MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-17-2007

Hello, folks! No more tarantulas to report this time around (yeah, I know. You’re full of disappointment. :D) Our language studies are progressing well. We’ve moved from consonants to vowels. How you pronounce your vowels determines what accent of English you speak, and the same for all languages.  I have always had this secret habit of mimicking accents, due to my ongoing fascination with the many varieties of English spoken in America and around the world. Now I know WHY these accents are different. We’ll be doing drills, practicing the various vowel glides, and one moment, we’re from Brooklyn, the next from Piccadilly, and the next we’re all Aussies. It’s very cool. This means, when we learn French, or Luganda, or Tooro, or Swahili, or whatever our ministry requires, we will be able to say it like the natives. Some cultures actually look down on you if you speak their language with an accent. This training will eliminate that problem entirely.

We were in a missions conference this past week at Friendly Lane Baptist Church in Haltom City, TX with Pastor Bill Howe.  Pastor Tim Booth (Haughton Baptist Temple, Haughton, LA) was the main speaker. He did a tremendous job preaching. He was representing the Midwest Christian Boys’ Football Camp, run by the First Baptist Church of Dwight in Dwight, IL. It uses football to teach discipline and character to boys aged 12-19. They get solid scriptural preaching in a camp meeting format twice a day, in a “girl-free” environment where the preachers can be very direct to the young men. It’s a great ministry, and one we’ll probably take advantage of when we come home on furlough in a little while. On Friday night, the church voted to make us one of their missionaries, so we have gained some support from this meeting, which was a blessing.
Pray that every church we’re in from here on out supports us. Pray that churches where we’ve been who haven’t already done so will support us. Pray that we will learn our phonetics training well so we can be well prepared for speaking Ugandan dialects when we get to the field. Pray that the rest of our deputation will continue to go smoothly.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-05-2007

Greetings! Things are going well here in Texas. Pictures are faster than words, however, so let me show you:

The trampoline, which is right by our house, is a huge hit.

Trampoline

 

One of the members of Eastside Bapitst Church, where we’re attending when we’re not away at meetings, brings horses by regularly for us to ride. All my little cowboys (and cowgirl) are loving it!

Anna was good enough to ‘find’ this for me, and I posed for the picture. So did the tarantula. I know they look deadly, but they’re very docile creatures, unless you’re a cricket or a beetle.

Tarantula

It’s been good so far. The classes are progressing very well. We’re studying phonetics at the moment, which is the acutal formation of sounds in speech. You use a variety of articulators in speech (tongue, lips, teeth) which touch various points of articulation in the upper mouth. You use different manners of producing the sounds (nasal, stops, fricatives), and all of this with various rising and falling tones, which in some languages can radically alter the meaning of the word. The basic gist of it is this: we are gaining the immensely valuable and practical training to be able to not only learn the Ugandan dialects quickly, but with a native accent when we do. Just because we look foreign doesn’t mean we have to sound foreign. I am firmly convinced that this, or similar phonetic training ought to be a required course of study for all prospective missionaries. Our time here is being well invested in making us more effective communicators on the field where God has called us.

I have been able to schedule several meetings in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and even Utah while here, so, even though we are doing language study, we are still on deputation, an advantage we would lose were we attending school somewhere out of the country. Thank you for praying about meetings. Please continue to pray. I am trying to get next Fall filled up. I have made good progress, but there are still some slots, particularly in October, that need to be filled. Currently, we’re planning on remaining in the States through the holidays, and then heading over to Africa in January or February of 2009, provided the support we need comes in by then. Thanks for praying for us!

Ahhh…. Saturday; and yet, no rest for the weary!

This morning started bright and early for James and the boys. East Side Baptist Church was having their monthly men’s prayer breakfast and they were planning to attend. At 6:45 AM James rolled out of bed and I got the three boys up at 7:15. They left at about 7:40 and Gaelin and Elizabeth woke up shortly thereafter. I tried to get those two still tired little ones to go back to sleep. Then I gave up and got them in bed with me and we snuggled for a little bit. That didn’t work either, so a little while later we were all up. I let them watch a video for a little bit and then we ate breakfast.

Today it seemed hotter here than it has been. It is probably because it was much more humid. When the boys got home they all went back outside and started to play, with frequent trips in and out for drinks. I was able to get a little school work from Friday gone over with James and John. Then I got their lesson plans made out for Monday.

We all ate leftovers from the hay ride meal last night for lunch today up at the classroom building. It was fun to sit around and visit with everyone again. Our boys are loving having kids their age with whom to play. James even played soccer with some kids and didn’t do too badly, either! The kids ended up taking naps and it rained for a little while this afternoon.

Tonight all my men had haircuts. It is always nice to have that job done so I don’t have to do it again for several weeks. Gaelin hates sitting for them but he is one of the ones who needs them the most. They were so dirty from playing outside that it left dirt caked between my fingers after I was done! Yuck! It must have been from the hay ride last night with all the flying dust and them sitting right in it’s path. But it was still gross! It’s a good thing it was bath night!

First “real” class

Today we had our first “real” class since arriving. It was also the first time I was able to get the kid’s school work organized for them to go to class and not just play all morning. They did pretty well. Now I just have to help them with a few things that they didn’t really understand and then get things ready for next week.

Our class was Phonetics. We learned the various points of articulation, articulators, and manner of articulation. It was a LOT of information thrown at us very quickly but it helped me understand some things. We’ll be back at it again on Monday.

Tonight they had a meal for us and a hay ride sponsored by the church – East Side Baptist Church in Bowie. It was a lot of fun! It was hot in the beginning. We were out in the tabernacle and some of the men in the church grilled meat and the ladies brought in all the rest of the fixings. The boys were able to rip and tear with the other missionary kids around the property.

After we ate and sat for a little bit, and just as the sun was beginning to set, we loaded up on the wagon and set out. James and I were sitting on the edge with our feet dangling down. Most everyone else were sitting up on the hay bales. We drove along on the gravel roads in the area. Once we got out on some real road. Gaelin was sitting on my lap and let me tell you I hung on tight! A couple times cars passed going the other way and it sort of felt like my feet just might get scraped off. But there was more room than it looked and we made it through safely. It was totally dark when we got back. They had ice cream for us. Then we visited a little and took our weary bodies off to bed. The kids had NO trouble going to sleep tonight and I don’t think I will either!

Adjusting

We slept a bit better last night. The kids seemed to be coming down with something before we left. But once we got here, Elizabeth’s and Gaelin’s allergies went crazy. In the middle of the night Elizabeth woke me up crying. She said she had an earache. I couldn’t find the pain medicine! So I gave her a drink, vitamin C and snuggles. She went to sleep again but woke up VERY early this morning. I gave her her allergy medicine and not long afterward her ear began to drain. Poor thing! If she can just get good naps for a while it will help!

The water ran out for my shower this morning again. I must be showering about the same time as a bunch of other people! Guess I need to get up earlier! Thankfully it wasn’t off long and it didn’t mess anything up. It helped that I was ready for it, too!

Tonight we went to Walmart again to get the groceries that we need and pillows! As we were getting ready to leave we noticed that there was a man here from the church we’ll be attending while here that had brought his horses for folks to ride! Our kids have been asking if they would get to ride horses while we were down here and sure enough, right away they did. Even James and Gaelin got a turn. It was so great! They were very excited about it. This man brings his horses around for the missionary kids to ride so I expect we’ll get another chance for a ride.