Culture and Language Acquisition
(6 weeks of Practical Techniques)

Jinni and I are currently in our first few days of the most challenging period of this semester. It is called CLA Practicum. We are assigned a bi-lingual Language helper, a first generation speaker, from another country and culture. This precious person will spend the next 6 weeks with us (two hours a session), working with the CLA method of learning a culture and language. Our assigned a language helper is from the Nederlands. We have already spent some time setting up our meeting time, gathering a few culture related photographs.

Our first session has come and gone. We have had two hours with Kees (pronounced Kase). He is a wonderfully friendly guy from Haarlem. He recognized some of the photos we had chosen for our first session. That was a fun time as he explained what the picture contained. He is, by self admission, more than willing to help us and maybe even a little too willing to talk more than we might need :-). We spent several minutes getting to know him which will continue over our time together.

Lots of parts to this program are intended to give us as close to a National Culture Language Acquisition program as possible. Some of the things we have to work through is managing the four primary facets of the CLA method (Plan, Practice, Process, and Participate), organizing our daily routing around the C/L sessions and Culture events required in the course, and arranging for the care of our kids while we are immersed in the practicum. We praise the Lord for the members of our culture teams, they too have to partner with us in ensuring we all make it through this time so we are partnered to work together.

Please pray for us as we have more than this next six weeks of classes on our plates. Elijah has been invited to be a participant in a spelling bee. RJ, Jinni, me, and a fellow classmate are performing 12/3 and 12/10, a Christmas program, I have the privilege of leading the worship services at the church we're attending (Rock Mills Fellowship Baptist Church), Jinni gets to lead the praise music time for our Monday morning Devotional time on campus this month, and I get to do the same 12/17 at Rock Mills. Of course our kids must not be shorted during all of this either.

Thank you for your partnership in prayer with us as we draw this semester to a close with this busy, busy ministry schedule. We are excited and we realize it will be stressful. What a privilege to know that we have been given this opportunity to see our Lord in a mighty way and better grasp that He walks with us through every twist and turn and circumstance. We are thankful that we have the honor to pray with you, too. Until next time, or as the Dutch might say it, "Tot Zeens".
until the unreached have heard...

Roland (for the family)
'For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For God, who said "Let light shine out of darkness," is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.'
(2Co 4:5-7)