Mid Terms

We are now at the halfway point of our second trimester, which also means we are at the halfway point of our time of language study here in Costa Rica. This year is flying by. It does not seem like we have lived here, in a foreign country, for 6 months... but we have.

This week is Spiritual Emphasis week at our language school. This means NO HOMEWORK! Oh, an also that we have a chapel time twice each. So far, the chapel times have been great! A group from the Atlanta area, Proskuneo, who specialize in multicultural worship, have come to lead our week.  

Each morning we have a short worship service that is conducted in both English and Spanish since the faculty of the school is invited, and for most of them Spanish is their first language. The songs we sing are in both English and Spanish and sometimes we sing in both languages at the same time. It has been a neat experience so far and, to me, shows the power of God that He can understand so many languages and hear them all at the same time!

On Monday, we also had our mid-trimester progress reports. Each teacher talks with each student 1 on 1 and lets them know how they are progressing and in what areas they need the most work. It was really encouraging for me to hear that both my teachers feel I am learning a lot and moving forward really well. My biggest need is to be able to get more fluid in my speech. I still have days that I feel somewhat lost in Spanish, but for the most part I am getting more and more comfortable in the language! I am so thankful to God for opening my ears and my tongue to these new sounds and words and to all of you for your prayers!

In 10 days we leave for a week-long trip to Honduras to work with a team from our home church!

Skype

This past Saturday, Ashley and I got to take part in a fund raiser at our home church in Arizona. Covenant Community Church, is sending a team of short-term missionaries to La Ceiba, Honduras in July. We are going to join that team and work along side our friends for the week. Last Saturday evening, the team hosted a dinner and evening of entertainment in order to help raise funds for the team to go to Honduras.

We had the opportunity to 'interrupt' the entertainment and say hi to our friends and family who were there! We did not get to see them, but we heard some laughing and were able to be interviewed by the emcee of the event. It was so much fun for us to be able to take part in the evening and to say thank you to our sending church as well as many people who pray and financially give towards the work we are doing.

We had a blast and hope to do it again sometime! We are thankful for the technology that allows this type of thing to happen and that makes it easier for us to keep in touch with those we have left and those who have sent us out to serve the Lord and the people of Honduras.

Subjunctive

This week we started into the next phase of Spanish - subjunctive.

The subjunctive mood/mode is used to describe things that are more abstract. This is the part of the language that we heard about before we started classes. The part that is important to learn to be able to share feelings, emotions, and desires. It is also used to describe situations in which there is some amount of doubt involved and to express disagreement or denial.

Before this week we learned 9 different ways to conjugate every verb and now we are adding 4 more. It is a lot to learn and to keep separate in our minds. Please pray that the Lord would continue to bless us with success in learning this language. We desire to know Spanish in order to be able to share the love of Jesus Christ with the people of Honduras, and learning this mode of speech will help us to do that!