Basketball, Spanish and Power Outages

Hello,

Well, the day is coming when this entire post will be in Spanish but we´re not there yet! We are coming to the end of our second week of classes and our brains feel like they are on overload. Verb conjugations, vocabulary, slang, proper phrases, speed or not, and on and on and on. It is a beautiful language if you ask me though. I love it and I am so excited that we are learning though I wouldn´t mind having God touch my tounge and just allow me to begin speaking fluently! One of the coolest language experiences we´ve had so far actually is attending worship and participating in prayer in Spanish. It sounds so worshipful, so alive, so authentic. We´ve now been to the same church on 3 different days of the week and each service ended up being starkly different from one another. The first felt like a louder UPC, the second felt like more of a youth group or YoungLife format, and the third lasted 4 hours and was a bit more active than what we´ve grown accustomed to. Each one was beautiful and each one welcomed us with hugs, shared Bibles, and warm handshakes.

Today I got my first taste of Dominican basketball. It felt like I was playing with all of the dudes down at Greenlake. They played great ball. I think I was a dissapointment to the guys and the crowd though because the assumption was that as an American, I´d just tear it up. In truth, I think they loved that I played with them but I was definitely the subject of plenty of trash talk, jokes and conversation. Thankfully, I couldn´t understand much of it. Unfortunately, I also couldn´t understand much of what happened each time play stopped which was quite often. But, it was a blast and I felt glad to see more than just baseball!

A couple of new things we´ve learned:
1. Shade makes a huge difference and it´s worth walking farther if it means staying in the shade longer.
2. The power truly does go out at least once per day and it tends to be sometime between noon and 6pm.
3. Accents and pronounciation can make a major difference in the meaning of a word!

One other thing that we wanted to let you all know. Many of you knew that my sister Shannon and her husband Brandon were going to be moving down here in the Spring. But, we serve a God who often surprises us, and about a month ago, he laid it on their hearts that His plan was to have them work for COTN from the States. Essentially, Shannon will continue teaching at Inglewood and Brandon will work full-time for COTN, recruiting and training their summer interns. While we are sad that they won´t be here, we are excited with them that they are discovering God´s call upon their lives. We´d love for you to join with us in prayer for this new direction and change of plans. The full story can be found on their blog which is linked in the right-hand column.

I am sure that there is much to say but for now, be cheered that we are doing well and blessed beyond our needs.

Love,
S&K