Cameroon.  But truthfully, C could have been for a few things.  C could have been for Central Africa, the region that Cameroon is in.  There are needs for Bible translation across several countries of Central Africa.  C could have been for communication, which is vital for us to let our partners in on the miracle of redemption that we are working to see brought about among many people groups.  But we will stick with the obvious choice of Cameroon.

Cameroon is just a bit larger than California in terms of land area.  The population of Cameroon is about 19.7 million.  Cameroon's two largest cities, Douala and Yaounde have populations of about 2 million and 1.7 million respectively.  A lot of the other statistics that you can access about Cameroon tell a pretty typical story of a Central African country.

But there are some statistics about Cameroon that might be a bit staggering.  For example, there are 279 languages spoken in Cameroon.  Yes, 279.  In the US we argue and get frustrated over two languages.  There are 70 languages in Cameroon that don't have their first verse of scripture translated yet.  If you are interested in learning more about language statistics, see the SIL International Ethnologue.  The Ethnologue is a really valuable resource for learning about language communities - tons of information!

Beyond the statistics, there are some really interesting things to know about Cameroon.

Cameroon is known as Africa in miniature.  All of the geographic forms that exist in Africa can be within the borders of Cameroon.  From desert to savannah, rain forest to mountains, and beautiful beaches, it's all in Cameroon.

 
One famous feature of Cameroon is its volcanic activity.  Mount Cameroon is one of Africa's largest volcanoes and has erupted as recently as 2000.  Lake Nyos was the site of another type of eruption.  In August of 1986, the lake burped a massive cloud of carbon dioxide that suffocated about 1700 people in nearby villages.

The literacy rate is at about 66% and the average life expectancy for Cameroonians is 54 years.  This is due to several factors, not the least of which is diseases such as malaria.  Lori noted that we might be regarded as senior citizens there considering the average life expectancy.


All of this information is meant to give all of us some points to deliberately take to prayer.  It is our hope that we would be able to see Cameroonians positively changed through Bible translation.  We would not only like to see transformation brought by increased literacy and better health education, but we also look toward the spiritual transformation brought by access to God's word in the mother tongue for all of the people of Cameroon - all 279 languages worth.

B is for

B is for 

Believing?

Bible Translation?

No...we'll get to those topics with another letter somewhere.  In our family, B is for...

BEN!

Ben is our youngest.  He is 5 1/2, and will turn six on December 19th.  We're happy to have this little guy in our family.

Ben is a great kid that is 1 part sneaky, 1 part generous, and 1 part imagination.  Tonight, he let his sneaky side show.  I asked him if he brushed his teeth and he casually said, "Yup."  Not convinced, I asked, "Ben, if I go and feel your toothbrush, would it be wet or dry."  Ben answered, "I dried it after I brushed."  Yeah, right...sneaky little fellow.

But Ben is very generous.  He loves to share his treats.  I've never seen a kid that enjoys sharing things so much as Ben.

Ben gave his writing and art to our neighbor

 just because he is generous and he knew she would like it.

And Ben's imagination...all of the wild outfits that he comes up with everyday, and the characters that he makes up to go with them are so frequent and far out that we forget just how original a person Ben is.

We're looking forward to seeing how Ben grows up and flourishes in his new environment.  We think Ben will thrive with the new things to learn and explore as we head overseas.  He has the spirit of an adventurer and he will surely make the most of it.

Ben and his best friend Ben  

Superman and Batman

A B C

A B C

We are now a bit over five months into our Partnership Development.  It has been joyful and frustrating, but we have, on the whole, really enjoyed it.  To get a better understanding of who we are, what our ministry will be, where we'll be at various phases, and when it will all take place, we want to walk through the alphabet and highlight the answers to all of your burning questions.

Our ABC idea is not original.  There are plenty of storybooks that use the alphabet to give a complete view of a topic.  As far as blogging about our missionary endeavors, we have stolen the ABC idea from a fellow Wycliffe member and friend, Jamie Brewer.  But original or not, please join us by praying over these topics as we make our way through.

A: Arts and Ethnomusicology

Why arts and music? And what does this have to do with me? 

As Chris and I began to explore the idea of going into full time missions work, we looked at many things such as teaching English and church planting teams.  We would be able to do them, but nothing we talked about or looked at felt like it was a good use of our gifts and abilities.  The calling was not there until...

...Chris found the area of Wycliffe's website about the Arts.  When he showed it to me, my heart leapt, and the more we explored the more excited we became.  We watched this video, not knowing we would find a friend and mentor in the narrator from it.  We began to look at art and music as a part of worship in a new way.  We came to see Chris’s background and experiences as a good fit for this job.

But work in our field is not going to be confined to music.  Yes, that will be a specialty area for Chris, but the training that we will get will equip us to be versed in dance, drama and other art forms.  We look to bring indigenous arts into the fray so that the Gospel is not seen as foreign to anyone.  We want to demonstrate that the Gospel is so powerful that it can cut across cultural lines.  We want to provide the spark for local artists to use their own art forms and to produce worship expressions that are authentic and heartfelt rather than borrowed from another continent/country/language/culture.