My interest in violin playing began at age 7, while living in Switzerland. My third-grade teacher, a German missionary named Sabine, was a professional violinist, and often played for us. I wanted to learn violin, and begged my mom for years after that to get me one and find me a teacher. When I was 12, in Brazil, my mother received a small windfall, and when praying about what to invest it in, she felt led to purchase a violin for me. We searched for a teacher, and found that our neighbor, just across the park, was a luthier, and his son was a private violin teacher! When my mother explained to them that we were a family of fulltime nonprofit missionaries, they offered to teach me music and violin free of charge, and in return I would help them with their English. That's how my journey to becoming a violinist began.
Over the years, throughout our travels, I continued studying music and trying to keep practicing. I had my last formal lesson at a conservatory in Madagascar in 2003; I had to give up violin training for a few months because I got attacked by a wild cat, and severely damaged the ligaments in the fingers of my right hand. (Believe it or not...) For some reason I never resumed lessons after my recovery.
Despite this, eventually I was able to achieve my Music Certificate with CVA (a correspondence Academy especially designed for young full-time missionaries and nonprofit volunteers); later I received my qualification to teach music.
As any violinist knows, if you stop practicing for a long period of time, you can actually lose your ability to play well, and it takes great effort to get back into shape once that happens. For me, finding the time--and a suitable place--to practice faithfully has been very difficult. Somehow, there is always something that seems more urgent or necessary to do at the time. I'm also not the greatest of self-motivators, and now I can see that I really missed a lot of opportunities to improve.
Last Christmas I played violin nearly every day with our band, Harmony Acoustic, and also with our singing group. Christmastime has always been for us a wonderful time of sharing a message of hope, love and faith with others, especially through music. The picture included was taken during Mundo Mejor's annual benefit dinner, where Harmony Acoustic played for the guests.
But since our latest move here to Mar del Plata, I doubt I've touched my instrument more than twice. First we settled in, then I had the baby, etc, etc.
Now that the baby sleeps on a more-or-less regular schedule, I've been endeavouring to get up before the children in the morning, and take advantage of that time to pursue studies, work, or write my book. My husband suggested that I use that time to work on violin/music study in our basement--it's far enough away from the living area and bedrooms so I won't disturb the others. As if in accordance with that idea, today I stumbled across a free copy of the entire Suzuki Method for Violin (parts 1-8; both the score sheets and accompanying MP3s). I'm very thankful, as I've never been able to obtain the last few parts, and it's one of the best courses available for self-instruction. Needless to say, I'm delighted, and I pray that my baby continues to sleep in the mornings, ha! Please pray that I can make lots of progress, and stick to my resolution to practice faithfully. I don't know how God will ask me to use this talent in the future, but I want to be ready for whatever he has in mind when it happens, and not be like the unwise steward in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:13-30)Love you all!
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