February Update

Language School
School is going well. It’s good to be back although it severely limits the amount of time I have for other things, like helping Jon and reading. I was enjoying having some time to catch up with some of the reading I’ve been wanting to do. I have also had to postpone my weekly meetings with my language helpers. I’m hopeful we can schedule a different time that will work for all of us. Our short-termer, Katie, arrived last week and it’s fun to have someone with me on the drive to and from school every day.

Internet
My apologies for the lateness of this update. I am having trouble connecting to the internet at my house so I have to take my laptop to Haleys’ and catch up with my email a couple of times a week. Pray for a quick solution to the problem. I am realizing how dependent I am on the internet and email.

This month’s quote:
Cultural balance - that almost unconscious knowledge of how things are and work in a particular community - gives us freedom. Once we have stayed in a culture long enough to internalize its behaviors and the assumptions behind them, we have an almost intuitive sense of what is right, humorous, appropriate, or offensive in any particular situation...Conversely, when we are having to learn and relearn the basic rules by which the world around us is operating, our energies are spent in surviving rather than thriving. It’s as if we are still figuring out the fingering for the scales on the piano while others around us are playing a Rachmaninoff concerto. Being out of cultural balance leaves us struggling to understand what is happening rather than fully participating in the event.

-- David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken, Third Culture Kids

Praises:

1. I passed the final test for my driver’s license. Thank you for praying!
2. I am enjoying being back in language school.
3. Some funding has come in to cover the expense of the Leadership Conference in South Africa in March, and funds continue to come in toward paying off the loan on my car. Thank you!
4. We had a great time in San Sebastian last weekend at our first annual WorldVenture Spain Women’s Prayer Retreat.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for a quick resolution to my internet problem.
2. Pray that the contacts I have with my professors and other students at school will bring glory to God. Pray particularly for the salvation of my professors.
3. Continue to pray for the necessary funds for the leadership conference and my car.
4. Pray for Katie, our short-termer, as she adjusts to the culture here and attends language school. Pray for the salvation of her host family.