When?

A lot of people are wondering if we are leaving in January for language school.  That was our original thought, and it was the goal we were aiming for.  But it wasn't God's.

Before we get into the specifics of our journey, let me lay the foundation by telling you the general outline of how this whole language school things works.

Typically, if a missionary family needs language school, they head there first before the field.  Pretty obvious, you can't work and live very effectively in a place where you can't communicate!  Language school is typically a year of intense language study in a country that speaks the language you need to know.  Some of my friends who grew up in West Africa spent a year in France before they moved to Ivory Coast.  When heading to Latin America, people usually go to Texas or Costa Rica.

We will be attending the Spanish Language Institute in San Jose, Costa Rica.  This is a school that for over 65 years has been training missionaries for the Latin American field.  They have this down to a science, as much as language learning can be a science.  They have a preschool program that is all in Spanish and a Bilingual kindergarten through 12th grade school for all the missionary kids (MKs).  By the way, these photos are from ILE's website.  And rest assured, you will see more of the school once we get there.  I am not going to leave you hanging dear readers!

ILE (The Spanish Language Institute in Espanol) runs on trimester.  There is a term that starts in January, one in May and one in August.  New students start at the trimester break.  We have been preparing for the January term.  But in order for LAM to let us leave, we need to be a lot closer to 100% than we were when the application deadline came this Monday.  We had been praying that God would make it very clear one way or the other, and He did.  Monday we had 50% of our monthly support, which wasn't enough for LAM to release us for language school.

And we are very much at peace about it.  Which I think is because the Women Who Keep Me Sane were praying like crazy on Monday that we would be encouraged.  And we were.  In the last week and a half we have gone up 5% in monthly support, received over a quarter of the money we need to raise in order to build our house in Honduras and we also received another $1,000 donation towards our Travel and Equipment fund (the money that we will need to buy a vehicle, set up a household, buy plane tickets, get passports).

It has been very obvious to us this week that God didn't want us there in January, and yet He is moving still in the support raising process. And so we rest in that.  Rest in knowing that God knows so much better than we do.  And it isn't because we didn't work hard enough, or didn't do something we were suppose to.  Forrest and Elliot don't always know why I tell them no to something that seems like such a great idea, you know, like eating cake for dinner.  But they do know that I love them, and so most times they are ok with it...most times.

So now we are planning to leave for the May term at ILE.  Which means that we will actually leave in April, but whatever.  And as before, that's if God provides the funding in the right time.  But we are ready for whenever He says the word.  We all have our passports, everyone is caught up on shots, we have applied to ILE, have been accepted and there is even someone looking for a house for us to rent in San Jose. 

Would you pray with us that we would know God's timing?  We want to follow Him, not run ahead of Him.