Diane Osborne, Violinist

Testimony of Salvation

When I was a very little girl, I went into the kitchen one evening to find my mother pouring wine into crystal goblets, preparing for company.  It looked so delicious.  I guess I thought it was grape juice and asked my mother if I could have some. Mother looked down into my little face and said, “No, dear, not now.  Maybe you can have some when you are older.”

Some years later, my mother told me that when she said I could have some wine when I was older, a dart had gone through her heart.  She realized at that moment the responsibility she had to her children and knew she never wanted me to grow up and live the kind of life she and my daddy had begun to live.  This is what brought her to God.

One day I was sitting in a church service with my mother.  At the close of the service, the minister invited all those who felt Jesus speaking to their hearts to come to the front.  They had an old-fashioned altar bench up there across the front of the church.  It was a large church and a long, long aisle, but I felt Jesus speaking to my heart in a special way.  I knew I wanted Jesus in my heart, so I walked down that long aisle and knelt down at that altar and invited Jesus to come into my heart.  He DID come in and made a wonderful change.  It made a deep impact on my life.  I was young and didn’t have a lot of sin in my life yet, but I still needed a Savior and still needed to be born again.  I’ll never forget what Jesus did for me that day.

When I was nine years old, I would sit in church and watch the orchestra playing.  Our church had a large symphony-sized orchestra with many string players.  When I saw all those violinists with their bows all going the same direction, I knew the violin was the instrument I wanted to learn to play.  I asked my mother if I could take violin lessons.

Well, I’m sure my mother thought that would be wonderful, but we didn’t have a violin and didn’t have the money to buy one.  We also didn’t have money to pay for lessons.   My mother told me to pray about it. I began to pray that God would give me a violin.  Children don’t think of all the impossibilities when they pray - they just believe.  I prayed and believed God.

A short time after that, my uncle came to speak to my mother because he had heard that I wanted a violin.  He said, “I have an old violin in my attic.  It has been there for a long time.  Let’s just take it out of the attic and let Diane start lessons on it.”

That old violin had belonged to my great-grandfather and had been given to my uncle down in the state of Texas many years before.  My uncle had carried it with him when they moved to Oregon. He had put it up in his attic and there it stayed all those years.  He had hoped one of his children would someday take an interest in it.  We did not know that he even had the violin!

So I had a violin on which to start lessons.  The conductor of this church orchestra was a concert violinist in the city and taught violin lessons, as well.  His name was Jascha Galprin.  He charged $10 a lesson.  Now this was in the 1950's and that was a fortune then!  My parents could never have afforded to pay that kind of money.  God laid it on the heart of this teacher to charge me $2 a lesson.  Mother was able to take that amount each week out of her grocery budget.  God had worked a miracle and given me a violin and a wonderful teacher.

When my mother saw how God had answered prayer in such a miraculous way, she decided He had given her the job to see that I practiced, as well.  Let me tell you, she took her job VERY seriously!

When my uncle saw that I was practicing hard and improving, he came back to my mother and said,“Let’s just let Diane keep that violin since she is working so hard on it.”  I still play on that violin.  As near as we can tell, it has to be at least 150 years old.

There is a verse in the Bible that says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you...” (Jeremiah 1:5) It always encourages me to know that God knew there would be a little nine-year-old girl in the state of Oregon who would pray for a violin.  He had this violin in the right place, at the right time, so that when I prayed He could answer that prayer.  He had it all planned before I even prayed.  What faith that gives me even today!

That violin is dedicated to the glory of God, and I have dedicated my life to God, as well.  I pray that God will use the beautiful music He has given me the ability to play to draw people to the Lord and cause them to know Jesus as their Savior.

God’s Call

When I was 17 years old, I was thinking ahead to what God would want me to do with my musical talent.  I had heard of a violin teacher in the city of Portland, Oregon.  In order to take lessons from him, I had to drive about 1 ½ hours and have an audition with him.  He took only a limited number of students - and only after hearing them play.  My mother took me down to the city. We lived in the little town of Chehalis, Washington, then. I really wanted to take music lessons from this teacher.  I felt he would help me develop the talent that God had given me.  This teacher was the greatest teacher in that part of the country.  When I met him, I was very nervous.  He didn’t look very friendly.  In fact, he didn’t even look as though he knew how to smile.  He told me what to play and I did my best.  When I finished with the audition, I looked at him, hoping to see that he was pleased.

His expression showed no emotion.  In fact, I thought I hadn’t impressed him in the least.  He began to speak to me.  I couldn’t believe my ears.  He told me he was so impressed that he wanted me to move to Portland and study with him for 1 year.  During that time, I would be living in his home and practicing many hours a day.  I would be doing a little bookkeeping for him to pay for my board and room.  At the end of the year, he told me he would send me to Brussels, Belgium, to begin my professional career as a concert violinist - all expenses paid by him.  I could scarcely believe such a gift could be given to me.  I was so excited I must have talked continuously as we drove home that afternoon.

We were nearly back home when I heard Jesus speak to me.  It was rather miraculous.  He spoke so clearly to me; it was as though He sat in the seat between my mother and me.  I heard Him speak my name, “Diane, this is not my plan for your life.” 

I knew it was God.  No one says your name like Jesus.  I knew Jesus had truly spoken to me.  In my heart I had the assurance that if it wasn’t God’s plan for me to accept this wonderful offer, He must have something a whole lot better for my life.  I told Him I would obey.  I didn’t go to Belgium.  I did continue my violin studies, but I gave it completely to Jesus.  I have never been sorry for the moment that I said “Yes” to God. I have discovered that God has a more wonderful plan when we dedicate our lives to Him than any of our own plans that may seem so wonderful.  God took my talent and my life and from that time on, I played wherever God opened doors. 

God blessed us with 5 wonderful children. When our older children were grown, our youngest daughter Anna traveled with Bob and me for 10 years full time as missionaries in music and testimony all over the United States, including Alaska.  God called us to be missionaries in the United States. 

When God called my wonderful husband and best friend home in late 2004, I felt God wanted me to continue to do missionary work and continue to play my violin. That is when God called me to travel to Ukraine and share what God has done for me.

We serve a great God!  I love Him with all of my heart.