“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4 (NASB)
Stepping into language school was an adventure that not many people had talked about. We had heard small talk from a few but when it was time to make the move, the stories came. We prepared as best we could. We purchased the materials, stocked up on Omega-3, and set out bathed in prayer. Yet, we arrived really not knowing what to expect. Little did I know that in just a few months we would be speaking Spanish! It all came at us so fast! I hope that this ministry update is just a small picture of our daily lives here on the Rio Grande Bible Institute campus!
Our days start between 5 and 5:30am. It really depends on how much sleep we got and who is currently sick. Most of you know that since our arrival we have had something in the home just about every week. It is not changing going into the final week as LuVerna has broken her clavical. This has been quite the adventure and on occasion means that we will hit the snooze a couple times in the morning. However, we know that getting up early means we get more quiet time in the morning before the kids awake.
We leave the apartment at about 8am (give or take an extra hug on the way out). Yesenia (Tia) has been such a blessing to us in keeping the kids everyday while we are in classes. We love having her and the boys come in the morning!
We spend 4 hours a day in classes, but its more than learning a language! Yes, we have Phonetics and Grammer, Phonetics lab and Special Grammer, but its more than that. Our classes are focused on teaching us about a culture. They have taught us about our own culture and differences that make the Latino community unique. We have a Conversations course that teaches us to use what we learn in general communication.
We have Missionary Spiritual Life where we hear from faithful servants that encourage us along the way. We have Latin American Orientation with guest speakers to share of their experiences in serving the Lord.
Four hours a day goes really quick when you think of all that is being packed into our days, but that just gets us to lunch time! You read that right, there is more!!!
Learning in a classroom setting is great, but the focus is not so much passing the classes as it is real life use of the language. The director of the InterCultural Studies program that we are part of has reminded us time and time again, communicating is far more important that getting an “A” in a class. Finding a good balance for this can be difficult. We want to get good grades and do well academically, but we have also seen the benefit of just sitting around the table practicing.
One of our classes requires that we spend four hours a week outside of class communicating in Spanish. That is easy when we have free coffee and often food to offer to students. We also attend a Spanish church (Grace Baptist Mission). Although our involvement has been minimal there, we are working to get more engaged. Please pray as we take steps to put our training to more use this summer.
Many have asked if the kids are learning Spanish too. The answer to that is yes, just not the same way Kathleen and I are. They learn Spanish from Tia, from bits and pieces of conversations in the home, and from being around friends at the park. While they are not in classes everyday you would be amazed at what their minds pick up, and how rapidly it has come.
We plan to work with them on some basics this summer, but already some are reading in Spanish and speaking with good accents!
We try the best we can to wrap up classes with enough energy left over to embrace the afternoons with the kids. Sometimes that requires a powernap but God has been very gracious to us along the way. When we don’t have evening plans we enjoy dinner and a movie (in Spanish). We enjoy our nights together in the home just relaxing.
As the first semester draws to a close we have just a few more things left on the books to accomplish. We have our final presentation coming up soon. For this we are required to give a five-minute devotional. We have five minutes to give an introduction and two or three key points from our passage of Scripture. We have them written out and turned in for corrections then we will have some time to practice them before doing our final presentation. Please pray as we prepare and present. We also have one final exam to do. This will be a lengthy one but it will be good to help us review all that we have learned from the semester into one exam. Please pray that our minds retain the information and that we relax and do well.
Summer is on the way and we are working to keep as busy as we possibly can. We were given the warning to not let our Spanish get lazy. Please pray we can connect with more students who will be around this summer to help push us!
Thank you for your faithful prayers and encouragement along the way. Now, how can we pray for you?
Jaha Paraguay Pe,
The Loucks Family
Loucks 2 Paraguay 