We Are Now Members of Wycliffe

On June 1, we became approved members of Wycliffe Bible Translators. This means that we are now approved to begin partnership development and finalize our placement in Papua New Guinea. We also expect to be approved by Assemblies of God World Missions in November, which will give us ‘dual citizenship’ as Wycliffe missionaries and Assemblies of God missionaries. In October we will go to Orlando, Florida for two weeks to complete Wycliffe’s EQUIP training. At EQUIP we will learn more about Wycliffe’s history and mission and how to develop a partnership team to support the work God has called us to.

Tornado Morning
This summer we drove cross-country to the University of North Dakota to complete our initial linguistics training. The kids enjoyed seeing the country as we stopped at Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Bear World (in eastern Idaho), and the Crazy Horse Memorial. In North Dakota, we stayed in two adjacent dorm rooms with Jacob and Bella in one and Adam, Martha, and Asher in the other. The kids had a fabulous time as they were surrounded 24/7 by other kids their age. The weather was nice overall, but we did experience a couple of tornado warnings that restricted us to the basement until the danger passed. Jacob proceeded to tell everyone about the ‘tornado morning’, which just goes to show you how easily things can get lost in translation and why we needed to study linguistics in the first place.

Which Language?
Many people have asked us what language we studied while we were at the University of North Dakota. Actually, linguistics is the study of language in general. Adam took four courses including Phonetics (speech sounds from around the world), Second Language Acquisition (how to learn language like babies do), Sociolinguistics (how language is used in society), and Syntax & Morphology (sentence diagramming to the extreme). Martha’s primary focus was providing childcare for six energetic 8 to 11 year olds. She was also able to take Phonetics in her ‘spare’ time.

So, Which Language?
Aside from asking about what language we supposedly studied this summer, many people have also asked us what language we will be working with in Papua New Guinea. We actually won’t know the language group we are working with until after our arrival in Papua New Guinea. This will give us a chance to make sure that whatever group we work with is a good fit for us and for the group itself.

Thank You!
We are so thankful for the many people who have demonstrated their support for us in a variety of ways. Many of you have expressed a desire to support us financially, and we thank you for helping take the first steps toward raising our budget. Many have also kept us in prayer, and prayed specifically for God to heal Martha’s heart. Your prayers have been answered. Others opened their homes to us in North Dakota and on our trip cross-country. Everyone at Covina Assembly went above and beyond to make our time in North Dakota happen. Still others have encouraged us by letting us know that they believe in us and what we are doing. We’ve been brought to tears by your outpouring of love and support, and we thank God that He has brought us into contact with so many people that love us and care about us the way you do.