1ST LANGUAGE EVALUATION

HEY HEY!
I wrote you guys a month ago and asked for prayer for my first language evaluation coming up and I want you to share in the joy of an answered prayer! The way a language evaluation works is that one of our language consultants comes into your village and goes through a series of tasks and questions to assess what level you are at in your culture and language understanding. I had two of my Bisorio ladies sit with us as Brian (my language consultant) would ask me to communicate certain things in the Bisorio language and then the ladies would have to communicate back to Brian in the National Language of Papua New Guinea what I had said. We then switched and he had the ladies look at a few videos and communicate what they saw then I would share in the national language what they told me. The evaluation was about 3.5 hours long and in the end he assessed me to be at Progressing High (level 6). The goal for each of us is Capable High (level 9) as this is the level in which someone is able to communicate at a heart level and be understood.

Here is a graphic I snagged from a co-worker that shows it broken down.

My hope and goal in this first check was to be at level 4 so to see the progress and momentum despite all of the set backs these last 5 months can only be explained by the power of God. I am in awe of how He has helped me learn and retain this language. It is a daily grind but I am starting to see the fruit. I am so grateful to YOU and the Bisorios. There isn’t a week that goes by that someone in the tribe or one of you emails me and tells me you are praying that the Lord will help me learn their language. God has decided to answer these prayers in helping to loosen my tongue and open my ears to hear. There still feels like there is SO MUCH to learn and MUCH further to go but it is encouraging to be at this level. After the eval the whole community in Bisorio went fishing and to their gardens and we had a huge party to celebrate. I truly feel like they are my partners in this. I have observed a lot in my time with them. Some things are very encouraging and others raise a lot of questions. There is still a hunger from the women to know how to read and understand God’s Word on their own and how to disciple and come alongside the next generation that is being pulled and influenced by things their parents didn’t deal with. There is much work to be done but the Lord keeps reminding me to just be faithful with the task ahead of me and He will make it clear the next steps in the right time.

My co-workers who live mostly in the United States are never far away as they are willing to drop anything for a phone call. Please be praying as Bob, Noby and George will be arriving (Lord-willing) into Papua New Guinea this weekend for the next 6 weeks (we will miss you Harriet!). I am really looking forward to being together in Bisorio for a little season. The guys will be teaching a course on Ephesians, Bob will be checking translation on tons of Old Testament verses and we are praying that God’s Word will challenge their hearts - more on that to come.

On Monday, I came out to our missionary base here in Wewak for our annual conference. All of us living in the bush come out for a week of refreshment, to sit under teaching and to worship together. Each of us put together a 5 minute video of what this last year has been like in our neck of the woods and I wanted to share it with you. Rejoice with me in all that God has done. THANK YOU for being a part of the Great Commission, thank you for being a vital component in the growth of the church in this little unknown part of the world that the Lord cares deeply for.

LOVE YOU GUYS. rach