I just realized it's been almost a month since we updated the blog, so here's an excerpt from a letter I sent to a friend last weekend...
We're doing well here. We have completed the first 2 weeks of Unit 1 in language study. I have really been enjoying classes. I missed 2 days the first week due to some parasite (we think), so it was good to be able to attend them all this week. I've been cataloging the vocab we've learned and we're at over 500 words in 2 weeks. Josh and I have been quizzing each other, but there are a lot of words that aren't in our "instant recall" yet (nor are they expected to be)! We do a lot of text role-play and drills in class.
In our unit we have 3 Koreans, an Aussie and 3 Americans (including us). They split the Asians and the Westerners up as we have different challenges in learning the language. Our class has a lot of fun together, but we're very diverse. Josh is the only male student, then there's a 29 year old single lady from AZ, a mom of older teens (the Aussie) and me.
So that's the current situation. We have 2 more weeks in this unit and then we have evaluations. I'm looking forward to seeing how the pilates (instructors) think I'm doing. Thanks for your prayers for us during this time. It would be easy to be overwhelmed but so far we're not, and we're so thankful.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Monday, September 04, 2006
TPR - Total Physical Response
We went to the pasar (market) Thursday and had some TPR - Total Physical Response time on Friday - basically we point at a picture we took during the cultural excursion and ask the helper "Apa ini" or what's that? Then they say what it is. We ask a number of times and just listen to the national person say what it is. Then they say in the trade language - "Point to the ....." and then we point to whatever they say. Then they say, take the ....... and put it (on top of, underneath, to the right of, to the left of) this item. So we do that, Josh and I taking turns to follow the instructions. So far we are not expected to try to say the word - they just want us to get used to hearing the language. But we do say the words when we practice at home - at least in our heads if not aloud. We also take time with the language helper to record their voice saying each item correctly, so we listen to that over and over at home. We've learned a lot of words this way already. The main topics so far have been transportation and things related to transportation and the market and food you'd find there.
We have one more week of this National Culture & Language Acquisition (NCLA), and then on Fri. Sept 15 we have language school orientation. The following Monday we start our first unit.
Josh and I have been walking to NCLA every day and back home again - 15 minutes each way. Church this morning was a short walk. We're not allowed to drive for several months for various reasons including the different traffic patterns here, so we have to walk, have someone drive us, take Josh's bicycle or take public transportation (which is safe and convenient but doesn't run after sunset (around 5:45) and sometimes is quicker to walk).
There are 3 mountains surrounding our town here. We can see 1 or 2 from our front porch depending on how hazy or cloudy it is - we haven't had too many clear days. It's hard to get a good picture of the mountains from this distance.
OK - tried twice (at 15 minutes each) to post pics, so will skip that for now and put the kids down for their naps. Thanks for your prayers. We continue to be encouraged and excited to learn the language here.
We have one more week of this National Culture & Language Acquisition (NCLA), and then on Fri. Sept 15 we have language school orientation. The following Monday we start our first unit.
Josh and I have been walking to NCLA every day and back home again - 15 minutes each way. Church this morning was a short walk. We're not allowed to drive for several months for various reasons including the different traffic patterns here, so we have to walk, have someone drive us, take Josh's bicycle or take public transportation (which is safe and convenient but doesn't run after sunset (around 5:45) and sometimes is quicker to walk).
There are 3 mountains surrounding our town here. We can see 1 or 2 from our front porch depending on how hazy or cloudy it is - we haven't had too many clear days. It's hard to get a good picture of the mountains from this distance.
OK - tried twice (at 15 minutes each) to post pics, so will skip that for now and put the kids down for their naps. Thanks for your prayers. We continue to be encouraged and excited to learn the language here.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
New Photos Posted
Just an FYI - we posted new photos in the Our Photos section. To see them, please click on the link to the right called "Our Photos". We continue with orientation and begin some pre-language study next Monday. We are feeling mostly settled, though we still need some furniture, which I hope to find today! Thanks for praying! We'll keep you posted!
PS - While you're looking at the right hand column, you may be interested in subscribing to our blog. What this means is that every time we update the blog, you get an email, so you will always have the most current info without having to remember to check!
PS - While you're looking at the right hand column, you may be interested in subscribing to our blog. What this means is that every time we update the blog, you get an email, so you will always have the most current info without having to remember to check!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Our New Home
Dining room -door to right leads to kitchenI'm very fortunate to have a stove with an actual oven. Often the students here have a box they have to put on top of the burners to bake.
We are thankful for a water heater!! It does get cool here in the evening, at least relatively cool! :)
Monday, August 14, 2006
Getting Acclimated
This was a post from August 10th that didn't make it on.
Well, we made it to ________ on Sunday afternoon. Visa paperwork was started on Monday morning and will continue throughout the week as things are ready to move to the next step.
We are so thankful for a safe trip, no lost luggage and an easy time through customs and immigration. In fact, we praise God for going above and beyond our expectations. We thought that we had it all covered with our luggage, but as novice world travelers, we didn’t know to choose the flight that had shorter layovers. As a result, when we checked in they told us that we couldn’t check our 22 pieces of baggage through to the capitol city. We had already paid excess baggage fees and thought it was covered. But God…(isn’t that a great phrase??) But God had His man in place in Milwaukee, overseeing the handling of our baggage. What an encouragement and provision he was for us. He made some calls while we were in flight and had our 16 action packers stored for us at San Francisco which allowed us to take some time to go to a hotel with the kids for our 10 hour layover – to relax, swim and have a nice meal and a short nap before we continued with our journey!!
Our time in the capitol was both relaxing and a good time to start learning. The diversity was amazing to me – from 4 storey malls to tiny “warungs” (convenience stores) at the end of the streets.
We got an idea of how the money works – you give it to them and they take it! Just kidding – it’s fairly easy and yet confusing to me at times. 1 million rupiah is about 110 USD, so if I spent 200.000 on groceries (which I did yesterday), you take off 4 zeros and you get 20 dollars – that’s the approximate conversion. The main bills you use are 100000, 50000, 20000, 10000, 5000, and 1000. My problem is the many thousands and that the colors on the 100000 and the 10000 are similar. So, when I see the total on the cash register is 193.175, I have to figure out if it’s 10 thousand or 100 thousand that I need to give her. At one place where I was buying some flip flops for the boys, the lady finally said – “blue one” – which I didn’t have! But we had it straightened out pretty quickly!!
We’ve had some great local meals here already. One meal of note was Beef “Bakso”. It’s a soup with greens and noodles, bean curd cakes, beef meatballs and tripe. It tasted excellent. Being a texture person, I probably would leave the tripe out if I was cooking it, but overall it was a good soup!
Anyway, we are overflowing with thankfulness to the God who goes before us and yet never leaves us. Thanks for your prayers as we learn, learn, learn!!
Well, we made it to ________ on Sunday afternoon. Visa paperwork was started on Monday morning and will continue throughout the week as things are ready to move to the next step.
We are so thankful for a safe trip, no lost luggage and an easy time through customs and immigration. In fact, we praise God for going above and beyond our expectations. We thought that we had it all covered with our luggage, but as novice world travelers, we didn’t know to choose the flight that had shorter layovers. As a result, when we checked in they told us that we couldn’t check our 22 pieces of baggage through to the capitol city. We had already paid excess baggage fees and thought it was covered. But God…(isn’t that a great phrase??) But God had His man in place in Milwaukee, overseeing the handling of our baggage. What an encouragement and provision he was for us. He made some calls while we were in flight and had our 16 action packers stored for us at San Francisco which allowed us to take some time to go to a hotel with the kids for our 10 hour layover – to relax, swim and have a nice meal and a short nap before we continued with our journey!!
Our time in the capitol was both relaxing and a good time to start learning. The diversity was amazing to me – from 4 storey malls to tiny “warungs” (convenience stores) at the end of the streets.
We got an idea of how the money works – you give it to them and they take it! Just kidding – it’s fairly easy and yet confusing to me at times. 1 million rupiah is about 110 USD, so if I spent 200.000 on groceries (which I did yesterday), you take off 4 zeros and you get 20 dollars – that’s the approximate conversion. The main bills you use are 100000, 50000, 20000, 10000, 5000, and 1000. My problem is the many thousands and that the colors on the 100000 and the 10000 are similar. So, when I see the total on the cash register is 193.175, I have to figure out if it’s 10 thousand or 100 thousand that I need to give her. At one place where I was buying some flip flops for the boys, the lady finally said – “blue one” – which I didn’t have! But we had it straightened out pretty quickly!!
We’ve had some great local meals here already. One meal of note was Beef “Bakso”. It’s a soup with greens and noodles, bean curd cakes, beef meatballs and tripe. It tasted excellent. Being a texture person, I probably would leave the tripe out if I was cooking it, but overall it was a good soup!
Anyway, we are overflowing with thankfulness to the God who goes before us and yet never leaves us. Thanks for your prayers as we learn, learn, learn!!
We're in our new home!
So sorry it's been so long since we last posted. We have not been able to log in to blogger.com to post. It's been a bit frustrating, but we're glad to be back on!
We have moved into our home and are getting settled. It was good to see a bit of "home" come out of our action packers. The quilt on our bed (made by my aunt with patchwork pieces of my life as far back as I remember), the kid's toys (almost Christmas! They hadn't seen their toys since the end of May!) and all my Tupperware!! On the other hand, it seems that we're shopping constantly! First groceries and now all the other "stuff" you need to live here - converters for our plugs, jugs and basins, a washer, you name it. Definitely not like shopping at Wal-Mart or Target!
We had dinner with some fellow language-learners tonight - a couple from Germany! They're about 2 months ahead of us in the study, so they were able to give us some tips. They speak English quite well and it was fun for me (Josie) to recognize words and phrases from my studies in Elementary and Secondary schools! They have 2 young boys, the youngest the same age as Julia.
Well, I'm on dial-up here and I want to post some pics so I'll get to uploading them. They'll be shots from our visa city as we haven't taken too many here yet. Thanks for praying for us! God sure is being faithful to us.
OK - the photo upload didn't take - will try again sometime soon.
We have moved into our home and are getting settled. It was good to see a bit of "home" come out of our action packers. The quilt on our bed (made by my aunt with patchwork pieces of my life as far back as I remember), the kid's toys (almost Christmas! They hadn't seen their toys since the end of May!) and all my Tupperware!! On the other hand, it seems that we're shopping constantly! First groceries and now all the other "stuff" you need to live here - converters for our plugs, jugs and basins, a washer, you name it. Definitely not like shopping at Wal-Mart or Target!
We had dinner with some fellow language-learners tonight - a couple from Germany! They're about 2 months ahead of us in the study, so they were able to give us some tips. They speak English quite well and it was fun for me (Josie) to recognize words and phrases from my studies in Elementary and Secondary schools! They have 2 young boys, the youngest the same age as Julia.
Well, I'm on dial-up here and I want to post some pics so I'll get to uploading them. They'll be shots from our visa city as we haven't taken too many here yet. Thanks for praying for us! God sure is being faithful to us.
OK - the photo upload didn't take - will try again sometime soon.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Tim Tams for Tam
Our pantry - check out how low the door frame is - Josh said he wasn't planning to spend a lot of time going in and out of that room! He's holding some ABC Soy Sauce and some Extra Hot Sambal (hot pepper sauce that you get everywhere here).
These are some treats that my sister Tamara loved when she was in PNG. I finally got to experience them...Tam, wipe the drool off of your keyboard! :)
You Shall Lie Down and Your Sleep Shall Be Sweet
We laugh each night as we go check on our kids. Often Mitch is sleeping sideways and Julia with her head at the foot of the bed. Spencer is usually the only one sleeping the direction he lay down. They all do well sleeping here. In fact, there wasn't any waking in the middle of the night as is common with jet lag, so we're thankful for that.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Visa City
Here are some shots of the kids hanging out in Visa City. We had to come here first to finish visa paperwork before flying back to start Language Study. Julia is really enjoying an unripe starfruit which grew on a tree in the yard here at the Guest Home.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
First Durian Ever
The infamous durian fruit - we actually didn't mind it much!
kids enjoying the swing set at the restaurant
Daddy and Daughter enjoying dinner out.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Good Morning from Taipei!
I just sent this email to our families - thought you might be checking on us - so here's the latest...
Hello, dear family! I am sitting here watching the sun come up in Taipei. It's just after 5:30 in the morning and we arrived about 15 minutes ago. The flights so far have gone well - one left and then customs with our ton of stuff.
Well, things did not go as well as we thought with our overweight/excess baggage costs (though it's not horrible or anything). When we checked in to China Airlines, we were charged an additional 1100 dollars (in addition to the 600 we paid in Milwaukee). As we mentioned to you (Dycks), our action packers WERE checked all the way through to the capitol (due to the efforts of a believer who was the supervisor of the luggage handlers in MKE), so we didn't have to deal with them in SF (that was a huge blessing), but we did have our 6 suitcases and our 6 carryons, which we took with us to the hotel (the poor shuttle driver - we tipped him well!).
We had a nice meal, some time in the pool and hot tub and a short nap at the hotel as we had arranged, and then left the hotel at 10:30 - 3 hours before our flight. Good thing we did as it took some time to check in with our excess baggage fiasco.
The kids have done well on the flights, getting some sleep (though not a LOT). They need some decompression time - they're a bit wired with all the sitting around.
Anyway, we fly to the capitol in 3 hours and should arrive there at 1:35 pm (1:35 AM Wisconsin time). We won't call when we get there. Bill Cork will meet us at the airport and has given us specific instructions on what to do when we get there.
OK - gotta go let the kids run around! Thanks for praying for us!
Love, Josie
Hello, dear family! I am sitting here watching the sun come up in Taipei. It's just after 5:30 in the morning and we arrived about 15 minutes ago. The flights so far have gone well - one left and then customs with our ton of stuff.
Well, things did not go as well as we thought with our overweight/excess baggage costs (though it's not horrible or anything). When we checked in to China Airlines, we were charged an additional 1100 dollars (in addition to the 600 we paid in Milwaukee). As we mentioned to you (Dycks), our action packers WERE checked all the way through to the capitol (due to the efforts of a believer who was the supervisor of the luggage handlers in MKE), so we didn't have to deal with them in SF (that was a huge blessing), but we did have our 6 suitcases and our 6 carryons, which we took with us to the hotel (the poor shuttle driver - we tipped him well!).
We had a nice meal, some time in the pool and hot tub and a short nap at the hotel as we had arranged, and then left the hotel at 10:30 - 3 hours before our flight. Good thing we did as it took some time to check in with our excess baggage fiasco.
The kids have done well on the flights, getting some sleep (though not a LOT). They need some decompression time - they're a bit wired with all the sitting around.
Anyway, we fly to the capitol in 3 hours and should arrive there at 1:35 pm (1:35 AM Wisconsin time). We won't call when we get there. Bill Cork will meet us at the airport and has given us specific instructions on what to do when we get there.
OK - gotta go let the kids run around! Thanks for praying for us!
Love, Josie
Friday, July 28, 2006
Final greetings from Wisconsin!
Well, we leave for Asia-Pacific on Tuesday morning, August 1st. It's been a long haul and we're so excited to finally get to go!! It's incredible to think about all that the Lord has done to bring us to this point. Thank you for praying, supporting, and sending us out.
Right now, we're living in student housing at New Tribes Bible Institute in Waukesha. My folks finally returned from Canada after four months and we're glad they're back. They're on staff here at the college, so it's been nice to be close, to share meals and have help with the kids.
Here's a pic of my youngest sister Tamara. We celebrated her 18th birthday and her graduation from high school with a family party last weekend.
Spencer and Mitchell enjoyed time with their cousins Naomi and Natalie.
Our final days are full of endless details from luggage locks to immunizations; from final goodbyes to packing, packing, & repacking!
Here's a pic of Spencer with his friend David at our (final) farewell cookout with our Neighborhood Group last night.
Please pray for traveling mercies and good adjustments as we make the transition to life in Asia-Pacific. We'll talk to you from "the other side"!
“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 1 Thess 5:24 NIV
Thankful,
Josh, Josie & family
Right now, we're living in student housing at New Tribes Bible Institute in Waukesha. My folks finally returned from Canada after four months and we're glad they're back. They're on staff here at the college, so it's been nice to be close, to share meals and have help with the kids.
Here's a pic of my youngest sister Tamara. We celebrated her 18th birthday and her graduation from high school with a family party last weekend.
Spencer and Mitchell enjoyed time with their cousins Naomi and Natalie.Our final days are full of endless details from luggage locks to immunizations; from final goodbyes to packing, packing, & repacking!
Here's a pic of Spencer with his friend David at our (final) farewell cookout with our Neighborhood Group last night.
Please pray for traveling mercies and good adjustments as we make the transition to life in Asia-Pacific. We'll talk to you from "the other side"!
“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 1 Thess 5:24 NIV
Thankful,
Josh, Josie & family
Monday, July 03, 2006
Good News, Answers to Questions
Recently we’ve had some people asking what we’re going to Asia-Pacific to do. I’ll give a brief overview of the next few months to give you an idea of what we’re heading into.
Good News…We bought our tickets to Asia-Pacific last Wednesday and they arrived today!! We are set to depart Milwaukee on Tuesday, August 1st, arriving in on Thursday, August 3rd!
Answers to Questions...
We’ll fly to _______ on Sunday the 6th to have our visas processed, and then after a couple of days will fly to _____________ to start our pre-language study orientation. We will begin language study in _______ about 4 weeks later. ***In case you’re wondering, our NTM colleagues will meet our plane, help us get tickets, get through the paperwork, etc and even help us shop for groceries and get our home set up. They will assist us until we know the language well enough to help ourselves.
After a number of months in language (to be determined) we will move to __________, where we will begin our “real” work. I will also be home-schooling Mitchell, and Spencer.
We’re thrilled to be a part of the exciting work going on in Asia-Pacific. New tribes are being reached for the first time, laying groundwork for the gospel to be presented. In other tribes, they have heard the gospel and for the first time ever, members of those tribes have accepted the salvation offered through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. How incredible to think that we will see these tribal brothers and sisters around the throne of Christ and will praise HIM together!
One news report that I found particularly exciting was called “Deferred Hope Now Fulfilled” and was about a believing Tugutil woman with a desire to share the Gospel with a group of Tugutils who had never heard God’s Word. She was delayed a few years, but finally was able to realize this dream. You can read her story here: http://www.ntm.org
Brief update/praise:For those who receive our updates – we DID find places to stay for the month of July – we will be in Menomonee Falls until July 15th and then at New Tribes Bible Institute in student housing from the 15th through August 1st.
My (Josie’s) parents and sister Tami will be back in Waukesha for approximately 2 weeks before we leave, so it will be WONDERFUL to have them around.
We continue to get closer to our monthly sponsorship goal, so that is exciting!
Thanks for praying!
Good News…We bought our tickets to Asia-Pacific last Wednesday and they arrived today!! We are set to depart Milwaukee on Tuesday, August 1st, arriving in on Thursday, August 3rd!
Answers to Questions...
We’ll fly to _______ on Sunday the 6th to have our visas processed, and then after a couple of days will fly to _____________ to start our pre-language study orientation. We will begin language study in _______ about 4 weeks later. ***In case you’re wondering, our NTM colleagues will meet our plane, help us get tickets, get through the paperwork, etc and even help us shop for groceries and get our home set up. They will assist us until we know the language well enough to help ourselves.
After a number of months in language (to be determined) we will move to __________, where we will begin our “real” work. I will also be home-schooling Mitchell, and Spencer.
We’re thrilled to be a part of the exciting work going on in Asia-Pacific. New tribes are being reached for the first time, laying groundwork for the gospel to be presented. In other tribes, they have heard the gospel and for the first time ever, members of those tribes have accepted the salvation offered through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. How incredible to think that we will see these tribal brothers and sisters around the throne of Christ and will praise HIM together!
One news report that I found particularly exciting was called “Deferred Hope Now Fulfilled” and was about a believing Tugutil woman with a desire to share the Gospel with a group of Tugutils who had never heard God’s Word. She was delayed a few years, but finally was able to realize this dream. You can read her story here: http://www.ntm.org
Brief update/praise:For those who receive our updates – we DID find places to stay for the month of July – we will be in Menomonee Falls until July 15th and then at New Tribes Bible Institute in student housing from the 15th through August 1st.
My (Josie’s) parents and sister Tami will be back in Waukesha for approximately 2 weeks before we leave, so it will be WONDERFUL to have them around.
We continue to get closer to our monthly sponsorship goal, so that is exciting!
Thanks for praying!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)