A quick check-up

How can someone who currently lives in Colorado, come here to Alberta and check our language learning ability when they have never heard the language spoken before? We are so thankful to glean from the consultant guided program New Tribes Mission has set in place all over the world. George and Harriet Walker came to our home last week to check progress in both our language use and the daily use of our time. We had done some ground work ahead of time by filling out questionnaires etc. Our first day we spent a lot of time just sharing what we do each day, how things are progressing and where we sense problems. The second day we had a native speaker in our home and we would simply say words after him, which allowed George to hear if our pronunciation is accurate. There are a couple sounds in the language that we don’t make as English speakers, so we need to step up our practice of these particular sounds. There are also about three nasalized vowel sounds, which means you need to push air through your nose as you say them, this can often sound like a “n” sound to our ears, but it’s not, and needs to be said correctly. As a wrap up George and Harriet were full of practical ideas to keep us on track in our culture and language acquisition, (aka, CLA). Our main focus is language at this point, since culture is best understood in the Native tongue. One of the big area’s we are tweaking after this consult is our planning, we need to be much more intentional about what areas of language we are going to try to learn. We will be isolating simple parts of speech to keep things at a basic level. For example we will learn how to take a simple statement like “I am picking up the cup” and from there learn how to say “ pick up the cup” and “do not pick up the cup.” To make sure we are covering all the bases we need to cover at this first stage we need to really plan each time we visit the reserve. Of course as we seek to gain understanding of language, we will also continue to cultivate our current relationships, seek new ones, and stay aware of the unique culture as well. We will be making some other adjustments to our days as well. We also discussed

that in order to keep making strong progress in CLA we need consistency and fewer “interruptions”. This is an area we covet your prayers in as many “good” opportunities come our way, but these at times keep us from the work. It’s hard to explain all that took place in the intense 2 and 1/2 day consult, but we come away from the time feeling much more equipped for the task at hand. One thought I’m chewing on is that, as the organizer of our home I need to find more ways to bring the language learning into our home, since my amount of time with people is limited. Abigail and Ruth need to be more a part of this process as well, since this is the life God has called our family to, not just Joel and I, but all of us. This consultant check is usually done at about six weeks after the type of consult we had in February. Due to scheduling and other time commitments it was put of till now. The next months will be full of hard work and faithful study and we hope to pass our basic or level one check sometime early next spring. One final thought that keep us pressing on toward our goals in our situation, loving people means learning their language, it might not always feel like “love” but thats what it is love. In God’s grace we labor on, thanks for walking with us!

A busy labor day weekend...

In wanting to strive for more frequent updates, I was hoping to make it sooner than three weeks, but at least it hasn’t been a whole month. There are so many stories I would love to share with you, it’s hard to know what is best to write about. Our family has had some awesome opportunities to spend time with a family from the reserve, one night we had a cookout together and spent time just sharing life and learning. I had a few rejuvenating evenings with my “girls night” girlfriends, one who is back for the school year, and the other who was in town for a few weeks. Relationships are often a lot of hard work, but there are times when the reward of connecting with someone is a sweet savor. Labour Day weekend we found ourselves heading in two opposite directions, literally. After much planning and packing, we headed north (friday afternoon) to attend a Pow-Wow (see pictures). We had made arrangements to stay the night in nearby Cochrane at the Southern Baptist mission house/conference center, so we went and got settled in first and then drove to the

event around seven in the evening. It was held in an indoor arena, and we sat in the bleacher area, the floor below was covered in a green turf and at one end of the arena two teepee’s framed the entrance. Around the outside of the turf in an oval shape were lots of chairs and various drums. The drums are leather stretched over frames. For a while the building was somewhat quiet, with an announcer calling for various people to come to the entrance area and at times making jokes. All around the arena, dancers were getting into beaded outfits, hair was being braided, and we even saw someone burn sweetgrass around their head-dress. The drum groups (around 18) were also preparing. Each drum has about 10 people sitting around it who drum and sing together, (some people just sing). Finally the grand entry began, the host drum group began to sing and drum (see video on bottom-"Drumming"), and the arena filled with the sound, it seemed at times the seats were vibrating. The procession started with poles full of feathers being carried in, then came various flags, and elders from the community were also honored. Next the various types of dancers came in according to their category, the whole arena floor was full of color and movement and in many ways it was beautiful, and mesmerizing (see video on bottom-"Pow-wow Dancing"). After the ceremony was complete, the floor cleared somewhat and individual groups began the competition. We are not sure how long things lasted that evening, at about 10:30 our girls were in much need of sleep so we went back to our room. The next morning we packed up our things and drove to a local historical sight. It is an old Methodist church that was once used

by the people of the area. We then went back to the pow wow, this day started out the same way as the night before with only minor differences. There were a few people we knew and made connections with, but there were also many from all over Canada and the states. One of the winners I remember was from South Dakota. We won’t pretend to understand what all was going on at this event, we have much to learn and understand.

Though the event would last till late Sunday evening, we left Saturday afternoon to head the other direction.

We drove back down to Longview, watered some friends horses, picked up some more things, and kept driving south. Our destination was Camp Gladstone, for the final event of the summer activities, family camp. The evening session was in progress when we arrived, and with night quickly approaching I got our family settled into our cabin, while Joel stepped into help with the horses since someone had been injured while trail-riding (another story). After all my family was tucked into bed, I enjoyed some late-night fellowship around the camp-fire with the other night owls. Sunday we had breakfast, fellowship, and then a very encouraging time of hearing from the Word, followed by a potluck meal, then clean-up. Some of us ladies had time for a game, Joel went riding, the girls played in the dirt, (of course-it’s camp). The evening was spent in a great time of sharing testimony

and song. Night time, found me back at the campfire trying to prove I was still a night owl, but bed time did come a bit sooner that night. Monday we packed up and headed to Longview, to finish Labour Day at home. This last week has been life as usual, with a focus on preparing for our upcoming language check. Please keep us in your prayers this week, that we could get further direction and clarity in our language study. Trusting this finds you doing well, we love to hear how you are doing even if we don’t always respond immediately. Oh,and happy fall! Though the temps have stayed warm and the sun is still shinning, the wind lately has been singing the song of autumn, which means winter is not far away!