A Practical Lesson in Flexibility!

In March, we wrote a post stating that Cameron and I were dropping out of the Linguistics course here at the Missionary Training Center. We felt that the Lord was leading us in that direction through conversation with staff and the five-week Friday afternoon Grammar course. However, during the normal Grammar course, Cameron and I discovered that we not only understood it once it was explained differently but that we really enjoyed it! Then, a little over a week later, one of the Ling teachers shared in chapel about just how crucial Ling really is to translation. He cited different examples of how one change in the grammar can make all the difference to the translation and the missionaries he went to help in Paraguay hadn't realized what was happening because they didn't take the Linguistics training. This pretty much sealed the deal for Cameron and on that very day, May 7th, Cameron asked the various teachers involved if it would be possible for him to jump back into Ling. They said it was. I took a little longer to decide but made the same decision three days later on that Sunday. Another couple also made the jump with us which means there are now twenty students in Ling and eleven on the standard track. I'm pretty sure this is the first time the ratio has worked out like this as the current Ling class has only eight students!

What does this mean? 

First, it means that we successfully managed to fail two classes in one weekend! Aren't you impressed? We did not take Field Health with the other Ling students and we dropped out of Grammar a week before it ended in order to join the Linguistic's track by taking Literacy. While we did cause the Academic Management Team a challenge, we didn't actually fail as they are allowing us to do make-up work in mid-August.

Secondly, while we will finish the standard MTC training in May of next year, Lingustics will run an additional seven months through the middle of June and then pick up again the middle of July in order to finish in December of 2016.

Thirdly, this means that Cameron and I will possibly be able to take the Greek course offered during
that month-long break between June and July of 2016 since we will still be at the MTC. This is something Cameron has especially been wanting to take!

Fourthly, we have a project to work on over the summer! In order to practice with the tools we'll be working with in Ling, we need to collect 250 words in a foreign language from a native speaker using a recorder and headset, split and label all the words, and phonetically transcribe 40 of the words. When we get back in the fall, we will be using our data for other projects. We're excited! Cameron and I decided to record German from one of the students here who is from Germany. We recorded the words on Sunday so step one is complete!

Fifthly, we covet your prayers as we take on this challenge together! We're not sure why the Lord led us to drop Ling and now to pick it up again. We have no doubt of His leading - perhaps it was just to teach us to trust Him more and to be flexible with our plans.

The semester is wrapping up and we have so much more to write about! But this was most exciting and urgent so we wanted to make sure to get this out even if that means our posts won't run in chronological order.

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

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