AFRICA: Swahili

Jambo is "hello" in Swahili, an important language in Africa. Though the official language of only three African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) it is widely spoken throughout East Africa and elsewhere. Swahili is a lingua franca, or a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.

We learned a little Swahili while learning about it. The following video was fun to watch, like a cultural exchange.

The highlight of our learning about Swahili was being introduced to "Baba Yetu," which is The Lord's Prayer in Swahili, put to music, written by Christopher Tin. It's hard to say which of the following two versions is our favorite.

(I loved one of the comments on the feed:  "a song written by an asian guy sung in an african language about the lords prayer by a white guy in africa now thats how this world should be together fam")

I created two notebooking pages to go with our lessons on Swahili. The first was to write a summary of the history of and facts about the language (top) and two write some basic English words and the Swahili translation (bottom) like numbers, greetings, family members, etc. The second notebooking page is for writing the words to "Baba Yetu." Over the top of the globe showing North America, the kids wrote The Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 in English. Over the top of the globe showing Africa, the kids wrote the "Baba Yetu" lyrics.

Baba yetu, yetu uliye (Our, our Father who are)
Mbinguni yetu, yetu, amina (In heaven, our, our, amen)
Baba yetu, yetu, uliye (Our, our Father, who are)
Jina lako litukuzwe (Let's glorify your name)

Utupe leo chakula chetu (Give us today our food)
Tunachohitaji utusamehe (We need you to forgive us)
Makosa yetu, hey (Our errors, hey)
Kama nasi tunavyowasamehe (As we do forgive those)
Waliotukosea, usitutie (Who did us wrong, don't put us)
Katika majaribu, lakini (Into trials, but)
Utuokoe, na yule, milele na milele (Save us, with him, for ever and ever)

Ufalme wako ufike utakalo (Your kingdom come that it be)
Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni, amina (done on earth as in heaven, amen)

Baba yetu, yetu, uliye (Our, our Father, who are)
Jina lako litukuzwe (Let's glorify your name)
Baba yetu, yetu, uliye (Our, our Father, who are)
Jina lako litukuzwe (Let's glorify your name)

Christopher Tin - Baba Yetu Lyrics | MetroLyrics

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As a side, if you're thinking you've heard the song before, or you're wondering when and why it was written, it's kind of an interesting situation. Christopher Tin wrote "Baba Yetu"  for the "Civilization" video game. 

You may or may not want to tell your kids that. We had a discussion about what The Lord's Prayer, Swahili, and the history of the world's civilizations might have to do with each other but it led to my kids telling me that playing "Civilization" was perfectly acceptable "homework" the next day.

F.R.O.G. - A Chocolate Acronym of Faith

F.R.O.G.

Fully Rely On God

It's Easter candy time. What I like about that is the variety of really cute (and yummy) spring and nature candies, especially Lindt's chocolate insects, frogs, ducks, and bunnies.

The chocolate frogs lend themselves nicely as accompaniment to an acronym that would fit a Family Home Evening or Church lesson, or homeschool devotional. They're also a great meaningful treat for Visiting Teaching, a pick-me-up for a neighbor or friend, or an addition to an Easter basket.  I created the tags below and sent a package of chocolate frogs to my missionary with one of the tags attached:

Happy Spring!

BUSY - Being Under Satan's Yoke

I found the following while going through a very old stack of papers. I have from time to time recalled this lesson when my life seems full of inconsequential busy-ness and I feel the Heavens are quiet and I am far adrift from my spiritual moorings. It's definitely something to think about.

BUSY

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels. he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming and intimate, abiding relationship with Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ.

"This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" shouted his angels.

"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work. Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice.  Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV, VCR. CDs and the PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical, contradicting music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.

"Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogs, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services, and false hopes. Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, and movies instead.

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotion. Let them be involved in soul-winning, but crowd their lives with so many good causes that they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

It was quite a convention in the end. And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy, and rush here and there.

Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge.

What about this definition of BUSY?

B-Being U-Under S-Satan's Y-Yoke 

I think sometimes we get mixed up. For instance, we are supposed to be "anxiously engaged," and we are warned and commanded not to be idle, but I think we can be busy and idle simultaneously, and we can be busy without being truly engaged. For instance, think of an employee who is always looking to look busy, without really having to work. You know, the guy who does a cart run even though he just did that. From my own experience, I relate to the junk mail reference listed above:  when it comes time to clean up areas in my home I often find that way too much time ends up being spent on mail and flyers and newspapers and whatever other papers are lying about. Before I know it, my time to tidy is gone and all I've done is read a bunch of junk. It's so frustrating!

All too often I am regretfully busy. I say this because there are times when a neighbor or family member or friend will say, "I would have (asked, told, talked to) you, but you're so busy I didn't want to bother you." Oh, the sting! So let's ever keep in mind that "being busy" can too often morph into "being too busy."

A few more thoughts:

"I fear that many of us rush about from day to day taking for granted the holy scriptures. We scramble to honor appointments with physicians, lawyers, and businessmen. Yet we think nothing of postponing interviews with Deity--postponing scripture study. Little wonder we develop anemic souls and lose our direction in living. How much better it would be if we planned and held sacred fifteen or twenty minutes a day for reading the scriptures. Such interviews with Deity would help us recognize his voice and enable us to receive guidance in all of our affairs." -Carlos E. Asay, 

"I've come to understand something that happened to me in my early teens. I was in a hurry when I felt, not heard, a voice, an impression, which I knew then was from God. It was close to these words: 'Someday, when you know who you really are, you will be sorry that you didn't use your time better.' I thought then that the impression was odd, since I thought I was using my time pretty well and I thought I knew who I was. Now, years later, I am beginning to know who I am - and who you are - and why we will be so sorry if we do not invest our time well...." -Henry B. Eyring

Go into the Mount Oft

Oh, how I love the mountains! I couldn't live without them! I am blessed to live in a place where I see mountains out of most of my home's windows and where I am just minutes from several canyons. There is something about the majesty of mountains that fills my soul with all things good and makes me feel closer to God.

The scriptures are full of references to mountains and their holiness.  It was on Mount Sinai that Moses met with the Lord and received the commandments. Abraham's test with Isaac took place on a mountain. Book of Mormon prophets wrote of personal prayers and answers received on mountains: "And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things" (1 Nephi 18:3, see also Ether 3).  Jesus went purposefully to the mountains, a few instances of note being to teach (Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7), to give priesthood keys and be transfigured before Peter, James, and John (Mount of Transfiguration, Mark 9:2-10), and to pray (Luke 6:12).

As we studied mountains in our geography lessons, I wanted to impress upon my children the spiritual nature of mountains outside of plate tectonics.  So we gathered up our scriptures and our journals and headed into a canyon we haven't previously explored.

We've had an unusually warm and dry autumn, but the morning we took to the mountains we had a change overnight to record lows. It was a beautiful clear day, but it was a cold 12 degrees! Thankfully my 14-year-old Boy Scout knew where some matches were in the car. With some garbage papers and a lot of twigs and wood laying around, he had a fire going in no time and we gathered around it for a search and discussion in the scriptures.

In peaceful solitude I shared my love for the mountains with my children as I told them how much closer I feel to God when I'm in them. I told them of the clarity a running river brings to my mind and shared why I believe that is with Joseph Smith's account of his vision of the Savior in the Kirtland Temple:  "His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah..." (D&C 110:3)  

And then we spread out to each be by him/herself with thoughts, prayers and journals and we were still. 

Then with dirt and icy cold water from the creek we put out the fire and headed home, hopefully with a lasting impression.

Balm of Gilead

The start of each homeschool day hears us singing a hymn and reading scriptures and discussing some spiritual topic.  Right now we are focusing on prayer, and this includes keeping a prayer journal.  The prayer journal has some copied scriptures and quotes, but it's mainly to keep a record of how our prayers are answered day to day so we can both see and remember God's hand in our personal lives.

Hymn #140, "Did You Think to Pray?", was of course the first hymn we sung.  We talked about everything in the song, including words we didn't understand.  No one was sure what "balm of Gilead" was or what it had to do with praying.  A search led to this wonderful talk, "The Balm of Gilead", by Apostle Boyd K. Packer.

An addition to our daily hymns and scriptures, I've been reading a page from this book each day:

Norman Rockwell has always been one of my favorite artists, so I was delighted to find this book, along with its companions, Simple Acts of Faith and Simple Acts of Friendship.

Try keeping a prayer journal so you can see how your prayers are answered!