Building my Character

My parents say, “what doesn’t break you, only builds your character.” I don’t plan on going home broken!

As I write this we’ve been in Paraguay for one week, and I can honestly say I overall am thoroughly enjoying myself. This is not to say, I haven’t been frustrated when I don’t understand a sentence after it has been broken down to the “Nth” degree, or when I can’t even understand a 5 year old. It’s humiliating! But I can’t explain how happy I feel every time I say a complete sentence that people don’t need to correct, or ask me to say again. Or the best is really when I think of what to say, smash all of the Spanish words together that I think I need and struggle through the sentence, 30 minutes later when I finally finish my sentence, the person I’m talking to asks Craig, “what did she say?” Yep that‘s really the best. J (insert sarcasm here) However, as difficult as it may seem sometimes, I think that it is maybe better than I’m coming to Paraguay to teach English and not be fluent in Spanish myself---empathy.
I will say now, those of you who are planning on coming down for Mennonite World Conference, be gracious with the new English speakers that will be helping with the convention! The Radical Journey group met with the Mennonite World Conference persons today at their offices and talked about why our role is important in this conference. It really connected the picture for me that we are not in Paraguay to specifically be apart of a program, Radical Journey, but to assist in the communication between Mennonite persons in Kidron, Ohio, and persons in Asuncion, Paraguay-- to help somehow bridge the language barrier, and in doing so give those persons learning English a gift that will surpass World Conference --the ability to communicate in a new language.


Much more to come, thanks for your prayers of support.