I wanted to share a quick update about language learning. When you live in a foreign culture and desire to interact with people in their heart language like we do, language learning is a life-long endeavor. However, the first months of our being here has been dedicated to focused language learning. In two weeks Liz will finally be finished with her time of focused language learning. For the last eight months she has been faithfully going to language class every morning, four hours a day Monday through Friday. It may not sound like much, but believe me there is nothing more mentally taxing than struggling to express yourself in a new language for four straight hours a day. She has progressed very well and I am quite proud of her. She started from zero and now has full-on conversations all of the time. We are looking forward to the time it will give us for ministry.
I have been done with language classes for a while. Since I majored in German I only needed a refresher course to get me back in the groove. However, I have found that since I have been out of language class it’s sometimes hard getting practice. The majority of our ministry at the moment is among refugees, who may or may not speak German. Because of this I’ve been trying to find a language partner, someone I can practice my German with in order to keep it sharp. Just this last week the Lord provided me with a guy from our church who has the time to meet with me twice a week. This has been a great motivator to continue to improve my German skills. Please be praying that we can find a similar situation for Liz as she finishes. Pray also that our ministry would grow and branch out more into the German-speaking community here as we wish to be light and salt not only to the internationals, but also to the nationals as well.
