A Quick Look Back While Moving Forward: Part One

In the middle of the busyness of life, time just sneaks on by! I can't believe that it has been over three months since I posted an update. It has been an incredibly busy, intense, and exciting time. So, here is a overview of what God's been doing.

PART ONE: A QUICK LOOK BACK

August

Curriculum Development

In August, I returned from my four week break in Ohio, and started my final semester here at the training center. My classmates and I dove into a class on curriculum development. Imagine a 6 year old in rural USA, a 30 year old woman in cultured Europe, and a 60 year old man in the jungles of Papua New Guinea? How do you take the truth of the Bible and present it to these different people, in different cultures, with different worldviews? The truth is the same, but the understanding and worldview of each of these individuals is very different, and it is essential for the teacher to know and understand that in order to teach in a way so that the hearer can understand.

One day when we are teaching to people who have never heard the gospel, our goal will be to emphasize foundational Bible truths (such as God's holiness, God's judgement on sin, Man's position as sinner, the One and only way to God through Jesus Christ) in each Biblical account, laying the foundation for understanding and accepting the gospel. 

Engagement

Something that was pretty life-changing happened on August 25. Josh Miller asked me to be his wife, and of course, I said YES!! (I won't clutter this update with mushy pictures or stories, but for those who are curious, here is the link for the pictures with the story of our engagement...let's just say he outdid himself!!)

I'm so incredibly blessed by his love for God, his heart for the unreached, his passion for discipleship, his love for the Word of God, and his kind, caring, love for me! What an incredible blessing to get to prepare to serve together on a team to take the gospel and the Word of God to those who have never heard it before! Thank you for praying for us as we follow God's leading in our relationship and future mission plans.

September

Learning Culture and Language

How do you learn a language that has never been written down before? Well, that is what our CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) Practicum is all about! That's a long name but basically it means this - we get to practice how to best learn a language and a culture that we can't study up on ahead of time. There are no language primers or cultural guides for the people group we'll be living with. So this practicum is our "practice run" on how learn without those helps. We are using many of the things we've been learning during the past year in our culture and linguistic classes.

Josh and I are teamed up with a dear couple who have served for many years in South America and Southeast Asia. We are studying the Tok Pisin language from Papua New Guinea, which is pretty neat since Josh and I are interested in Lord-willing serving in PNG. Mike and Beth set up culture events for us to learn the culture by experiencing it, and then worked with us to begin learning words and phrases using a particular method that we will need to use someday when we have to learn a language that has never been written down.

Josh is purchasing produce at the "PNG market" that Mike and Beth set up for us to help us learn

I'm using this tool to scrape coconut meat to make gris rice, a very common food in PNG. 

October/November

Bible Translation
In addition to continuing to work on our practicum, we took a class on bible translation. Since our goal is to bring the gospel and the written Word of God to people in their native language, we are going to have to be able to not only learn an unwritten language and develop an alphabet for it, but also to translate the Bible into that language. 

Community Outreach

This month, I got to reconnect with "my" dear Syrian family. Since they have moved, I'm no longer living close to them or able to visit and volunteer as an English helper for them. However, it was a blessing to get to see them. Thank you for your continued prayers for this dear family and for my testimony and outreach to them!

Coming soon...

PART TWO: LOOKING AHEAD

I don't know how many of you remember this post, where I explained how much I like having a plan and then laid out the plan that I believed God had before me as I head toward the mission field. Well, there have been some changes to that plan over the past 16 months. Some are very exciting to experience, and others are quite difficult to accept. Next week, in part two of this post, I'll explain some of the changes, and hopefully give you a picture what I anticipate the next year might hold.

Throughout all of the changes, one thing remains constant: Our God! 

Lamentations 3:22-23 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.