Good Morning from our distant time zone. This last week (or two) has been quite a bit busier. Last week, we started the Warm-up stage of language learning. This week, we actually started Stage 1, and that means that 4 days of the week, we have a Language Helper Session. These Sessions are two hours each, and right now, we spend them getting nouns and verbs and practical expressions. After the session, we put all that information into a program on our computer, and are able to review it later. I am expected to put in 40 hours per week on this and cultural exposure (which means going out and observing how things happen around here). Alisha is supposed to do 20-30 hours. So that’s what we’ve done this week. And that is, more or less, what we’ll be doing for the next year. It’ll get more exciting when we can understand the language a bit more.
The kids have been doing a very good job of asking me every day, how many days there are til Christmas. Even without snow, they are still full of Christmas spirit. Christmas is not as widely celebrated here, since it is a very Christian holiday. It is commercialized some in the bigger cities, but not as much here in the area we live in. The believers here do celebrate it, and part of what you do here at Christmas, is go visit people. Either that, or stay home, and be visited. If your gate and door are closed, they know you don’t want visitors; but if they’re open, we’ve been told, you will get visitors, especially on Christmas day. We try to leave ours open most of the time.
Praise:
-We’re learning the language, one word at a time
-For friendly neighbors
Prayer:
-Comprehension of the language as we have our daily sessions
-For the kids to continue to adjust- and they start school in a couple weeks or so
Thanks!
The McIlroys
We went to a park last Sunday with our church for a Christmas service. The first picture is some of the people in our church. The second is the passage the pastor preached on (1 John, I think…). And the third, the kids went swimming at a pool that was at the park.