Urim Songwriting Course Update
I just had my nightly talk on the phone with Neil, and the news is all good! Thank you for praying!! And thank you for all of the e-mails and Facebook comments letting me know that you're praying . . . I've really appreciated those this week! :)
I haven't told you yet that on Monday, the 30 course participants (from 4 different villages) wrote 16 new songs-- and by the end of Tuesday, the new-song count was up to 28! Last night, Neil told me that he was going to begin recording a day early, because this workshop has been so prolific-- he didn't think he'd have time to record all of the songs in one day; also, the participants were working really well together, and "knew the drill" about getting each song checked for content and musicality before recording-- so he didn't feel they'd need any help from him today. (There are 4 Urim Bible translators and 2 Urim pastors in the course, so the songs can be well-checked for linguistic and theological soundness!)
You know from past music workshop reports how difficult it is to find a quiet spot to record songs! Neil was especially concerned because it's been raining almost non-stop during this course-- would there be rain sounds in the background of all of the recordings? God answered our prayers-- it didn't rain much at all today! And it was fairly quiet (for a PNG village) in the house where Neil recorded. In fact, he recorded 30 new songs in 4 hours! The course participants divided into four groups for efficiency, and one group at a time came to record their songs, while the other groups continued to work on composition and song checking.
Neil thinks about 15-20 more songs were written today, so he'll record those tomorrow. Two of today's new songs came, entire, in dreams last night-- one to a man, and one to a woman. The man said, "I didn't compose this song. I heard it in my dream."
Another encouraging aspect of these new songs is that so many of them are in well-loved traditional local styles. Some of the new songs are Western-style guitar songs, but most are accompanied by the kundu (an hourglass shaped, handheld drum found all over PNG).
Tomorrow (Thursday) will be another recording day, and on Friday the course will close with a graduation celebration and dedication of the new songs to the Lord. Thank you for praying for the course to end well-- and keep praying for the much-needed dry weather!
Neil received some other very good news today: his flight from Wewak to Ukarumpa (next Tuesday) is now viable! That means that there is now enough loading on the flight that our Aviation Department has decided it's worthwhile to keep it on the schedule. So Neil will have a Kodiak flight back to Ukarumpa on Tuesday (we were beginning to think we'd need to figure out another way for him to get home). He will still have to get to the town of Wewak on his own-- but I'll save those details for another blog post. If you love truly adventurous travel, you've got to come to PNG!
Family update: Thank you for praying for Cameron! He was sick longer than I ever remember him being sick before-- Thursday night to Monday. But he's completely back to normal and making us laugh again. :) He had his second day back at school today. Praise the Lord! And more reason for rejoicing: the rest of us are well, too. As for baby Maila, I have not seen or heard from Charlie or Wendy since Saturday; I'm hoping to see Charlie tomorrow, when he comes to Ukarumpa to work, not far from our house. I'll let you know how Maila is doing. Thank you for praying for their family!
Below: The first thing Cameron wanted to do when he started feeling a little bit better: an art project. Very typical! :)
I haven't told you yet that on Monday, the 30 course participants (from 4 different villages) wrote 16 new songs-- and by the end of Tuesday, the new-song count was up to 28! Last night, Neil told me that he was going to begin recording a day early, because this workshop has been so prolific-- he didn't think he'd have time to record all of the songs in one day; also, the participants were working really well together, and "knew the drill" about getting each song checked for content and musicality before recording-- so he didn't feel they'd need any help from him today. (There are 4 Urim Bible translators and 2 Urim pastors in the course, so the songs can be well-checked for linguistic and theological soundness!)
You know from past music workshop reports how difficult it is to find a quiet spot to record songs! Neil was especially concerned because it's been raining almost non-stop during this course-- would there be rain sounds in the background of all of the recordings? God answered our prayers-- it didn't rain much at all today! And it was fairly quiet (for a PNG village) in the house where Neil recorded. In fact, he recorded 30 new songs in 4 hours! The course participants divided into four groups for efficiency, and one group at a time came to record their songs, while the other groups continued to work on composition and song checking.
Neil thinks about 15-20 more songs were written today, so he'll record those tomorrow. Two of today's new songs came, entire, in dreams last night-- one to a man, and one to a woman. The man said, "I didn't compose this song. I heard it in my dream."
Another encouraging aspect of these new songs is that so many of them are in well-loved traditional local styles. Some of the new songs are Western-style guitar songs, but most are accompanied by the kundu (an hourglass shaped, handheld drum found all over PNG).
Tomorrow (Thursday) will be another recording day, and on Friday the course will close with a graduation celebration and dedication of the new songs to the Lord. Thank you for praying for the course to end well-- and keep praying for the much-needed dry weather!
Neil received some other very good news today: his flight from Wewak to Ukarumpa (next Tuesday) is now viable! That means that there is now enough loading on the flight that our Aviation Department has decided it's worthwhile to keep it on the schedule. So Neil will have a Kodiak flight back to Ukarumpa on Tuesday (we were beginning to think we'd need to figure out another way for him to get home). He will still have to get to the town of Wewak on his own-- but I'll save those details for another blog post. If you love truly adventurous travel, you've got to come to PNG!
Family update: Thank you for praying for Cameron! He was sick longer than I ever remember him being sick before-- Thursday night to Monday. But he's completely back to normal and making us laugh again. :) He had his second day back at school today. Praise the Lord! And more reason for rejoicing: the rest of us are well, too. As for baby Maila, I have not seen or heard from Charlie or Wendy since Saturday; I'm hoping to see Charlie tomorrow, when he comes to Ukarumpa to work, not far from our house. I'll let you know how Maila is doing. Thank you for praying for their family!
Below: The first thing Cameron wanted to do when he started feeling a little bit better: an art project. Very typical! :)
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