Limits

There are over 7000 languages.
My mouth is capable of make over a million sounds and I normally only make 44.
My how we limit ourselves.
God created all these (some of you may say we, mankind did, but He gave us the ability and capacity to do so)and speaks fluently to all people everywhere all at the same time.
I always picture God speaking English.
Oh how I limit Him.
These are just some of the things that I have words for, there is so much more happening in my mind that even with all these new sounds I am not able to express yet. Which in itself is a crazy thought.
I listened to and spoke in Russian and Jeh, and English and Phonetics, and a few other languages today.
I know much more of languages than I am capable of expressing vocally at this point.
My mouth and throat hurt, because they are being given a workout like never before.
Just when I think I have reached my limit we learn more.
All of this information just makes me want to learn more...
More language, more sounds, more ways of learning, more about God, more about people and why we talk the way we do and why we use one word instead of another.
Somehow by pushing the limits I have created new ones, which seem to be moving and changing constantly.

A Room With a View

This is the view from my room that I do not have to share with anyone here at the Mission Training Institute in Palmer Lake, Colorado. It is not the view I expected when I left California. I came here thinking that my two weeks here would be covered in snow, not so. I not being a huge fan of the white powdery substance am thankful for the lack there of. I am also thankful for the absence of a roomie. Thank you to those of you who were praying for that along with me. God was good and provided once again!

Many of you have asked what it is that I am supposed to gain from this time at MTI. Until last night I was not really able to give you a good idea. Now that I have been through orientation I can tell you that we will be spending a lot of time listening and speaking, though not in ways that I am accustom to. Mostly in phonics or in languages that are unfamiliar to those of us in attendance so that we will retrain our ears to hear more than the 44 sounds in the English language and our mouths to make these new tones and shapes needed to produce the sounds found in other languages around the world.

It is almost like we are learning a language in order to learn other languages.


It is all very interesting and if nothing else so far I have learned how to laugh at myself and others while learning to make new noises. A skill that I am sure will come in handy in my first few years in Italy.

You can continue to pray with me in these things:

1. Heath - I am getting a cold, which makes language learning a bit more challenging. As well as adjusting to the higher elevation of CO. Don't worry I have drank more water in the past two days than I had in the past two weeks.

2. Boldness - both in my language learning as well as in meeting all of the new people. I know most of you think of me as an extrovert, and while it is true that I love people, I have a hard time making new acquaintances in large groups. So I am forcing myself to go bowling tonight with some of my classmates.

3. Understanding - I long to be good at communicating in Italian with Italians, so you can pray that I will truly grasp the skills and tools being presented here these two weeks so that I can be as effective as possible as soon as possible in Italy.