Making plans for August

Dear friends and family,

It seems like July suddenly crept up on us, along with decisions about what to do at the end of this trimester of language school. This terms ends August 14 (Alden's b-day). We'd been planning on leaving language school and hiring a tutor to help us continue the journey toward fluency in Spanish. However, when we sat down and crunched the numbers, we realized it would be less expensive to enroll half-time at the institute. In addition, we've really wanted to complete the grammar curriculum at the language school, which we won't be able to by this August.

So, we'll be starting a new trimester of language school on Sept. 1. We'll take two hours of classes each day. Once we finish the grammar curriculum, which we expect to take another month, we'll begin focusing on translating. We've heard it's an excellent way to uncover weak spots in your language acquisition and correct them. Apparently, you really can't "fake it" in this class, or use circumlocution to describe what you're translating.

Andrea and I will be in class with one other fellow student from our grammar class now, Amy Lineburg, who is here with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We hope that class will begin at 7:30 am so Andrea can come back home and dive into homeschooling with the kids, while I head North through the city to La Carpio and get started in ministry! The kids will be home during these two hours or so with a maid/nanny. Andrea is really excited to get back to homeschooling the kids soon, and I'm anxious to feel productive in ministry again.

In addition, we're hoping to move to another home in the area that has another bedroom, and more importantly, two bathrooms (5 people + 1 bathroom = frequent emergencies)! In November, friends from the states are coming to stay with us and help us put together a fundraising video. Then, we hope in Dec. Seth's folks are going to come down and spend some time with us to avoid the ice and snow back home and volunteer in ministry here. So, the extra bedroom will be a blessing, too. We meet with the landlord of the other home on Tuesday.

Please pray for us that God would bless and direct our endeavours to find a loving "empleada" to care for the kids and do some cleaning or cooking while were in school. Please also pray that God will bless our move to the other home we've found and that everything would come together.

Don't forget, we love to receive updates from all of you on your lives!

Peace,
Seth (and Andrea and the kids)