a big sigh

So it hasn't been all work. We got a long weekend off so we headed to John and Rachel Gonglach's in Denver. Later we went back to Co. Springs and did some local hiking trails.


Ava dressin up with Tatum, John and Rachel's daughter.


What is Ava doing to Nolend?!
















We hiked and had a picnic with another family training to go oversees.

Full Heart and Bellies

While in Denver for the weekend we were able to meet up with the Gomez family for lunch. Benilda fixed us an authentic Mexican meal, of which I am still recovering (Mexican food, like sin, is great when you’re partaking, but there comes a time when you regret it). It never takes long for Alphonso to start talking about how God is working in his life. He shared with us how a man who was in prison for drug dealing has given his life to the Lord and is getting baptized next Sunday. The man and his wife want to return to Mexico and start a church and an orphanage in their hometown. Alphonso also shared about when he had the opportunity to come to Denver and start a church he was fighting God all the way. He was struggling with everything that he had to give up, in the end he obeyed, but was running from God in his heart, like Jonah. Now he looks back and thinks about all the blessings in his life, all the lives that he has seen God change through his church, and he feels overwhelmed. The connection was obvious. Some days we question God’s wisdom in calling us to Brazil. In the end though, we are trusting that one day we will look around at the changed lives (including ours) and feel that same gratefulness that Alphonso was expressing.

Jeh and Yet

We have been in phonetics and language acquisition training for two weeks. We have learned zero Portuguese instead picking up Russian and a little Jeh, a Vietnamese tribal language. We learned it not to use it; none of the people in our class are going to Vietnam. We learned it to prove a point. By doing intentional projects and practicing pronunciation we were surprised how much Russian we were able to learn in a rather short amount of time. We are now going to take these projects and massive amount of advise to Brazil.
Our teachers are Dwight and Barbara Gradin, both of whom taught Roger and Gwen Stuber before they went to Irian Jaya over 20 years ago. And later Dwight traveled to Indonesia and blew everyone away by learning the language in one month. So they are good, very good. Dwight and Barbara have been around, and they know a thing or two about language acquisition. Through their tutilage, learning a second language has become both exponentionally more complicated as well as more attainable, if that makes sense. Language learning, the Gradin's shared, has made grown, manly men cry, and is the number one reason for missionary attrition. And yet they have given us so many tools that we are actually looking forward to getting started. Most days one of the Gradins read a letter from a missionary that has gone through this program and reports back on their experience on the field. One such letter shared about a sound in Uzbek that he just could not master. Instead of giving up, the missionary explained that he "hasn't figured out the pronunciation... yet." One of Dwight's mantras is that he never wants to hear "I can't say that sound", "I can't hear the difference in that pronunciation", "I just can't get this language", without adding this one final word: yet. As difficult as learning Portuguese is I hope I remember why I'm learning the language, I hope I don't give up, and I hope if I ever can't figure out a word I'll remember that other little word: "yet". ~bzp & jtp

Genesis in Language

So I’m in Colorado Springs, not transfixed by the mountains, but instead fixated on my tongue. Specifically where it is. In my mouth is not specific enough. Is it pointed and forward or retroflexed or flat and dental? We produce new sounds with the dance our tongue performs. None of us sound very good; except for those you can speak French. Those people can even make their uvula vibrate. Impressive. We practice making new sounds (fricative laterals, nasal consonants) and silent blows of air until our cheeks and mouth ache. And what we are doing here is gaining a flexible mouth, fine-tuning our hearing and loosening us up overall in preparation to learn Portuguese. We have yet to hear a Portuguese word yet but our instructors did a skit using New Guinea Pidgin that Josh understood. It wasn’t hard. When someone says “see you later” you reply with “lukim yu bihain” If you don’t get it say it out loud.

Ella is doing awesome as well. Today she got to join our language classes where we were taught some specific projects and ideas to use when we get to Brazil. In the picture she is actually learning Russian while doing one of the comprehension activities. Tomorrow she takes a field trip to the Olympic Training Center where they will relate language training with athletic training. In the afternoon she also has a one-on-one tutor, an intern with Focus on the Family Institute.

Despite the fact that we all are in classes all day, we do get a lot of family time. At least more time than we have had in the past couple months. The girls are thriving. And yeah, the mountains are lovely too, when I glance their way on break. ~bzp

I'm writing this from St. Louis, only a stop-over on our way to Colorado Springs where we will begin our 5 week training on Monday, Sep. 11th. We moved out of our house yesterday. We had planned to kind of do a gradual move, so it didn't come down to one hectic day. I suppose in hindsight that was a little naive. There's only so much you can do before the actual day arrives.
As we did a final walk-through of our house the girls got pretty emotional. I have to admit it was more difficult for me than I thought it would be. Even though we hadn't actually owned the house for over a month, it really sank in as we walked through the empty house. There has been several "leaps of faith" that we have had to take, giving notice for our jobs and selling the house were the two big ones. I didn't really think moving out would take faith. But, driving away from our house for the last time, knowing we were now homeless and more dependant on God and others than we maybe have ever been, was very scary. Paradoxically, we also noted how freeing it was. The "stuff" we fill up our lives with no longer ownes us. Ella expressed our mixed emotions well when she said she wants to move to Brazil but she doesn't want to leave Tremont. It's becoming more and more clear that to go to Brazil we have to leave our comfortable home and community. It seems the leaving is harder than the going.

Quick Update:

• We are still waiting to hear back about our visas - if all goes smoothly we should get them late Sep./early Oct. (things rarely go smoothly).
  
• Our support is nearing the 2/3 mark, but seems to be slowing down a little.
  

Brin's Work Friends

When we were in Romania we stayed with American missionaries for about 4 days. They were full of all kinds of advice about living abroad, developing support, ministering in foreign cultures. Stuff like that. They said they didn't realize how hard it would be to come home to friends and family after being gone. You expect everyone to just stay the same as when you left. Of course that doesn't happen. The strange thing is that I am already feeling it a bit. I met up with friends from St. Francis Peds Intermediate where I used to be an RN. ("Used to be"... so I am not anymore?! Yikes) They talked about new radiology protocols, bizarre parents, the new docs hired, the incompetent residents. Two friends also shared personal stories of devestating tragedy and on the other end of the spectum, hope in the birth of a new baby. For those people life stands still for a split second. Then, at some point, life regains speed and whizzes on just like everyone else. I felt a little distanced, maybe out of the loop, you could say. I would venture to say I am supposed to have those feelings. But like the missionaries in Romania, it just surprised me.