Semester 2 Concludes

It is hard to believe looking back that we have now completed a whole year of training. It has been an amazing year for us and we would not trade it for anything. We are now settling into Portland for the summer and enjoying friends and family. We are eagerly awaiting the birth of our second child and hoping that he does not decide to wait too long for his arrival.

The end of our semester was all focused on what the process of learning a language and culture looks like. We were very encouraged at the method that is used by New Tribes to learn language, because it seems to make a lot of sense. The process is focused on communication, relationships, and cultural events. It also starts with comprehension and then progresses to speaking. We got to practice the techniques we were learning with a native Polish speaker. I only got to be there for one day of this since we left early to get back to Portland. But in about an hour session we learned how to comprehend 15 different Polish words, which I think is pretty impressive.

Coming back to Portland went very smoothly for the most part, although Ethan is struggling a little with the transition (after all when you live on a campus with tractors, a lake, bugs and lots of rocks, the city is just not very exciting). We are excited to have the summer to connect with family and friends. We also know that the time will go by really fast and be very busy. We are trying to be very purposeful and make the most of all the time we have. We head back to Missouri in August for our last year of training. Thank you to all who have been so faithful to pray for us. We will keep our blog updated as baby number two arrives.