From the K Family in Southeast Asia Mainland: “We're starting to feel like we're making some progress here in our language and culture study, but we certainly still have quite a way to go. We've been encouraged by some of the relationships we've been able to start investing in, challenged with our inability to communicate clearly, wrestling with balance between work and language learning. We are so thankful for the people God has put in our lives here, in [North America] and in other parts of the world.

“We are progressing well in our language and culture study. We [have started] phase two of our language program. As we begin a new phase of language learning, our studies will get harder. This will change our studies drastically as we not only will be speaking more, but we also will be taking the lead more in our classes. We will have more responsibility and need to take initiative to learn.

“[Here are some] recent highlights. We've learned our numbers, which has been extremely useful when shopping in the market. We get it right about half the time. The market is also a great time to see culture play out. So much of life happens in the morning market. We have learned over 800 words. Some we know better than others, but this is a good foundation to work off as we move forward. We are able to say simple sentences like ‘What is that?’ ‘How old are you?’ ‘What is your name?’ ‘I am holding chopsticks.’ We've been intentionally making notes of things that we see people do and say. There is so much about life here that we do not understand, but we are desiring to know more every day. Pray for perseverance and encouragement on the difficult days. Pray that we would be able to make strong relationships here.”