At the age of 12, Ajayi (who hadn’t yet taken the name Samuel Crowther) was captured by Fulani slave traders from his home town of Osugun in what is now Oyo State, Nigeria. He ended up in the Lagos slave market, where he was sold to Portuguese traders who put him on a ship which was then attacked by a British anti-slavery warship. Of the 189 enslaved people on board, 102 died in the attempt to rescue them, but Ajayi survived and was taken by the British navy to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Here he was placed in a mission school, where he learned English and was taught the Scriptures. Along with many others, he decided to follow Christ and, in 1825, was baptized. At that time, it was common to take a new name at baptism and Ajayi took the name Samuel Crowther.
Crowther returned to Abeokuta in what is now Nigeria in 1843 and was reunited with his mother and sisters, whom he had not seen in 24 years. He now applied himself to the Yoruba spelling system, and then started translating the Bible. In 1843, he published his first Yoruba grammar and vocabulary, and in 1852 he published a translation of four New Testament books. Crowther and his assistant, Thomas King, continued to work on the Yoruba translation of the Bible for much of the rest of his life. He also researched and promoted significant work in Nupe, Igbo and other languages. His research eventually led to his receiving a doctorate from Oxford University. The whole Yoruba Bible was published in 1884.
Crowther acknowledged what he called ‘the vernacular principle’ in missions. That is to say, there is no special, sacred language nor one cultural expression of the faith.
I had some leftover ham and a can of pineapple chunks, so I looked for a recipe that used both of them. I ended up with a multitude of results from simple to way too complicated (I don't mind cooking, but I'm not interested in anything with twenty ingredients and three pages of steps to follow.) Eventually I found a very simple recipe and almost followed it.
It was basically ham, green onions, and pineapple chunks. The sauce was pineapple juice, cider vinegar, brown sugar, mustard, and corn starch.
I didn't have any green onions, so I used the bit of red onion I had in the fridge.
I didn't have enough pineapple juice but I just adjusted the amounts on the sauce and had less of it. That worked well, actually, because the picture in the recipe had a lot of sauce and I was just as happy with less sauce.
I didn't have enough pineapple (as with the juice, it's simply that I only had one small tin of pineapple), but that was okay because I had most of a small bag of matchstick carrots that I added.
I don't have any cider vinegar; instead, I used some red wine vinegar.
That's only 4 changes (and one was just a reduction in the amount of sauce so it barely counts). I think it still counts as the same recipe!
At any rate, I made some rice to go with it and it turned out to be a very good meal. I have enough leftovers for tomorrow and three individual meal-sized containers in the freezer. It's definitely something I will make again when I have leftover ham.
A combination of None Else and Mr. Pipes has been helping me think more about who God is and to praise Him; the hymns even find their way into my prayers.
I saw the dentist because of concerns about a couple teeth. He said that there's no signs of decay and it may just be a slight shift in my teeth affecting my bite; since it doesn't really hurt, we can leave it for now. I'll get a cleaning done next week (it's been a few years because of not having insurance) and that may help things too.
One little habit I've started this month is afternoon tea or coffee time. It's a little thing, but somewhere between 3:00 and 3:30, when I'm home, I stop everything, make some tea or coffee (in the nice mugs) and a little snack (on the nice plates) and enjoy about 30 minutes of quiet time. Sometimes I use it to muse about things; often I use it to read a bit of something light and enjoyable. It's just nice and then I get back to whatever needs doing.
The snow over the past few days has been very pretty. I love the way it coats the tree branches and makes everything look clean for a while.
All of the new recipes I tried this month turned out very good. I would make them all again.
The cleaning and organizing and purging is done and things look tidier (especially the bedroom where mess tends to accumulate). It was helped by replacing the old rickety bookcases with the nice white ones that the church was getting rid of.
It's been a good month. It's been a good start to the new year.
Most of my homeschool and Sunday School stories come from the kids, but this one comes from one of the helpers! He is only 16 and many of my earlier stories were about him, so it's no surprise that he's still coming up in "things the kids say".
Anyway, I was with my older group of younger kids when this particular helper came from his room across the hall to talk with me. The conversation went something like this:
Him: I need to leave the room for a couple minutes.
Me: No you don't.
Him: I need to get some water.
Me: You're supposed to do that before we start.
Him: I know, but there's something wrong with my coffee. There's something strange in it.
Me (and the children): <guessing random things that may be in his coffee>
Him: No, there's something black in my coffee.
Me: Is it coffee?
Him: No, it's like black bits in the coffee.
Me: So coffee grounds?
Him: Oh...yeah....I didn't think of that!
Me: You were concerned because there was coffee in your coffee?
Him: I was wondering of the sugar could go bad or something.
He left and returned to his room while we laughed and then returned to our game.
