The Adventure of Ordinary Days

It’s so hard to believe that October is nearly over. Where did the month go?! Here in Cameroon, we’ve kept busy with school, traveling, househunting, and so much more. Unfortunately, I’ve really only been able to participate in the school part of that list. I did get to enjoy a mini-vacation when the Barillas went out of town for a few days. I stayed at their house to take care of their dogs, and I got to sleep in for four school days because two of their kids are my students. It was wonderful not having to go to school until 11:00 am. I’m definitely going to miss those few days! However, as nice as it was to sleep in, I’m excited to have all of my students again starting tomorrow.   Another great thing about watching the Barillas’ house for them was that I got to enjoy their internet. They have a much faster system than we do at our house, so I got to Skype my mom and several friends. It was such a blessing to be able to talk to everyone. Just about every evening I was at the Barillas, I had a Skype meeting set up with someone. I was definitely spoiled!   Every day is literally an adventure in Cameroon. One night, while I was still at my house, I was just about to go to sleep when I heard a sound I couldn’t place. I listened very intently, and all of a sudden, I realized I was hearing running water. I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom, convinced I was hearing things. But sure enough: out of my sink faucet was running a beautiful stream of water. Now, running water is a wonderful thing, no matter what country you live in. (If you don’t believe me, try going without it for one day. In other words, haul water, wash your dishes and clothes by hand, flush your toilets with a bucket, and take a bucket bath. You’ll appreciate your running water pretty quickly.) However, running water is especially exciting in Cameroon. Since I first came over to Cameroon in August 2011, the house I live in has not seen one single drop of water out of the faucets. The water I saw that night streaming out of my faucet was literally the first running water I have ever seen in this house. It was an exciting moment to say the least. I even washed my hands, just to use the faucet and running water. I felt like a small child at Christmas, overwhelmed by presents. It was just that great of a feeling. (And I do want to clarify that I’m not trying to complain about our lack of water. Actually, I’ve become quite adept at conserving water. I still have my struggles, however. For instance, tonight I was trying to pour a pitcher of water back into the barrel we keep our water in. I missed and ended up pouring the entire pitcher all over the floor instead of into the barrel. Yeah. That was a fail.)   Later that week, we had another exciting event at our house. Unfortunately, I wasn’t home to enjoy this one. Friday morning, Ellen and C heard the neighbor kids outside suddenly start yelling, “Serpent! Serpent!” Sure enough. There was a baby snake on our water tower. Their father came out a handled the situation flawlessly, getting rid of that snake menace once and for all. Come to find out, it was a baby black mamba. Apparently, the baby snakes are more dangerous than the adult ones because the baby ones can’t control their venom. When they bite a person, they unleash all of their poison into that one bite. Adult snakes portion out their venom, so I’m told.   Well, tomorrow it’s back to the regular grind of school. However, since we’re in Africa, we never know what adventure may lie around the corner!

Seeing God Work

On Sunday, we had a guest speaker preach in the morning service. This man’s name is Godlove, and he and his wife are starting a new ministry in a town about four hours away from us. It was a huge encouragement to hear of their ministry. They are having Bible studies in the town of Bafia as well as in two neighboring villages. God is really doing a work in that area, but it’s going to take a lot of prayer and diligent hard work. Godlove actually grew up in our town of Foumban, and I believe he was saved in our church as well. His message on Sunday was definitely from the heart. He spoke on the topic of hypocrisy, asking those in the service to examine their motives. Why is it that we come to church? How committed are we to Christ? Godlove shared some personal examples from his life, examples that hit home in the lives of the congregation. This was definitely the message that the Lord had laid on his heart. He preached passionately and sincerely from the Word of God. He did go a little longer in the service than we’re used to. In fact, I believe this was the longest message I’ve sat in—Godlove must have preached for an hour and a half. I don’t think, though, that the time was a distraction to most. I believe the Spirit was really working in the hearts of those in attendance that morning. Please continue to pray that God’s Word would truly change lives here in Foumban.

Today I got to go to the church plant in Foumbot with two of the ladies. I typically go to the church here in Foumban on Sundays, and on Wednesdays, I go to Foumbot to help out with various Bible studies and to attend their prayer meeting. God is doing a work in Foumbot, and it’s so exciting to watch. The number of faithful attendees has really grown in Foumbot. I think last week we had a record of eleven adults (not including any missionaries or our national pastor) in the prayer meeting. That’s a larger number than we often have at the prayer meeting in Foumban. Today I was able to go with one of the ladies while she held a Bible study with some English speaking ladies. This was the first Bible study they’ve been able to have in several weeks due to sickness and other complications. I believe there were a total of seven ladies that sat in the room during the Bible study. Three of those ladies have given a profession of salvation, and one has been baptized at our church. The other ladies were just friends and relatives, but they sat and listened. There are so many needs around us. In our own strength, we can’t help meet any of those needs, but God’s Word is powerful and can reach even the hardest of hearts. I’m so excited to see how God will continue to work in the ministries in Foumban and Foumbot.

I experienced the greatest answer to prayer tonight. I believe it was last week that I posted about the various violin issues we’ve been having. On Monday, I took home the violin that lost its sound post. The reinserting of the sound post was not something I was looking forward to doing, so I put it off and put it off. Finally, tonight, I decided that I just needed to try to put the sound post back in place. Even if it didn’t work, I could at least say I had started to work on the violin. I found a web site with information on properly inserting the sound post, and I pulled out my tools: a pair of pliers and two bobby pins. Bobby pins are a wonderful invention. As I set to work on the violin, I just kept praying, “Lord, guide this sound post. I have no idea what I’m doing, but you know where this needs to go.” I had a few failed attempts. I spent more time fishing the bobby pins or the sound post out of the violin, but in just about 30 minutes, the sound post was in place. I tested the violin out, and it sounds acceptable! God is so good!  He even cares about the little things, like violin sound posts.

Adventures in Violin Land

I’ve seen my violin students make great progress already this year on their instruments. Lately, after lessons, I’ve been almost giddy with excitement because of how the lesson went. I had violin lessons with the two older Barilla kids yesterday and lessons with two of the other girls today. All of the lessons went incredibly well once again this week. I’m more organized; I’m expecting more of the students; and I’m seeing a huge difference. Each of my student’s is showing great focus and improvement from lesson to lesson. I’m thrilled with their hard work!   For a while now, one of my students has been complaining of pain in his bow wrist when he plays. The pain starts just five minutes into his practice time. Now, pain is never a good thing. While there may not be a serious problem right now, something is sure to develop after playing the wrong way for an extended period of time. I had given him a few suggestions, mainly telling him to always keep a loose wrist, but it was hard for him to know how to actually “do” the theory I was presenting to him. Since I have a better internet connection this year, I decided to scour the internet to find some help. I didn’t find too much information, but I did find one website with tips on relaxing while playing. Last week, the two of us worked on how to loosen up before practicing. We stretched and wiggled and flopped our arms all around. As crazy as it sounds, the method actually worked. At his lesson yesterday, my student reported that he had rarely felt any pain during the week. And he had a beautiful, relaxed bow hold!   Despite the great progress I’m seeing from the kids, this year has also brought rather unexpected challenges in the violin realm. Now, at this point, I’m going to get pretty technical about violins. Please bear with me, as I try my best to clearly explain the issues.   While I was looking up violin relaxing strategies online, I decided to try to find measurements to help with sizing children to the right violin. The four-year old’s ¼ size violin is just too big, but I wanted to see how close she was to fitting the violin. The wonders of the internet never cease! I found a list of measurements that one violin teacher swears by. Unfortunately, when I measured her, I discovered that she’s several inches away from fitting the ¼ violin. In fact, according to the measurements, she should probably be playing a 1/16! Well, I don’t have access to a 1/16, but I do have an 1/8 at home in the States. I think I’m going to have to try to get that out here sometime this year. Pray that I can keep the four-year old interested in music and in the violin until we can get the smaller instrument out here!   Rainy season in Africa wreaks havoc on violin. There’s so much humidity in the air that parts of the violin begin to swell. Then, just as the violin gets used to all the extra water around, dry season abruptly arrives, causing the wood on the violin to shrink. Right now, we’re nearing the end of rainy season, but it’s definitely leaving a mark on the instruments. One of the instruments in particular is really struggling with the humidity. One of my student’s parents mentioned to me that they were having difficulty tuning one of their instruments. I tried to tune the violin. Sure enough, the pegs had swollen so much, they refused to budge. Well, actually, the part of the peg outside of the violin turned, but the part inside the violin didn’t. At this point, the peg definitely needed to be replaced, so the dad went to work getting the peg out of the violin. I had my student’s mom order a new set of pegs, knowing we would need them. Thankfully, someone was coming over to Cameroon for a short ministry trip, so we were able to get the pegs. Now, one important thing to know about violin pegs is that they have to be fitted for each violin. In Africa, we don’t have violin shops or luthiers. Neither do we have any of the special tools a professional would use. So, we’re going to have to manually sand down the pegs to fit the violin. After that, we’ll have to drill a small hole through the peg so that the string can be strung on the violin. I did a lot of research on the internet (like I said—it’s a wonderful tool!), and I found enough information to reassure myself about the process. Although it won’t necessarily be easy, I think it’s manageable.   If only those were the only problems with that violin…. Naturally, removing the strings from the violin loosened everything else on the violin: the bridge, the tailpiece, all of it. What I didn’t realize was that the tension from the violin also holds the sound post in place. Yesterday, I realized that the sound post had fallen out of place, and I began to despair. (The sound post is located inside the violin and is carefully positioned through the f-hole and secured under the bridge. This is not a location easily accessible. The smallest positioning can severely affect the sound produced from the instrument.) I ran to the internet to scour its resources and find wisdom. Over and over, I read, “Do not attempt to replace the sound post yourself. Take your violin to a professional immediately!” That’s a great recommendation; however, that’s not a feasible solution in Africa. At first, I thought to just leave the violin alone, without worrying about trying to put the sound post back in place. Then, I read how vital the sound post is to supporting the structure of the violin. Who would have thought?!   Well, I figure a working violin is better than a cracked violin, and I’m the best this poor violin has. I believe in the next week or so, I will acquire a new title: violin doctor. Thankfully, the wonderful resource that is the internet explained a little about creating a tool to properly place the sound post into the violin. I also found information about the best location for the sound post. Had I known back in college the things I would one day have to do to a violin, I would have taken a few different classes. But, despite my trepidations regarding this procedure, I’m a little excited to try to replace the sound post. I know this is a rather small issue in the grand scheme of things, but I really would appreciate prayers for wisdom and patience as I work to resolve the violin issues.   Well, maybe after all of these experiments with the violins in Africa, I’ll be brave enough to make my own violin. I have to admit, I think it would be a fun experience to make a violin—especially if the violin ends up sounding good. And truthfully, I don’t think I would trade any of these experiences for anything! I know that even the small incidents in life are a part of God’s plan in making and molding me more into the person of Christ. I’m suddenly reminded of how we, just like an abused, damaged, seemingly worthless violin, are being transformed into priceless treasures in the hands of the Master. Only He can reveal the full potential hidden in weak instruments for His glory!