Good Company

A month and a half ago I turned over a new leaf. I decided to start a discipline of writing a blog post each week. The goal is that I will be able to share more with you about my life and about the goings-on in the Mara cluster of Tanzania. I am at the beginning of two months that will test and try my resolution. If I make it through this time and remain faithful I believe that the trend will continue upon my return to Tanzania.

Why are the next two months the test?

Because I am taking six hours of graduate level courses during that time.

The first day of class I was assigned about 100 pages of reading that was to be done by the following day. This wasn’t light reading (like Jane Eyre, which I started reading upon my arrival in Dallas, Jane Eyre now looks out at me from my backpack asking me why I have been neglecting her). The readings for the classes are linguistic-y and technical, so 100 pages took many hours.

The classes that I am taking are Advanced Phonological Analysis and Advanced Grammatical Analysis. Despite the intensity of these courses and their advanced nature I am sure that God has been preparing me for this time. I have two primary reasons for thinking this way.

1. I am no longer a spring chicken!
I have real languages that I have been working with for the past few years. This means that when a concept is discussed in class I either have real world examples to turn to, or at least an understanding about how that could influence or affect the languages that I work with. Had I taken these classes 3 years ago, I wouldn’t have remember anything from them. I would have studied the information, memorized it for a test and promptly forgotten it. I will get so much more out of these classes and therefore be able to apply my newly acquired knowledge more readily upon my return to Musoma.

2. The professors are Wycliffe members.
During the lectures the professors point out the ways in which a translation of Scripture could be affected by the analysis of the linguistic features of the language. It is clear that all of this education is motivated by the desire to bring God’s Word to all the languages of the world. One of my professors worked in Peru with Wycliffe, while the other professor worked with Wycliffe in Malaysia.

I am in good company here.

*Please forgive me if my writing starts to sound technical - I'll blame my classes if that ends up happening. If my writing should start to have a flourish oft' associated with such novels as Jane Eyre, you may assume that I have been able to cease my neglect of said lady.