It's been a while so we thought we would give you the crash course of what's new...and remind you of what we look like. :)
In the beginning of Oct. we took the boys and went for a nice drive up north. We drove to the top of a mountain and just took in all of the beauty of God's creation.
Then on the 16th we celebrated Garrett's 15th birthday!
The guys in our class had planned all week that they would kidnap Garrett and take him out for his birthday. The plan was that Friday night we send Garrett out with the garbage to the Garbage shed. They would be hiding in the shadows and grab him and go. Well, they came out yelling and he just stood there. So here's how it went down.The plan...
The jump...
The carry away...
The throwing in the vehicle...
The beating in the van...
Ah...the 1/2 price appetizers at Crabby Joe's was worth the hassel! Garrett loved it, thanks guys!
At the end of the month some of our class went for a hike to a nearby falls. It was a nice break from our studies and some heartaches that our family has gone through.
At the end of Oct. we had received an email from home that Bill's mom and step-fathers home had burned so we had decided to finish up our week of "structures of communication" and then go back and be with the family. Upon arrival we were hit by the news that Bill's uncle had passed away. His uncle and step-father are brothers. It was a long weekend helping settle his parents in a home that they are renting {we thank the Lord that the house right next door to their home was for sale and the lady is letting them rent} and then there was calling hours and a celebration of life for his Uncle "Hugs". We were so glad to be there and with the family. It gives us peace to know that as hard as it was to leave we left them in the arms of our Lord, who we know will sustain them and give them the same peace. They are all believers and are resting in Him. We want to thank all of you for your prayers and notes of encouragement that we have received.
Ok...let's switch gears. This is Kaden!
He is so precious! His parents are involved in youth group at their church, so we are often blessed with Kaden's presence on those nights. He has a great character and enjoys being the center of our attention.
Back to training....tomorrow {Oct. 10th} we begin a part of our training that we have been looking forward to. It's call Language Practicum. The objective over the next few weeks is not about being able to speak a new language but to use the training that we've had to acquire this new language. Speaking should come naturally but it's not our focus. We have been paired up with a Language Helper {someone who knows another language and will help us learn it.} We will meet with Cynthia and she will teach us Spanish. You will hear more about Cynthia and our journey of acquiring this new language. We start right out with a field trip to Toronto tomorrow for our first culture event. Throughout the next five weeks we will meet with Cynthia and apply what we have learned this year. We had Sounds and Symbols = writing this new language using the International Phonetic Alphabet & Structures of Communication = determining the sentence structure of this language. All of this is good training for those who go into a tribe that doesn't have a written language.
Please be in prayer for all of us as a class as there is a lot of time involved in this part of our training. Juggling our learning, practicing, planning, kids, plus daily life will be difficult and we will need to prioritize and schedule our our days wisely.
