When We Lift Our Pack and Go

"When we lift our pack and go,

When we seek another country,

Moving far from all we know,

When we long to journey free-

God is in the other place,

God is in another's face,

In the faith we travel by,

God is in the other place."

-- Shirley Erena Murray, 1988

I left Nashville for the final time on Sunday, June 22nd, following a week of intense packing and wedding to-dos. While Friday and Saturday were occupied with my friend's wedding, it was also underlined with the realization that I was finally embarking on this amazing journey. In fact, not usually given to shows of intense emotion, I wept like an overzealous fountain the moment I wished my newlywedded friend goodbye- it was the moment I understood that we were both leaving and that our futures may never realign again. That's a tough pill to swallow when you consider my vast family of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Oklahoma friends. Suddenly Costa Rica seems even further away.

The trip home was long and uneventful, unless you count the mandatory stop for high-grade explosives at Sevierville's amazing Fireworks emporium and the stultifying crawl through the gorge that connects Tennessee's I-40 with the North Carolina portion. Add to that the 14 ft Diesel moving truck Daddy had rented that couldn't move faster than 60 mph, and I'd say that it was the easiest (and slowest) trip home I'd ever made!

After a day of respite, I ventured into Winston Salem for an orientation meeting with the good folks at the Board of World Missions and the Moravian Music Foundation, where I quickly discovered that a) I am much better at lesson planning when others are giving me their ideas, and b) I will be NO MATCH for the various parasites in my drinking water and food... at least I have been warned!

The meeting was comforting- it was good to know that provisions were in place and that I could reliably say that I knew what I was doing. Or at least I could pretend that I knew. My partner seems much more confident than I feel, despite my tenuous but comparitively superior grasp of Spanish. We are very well matched- Roman brings the passion and creativity I lack, while I am more pragmatic and better at the management side of things. Between the two of us I am excited for him to join me in Limon because I know that he will so greatly amplify our outreach. This doesn't even take in to consideration his profound passion for Christ, which has impressed me since we met 5 years ago. He is an incredible asset to our ministry- I'm thrilled that he is my sole companion for this project.

After hours of preliminary lesson planning and sorting handfuls of Costa Rican Colones for me to buy my first meal in San Jose, we tore into boxes of materials that the good people at Brentwood Benson donated for our school. Now this says alot about the wonderful depth of character at my former place of employment- when approached about donations, they did not hesitate to volunteer the materials of my choice. This has resulted in the generous contribution of $2000 worth of great hymnals, Gospel piano books, and general worship resources. (By the way, my BBMPI friends, they FLIPPED OUT over the Praise and Worship Fakebook CD-ROM- it was adored by one and all!)

From there I received my first mission assignment- I am teaching music for two hours every day to children at an entirely Spanish speaking Moravian congregation called Iglesia de Cordero del Dio. Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting the Pastor, Enrique. He is a slight man from Peru who may be 5' when he stands on his tiptoes, and he speaks little to no English. He's very funny though, and while I can't speak Spanish well enough to tell exactly what I want to, I do understand about 95% of what he says to me, which makes communication easier than I initially expected.

At my first class at Cordero today I had only Enrique's children, Emiliano and Zulema, and his wife Rosita in my class despite the earlier estimate of 10 children. Rosita speaks English pretty well, and the children are absolutely brilliant, so I admit that I am inclined to cheat a little and speak only English when we work together.

Class was slow going at first- I was initially prepared to teach an entire class of 7-11 year olds, so having the class diminished to what amounted to be a long private lesson was awkward and really threw me off. I started by teaching two rudimentary camp songs that I thought they might know from Laurel Ridge Summer Camp, but neither had attended and I quickly discovered that songs I had no trouble picking up when I was in third grade don't necessarily make sense to non-native English speakers. In fact, they're pretty darn hard to explain and teach! Also, upper elementary aged kids don't really like to sing by themselves, even if they're related. That cut down my lesson plan substantially, as I could garner no participation from my audience.

I handed out a recorder to each child and Mom and immediately launched into how we read music. Now this really surprised me- Emiliano, who may be 7 years old, could tell me the names of each beat type I drew on the board, and even how many beats each was valued at. Zulema, although notably less willing to participate, could go even further than that- both children had a very firm grasp on meter and time signatures. We started by clapping some basic rhythms, which went well, and then I drew incorrect rhythm patterns on the board, allowing them to make the appropriate additions and subtractions to each pattern in order to suit the time signature. Rhythm came so easily that I went full-speed ahead and got them started with note-reading.

At this point, both had only done basic rhythmic practice, although Zulema vaguely remembered how many lines were in a staff and which clef was the bass clef. We began discussing the treble clef, and I drew a C major scale for them to see how music is notated. Then, with the goal of playing "Hot Cross Buns" in mind, I had them come up and find B-A-G on the scale. One by one I had the come up to the chalkboard and write a measure of music that I would dictate verbally. They had no difficulty remembering where each note belonged and what note value needed to be written. In no time at all they had handwritten the music for "Hot Cross Buns," and were playing away. Zulema especially picked it up quickly, while Emiliano struggled a little with keeping the finger holes properly covered. In the meantime, however, Zulema had already begun to try figuring out new songs.

For the final exercise I had them choose a song that sounded like "Hot Cross Buns." They chose "Mary Had a Little Lamb," which Zulema had already begun to decode while I had been helping Emiliano. Together, with no pomp or circumstance, I led my 7 year old Emiliano and 11 year old Zulema through their first melodic dictation project- and the results were incredible. Not only were they able to successfully write the tune to "Mary Had a Little Lamb," but they had it spot-on with only the most basic assistance. We wrapped up the lesson by playing through the tune and talking about the goals they had for our mini-workshop. Both answered that they wanted to learn reading skills, which is good since they already show an inclination towards it.

Right now I am crafting the lesson plan for our next adventure, but I hardly know what to do. These kids have obvious talent... can I come through with a fun but challenging offering for tomorrow? I guess only time will tell. Perhaps the old teacher is finally coming out of her shell...