F is for Fricatives...

And S is for sibilants, P is for plosives, G is for glottal stops, and B is for bilabial!

All of this jargon is from the phonetics portion of our Language Structures class that we just finished with.  It's pretty interesting stuff, but can be quite difficult to hear the differences in the tons of sounds that are possible in language.  It's also very interesting to note that there are a lot of possibilities of sound and English doesn't use nearly all of them.

So what in the world does phonetics, phonology, morphology, and grammar have to do with we will be doing in the arts?  Sometimes I ask that as well, but it does make sense.  We need to learn these basic linguistic elements so that we can learn a second language more easily and because principles of linguistics will mesh into what we are doing with the arts.  Sometimes we want to be in our artistic bubble, but it's not always that simple.

Check out the video clip of some fun with phonetics.  Thanks Dr. Allen for allowing us to film some your class.

Phonetics Fun!

As a postscript, some folks have asked exactly what a fricative is.  Fricatives are sounds in language in which the airstream is greatly but not completely impeded, creating a hissing or buzzing sound, somewhat like friction, hence the name fricative.  Common examples of a fricative in English are the letters f and v, among others.

E is for Everything Must Go!

It has been a long time since we last updated the blog.  The best excuse we have is that we were very busy in preparing for our move to Dallas.  We had a lot of things to do around our house, many people to visit with, and among many other things, we had to liquidate most of our belongings.   Separating ourselves from "our stuff" proved very difficult to do.  There was the challenge of selling our things which involved a lot of time on Craig's List and answering a lot of phone calls.  But the hardest part was letting it all go.

"Stuff" causes some interesting reactions.  Sometimes we're sentimental about "stuff."  Sometimes our "stuff" makes us feel secure.  Sometimes our "stuff" makes us feel prepared to take on any situation in life.  But in the last two months, we had some hard lessons to learn about how these responses are rather hollow.  Sentiments fade, security is an illusion, and preparedness is just a facade for the insecurities that reside deep within ourselves.

Simply put, we had to learn that if we are who we say we are, then our security has to be in Christ and nowhere else.  God was certainly exposing our hypocrisy and giving us tough love.  But we got through it and managed to get our family of five reduced to what we could fit along with ourselves in two mini-vans with a small trailer.

We arrived in Dallas on the 31st of December, worn out from the weeks of preparation.  But we're thrilled to have made it through the next step.  Our time in Dallas will be about a year and we look forward to updating you all in the "G" entry about the classes we are taking in preparation for our work in Cameroon.  Until next time, blessings.

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.

Operation Cameroon Yard Sale

Operation Cameroon Yard Sale

That’s what the advertisement read.  The Church was helping to send our family to Cameroon in a practical way.  For the past eight months people have asked when we would have a yard sale.  The idea of organizing a huge yard sale was scary to me - scarier than uprooting ourselves and moving overseas.  I was glad that others volunteered to organize one when we were ready.

But somehow God had other plans for me - plans to bless me and grow me and teach me about Him and His sovereignty and goodness and blessings.

 

We are moving in December, which would not have the best weather for a yard sale.  When I finally felt ready and started looking for dates, the best option was only two weeks away.  Unfortunately, for that particular date, many of my volunteers couldn’t do the whole thing.  Many couldn’t even come to the sale!  God allowed me to be angry, scared, and finally fall on my knees and pray – which is what I should have done first.  God showed me that he was in charge and he would provide in ways I couldn’t even imagine.

The blessings flew in during those two weeks.  There was a lot of support from friends to write ads and post them, donations beyond belief, people willing to teach me what to do, a lot of help organizing and pricing hundreds of items, and all of it coming at the right time.  With little sleep and frayed nerves, this was definitely becoming God’s work, not mine.  Psalm 37:7 says, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him… “  Reading that helped me to sleep.  My husband and kids, helping and putting up with my crankiness, and praying with and for me, blessed and pointed me upwards.  I wasn’t doing it by myself.  It was His way, not mine!

We arrived on the morning of the sale in the dark and God had sent sweet, dear friends to help.  Friends whom I didn’t know were coming came.  They helped and asked for nothing in return.  A family cleaned all the Sunday School rooms where the donations were stored.  They were not asked, but they saw the need and they acted.  Thank you friends!  And people kept coming: helping, buying, asking questions, encouraging.  What a blessing! 

But Operation Cameroon was not just about another yard sale on a Saturday morning among dozens of others that will happen in our city during the Fall.  It was about connecting with people in a new way.  It was about developing a new friendship with someone that came to work MANY long hours.  It was about reconnecting with old friends as they brought in their donations.  It was about the newlywed who brought a couple of small items to sell, but shared her heart and offered help for my parents.  It was about little talks with individuals who didn’t know about Wycliffe or Cameroon or our church.  It was about the opportunity to share the vision God has given us about serving him in a most unlikely place.  It was about being a part of a group that cares if we get to Cameroon or not.  It was about having to trust in Him when I knew it was impossible for me.

My own sinful heart shone through as I struggled with exhaustion after the sale.  I woke up dreaming of coffee cups that should have been priced lower to sell or conversations with someone who wanted to buy furniture and I wouldn’t go much lower.  It was my fault more didn’t sell.  My mind worked overtime on my faults and possessions.  I feel like the rich young ruler who was asked to go and sell all he possessed and follow Jesus.  The man went away sad.  That’s where I find myself. Sad over losing possessions that will burn up someday; possessions that are as insignificant as a coffee cup I haven’t used in ten years. 

I heard a story once of a man who called himself a backpacker in this life.  All he needed he carried around with him on his back.  He said that we don’t really belong in this world.  We are just traveling through and don’t need any ‘stuff’ that will slow us down in our pursuit of service to the One who created us.

Pray for us as we make the transition to being backpackers in this life, letting go of the things that don’t really matter and clinging to the things that do - the lives we touch and, hopefully, point toward Jesus.