What do you see when you look at this?

LEFT: a before picture of one of the classrooms.   RIGHT: and, an after picture!

Every morning as the Free-For-All starts, we do an artistic exercise together. On this day, we looked at several photographs and talked about perspective! You should have heard the students talk…beautiful!

We desire to use our space for special events. Here, we are partnering with the “Mommy and Me” program in Clarkston to do an interactive music time for moms and their pre-schoolers.

LEFT: Free for all lesson times provide anyone who wants to learn the opportunity to do so for free.

RIGHT: PSOTA Teacher, Fadi Alsayar sometimes has fun with the students by writing their names out in Arabic script.

LEFT: Josh Davis mentors a student in piano. We have many students with lots of natural talent!

RIGHT: A Sudanese student shows off her art work

One of our PSOTA students and teachers, Lucas Garcia, joined us on guitar for a Proskuneo event in March.

A safe place to be creative…

At one point, we had 11 students on 5 keyboards in this little room!

LEFT: Many of our students take the opportunity to try something new on Saturday mornings.

RIGHT: Our genius coffee bar (made by our teammate Marie, from an old piano) has gotten lots of use!

[this photo was taken BEFORE the service started! many more came in after this! and there must have been 200 children who left for children's church! Amazing and beautiful!!!!]

On Palm Sunday, CIBC’s pastor asked me to lead a corporate time of singing in each other’s languages, however. And, it was a JOY for me! We sang in French, English, Chin, Arabic, Ki-Swahili, and Nepali. Here was the set-list:

Alle [Proskuneo standard song; French, English]

Ishwarle [Aradhna song; Nepali, English] This is normally done only in Nepali, but I wrote a singable English translation for this song.

Baba Al Fi Sama [African song I learned from Sudanese congregation; Arabic, English, Ki-Swahili] I wrote a singable English translation for this song, after I found out that this song is sung widely throughout different parts of Africa, in a variety of African languages!

How Great Thou Art [Traditional Hymn; Chin, English, Arabic, French] I had just learned the Chin translation of this song a couple of weeks earlier from a PSOTA student. (Read more)

ka khamh tu bawi nang mah kan thang that ko

zei tluk in dah na lian ngan ko…

As is often the case, about one week later, I was asked to lead worship for a coming together of Burmese, Sudanese, French African, Filipino, American, Liberian, and Nepali congregations. (read more) So, you guessed it, I sang “How Great Thou Art” in Chin with 500+ people from many different nationalities! I have begun to expect that when God gives me the opportunity to learn a new song, he will soon give me an opportunity to share it with others.

Last month, a 3rd grade kids Sunday School class decided to lead the charge for the whole elementary Sunday School Department at Anchor Church. They decided to encourage all the kids (1st-5th grades) to work for and bring in their own money to help support our Proskuneo School of the Arts. Week after week, kids brought in everything from pennies to $20 bills…and the LORD did something amazing through them. In three weeks, they raised over $1,000!!! For many ministries, $1,000 is a drop in the bucket, but for us, $1,000 is HUGE!!! It enables us to run our School of the Arts “Free for All” Lessons for the rest of the calendar year!!!

I am reminded of how God used a young boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish to help feed over 5,000 people! And, I am grateful that our GOD has an endless supply, and an endless number of possible ways to provide for His people.

Would you consider making a donation to Proskuneo today?  We are a 501(c)3 organization, and any gift you give is tax-deductible.  You can make a secure donation online through Paypal by clicking on this donate button:

This month, we celebrate the people of Somalia!

CULTURE AND LANGUAGE

Somalis consider themselves to share a common ancestor, “Somaal” who is a mythical father figure. Somalis are the dominant ethnic group in Somalia, making up about 85% of the population. Notably, Somalia is considered one of the most ethnically and culturally homogenous countries in Africa.

The Bantus, originally from Southeastern Africa, are another ethnic group with about 600,000 people in Somalia. They have been persecuted and marginalized in Somalia.

The official language of Somalia is Somali and interestingly, there are two distinct variations of this language. The variations are similar in written form, but are not at all similar when spoken, making it almost impossible for speakers of these variations to understand one another.

Because the majority of the country is Muslim (mostly Sunnis), Arabic is the second most widely spoken language in Somalia. And because of their history, many educated Somalis speak French, Italian, English, Russian, and Swahili.

A common greetings is: asalamu alaykum (peace be with you) and, when greeters are of the same gender, to shake hands. (The Islamic tradition that women and men do not touch each other is observed.) Upon departing, the appropriate phrase is nabad gelyo (goodbye). Elders are often given respect by being addressed as aunt or uncle, even if they are strangers

Traditionally, Somalis don’t use a surname. They typically use three names…their given name, and their father’s and grandfather’s given names. These names can be used interchangeably. Also, women do not typically change their names at marriage.

Somalis are the third largest refugee population in the world (behind Palestinians and Afghans). In 2010, over 68,000 Somali refugees fled Somalia.

GESTURES

Somali use sweeping hand and arm gestures to dramatize speech. Many ideas are expressed through specific gestures:

• A swift twist of the open hand means “nothing” or “no”.
• Snapping fingers may mean “long ago” or and “so on”
• A thumb under the chin indicates “fullness”
• It is impolite to point the sole of one’s foot or shoe at another person.
• It is impolite to use the index finger to call somebody; that gesture is used for calling dogs.
• The Western”thumbs up” is considered obscene.

This month, we celebrate the Bhutanese-Nepali! The Bhutanese-Nepali are people without a country. How did that happen?

HISTORY

(late 1800′s) Nepalis were brought to work in the south of Bhutan. The numbers of ethnic Nepali in south Bhutan grew tremendously.

(1958) All Nepalis in south Bhutan granted citizenship. However, they retained their distinct culture and language (Nepali).

(1980′s) Bhutanese government instituted the One Nation One People policy. The aim was to preserve the Buddhist culture and language of Bhutan. As a result the Nepali language was banned from schools and literature and those who could not prove they had been in the country before 1958 were deemed illegal immigrants.

(1988) A census is taken and people were wrongly categorized as non-nationals. Many of these were then ejected from the country after being forced to sign “voluntary migration papers.” Their property was seized and they were told they had to get out of the country by a certain date or face death.

Over 100,000 ended up in refugee camps in Nepal, where they had not running water or electricity. They were not allowed to work. And they were not recognized as citizens of Nepal or allowed to return to Bhutan.

The US offered to settle 60,000 Bhutanese-Nepali. A few other countries offered to take up to 10,000 each.

LANGUAGE

I have begun to learn some Nepali (which was derived from Sanskrit), so I can speak with some of our new neighbors. Right now, I am learning basic phrases from a youtube video! Check it out here.

FOOD

When we visited some Bhutanese-Nepali friends for dinner, we enjoyed: dal-bhat-tarkari. Dal is a spicy lentil soup, served over bhat (boiled rice), served with tarkari (curried vegetables) together with achar (pickled radish).

RELIGION

The majority of the Bhutanese-Nepali practice Hinduism. In fact, many of my friends are named after Hindu gods.

OTHER

The capital of Nepal is Kathmandu. Mount Everest is located in Nepal. The Nepali like to say that they live at the top of the world.

WHAT?
A year-round program offering private instruction (1 hour individual and group lessons) in the arts to members of the Clarkston community.  We also offer special seminars (topical, instrument/genre demonstrations), workshops (on arts and culture), and ongoing ministry teams/programs such as: Children’s Choir, Youth Choir, Musical Theater, etc.
WHEN?
Private/Group lessons offered afternoons and evenings throughout the week, as well as Saturdays. Also, seminars, workshops, and ministry programs offered on Saturdays and weeknights. School runs January-May; September-December, with special camps, etc happening during the summertime. We open registration and begin preparing the facility in January 2012.  We will have an Open House on Feb 11, 2012 and classes will begin on Feb 18, 2012.
WHO?
Ages: 5+. Anyone is welcome to participate! We require a commitment for a semester at a time. Students may need to audition for certain instruction and/or for scholarships. Students would audition and interview for ministry teams. We could serve up to 150+ students with weekly 1 hr lessons!
WHERE?
Clarkston International Bible Church, 3rd floor of education building. [3895 Church Street Clarkston, GA 30021] It is estimated now that in Clarkston, Georgia, 3/4 of the population is foreign-born. And these immigrants are literally from all over the world. In a 1.5 mile radius, there are over 60 languages spoken!
HOW?
Private lessons would be taught by a culturally diverse group of teachers. Every student will pay something for lessons, but we will seek to subsidize lessons by fundraising.

For more info (about students, teachers, donations, etc) and to see a promo video, click here.

We are excited to announce the launch of PWI 2012! Check out our brand-new, hot-off-the-presses promo video with testimonies from last year’s students:

We are also excited to announce that PWI2012 has a new director! Becky Thurman, who has been an integral part of PWI since 2010 is going to take up the reins this year. She is an administrative creative (rare combination) with a deep passion for life change, empowering, and pouring into others. She is the person I know who is the most excited about PWI! And I am excited about how PWI will be richer and better this year as a result of her leadership. If you have any questions about PWI, email Becky at: pwi@proskuneo.info!

Last, but not least, we are pleased to announce that registration for PWI2012 is now OPEN! Ready, set, register! You don’t want to miss this…

These keys symbolize several things to me today.

These keys are a sign of prayers answered. We have been praying about moving the ministry to Clarkston since July of 2008…for 3 & 1/2 years! It finally happened yesterday.

These keys symbolize a fully-functioning, synergistic staff team. I made the connections to get the keys. Heidi met with Randy to actually get them handed off to us. Karen made the copies. And, now they are in my hand. I love teamwork! I love it when everyone does their thing, and it works out well! I am grateful for Karen and Heidi and how we have learned (and are learning) to work together for God’s glory!

These keys are a sign of God’s perfect provision. We did not go looking for a place to start a School of the Arts. We were praying about the possibility, and Pastor Phil of Clarkston Int’l Bible Church approached us. The rooms we are renting are perfect. The big rooms are great for larger seminars, workshops, and worship times. The small rooms are perfect for individual lessons and practice times. We can have as many as 7 different lessons/classes happening at once! We could serve hundreds and hundreds of students a week! Also, if you look carefully at the key ring, you can see a little Allen wrench. We had no idea we would need one of these little guys. But, the nurse who teaches down the hall from our PSOTA told us yesterday that we had to have one to lock the doors at night. It just so happened that in the group she was telling, there was a man who had this little Allen wrench on his key chain. We checked it out, and it worked perfectly! And, he gave it to us, recognizing our need in that moment. GOD provided perfectly, what we didn’t know we need, just when we needed it.

These keys are a sign of work left to do. It turns out that a couple of these keys don’t work properly. We’re going to have to have them re-made. There are kinks to work out. We have a lot to learn…and to maneuver…nd to pray through as we open the Proskuneo School of the Arts. But, for all the reasons above, and many more…I am excited!