Doors Closing, God's Leading

We wrote a post on November 10th asking for prayer in regards to the Linguistics test we were to take the following morning. We want to thank you all for your prayers and provide you an update on how it went.

We took the two-part test in class and received our scores a few days later. They are similar to golf score in that the lower they are the better as the numbers reflect how many answers were incorrect. If one were to score in the range of 1-15, then they highly recommend you take the Linguistics course. Any higher, then they would recommend you do not. You are still welcomed to take the course but they will not slow down the class and the instructor said that there have been tears!

Since they have changed the program here at the Missionary Training Center from three semester to four, they have also modified the Linguistics program. Basically, those who are taking Ling will be pulled out of some of our normal classes toward the end of this semester in order to get started on their linguistic training. They would make up these classes later but this way they aren't in training for forever before they hit the field somewhere overseas. When our class graduates in May of 2016, their classes will continue into the beginning of the summer and then start up again in July in order that they may finish by December of 2016.

During the aptitude test, I worked my way through all the questions and earned a whopping -27. Cameron was unable to finish the test but, of those he did answer, he only missed five. This past month they have offered a Friday afternoon Grammar course that is mandatory if you desire to take Ling. Because we weren't sure, we signed up. After three weeks the Lord made it clear to us that this was not a strength of ours and I would certainly be in the "tear story" if I took the full course. It is because of Cameron's heart for Bible translation that he desired to take Linguistics. However, while it can be a tool, linguistics is not integral in order to translate. Linguistics is primarily concerned with how to learn a language and break it down to where you understand the sentence structure and such as well as creating an alphabet. Also, since you have to be fluent in the language in order to translate and because New Tribes teaches as well as translates, we feel that any possible misunderstandings or unclear translation on our part will be caught quickly as we will be doing regular translation checks with the people to check for clarity.

Therefore, since it's more concerned with how to learn a language and is not absolutely necessary for Bible translation, we both decided to drop the grammar course and thus close the door to Linguistics. We felt that this was for the best as we were both struggling and did not have a strong aptitude. In contrast to the picture at the beginning of this post, we do not see this as a failure but merely as a change in direction. The Lord made it clear to us through various individuals, classes and furthering our understanding of what linguistics is that this was not a direction He was leading us toward. We realize that we cannot do everything and must rely on the Lord and His provision through teammates! So we are now praying that the teammates the Lord has for us will have an aptitude for and will have taken Ling so we can partner with them to take the Gospel to a tribe in Papua New Guinea. Just because we are not taking Ling does not mean that we will fail at learning a language as the two are completely unrelated - what a relief!

We apologize for not updating you all sooner but thank you so much for your prayers!

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

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Communication and Romans

Here's the last update on our classes and you'll be all caught up! First, we began the semester with our Communication Skills class and its practicum which will continue for the rest of the semester. We went through Dr. Howard Hendricks' "Seven Laws of the Teacher" video series. Let us just say, though it may have been recorded a long time ago, as one classmate said, "The principles are timeless. The hairstyles, not so much." Yes, we had a few laughs as we are sure people two generations from now will when they see images of us. We certainly enjoyed the seven-part video series and, if you have not seen it, we highly recommend it to anyone.

As we are going into the "business" of communication as missionaries, if you will, then it is imperative that we become good communicators. We have heard it said repeatedly that we as believers ought to be some of the best communicators and be able to communicate not only the Gospel but also our vision for where we see the Lord leading us. Therefore, each student will be giving a total of three speeches that are intermittently scattered throughout the semester. The first speech was seven minutes and was about our story and what we are training to do. The second speech was a short devotional ten minutes in length. Our final speech will be a fifteen to twenty minute speech more suitable for a church service. Cameron and I already gave our first two speeches and really enjoyed the opportunity. Our first speeches were obviously very similar but Cameron's second speech was based off of a post on his personal blog about the supposed "blame game" of Adam and Eve. My second speech was about how our fears can stem from doubting God's character while our confidence and courage can stem from knowing God's character. As for our third speeches...those are several weeks down the road so we have no idea at this point.

We have also just completed a class on Romans 5 - 8 that focused on teaching this pivotal section of Scripture to those who are hearing it for the very first time. The emphasis was more on how to teach these principles to a shame-based culture such as those in the east as opposed to our guilt-based western culture. We learned many excellent illustrations from our fellow classmates as each of us took a turn presenting our group's conclusions to the class.

So that is all the classes we have taken or are taking so far this semester! Phonetics will conclude on Friday and tomorrow we start our Culture Language Acquisition: Theory and Methodology class. That's a mouthful to say! We will be learning the TPR technique which Cameron refers to as "Toilet Paper Roll" but it's more common name is "Total Physical Response" and is a method of learning language.

Thank you all for your support and prayers!

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

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Bingo! A Cultural Experience

From the very start of our second semester through the remainder of January we had our Culture Intro class. This class was thought-provoking, eye-opening, and challenging! We were broken up into small groups of about eight students and spent the majority of time discussing different case studies that centered on cultural differences. Wondering how Bingo plays into all of this? Read on!

The first part of the class focused on classifying different aspects of culture. For example, if you heard a story about how a man finds a wife, you would probably list it under Family and Economics. We then went over various orientations that people have such as: time/event, task/person, dichotomistic/holistic, status/achievement, crisis/non-crisis, and concealment/willingness to expose vulnerability. After taking a survey to discover where we fell on these different ranges, we discussed the pros and cons to each, how these different orientations will excel and struggle in various contexts. Cameron and I also discovered that we scored opposite in the areas of dichotomistc vs. holistic and crisis vs. non-crisis. I'll let you decipher which of us scored where.

The latter part of our Culture Intro class was devoted to reading and discussing various case studies from missionaries all around the world. Not only did we have to analyze the different cultural factors, but we had to decide what we would do in those situations. Granted, we had the benefit of reading these and having time to reflect without being personally involved. Also, we realized some of our own values that we held as "biblical" were, in fact, our American cultural and not strictly from the Bible itself. One case study in particular stands out as an example of this realization. It took place in Papua New Guinea where they have a strong sense of revenge and compensation for a life taken. This can take the form of killing the perpetrator or in financial payment. Because of this, if you are driving and accidentally hit someone you do not stop for help. If you do, you will inevitably be beaten to death by the surrounding people. Instead, you are to drive to the nearest police station where you explain what happened. They will arrest you and place you in protective custody until everything is sorted out and the fine to compensate the death of this individual is paid to his tribe.

Well, when we first read this case study we were confronted with whether or not we would have stopped to try and help or kept to the cultural norm of driving to the police station. There's obviously a whole lot more that I am leaving out for the sake of length but basically we came to the conclusion that, in America, we take responsibility for our actions by stopping and helping but, in Papua New Guinea, you take responsibility for your actions by driving straight to the police station. Neither are necessarily wrong but are just different and fit in their respective cultures. We had trouble understanding how the latter could be right until we turned to Deuteronomy 19 where we saw that God actually instructs the Israelites to create for themselves Cities of Refuge for accidental manslaughter. Believe it or not, this was one of the "easier" case studies! All that to say, we learned from this class is that there are no easy answers and we truly have to rely of the Holy Spirit for wisdom and direction.

Bingo

Now to Bingo! Part of this class was a practicum in which we had to choose an activity/event that would take us out of our comfort zone and cause us to experiences some of the feelings we'll have when we go overseas. Feelings such as not having a clue what to do when everyone else does, being confused, asking for help, being uncomfortable, etc. When we looked over the list together, what did we find but Bingo! We had actually been saying that we wanted to go there sometime and now we had an excellent reason. We went on a Thursday night and had an awesome time! Granted, we experienced all of those feelings, but it was still such a fun experience. We learned not just the game of Bingo but some of the culture that goes with it just by watching all the people around us. We were there for three hours and had no idea that so much time had passed! Thankfully, they had an intermission half-way through during which time Cameron found out that we could get a hot dog, chips and soda for just two dollars! It was a fun date and homework night all rolled into one

This whole class made us excited to anticipate all that will happen when we go overseas in just a few short years and apply what we've been learning!

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

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New Tribes is Like Star Trek

Believe it or not that is a direct quote from our chapel this morning and I (Caitlin) have never been so happy to be training with New Tribes Mission! The teacher who spoke today was saying that New Tribes is like Star Trek in that they both boldly go where no man has gone before. The inner Trekkie in me immediately perked up! What can I say? I grew up on Captain Picard, Kirk, Janeway, Archer, and Commander Sisko - I was raised well!

Anyways, all that to say, we want to catch you up on what we've been studying so far this semester! We've had Culture Intro, Communication, Phonetics, Romans, and Animism and there is so much to share about each of them! Rather than overwhelm you with one giant update, we'll spread them out over the next few days. We already shared a bit about our Phonetics class in our "February or Should We Say Fɛbɹʊəɹi?" post so, let's now move on to our Animism class which started February 2nd and concluded on February 24th.

Animism

A brief definition of Animism would be the belief that there are multiple spirits (whether beings or ancestors) that live all around us sometimes even inhabiting nature or objects or even people. Animist believe that they have the ability to manipulate the spirits for protecting, discerning illness, or revenge among many others. They work to appease the spirits through rituals, sacrifices, chants, and more. Animists live in fear as they have no security or stability in their relationship with the spirits since they are so fickle and can be just as easily manipulated by others to work against them. Their constant objective is to acquire power of some kind as that is what matters most. While this will most likely be the belief system in whatever tribal group we serve, animism can be found in Europe and America. For example, in Turkey, they sell these objects called "The Evil Eye" such as the one we have depicted here to ward off the evil eye. In India, people will put ash marks on their children to make them appear ugly and ward off any evil spirits. In America, we carry a rabbit's foot to attract good luck.

High Religion vs. Low Religion

In Animism we also learned the difference between a "high religion" and a "low religion." "High religion" is primarily concerned with answering questions about the purpose of life, what happens after death, and the origins of everything. In contrast, "low religion" is primarily concerned with the here and now. For example, such things as having a good hunt, discovering why someone is sick and other pragmatic issues. Additionally, "high religion" usually has written scriptures, formal training, and provides concrete direction in regards to ethics while "low religion" is primarily passed on orally, as informal training, and is amoral.

There are so many other aspects of Animism that we learned and some that we are still processing. While this class was very good and one of our favorites thus far, it was so much to take in and really showed us a glimpse of the immensity of what we are training to do! This is truly an impossible task without our Lord and His work in our lives and in the lives of the people we will be living among. But God is in the business of doing the impossible and it is with great anticipation to see what He does in and through our lives that we continue on in the training to ultimately serve overseas!

Thank you all for your support and prayers as we train to be cross-cultural church planters!

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

If you are interested in partnering us financially, please check out the Support tab at the top of the page and don't forget to check out our Etsy store Created Concoctions for handmade items for you and your loved ones.

Follow-Up to Sunday

We wrote on Saturday telling of the exciting opportunity we were given to share at First Baptist Church of Union about what we are doing. Unfortunately, due to a severe snow fall, the church told us Saturday night that services were cancelled and we would have to reschedule to a later date. The good news is that we are now fully prepared the next time a church asks us to share! Thank you all so much for your prayers. Even though this weekend did not go as we expected, it is a blessing to know that so many of you prayed for us!

However, the trip was not a waste! We were able to spend time with Cameron's parents and play in the snow with his nephew. We hadn't really seen his nephew for quite some time so it was wonderful to spend the weekend and invest in his life We also finally got caught up on our thank-you cards, posted an update Saturday, and completed other small tasks we have been meaning to get done.

We arrived back home at the Missionary Training Center safe and sound with completely clear roads on Sunday afternoon. When we pulled up to the Administration building to check our mailbox we were greeted with this beautiful sight of the frozen lake draped in a fresh layer of snow! I snapped this picture on my phone - isn't God's creation beautiful?!

Thank you all for your prayers!

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

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