Cameroon Hymnal Initiative

IT’S A BOOK!

A report of Phase Six of the Cameroon Hymnal Initiative
Prepared by John Thornburg on behalf of the Editorial Team

Dear Friends:

On May 28, 2009, there was a birth in Yaounde, Cameroon, and everyone got to hold the baby. From 2:00 until 6:00 p.m. on that day, the Editorial Team of the new hymnal Mille Voix Pour Chanter Tes Louanges/ O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing had the thrill of announcing, “It’s a book!” No cigars were passed out, but there was plenty of joy to go around. After four and a half years of dreaming, we held books in our hands.

The project began in January 2005 when Rev. Wes Magruder, superintendent of the Cameroon Mission, sent me an email asking if I knew anyone who might be willing to help the mission develop its first hymnal/worship book. When I stepped forward, I joined that group of men and women across history who God has called to ministries for which they were not yet equipped! But what a joy it has been to receive the help of such a host of people in getting the support and expertise necessary for the task.

When I sent my first funding appeal to friends and family, I thought the project would take 2 years and cost $6000. That shows you what I knew about publishing ventures and overseas travel. To date, I’ve taken six trips, received almost $83,700 in financial support and spent a little over $65,000. And even though the book is done, the work has only just begun. There is more about that later in the letter.

The joy of our editorial team was made even more complete because it seemed for a time that the project might never come to completion. At the end of 2007, there was real turbulence in Cameroonian society as rising food and gas prices fueled work stoppages and some rioting. Early in 2008, the General Board of Global Ministries decided to bring the Magruders home. I really wondered if the project could continue in any form.

But God had a plan, and we have beheld the wonders of God’s activity in helping bring the project to completion. Some of the wonders of God included:

• Providing a new missionary for Cameroon, Rev. Nkemba Ndjungu, who was devoted to the completion of the project and a gracious, enthusiastic host when we arrived in Yaounde
• Providing a production partner, the Global Praise Program of the General Board of Global Ministries. The whole staff at Global Praise offered their expertise and experience in putting the book into production. I’m deeply thankful to Jorge Lockward, the head of the program, for his vision about the possibilities of the book; to Catherine Scott, the copyright administrator, who found a way through the hundreds of permissions and licenses needed; and to Debi Tyree, who will be seeing to the details of the final big printing in Yaounde.
• Providing a linguist/musician of the first order in Sida Hodoroaba Roberts. Sida was born and raised in France, educated at the Sorbonne, and has had a heart for Cameroon for most of her life. It’s hard to imagine how anyone could have been more perfect to assist with the proof-reading of the French side of the book. Sida also accompanied me to Yaounde for the annual meeting and was a truly wondrous addition to the team.
• Providing us the time and opportunity to prepare well for our presentation, and the energy and enthusiasm to present the book when the moment came.
• Providing me with a host of willing volunteers to do everything from scriptural indexing to English versification to holding my hand when I felt nervous about the project.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PRESENTATION

• The team had a wonderful time preparing for the presentation. Though we had only 48 hours to get ready, the team was focused and enthusiastic. I had polo shirts made with the logo of the hymnal on the breast pocket, and we looked great!
• We presented the first copy of the book to Bishop Benjamin Boni, the United Methodist bishop of Côte d’Ivoire. Bishop Boni presides over the mission in Cameroon. He then offered a wonderful prayer of blessing over the musical future of the church in Cameroon.
• The first hymn sung from the book was À Dieu Soit la Gloire/ To God be the Glory, the Fanny Crosby/William Doane hymn that is practically a national anthem among Christians in Cameroon. People sang in French and English together, and a portion of our bi-lingual dream was instantly realized.
• We told the story of how the book came to be; what our foundational question was (What must we sing in order to be the church God is calling us to be?); what themes we knew had to be central (the praise of God, the need for evangelization, the atoning work of Christ upon the cross); and how we made the decisions about what to include.
• We explained in detail how to use the book
• We sang 16 songs including standard Western evangelical hymns, songs from other parts of the world outside the West, and the popular praise songs of Cameroon. To honor the new missionary, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, we sang the Congolese song, Mungu ni mwema (It’s true: God is good). But the real crowd pleaser was the South African freedom song, Siyahamba.
• When the formal presentation was over, I asked if there were questions, and we spent another hour answering the very perceptive questions of the pastors and laity who attended the annual meeting. Because we printed only enough books for the annual meeting as a way of taking the book for a spin, we assured the delegates that the final book would have a very sturdy binding to hold up to the hard weather conditions in Cameroon. We also spent quite a bit of time talking about the pedagogy process that will unfold over the coming years. Most of the balance in the bank account for the hymnal project will go to the big printing.

WHAT’S NEXT?

• We do one more fine-tooth combing of the manuscript to make certain it is as error-free as possible.
• The book is printed in Yaounde and distributed at next year’s annual meeting, if not sooner.
• Each congregation is challenged to learn the 20 songs which the editorial team recorded on my October 2007 trip. Each pastor received a CD with the songs and the encouragement to spend this year learning those songs. We explained that learning all the songs in a new hymnal can take many years. The plan is to have a new pedagogy CD each year for the next several years.

THE BIG DREAM

During the question and answer session, the most frequent question had to do with musical training. The people are eager to sharpen and deepen their skills but the poverty of most communities makes further education difficult even under the best circumstances. So, building on a model developed by Global Praise and used in Uganda and Côte d’Ivoire, we hope to put together some intensive musical training opportunities.

Lots of conversation is now necessary with the people at Global Praise, with Rev. Ndjungu, and with interested volunteers in mission. But that conversation has already begun. God is not done with this project.

When there is a concrete plan, I will contact you again, hopeful that you might be as generous for this second wave of the initiative as you were for the first wave.

There is no way for me to adequately thank all of your for being part of this journey. Know that I will always be plein de reconnaissance (full of gratitude).

Sincerely,