01.18.09
We Are Back!
A post from Katie’s blog:
We are back…
in several different ways…
1. We are back from the busyness of Christmas, New Years’, and the Wedding. David and I kinda disappeared during the busy, yet fun, time with friends and family over the holidays and then our wedding. We were married on January 3, 2009 and are happily enjoying married life now! We have settled back into our life together in Whittier and are loving it. We have recently had some great conversations about SIM and our journey back into support raising in order to reach Niger!
2. Which leads me to…we are back from our period of silence in support raising. If you remember, about a year ago we asked our current supporters (you) to put their financial support on hold while we explore the great relationship that the Lord had given us. David and I met at the SIM orientation in the fall of 2007 and starting dating soon after that with the intentions of being married and serving overseas as missionaries together. So, at that time we were dating and then engaged and not actively raising support. Well, we are back!
We are so excited to begin support raising again and so excited with the prospect of being in French language school in September of 2009! We will be getting in contact with you all again as we begin to support raise to serve overseas. We highly encourage you, if you are led, to begin supporting us monthly again, starting now. We’ll be getting more information to you as well.
On a personal note: David has returned to his job, as a business analyst, after a break for Christmas and the wedding. I return to work this weekend, working in pediatrics at the hospital. We are praying for direction about the timing in which to cut back on our jobs and invest more time in preparation for the field (ie. studying French, visiting people to discuss supporting us, investing time in learning more about Islam). Yea!!
We are back!
08.02.08
Back from MTI
We have returned to sunny/smoggy SoCal from MTI and I am writing from my own room where I slept in my own bed last night…mmmm. Katie and I had a great two weeks of training in the Program in Language Acquisition Techniques. (Read relatedposts here and here) Having taken the course, I feel much better equipped to tackle language learning as a missionary when we go. The course puts many diverse tools in the hands of the student and empowers them to take charge of learning their new language.
It was amazing to see so many missionaries going to so many places. My prayer is that they can learn their new languages and cultures well and the Lord would us them effectively as His servants to those people. I wish all of you could see the number and character of people headed to the mission field and also hear their stories of how the Lord had brought them to where they are at, it is so encourageing and you can’t help but praise the Lord for what He is doing in peoples’ lives and around the world. We are blessed to be able to be a part of that!
So now we are back in California. Lots to do and much busyness getting ready for the wedding as well as preparing to begin our preparations to go to the mission field together (and working, church, etc!). We are in discussions with SIM USA folks now about placements for us and I would ask you to be in prayer for Katie and I and for SIM as we pray about and look together at the amazing and exciting possibilities that are open to us.
We are hoping and praying about going to Niger, West Africa. Niger is the poorest, least developed country on earth. Over 90% of the population is unreached by the Gospel and there are many spiritual and physical needs and few workers. Katie and I looked at many different countries and prayed about where the Lord could use us best and talked about our shared ministry goals and desires and felt the Lord putting Niger on our hearts as the place where the Lord would like us to be. So thats where we will head for now unless He tells us otherwise!
Thanks for your prayers and encouragement! These are exciting times in so many ways for Katie and I and we are excited and blessed to have you all be a part of it!
07.25.08
What is language?
We had an interesting lecture today that included a discussion on: what is language? what is language learning? At first glance, this seems like an easy question but closer thought reveals it is not so simple. Let me illustrate from an expamle from the talk.
Many people, when recalling their school days might say, “When I was in school I took history, math, science and Spanish.” Spanish does not really fit in this list. Why? Well, if you took a history class, you would expect to come out of it having acquired more knowledge than when you started. Same with math and same with science. In these subjects, as indeed in most school subjects, a student might expect to finish the class more having more knowledge than at the begining.
Is this true with Spanish, or indeed any other language? Not really. You still posses the same amount of knowledge, you have merely learned a new way to express it. Language is a means of communicating, not a subject to master or a skill to acquire.
On that point, language learning also differs from learning subjects like history and math in another way. You do it naturally. People don’t naturally acquire a knowledge of history. Or math. Or biology. Or whatever. You are taught those things. We all learned our first language without any special teaching or effort. We were simply exposed to it and acquired it. As such, everyone has a natural ability to learn a language. The ability is innate in our humanness. Pretty cool God made us that way.
Anyway, that is your random thought for the night!
07.24.08
MTI Update
It is Thursday night in our first week (out of 2) at MTI. The courses are so interesting. For example, did you know that the English language uses only about 44 sounds but that there are hundreds of other sounds being used in languages around the world? Here is a brief description of some of the course highlights:
New sounds and mouth shapes – we unconsciously speak by forming different shapes with our mouth, lips and tongue. Air is routed through the mouth or nose and the vocal chords are either moving or not. It is fascinating studying common sounds and words I use every day and seeing in a mirror the shapes your mouth makes, where the tongue goes, etc. It is amazing watching other people talk and “reading lips” for the first time. Crazy!
Fricatives – besides having a very funny name, fricatives are consonants that are voiced or unvoiced in which air comes out the mouth impeded. In English we have only 8 but there are 4 others. I know how to do them now!
Sweet new lingo – alveopalatal affricate, bilabial glottalized explosive, uvular trill, velar fricative…the list could go on…
Learning language FAST!! – We are using language acquisition techniques that maximize soaking up as much of a language in context as you can and focusing on comprehension rather than saying it back. The teachers use various languages and it is amazing how much can comprehend after only a little practice! I can now understand and respond to various commands in Jeh (a Vietnamese tribal language) and can respond in dialogue or certain commands in Russian. Sweet! The point is not to learn these specific languages during the time here but to demonstrate that using certain techniques can help you better learn a new language.
Mutual encouragement – it is so great being here with other future missionaries and hear how God is working in their lives and hear about their walk with God in service to Him.
Attending the course with Katie – it has been so much fun being here together! Being able to be in class learning together, encouraging each other, talking about the classes and just having fun together! It is a super glimpse about how fun language school will be!
I reckon this post is long enough. I will share some more later.
06.24.08
Agua Limpia para Managua!
If you keep up with this blog, you will have known that I went to Nicaragua twice on short-term mission trips with my church in Virginia. I worked as a driller on both occassions, part of a team operating a small mud rotary drill and we drilled wells for two villages that did not have access to clean water.
The church has sent another team to Nicaragua drilling and doing community health evangelism. I must say I am quite jealous and when a friend texted me with some old drill slang like “rawhide the bore-hole” I felt a pang of sentimentality. Nicaragua will always hold a warm place in my heart 
Anyway, I have a number of great friends on the team and they are doing great work outside Managua, Nicaragua. If you want to keep up on the action, the team blog is HERE!
06.13.08
David Brainerd
Many of you familiar with mission or Christian circles will be familiar with David Brainerd. He was one of the first American cross-cultural missionaries, going to the Native Americans in the 1740s. His journals and memoirs were published by his also well-known friend Jonathan Edwards. His journals are amazing to read as you join with him in his efforts to spread the Gospel amongst the unreached Native Americans all whilst struggling with and eventually dying from tuberculosis.
Anyway, on a continuation from my post about missionary blogs, David Brainerd’s Blog is a great find put together by a Canadian woman who has written Brainerd’s journal entries in blog format. It is really neat to read!
Missionary Blogs
On this blog I write frequently about my experiences on short-term mission trips as well as my long-term desire to serve the Lord overseas. Not only do I enjoy sharing this passion with you but I also enjoy reading other blogs written by missionaries and missions minded people. It is so encouraging and challenging to read about how God is working all over the world and how He uses men and women devoted to Him to do His work. I am fond of a site called Missionary Blogs. It is basically a directory of blogs from missionaries from all over the world and it is excellent for browsing for the reasons above. Please check it out and see what God is up to in other places!
Also, you will notice a selection of Missionary Blogs on the sidebar. These are friends of mine who are serving the Lord overseas so go ahead and check those out too!
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” – Romans 10:14-15
11.08.07
Pile of Rocks
I will be bringing the note pictured above to Peru with me. It will be in my carry-on so I will be sure not to lose it. But David, why are you going to bring an ordinary hand-written note with you to Peru? That seems silly? Let me explain:
I am appying for a resident visa to live and work in Peru. To do this, I needed to mail to Lima a copy of my passport that had been authenicated by the Peruvian Embassy here. Well, I was thinking I could just bring my passport to the embassy and they could make a copy, stamp it and away we go. That was not the procedure though and I had it copied and notarized, authenticated bythe Fairfax County Clerk of Courts and then the embassy would authenticate that it was a true copy. Because of needing to do all of the afore mentioned during normal business hours, it took me about two weeks to get it all done.
Next step was mailing it to Lima, Peru to the SIM ofice there. As these are important documents, I wanted to entrust them to a trusted international courier so they would get there safe and sound. So I took them off to the news agent shop near my work who is an authorized FedEx, DHL, UPS shipper. I told him I wanted to send them FedEx and we packaged them up, addressed them, he gave me his phone number so I could call and get updates and that was that.
Off to Charlotte I went for the SIM orentation, blissfully assuming my documents were speeding their way to Peru. A couple days later I phoned the shop to check on the progress. “No it has not arrived. Maybe call back tomorrow.” The next day, he called me and said the address I gave him was wrong and they needed the phone number or email of the recipient so they could deliver it. Strange, I thought. The address had been correct. Oh well, no biggie. I emailed Peru and got their phone numbers, emails etc and the next day called the shop and gave him the info. A couple days go by, email SIM Peru…no, no one has called them or emailed them about the package!
I called the shop back. He said that the FedEx office had tried emailing and calling but got no response. He also said that if nobody claimed it in the next 48 hours it would be abandoned and destroyed!!! WHAT?! I informed him that the recipient had neer been contacted and asked him to give me the tracking number which I would pass to Peru so they could use that to claim it. So he gives me the tracking number which I then email to Peru…
I am in class all day and get back in the evening to check my email and find a note from Peru that they called and told FedEx the tracking number but that FedEx claimed it was an erroneous number and that, in any event, they didn’t have any documents to deliver to SIM!! WHAT?!
So I am very concerned. I try calling the shop that night but they are closed of course. The next morning I try again and they are not open yet. I called FedEx directly and explained to them the situation and they asked for the tracking number. I tell them. “Oh no, thats not our tracking number, that is a UPS tracking number”. JIGGA WHAT?! So I call UPS, yes it is their number, yes it was for a package going to Peru, but no contact information had been provided to them so package had been abandoned! WHAT?!
At this stage, it is like 8am. I am very angry. The agent guy at the shop had totally botched everything. Why he took it out of the FedEx envelop, put it in a UPS one, messed up the address, then lied to me about it and not given the contact info I gave him…I don’t know. Let me insert here my many thanks to Katie who was on the scene like a champ. Katie, if you are reading this, you are a blessing thank you! She let me vent about the situation and prayed right then for me and that the papers would be found.
I emailed Peru, explaining to them everything I had found out and telling them I would speak to folks at SIM to figure out what to do next. I went to the morning prayer meeting vexed but after some worship, I turned the situation over to God and since there was nothing that could be done, I prayed silently and just decided to take a good attitude and put it behind me. Continuing to be mad was not going to accomplish anything.
Later that morning, Bob comes in and slips the above note in front of me during the class!! WHAT?! They received the package??? PRAISE GOD!!! I found out later that the Peru office had prayed together that morning about the situation and had called UPS on the off chance that it was still there and it was!! Just thinking of it even now makes me so thankful!
So, back to the original question: why am I keeping this note? In the Old Testament, the Israelites would often build piles or rocks or do other things to commemorate events in which God had demonstrated His faithfulness and His grace. This note is my pile of rocks!! It reminds me that God is sovereign. That God is good. That God is faithful and I can trust Him. I know that hard times and difficult situations will come up while I am in Peru. It will be nice to look at my simple, hand-written note, remember a time when God demonstrated His great faithfulness and be encouraged that He will do it again.
11.03.07
Stellar food, Rad ride, Gnarly beating
Tonight a bunch of us went on an excursion to downtown Charlotte. Well, back that up. So after a full week on the SIM campus going to class and whatnot some of us wanted to get off-campus for the night to relax and have fun. So we borrowed/rented a sweet ride from SIM: a nice, white Ford Escort henceforth know as “Florence” or “Florence the Yeti” as it was a white beast!
The plan was to go get some Thai food and go bowling. Thai food eaten, check. On to the bowling alley which was, as bowling alleys all around the country are on a Saturday night, full of league players. The highlight of that failed attempt was, however, the discovery of a vending machine that sold socks and band-aides!! How awesome is that?! Who would have thought you could get socks from a machine!
So we decided to roll into downtown Charlotte and find a coffee shop to hang out in. We got down and had a long walk all over downtown Charlotte, to no avail, no coffee shops aside from the Bux! There was a cool band on a corner singing some Christian songs so we listened to that and generally just hung out. We did eventually go to Starbucks. So I am sitting there and there is this guy with a chess board set up on a table and he is just sitting there. So I asked him “Excuse me, are you waiting to playing someone?” to which he replies “Do you play?” “I know how” were my fatal last words! Joe demolished me in like 10 minutes! It was pretty funny! He was a serious player I think. I tried stiking up a conversation but I think he suspected me of trying to distract him and divert his attentions from the game!
In all it was a very fun and relaxing night! If any SIMCO buddies are reading this, I enjoy you guys so much! It is fun to see how close we have gotten already! We were all beat tired after we got back but hung out chatting and telling stories. Katie and Ryan have been impressing me with their SoCal slang so I think I am going to try and implement “rad”, “gnarly” and “stellar” into my NOVA slang! OK, well we are going to a service at an Arab-Christian church tomorrow and then going hiking in the afternoon so that will be cool!
11.02.07
Charlotte so far…
Well, I finally have a break of a decent enough length of time during which nobody is using the one computer to write up some of what has been going on! I am currently in Charlotte, NC for my orientation to SIM as a missionary. It has been really great so far. I will give you a general synopisis and then tell you some highlights as there is so much to recount. Overall, I have been so encouraged to be here.
It is so refreshing and exciting to be around a whole bunch of people with the same passion for missions as myself! Hear other peoples excitement about where they will be going, what they will be doing, how the Lord is working in their lives…it has just been incredible. Our God is so big and it is amazing to hear all the amazing things he is doing in people’s lives and around the world! Every day is jam packed starting with prayer at 8:30 and then going on to a host of classes all day until dinner. The classes range in topic covering everything from practical matters like, paperwork, insurance, and financials to the Biblical basis for missions to cross-cultural issues to field security issues to other things…so much to soak in! There have been several highlights:
-Fellowship: The fellowship with the other candidates here has been wonderful. As I mentioned above, it has been so encouraging to build friendships and just be with other missions minded Christians! Worshipping together is a joy and we have had many fun times as a group. Last night we had a big game night that everyone came to. It ended in a huge round of Big Booty!! Thanks Cooper for that gem 
-Testimonies: Everyday, a few different people share their testimonies in the mornings at prayer. It is encouraging to hear not only how people came to the Lord but also how he is working in their lives now, what drew them to missions, etc. I think that in everyday life, we do not share enough about how God is working in our lives. We forget how encouraging this can be for other Christians to hear so I think we as the church need to do better about praising the Lord corporately for what he is doing.
-Classes: Very interesting, thought provoking and laying the groundwork for encountering the various struggles and issues that can come up on the field.
-Food: Delicious!! I am used to eating out or eating food that can quickly be microwaved or mixed with boiling water…real food is a treat!
-The Lord speaking to me: So often in Virginia, it is so busy and there are so many activities going on that I do not take adequate time to spend with the Lord and I do not take the time to listen to how he is speaking to me. I have had lots of great time with God this week so far and have heard him speaking in some distinct ways about my life. I have begun praying about after my two year service in Cotahuasi is done, going permanently to the missions field. This is two years away and will require more prayer from myself (and you guys!) but honestly, I feel the Lord leading me that way and it is hard to picture myself doing anything but serving the Lord overseas. I am not sure where that would be or what it would look like at this point but it is something to pray about and I welcome your prayers and input!
Hmmm…not sure what else to say. I will leave you with something to ponder. A young woman shared as part of her testimony the other day, a saying that a missionary had said to her which I found very striking. So often in our American Christian culture, we are happy and content with our lives here and we tell the Lord “I am willing to go Lord, but I am planning to stay here.” We say that if the Lord directly tells us to go serve him overseas then we will do it but until then we will follow out own lives. I have trouble justifying this Biblically. Jesus has already commanded us to go into ALL the world preaching his name! Wouldn’t it be better to say “Lord, I am planning to go, but willing to stay”? Think about it….
