More news from Cameroon

Luke's parents wrote:

By now some of you may have heard of the rioting, looting and burning going in Cameroon. Unfortunately it’s true. There are serious problems in the major cities of Cameroon right now and some of our ministry colleagues living in these cities are very concerned. Roads are blockaded and there is little or no traffic in many cities. Even out here in “the bush” roads are blocked. But, here in Binka things are quiet! We are listening to the news and calling friends to see how they are but we are safe in our little village. Please be praying that things would quiet down in Cameroon and that people would be safe from the rioting and mobs.

We also just returned from a 3 week trip back to the Eastern Province ministering to the Fulbe refugees. We found that most of the refugees are doing okay and the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) has been busy distributing food supplies. Our future plans with the refugees will continue to be focused on helping them get started again so that they aren’t dependent on outside aid. We’ll be writing more soon, but wanted to get this prayer request off right away.

Please join us in praying for our dear friends and for this country that we love. Our hearts ache as we hear of the violence and destruction.

Resolution in Kenya, Violence in Cameroon

Today was a day of mixed news from the two African countries that we have called home. In Kenya a power sharing agreement was signed today between the rival parties. Violence is down and hope is high for peace and return to stability. Read more here.

Sadly, we received troubling news from two dear friends who are missionaries in Cameroon. One, a former colleague from the seminary where we taught, wrote of demonstrations and violence in his town, Kumba, in the aftermath of a nationwide strike called to protest the rising price of gas and other commodities. The demonstrations got out of hand and several people were shot and killed. All the shops in their town are closed because of looting and rioting. We also read of trouble in Bamenda where many of our missionary friends are gathered for their Field Education School week. Other areas of the country are still peaceful, but the situation is very tense and seems to be heating up. We are awaiting news from the northwestern part of the country where we lived and where Luke's parents still live.

Please pray with us for the country of Cameroon, for peace to return, for the leaders to be discerning and wise, and for the safety of dear loved ones, Cameroonian and American, who are in the middle of the turmoil.

To read more, go here and here.

A messy office

I am not married to a neat freak. This is no surprise to any of our friends who have ventured upstairs, turned left and peered into Coty's office. But his desk is not as messy as this .... yet!

HT - Justin Taylor

Chicken noodle soup

For those of you who requested, here is a link to the recipe I used as inspiration for making my chicken noodle soup. I didn't add canned chicken broth. Instead, after deboning the chicken and pulling off the meat, I put the bones and skin and other assorted parts back in a big pot, covered with water and simmered some more and used that stock. I also added lots of fresh herbs to my soup. I did make the noodles just as the recipe says and they were so easy and so satisfying.

I am thankful that we are all feeling much better this week and hope that soup as medicine will not be needed again this year.

Chicken noodle goodness

For those of you who remember us as a vegetarian family, a better label these days might be flexetarian. We've branched out a bit. I have now made two batches of homemade chicken noodle soup with noodles made from scratch and there's no going back! Mmmm, this soup was good!

Noodle dough rolled thin and ready to cut in strips.

Fresh rosemary - lots went into the soup.

Fresh bay leaves - two went into the soup. I aquired this beauty
with it's glossy leaves back in the fall and find that there's no
comparison with the dry leaves from the store.

Soup's on!

Just seen...

A gnome on the deck,
sitting in the sun by the trickling fountain....
doing math!

Flowers inside and out

These are my lovely Valentine's lilies and tulips.

And below is my Meyer lemon tree, blooming like crazy in the dining area window. There must be 30 blossoms on this beauty. She has thrived in her sunny window home this winter. The buds, creamy white with lavender streaks are lovely. And the fragrance of the open blossoms.....mmmmm , sweet!

Heading outdoors.....Well! Some of the daffys are nodding their
happy heads above the oak leaves, glorious and bright.

Did someone say spring???!!! Shhh, not too loudly, for we're bound to get at least a dusting of snow before we can officially say that winter is over.

Sick!

Oh boy, we've been sick! I told you awhile back about Andrew's double whammy - chicken pox and strep throat. He recovered just fine from all that but yesterday he awoke with a fever which climbed up over 102 in the afternoon. This morning he scared the dickens out of us when he passed out at the breakfast table! His temp had been almost 102, so when he got up to eat and read with us it was more than he could handle! He let out a groan and then slumped in his chair. His head fell backwards and his eyes rolled up in his head. I ran over and held his head and spoke to him but he was OUT! Scary. He was breathing, but all the color had drained from his face. Then he got very hot and his face flushed. After that he came to and moaned. We got him over to the futon to lie down and he was able to talk to us and tell us how he felt. He'd felt nauseous right before he passed out and knew he was going black. I think he was out for less than a minute but it sure felt like a looong time!

He rested well all morning and ate some homemade chicken broth with rice for lunch. His fever is down but he's pretty wiped out so we're giving this boy plenty of time to rest and recover. His body's had a rough time lately...poor guy.

And he's not the only one. Coty had the flu last weekend. He was in bed for two days straight with high temps and then was very tired and wrung out. He's still coughing but feels better. In fact, at the moment, he, Joel, Matthew, and our friend, David Livingston are out playing tennis.

Joel also had his share of discomfort in the form of double ear infections last week. But warm olive oil and resting on the heating pad, plus a decongestant and massage around his ears seemed to do the trick. He's fine now.

To top it off, I added a bit of humor to the sick house by losing my voice on Saturday night. I croaked and squeaked my way through the day yesterday, eliciting lots of sympathetic but amused chuckles and even some good natured teasing from family and friends. My voice is slightly better today, but when I speak, I am still eliciting either chuckles or responses of, "What did you say?" Sorry, guys, I can't talk any louder!

We thank God for his watch care. We petition the great physician for health. We praise our creator and "do not lose heart for though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 2 Corinthians 4:16, 17

Drum roll.....fireworks......

Matthew won!

Check out the winner's page on the World Book Fact or Fiction video contest. And thanks to all of you who voted. Matthew appreciates your support!

"Elegant persistence and unwavering kindness"

On January 21, Mrs. Zabel, the mother of my best friend, died. She was described as a "a devoted mother and homemaker [who] delighted in the lives and accomplishments of her children and grandchildren." I knew her as a beautiful, gracious woman who sat at the breakfast table on Saturday morning drinking coffee while this teenage friend of her youngest daughter had a morning cup of tea and waited for that youngest of eight children, my friend, Teresa, the late sleeper, to wake up. Oh, we had good times at the Zabel house. Softball games in the front yard, horseback rides around the neighborhood, swimming at the club down the road, picking cucumbers from the big garden and blackberries from the roadside, delicious healthy meals, flowers and plants. Mrs. Zabel loved her flowers and plants.

I have thought about how much the influence of my friend's mother had on me. She made having eight children seem like an awful lot of fun. I am sure her example played a big part in making the idea of having a large family appealing to me. Her boys teased her, her husband scowled and said, "I hate kids," and we all knew how much he loved his children and his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Zabel's love and devotion to each other was so plain to see. I was blessed to spend so much time during my high school years in the Zabel home.

In his funeral message, Mrs. Zabel's grandson spoke of her relationship with the Lord and her humility. He spoke of the folded paper in her wallet between her Belks card and pictures of her grandchildren with verses from Isaiah 40 written on it. He called her a woman of "elegant persistence and unwavering kindness."

I have hung on to those words. They describe her so perfectly. Elegant persistence. Unwavering kindness. They speak of a woman who knew what she believed and clung to it with grace and strength; of a woman whose kindness touched everyone who knew her. I only hope, by the grace of God, that someday someone will say that I was such a woman. If they do, it will surely be, in part, because of her example.

Death brings friends together to grieve and laugh, to lean and to comfort. The time that Teresa and I got to spend together the day of the funeral and in the days afterward were very special. We were both reminded of how much we share and how much we miss each other. We live on opposite sides of the country but have grown even closer than ever over the years. We both had to laugh one morning after Teresa and her kids spent the night with the boys and me at my parent's house -we were getting dressed for the day and both of us had blue turtleneck sweaters, jeans, and black coats - totally unplanned! In high school people sometimes mistook us for sisters and sometimes we tried to fool people into thinking we were twins. I almost think we could still pull it off!



The picture of Mrs. Zabel, above, was taken when she was a young woman. Wasn't she beautiful? She remained beautiful, from the inside out, all her days. I was privileged to know her...and I am privileged beyond measure that her daughter is my life long friend.

There is hope...

in Kenya today for a political settlement that may help to end the violence. Kofi Annan continues to try and broker a deal between political rivals, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. How we pray for peace and reconciliation and a return to normalcy. Much has been lost in these days of violence and it will take a long time for the country to recover. But the news is hopeful today.

Finding a penny

The quote in the sidebar from Annie Dillard speaks of "finding a penny [that] will literally make your day." I found one last night. And it wasn't just a penny. It was a silver dollar. And to be honest, I didn't find it. It found me.

I took Joel to soccer practice last night. My back had been hurting but I determined to walk a bit, hoping to relax the spasms that have been bothering me. I started out slowly around the soccer complex, three big fields bordering a limpid, trash-lined stream. The air was cool and damp and smelled of grass and mud. The lights on the tall poles illuminated the field through a halo of mist. The transformer box for the big lights buzzed. Not really the place you'd expect a silver dollar.

I picked up speed and decided to circle not just the lit fields, but the unlit and unused field at the far end of the complex. And then it happened. As I neared the far corner of the dark field, a Great Horned Owl hooted from a tree by the stream, very close, very loud, and just once. Silver dollar indeed. I practically skipped the rest of the way, I was so delighted with that hoot-owl call.

You may not think that an owl call is such a big deal. But for me, last night, that sound was a gift. And yes, as Annie Dillard said, it literally made my day...and night.

School wise, Part 3: Andrew's turn (also long)

And now it's Andrew's turn. At this point in his homeschooling career, Andrew is mostly self-taught. That is the wonderful thing about raising children to be internally motivated...if you somehow succeed in instilling in them the desire to learn, the discipline to get work done, and the curiosity to follow their interests, your work as the mother of a homeschooling high schooler is much easier. Actually, I think we don't instill that curiosity; it is there all along. Sadly, however, many children have it "schooled" right out of them. The goal of learning because you are interested in the subject, because you want to know is, in many kids, snuffed out. But that's a topic for another day. Suffice it to say, by the grace of God, all of our high schoolers have retained a healthy degree of interest in wide ranging subjects and have been self-directed and able to govern themselves, managing their time and school work well with little or no haranguing from Coty and me. It's a good thing because especially with Andrew, there were times that I felt I let him "slip through the cracks" a bit. He plugged away, though, and has done well, perhaps in spite of, not because of, his mother!

(An aside...One child, who will remain unnamed, never appeared to be particularly interested in his schooling, but I think it was a ruse...I am happy to report that I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with him last week and he did almost ALL the talking, telling me about his freshman economics class and why our country's economy is on the skids and what he likes about philosophy and sociology. Last semester he discussed the intricacies of the fluid mosaic model that he was learning about in biology. So I am, needless to say, delighted that the love of learning seems to have kicked in, in earnest, for said unnamed child. Fall semester, freshman year in college is not a bad time for this to happen...)

But this post is supposed to be about Andrew and what he is doing now so let me get on to that...

French - his most favorite subject, his delight, and perhaps his college major in the coming years. He is studying on his own using all kinds of resources including books from a very generous private school French teacher, internet resources, and an advanced conversation class with Alliance Francaise of Charlotte. He also began tutoring a younger high school student and this has been very good for cementing his knowledge of basic grammar and vocabulary. If you want to really learn something, teach it to someone else. That's what he's been doing this year.

Science this year is Physics - using a basic text and participating in the nJoy high school physics class and lab. He'll also be finishing up the Teaching Company's Human Anatomy and Physiology video course

Calculus - again, thank you, Coty, resident math whiz.

World literature - lots of good reading...

American government for this semester which is mainly a focus on the presidential nominating process as well as a review of the Constitution and functions of the three branches of government. We're using resources from the library and online as well as following the nominating process.

World History, again using the video course from the Teaching Company.

Music Appreciation has been with Joel and Matthew when he's around - work at Panera and French class sometimes interfere. But, Andrew also studies the cello with a private teacher and plays in a youth orchestra.

Art Appreciation this spring is a survey of Art History using lots of books that we own and books from the library...Janson's History of Art, The Annotated Mona Lisa, and a lovely book on the Louvre that I just borrowed from my dad. (Since, Lord willing, Andrew will travel and/or live in Paris one of these days, it seemed fitting to become familiar with the Louvre).

This is one hard working boy. I am happy to report that his efforts and accomplishments have already been rewarded by the offer of the A.J. Gordon Honors Scholarship at Gordon College. Big brother, Jonathan, is rooting for Andrew to go to Gordon. He will, however, be graduated and probably on the other side of the pond by next fall so if Andrew matriculates at Gordon, Jonathan won't be there to show him the ropes and enjoy his company. But no decision on that til mid-March, since A's waiting to hear from the other colleges to which he has applied. Stay tuned...we are all eager to see where and how the Lord will lead our young man in his college years.

School wise, part 2: Joel (warning - this is looong)

Time to turn my attention to Joel. I know I said I'd do it yesterday, but well, I spent a lot of time with Joel yesterday so I didn't have much time to write about Joel. Yesterday was our Classical Conversation day. If you are a CM reader, do not gasp and think I've forsaken our CM ways. I haven't. But I am happy, for Joel's sake, to have found the CC Challenge group for this year. Joel is a part-time student, participating in two seminars, Geography and Science. The seminars are back to back with lunch in between, which gives him some wonderful time to just hang out with kids his age and play soccer and football with whoever wanders out to the field at lunchtime. We are doing this partly for the academics, but also for the social side of CC. It's something that Joel really looks forward to each week.

His work includes:

Geography at CC, which is mainly a cartography course...lots of map drawing and learning locations and geographical information. He did a super job in a quiz yesterday, remembering correctly 147 of 148 country capitals. Do YOU know the capital of St. Lucia? That's the one he missed. We had fun doing a bit of association with learning capitals. He was having a hard time remembering Moldova. The capital is Chisinau. We took the first letters of both words and came up with "moldy cheese". Moldova moldy, Chisinau cheese. It worked. He got that one plus 146 others. This, for those of you who are familiar with classical education, is more of a grammar stage activity, but I do know that the more familiarity you have with places and names, the more likely you are to notice them when you hear them in a news report or read about them in a novel set in an obscure location. These are learning hooks, basic geographical knowledge, of which most Americans are abysmally ignorant. Map drawing is an exercise in attentiveness and accuracy. It's also a classical way to learn - look at the map, trace it, draw it. Do it over and over. It is amazing to look at maps drawn at the beginning of the year and maps drawn now. Later in the spring we may use some of the ideas in Mapping the World by Heart and spend time doing a really excellent world map.

Science at CC, which was research and journaling in the fall has now moved on to a study of the human body. Again, lots of drawing. In the fall each week Joel researched a different category of animals or plants, wrote a summary of his research, drew a picture or diagram for his journal, and then gave a short presentation in class on what he learned. Did you know that monarch butterflies sometimes make transatlantic flights! We learned that this fall as well as lots of other very interesting information about the created world. In addition, Joel's confidence in his drawing increased greatly as week by week he continued to be surprised at how pleased he was with his drawings. He used to say, "I can't draw," and was afraid to try. Now he is more willing to give it a go and has learned for himself that drawing, like most things, is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice.

What I don't like about these CC classes is that they move fast and lack the "education is a science of relations" aspect of learning that would be more characteristic of a Charlotte Mason style of learning. For example, I would really rather spend more time on each area of the world, learning about the land and culture, the people, the food, the history and politics of the place rather than simply draw it on the map, learn some important geographical features and move on. But then, we'd never finish mapping the entire world in a year if we did that...so there are trade-offs. As I said, this way of learning provides lots of learning hooks for later.

In addition to CC classes, Joel is working on Algebra at home. Like Matthew, he has a wonderful teacher. Thanks, Coty!

We are studying modern world history using Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World, Volume 4. Sometimes we read aloud together. Other times he reads it himself. Each day after reading, he does a written narration. They've increased in length to about a page now. I do not correct these. They are simply a place for him to process and re-tell what he has read.

He's doing French with Matthew and me. Listening and learning vocabulary. I am really going to miss our resident French tutor, Andrew, when he goes to college next fall! He corrects our sentences and helps us with our pronunciation.

Also music with Matthew and me. Pat Kavanaugh's excellent book mentioned previously. The Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto is on the mp3 player now so guess what we'll be listening to in the car for the next week. It is important to me for the boys to become familiar with classical music. I heard a fascinating piece on Beethoven and his deafness this morning and was reminded why I think that learning to love classical music is important. Scott Simon said, "I'm deeply in awe of Beethoven and the way he transformed the symphony. But I am even more awed by this human being who somehow transcended his suffering to write some of the world's most joyous, optimistic music — music that still has the power to change our lives." Yes, music does have the power to change our lives and I want my sons to have a familiarity with and appetite for this music. Sorry for a bit of a ramble there....

Of course, Joel is always reading. Lately he's read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, And Now Miguel.Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is next.

I forgot to mention in Matthew's post that we try and read poetry several times a week. We have memorized several poems this year. Time to pick a new one. Actually, Matthew chose to memorize the St. Crispan's Day speech from Henry V for his theater audition monologue, so maybe we'll all do that. Read this post for more on poetry in our house.

The other thing I didn't mention in Matthew's post is what is a very important part of our homeschool day, breakfast reading with Coty. This post describes that morning routine. At the beginning of January we finished The Phantom Tollbooth and now we are reading Give Me This Mountain by Helen Roseveare. We always read the Bible together in the morning as well. Right now we're reading Jeremiah.

For fun, Joel plays all those same games indoors and out with Coty and his brothers. He is contemplating whether to play baseball or spring soccer this year. Hard choice. He's been invited to play on a club soccer team so if we're able to do that and have access to such fine coaching, he may forgo baseball. Same thoughts regarding hands-on projects and handicrafts that I expressed with Matthew apply to Joel.

Like his big brothers, Joel is pretty self-motivated when it comes to his work. I rarely have to get on him to get his tasks done. I think the example set by his siblings is the primary reason he is so diligent. That's just how it's done around here, no arguing, no whining. When you're the youngest, it's pretty hard to get away with anything, especially laziness, in any form.

Well that's my Joel, social, athletic, sensitive to his mom, very huggable, usually happy, and continuing to grow, I observe and pray, "in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men."

Andrew, next...

How many modes of transportation....

can you take in one day? Andrew started out his day yesterday in Beverly, Massachusetts and took the commuter rail to Boson, subway to the bus station, bus to New York City, subway to train station, train to meet Rob, taxi to the airport, airplane to NC, private car home! Whew. One tired boy returned home late last night via many modes after a wonderfully exciting, week long trip in the northeast. And this morning, poor thing, he had to be at work at 8:30.

I am marveling that I was comfortable letting a 17 year old do all that...on his own! But as someone reminded me, if he needed help in New York or Boston, they speak the same language. I guess having traveled in Tibet and Burkina Faso, albeit with a group, he is quite travel saavy. I think this young man will see the world someday. Probably sooner rather than later.

Thank you, Father God, for your watch care over my young man and for bringing him home safely, once again.