First Week at MTC

It's been so good to be back at MTC. I had no idea how much I missed this place. I have a schedule again, which has been so incredibly good. That's one thing I learned over this summer: I work best with a steady, predictable schedule. It's ok if there's a bit of variance within it, but at least I know what to expect next. So that's definitely been a blessing to have back.

An example of the assignments we had for phonemics

Our first week of classes was busy because we had a bunch of re-orientation stuff to do during the afternoons. But the classes have been good so far. We had a 12 hour class called Phonemics for our first few days. It's basically how to understand a language from an insider's perspective instead of an outsider's. It helps you figure out the very depths of a language so that you can analyze it, develop an alphabet and grammatical structure, and teach the people how to read and write their own language. A lot of work for sure!

This past weekened, a bunch of the students from MTC went on a canoe trip down a 9 mile river. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I don't have any pics, but it was so relaxing to get away from campus and just enjoy God's creation.

Today, we finish up a class called "Literacy". We've had that class for the past 3 class days, and it's been a ton of fun! We're learning how to develop primers so that we can teach people how to read and write their own language. We each got to make our own 12-page primer with English words (written phonetically, so you wouldn't know what they said), and it was a ton of fun!!!

All in all, it's been good to be back, but there are still a lot of things that I could use prayer for. I feel like Satan is trying to really discourage and attack me right now in a lot of little ways, including the fact that I picked up a cold somewhere recently. So if you could pray for strength and protection, that would be awesome.

A Tribute to a Cousin

Sometimes cousins are really distant. Sometimes, they are like siblings. This cousin has been both.

He grew up in Papua New Guinea, so I didn't really get to know him very well as we were growing up. So when he came back to the States four years ago and started living with my family, I had a hard time adjusting. I hardly knew this guy, and I'd never had a brother before. But God worked, and we became fast friends. I'll never forget the many hours we spent together laughing, talking, playing games, and doing stuff together. It was a really neat time for me of growing and challenge.

If it wasn't for this cousin, I wouldn't be here at MTC right now. It was his example that challenged me to apply to the MTC last year. And I am SO thankful that he did!!! It's been one of the most incredible experiences of my life thus far!

This cousin is a man after God's heart. He is diligent, hardworking, thoughtful, patient, considerate, and a great friend. He has a heart for people and wants to serve them.

I'm so excited that he's engaged and getting married. While it's sometimes hard to feel like I'm losing a brother, I'm so incredibly grateful to see what God is doing in his life and how He's bringing this marriage together. It's so cool to see!

We've had our ups and downs. Our struggles and quarrels. But that's all a part of being almost-siblings. It sometimes hurts. But it's also full of fun and joy.

Happy Birthday, Josiah (sorry, this is actually a day late)! I'm so glad I know you, and I hope that our friendship continues until we're old and grey, and our teeth are falling out. :) I love you!

I'm Getting Married! :)

Clint asked me to marry him last Saturday out in Oregon. I said "yes"! I'm so incredibly excited! We're thinking of a March wedding, but not entirely sure yet.

I'm so, so grateful for Clint. He is an amazing man who loves God and desires to serve Him with all his heart. We complement each other so well. And he's incredibly good with his hands, so he can fix all the things I blow up overseas. :)

At this point, I have one more semester here at MTC before I graduate, and then we plan on getting married. After that, we'll be raising support to head overseas, and we'd like to be in Papua New Guinea sometime in the next 2 years or so. We're both really excited and trusting God to lead us in His timing for heading to the mission field!

I've attached a few pictures from our time together in Oregon.

Free to Struggle

I heard one of the most incredible songs the other day. I'm sure many of you have heard it, but the words just stuck in my brain. 

I think often about the struggle that we have as believers. We're still sinful human beings, but we are now in Christ, seated in the heavenly places. We're sons and daughters of God. Yet we turn so often to the meaningless, worthless things of this world. We so often settle when God wants us to thrive. We hang on to the chains of sin when they have already been broken off of us. 

Why? 

We have been given so much grace and freedom. Yet we abuse it so often. We often don't fight when we should. We don't stand up when we need to. We don't refuse temptation when it's offered.

So anyways, this song really put it all in perspective for me, and it reminds me that we are free to struggle, but we're no longer struggling to be free. So, so amazing. 

It's hard to believe today is August 1. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the new year, and now it's almost over. This summer has been one of the coolest I've ever experienced during my 20 years of living in Georgia, and it's quite a blessing for a change. But it also makes it difficult to do anything fun outdoors because with the cool weather has come an enormous wave of rain storms. It's rained almost every afternoon that I've been here. It's not unusual for north Georgia to get a lot of rain, especially in the summer. Apparently, we live in the second rainiest place in the continental US after the northwest coast. Go figure.

Last night, we had the biggest thunderstorm I've seen in 10 years here. It rained HARD! Tiny creeks were roaring rivers this morning, and a lot of flash flooding occurred in our area. I guess the storm was big enough that the news channels were even sending camera crews to our town to capture footage. We were out of power for almost the entire day here, and several roads were even washed out due to streams and rivers overflowing their banks. Thankfully, not a lot was damaged that I know of, and everyone is still able to get where they need to go. But still, quite an experience for my last week here!

August not only means a lot of heat (usually...), but it also means the start of school. Classes at MTC start August 19, and I'm really excited to get back into life there! Going to PNG this summer has made me even more excited to finish training and get on the field so I can start the process of heading overseas full time!

August also means that I'll be heading out to Oregon very soon to visit Clint and his family. I'm really excited about getting to see him again! We've been apart all summer, which has been really difficult, but we're discovering how incredibly grateful we are to the inventors of Skype and cell phone service! It will be so good to be back together and get to meet his family as well.

So, all that to say, I'm enjoying my last few days here in Georgia, rainy though they may be. I'd definitely appreciate prayers as I prepare to head out to Oregon, and from there back to Missouri for my final semester of training.