"What are you going to do with those voiceless consonants"?

That is just one example of a question that I asked Nathan this past week!

Some other conversation pieces may have included:
"Do you really think the nᵈ could be its own separate phoneme?  That doesn't really make sense, since it only occurs initially!"

"Oh man, I can't believe I missed 3 CSE's on the Pima Bajo homework!"

"The [i] palatalizes alveolar and alveopalatal consonants."  (Okay, that statement was actually made by our ling teacher.  I'm not that smart yet!)


So, you get the picture.  Basically, our lives (and our conversations) are filled with linguistics right now!

How was our first week of Ling?  It was really, really good!  Here are some reasons why:

• The classes are interesting to both of us, which is really an answer to prayer!
• Layla and Daisy have been amazing in the afternoons--playing so well together, so that I am able to do my homework right there in the kitchen.  Seriously, it has gone so well!
• Nathan and I have both been able to get our homework done (for the most part) by suppertime each day!  We know this won't always be the case, but we are so thankful for such an encouraging start to the semester!

Even though this is where I am spending every afternoon...

We have still had lots of fun as a family.  Time for being outside in the beautiful Missouri weather...

And even a bonfire in the middle of January!  Who would have thought we would ever do that?  Growing up in Indiana, I don't think I ever experienced that!  So fun:)

Thanks so much for your prayers, everyone!  Once again, we are just marveling at how gracious God is to us.  He is so good.

this thing called "ling"

This next semester, Nathan and I will be taking an intensive Linguistic training--otherwise known as "Ling".  A lot of our schedule will look the same as before...

• Kaine and Halle will still go to the public school in town (this is their last semester of that)
• Layla and Daisy will still go to their preschool childcare class here on campus
• Nathan and I will still attend classes every morning (from 8:00 to noon)

However, there will be some differences from our other semesters of training...

• We fully expect our minds to be consumed by this thing called Ling.  Our Ling instructor even told us in an email: "I should warn you.  After this class you will never think the same way again...You might even become a little nerdy."  Haha!  Awesome!
• We will have WAY more homework than before.  Actually, today a friend (who took Ling last semester) told Nathan that MOST days he was able to get his Ling homework done in 4 hours.  Other days, it was more than 4 hours, and some less.  Hmmm...

So, Nathan and I have been thinking about the upcoming semester.  It is a bit rare for both the husband and the wife to BOTH take Ling, but after prayer and counsel with respected staff, we feel this is the right decision for our family.

But.  Thinking through the logistics of it is tricky.  Just think, if we EACH have 4 hours of homework every day, how will that work out?

We are trusting God to help us be productive and efficient this semester as we tackle Ling, family life, and preparations for Papua New Guinea.  We are fully expecting the semester to be VERY. BUSY.

But that is okay!  Actually, this will be phenomenal training for our ministry in Papua New Guinea, because we know that our lives there will be very full as well.

All this to say...we appreciate your prayers as we will start Ling tomorrow!  We really want to get as much out of our training as we can, but also balance that with our family life.  Another focus of our semester will be to be more intentional with our kids in helping them to develop good habits of being in the Word.  We have been  talking with them about ideas of how our family can make it work (time for reading and reflection, and then sharing with each other).  We tried it out yesterday, and it went great!  So we want to make time for that.

 (our first day of "family Bible study")

And of course we want time to just have fun together as a family.  We know it will all work out, we just need to be intentional.

(These two are so AWESOME.  Love them!!)

With the semester being so busy, I will probably not be blogging as much.  I will update it occasionally, but it just takes time, you know?  I will try to do more with instagram, which I find takes way less time.  You can follow me:  @rachebethm.

We love each one of you!  We thank God all the time for how loved and supported we feel.  Thank you!

starting a year filled with "lasts".

One year from now, our family will be flying across the Pacific, headed to our new life in Papua New Guinea.  

How do I feel about this?

Amazingly, God is giving me a great excitement and joy in starting this journey.  This did not happen overnight.  In fact, throughout much of our training, I dreaded the days when we would need to start doing paperwork for visas, passports, plane tickets, etc.  I was always glad that we still had a few years of training ahead of us.

Now, we are down to one more year.  Our training is almost done.  And God has instilled in me a desire to be in Papua New Guinea!

Of course, I have always been on board with doing tribal missions, always been convinced that this was what God had for us--but still, deep in my heart there was a sort of dread to actually go.

I am so thankful that I am feeling joy and excitement now.  And I do realize that these feelings will come and go (it will obviously be very painful to say goodbye next year!), but I am just trusting the Lord to keep growing me and causing me to depend fully on Him.

So now, as I look ahead to this next year...I am very aware that we will be experiencing our "lasts" before we are overseas.  Our "last" Valentine's Day to go to our favorite restaurant on a date...our kids' "last" birthdays in the States, our "last" summer, "last" VBS, "last" Christmas...etc etc etc etc.

This is incredibly bittersweet.  It reminds me of the kids' book Let Me Hold You Longer by Karen Kingsbury (have you read it?  I highly recommend it--but be ready to weep while you are reading it to your kids!!)  It is basically about a mother focusing on cherishing her kids' "lasts" instead of always focusing on their "firsts".

This year, my prayer will be that God will allow me to cherish each moment--and that I can pass this on to our kids, too.  We want our kids to be aware of what our future will look like, and to be captivated by the direction that God is taking our family.  We want our kids to catch the vision of the amazing things God is doing around the world--and that they will be so excited to be a part of it!  But on the other hand, we want to be intentional with helping our kids to treasure moments here in the States before we go overseas.

Thank you for your prayers, dear friends!  We feel them, and we thank you for joining us on this journey!

wayumi weekend.

This past weekend, Nathan organized a guys weekend to Wayumi, out in Jersey Shore, PA.  

{What is Wayumi?  Just think AMAZING teaching about missions and what God is doing in the world--and how everyone can be a part.  Those who run Wayumi are New Tribes missionaries with a passion for missions and unreached peoples--and seriously, the teaching is just amazing.}

Click this link to check it out!

We have been praying for this weekend for months.  Our major prayer requests:

• That this weekend would be, first of all, God glorifying!
• That the weekend would be a great time of fellowship and of guys spurring each other on.
• We prayed that there would be a good group from our sending church who would catch the vision of what we will be doing in Papua New Guinea.

Well, God abundantly answered those prayers!  God actually exceeded our expectations for the weekend--Nathan said he doesn't think it could have gone any better.  Thank you, Jesus!

We want to extend a huge thank you to these guys who took a weekend out of their busy schedules to go to Wayumi!  And for the wives who encouraged their husbands to go :)  We appreciate each one of you so very much.  

God brought a verse to Nathan's mind during this weekend.  

Philippians 1:3-5:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

This is how we feel about these guys and the rest of our sending church.  We join Paul as we pray this about you all!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Christmas break post #2

More Christmas break pictures!  We are loving this time after the holidays--we are still in IN, staying at Nathan's parents' house.  Our schedule has slowed down a bit, and now we are just enjoying each day.  Although--I would enjoy the days a bit more if I could walk outside without getting frostbite!  This kind of cold is just nuts.  It really makes me excited for jungle heat :)

So, here are some more glimpses into our Christmas break!

We celebrated 13 years of marriage.  It is incredible to see all that God has brought us through in these 13 years--who knows what the next 13 will hold??  (Hopefully a tribal church plant, among many other things!!)

My mom took me and my girls to the mall.  It was so fun!  They have hardly been to a mall (I think Halle has once or twice)--so they really loved it.  Thanks for that fun day, mom!

We spent New Years Eve with many families.  It was a very fun night.  Always a highlight of our Christmas break, that's for sure!

(Nathan did a devotion for all the kids--a great object lesson that involved shooting rolls of toilet paper into the air with a leaf blower :)  Great job, babe!)

We celebrated this sweetie's first birthday...Happy Birthday, August!!

And we have been celebrating Kaine's 9th birthday!  This lucky kid has had 3 different "parties" so far--this one was at my parents' and he requested shrimp for dinner :)

And then on another night, we took Kaine and his two best friends bowling--these three boys are so great.  They get along so well!  We are so thankful for them!

Daisy also came along, which made it even more fun :)

Daisy was even up until midnight, watching a movie with us and the boys, and playing Nintendo 64 with them...so cute :)

I had a fun coffee date with my girlfriends and all of our daughters :)

And we had a really awesome time on a double date with Aaron and Jill.  Loved that evening!!

We had a surprise birthday party for my good friend, Jane!  What a blast.  Love you, Jane!  And thanks for planning it, John and Pam!!

And another fun evening with our friends.  These couples are seriously gifts from God.  We are beyond thankful for them!

And...some random happenings...

Nathan worked some days for his dad.  Here he is, working on the room they are remodeling in their house--the girls thought the nail gun was too loud :)

I actually worked out a couple of the days!  Ha, that is a first for Christmas break!  I got the girls to join me one of the days--I guess this is their "workout pose" :)

And...Nathan and the kids played in the snow one of the days--before the arctic temperatures hit Indiana.  Much too cold to do that now!

We will head back to Missouri on Monday or Tuesday.  We will keep you all posted...thanks and love you all :)

Christmas break post #1

We are so thankful that our training allows us a "college-like" Christmas break--we are able to spend so much time with our family and friends during these three weeks.  And we really MAXIMIZE our time here in Indiana...meaning, our break is simply packed.  But it is packed with a whole lot of fun!  And we think the fast pace is very worth it, as we will soon be moving back to Missouri to finish our training.  So we know our schedule will soon return to normal.

And really...we also have this lingering thought in the back of our minds...that just one year from now we will be heading overseas, away from our family and friends.  And at that time, we will be wishing for time to spend with family and friends--so we are just enjoying every moment that we get now!

So our hearts are full as we are here in Indiana.  Our kids have had lots of time with cousins...

And Uncle Aaron and Aunt Jill...

the annual scavenger hunt for stockings!

My dad continued the game tradition...here is the kids' favorite--Plinko!

Daisy thought it was pretty special to drink sparkling grape juice :)

We also have spent time with all of our grandparents...

Here are Layla and Daisy, displaying my grandma's beautiful pins that she used to always wear.  She gave them to all of the girls in our family this Christmas--it was pretty special :)

On Christmas day, we went to the nursing home where my grandma lives, to pass out plates of Christmas cookies.  It is such a neat tradition, and a really good experience for our kids!

that is Halle's doll, by the way!  Not Grandma's :) 

The newest Dolphins fan in our family :)

At the Steffen Christmas, the kids entertained themselves by having plank contests!  Ha...it was so cute!  Halle won--she did a plank for 5 minutes.  Her abs were sore for days :)

Kaine and Grandpa Dave, sorting football cards...

I love this pic of my bro-in-law, Kyle :)

Haha...Nathan's mom found some wigs on clearance after Halloween, so she wrapped one up for each girl.  Nathan enjoyed wearing it, too!

Layla and Daisy both got Boba carriers for their dolls--I LOVE seeing them wear their babies around!  So adorable!

Kyle gave Kaine all of his old Dolphins mementos--it made for one happy nephew!

Well, there is part one of our Christmas break!  I really regret not taking any pictures with Nathan's sister Jenna and her hubby, Adam--they were here for a week but returned to Mexico this morning.  Sigh.  Jen, we will have to remedy that in April :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!