Lost in Translation

I´m sitting in an international call center, which is soon going to be James´ business. He´s going to take over next week, Lord-willing. This will be a great change for him, as he´s been working a lot of hours with his other job. It´s pretty cool to see his initiative. Well, I´m going to try to help James fix a problem on the computer (all of the instructions are in English).

Yesterday was the last day of the trimester in language school. Holly graduated, and the kids had their last day of school. Where's my Spanish at now? That's a good question. I've undoubtedly learned a ton. As our grammar teacher put it, we used to have more "fluency," whereas we now balk at more difficult constructions instead of saying them wrong with impunity. Actually I have more fluency now than four months ago. I don't make mistakes too often with basic verb conjugations, and I can explain even more abstract concepts with effort.

James went with me to pick up our bus tickets for our first vacation, which will be to Manuel Antonio beach. It should be very fun for the kids, as their is a national park with many wild animals. To get a brief idea you could look at Manuel Antonio.

I've always loved ministry to international students. Here in San Jose we're starting to feel almost like we're back in Campus Baptist's int'l student ministry in Iowa. Our friend James has befriended Marco, who is Haitian, and Marcos came to church today and then over to our house for lunch. He speaks French, Creole, some English, and has picked up an amazing amount of Spanish in just four months here in Costa Rica. It's pretty exciting to see James ministering to others.

Marco, Lucas, and James

I went alone to La Casa de MANA (Ministerio A Nuestros Adictos) because Kevin was sick. I didn't have a lesson prepared, since he was slated to teach, so I just opened the time up with an invitation for questions. Que bueno! The guys had some good questions, like "What about those who haven't heard the gospel?" Every time I leave MANA I marvel at God's grace to me. Why aren't I in a drug rehab center? Only God's grace. Why did God bless me with the family I have? Only God's grace.

Spanish update: Well, learning a different language is a humbling experience. Sometimes I feel like I'm going backwards, like today in conversation class. Every time I tried to say something my mind went blank. Then I went to MANA, and I felt pretty good with my Spanish. At any rate, I'm making some progress.

Learning another language is a huge challenge. Lately we've been studying the subjunctive mode in Spanish, which involves the realm of desire, possibility, influence , etc. In English we just use the word "would" . . . I pray that you "would" do something Lord. Or, I wish I "were" a millionaire (only an example). But in Spanish we use a whole different verb conjugation for this kind of thing. It's actually pretty cool.

The only problem lies in the fact that the most useful things for a missionary to say (counseling, preaching, etc.) use a lot of the subjunctive mode. This can get interesting. Like the other day I was trying to counsel a guy named Alfonso, but my Spanish gave out (as one of my teachers says, "a linguistic collapse"). Or in conversation class we got into a great discussion of eternal security and election. I had to admit that my Spanish didn't quite reach far enough to finish my thought.

Hmmm . . . one other tidbit. Your English suffers when you're learning another language. I guess I'll never be a novelist in either English or Spanish.

Last week I purchased my first novel in Spanish. It's about a Chilean family . . . so far it's been excellent. Nothing like checking my dictionary every three sentences, but it'll get easier as I go. I've got over 400 pages to practice! Honestly, Spanish is a beautiful language and this writer, Isabel Allende, knows how to use it with the best of them.