Imagine hanging up the phone like this: “Good bye! I’ll talk
to you again in a few months.” We had a
mini 2-week ‘taste’ of this: Practical Skills/Simple Living class, during
which we cut ourselves off from modern conveniences .
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| Making flour tortillas with daddy |
- We practiced ‘supply buying’- ordering our food
for the next 2 weeks via radio, having another team purchase our supplies for
us. We likewise shopped for a different team. - Scratch cooking only- no kitchen appliances
(incl. microwave, coffee maker, bread machine, kitchenaid, crock pot…), no
prepackaged, instant, or processed foods. - Internet and phone use: 1 hour per week (and no
social networking, shopping, or recreational internet usage). - Limited electricity: At 8pm each evening we had
to turn off every light and rely on candles/flashlights.
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| homemade soft pretzels!! |
feel like to be out of touch with family and friends- both from the lack of
face-to-face contact, and coming out of a culture so deep into instant social
networking. In all honesty, it’s already been difficult over these years of
training to be away from ‘home’- it is tempting to feel like we are forgotten
about since we’re not there (and we’re still in the States with phones and
internet!). We’re increasingly aware of the need to be encouraging each other
as the Body of Christ and praying for one another. Challenge: Contact a
missionary, or even a long-distance friend/family member! It will encourage
them!
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| ready for our Practical Skills Outing! |
In mid-October, we had a Practical Skills Outing (not a Family
Fun Center type of “outing”, in case you were getting excited)… a wilderness
camping experience. We used a compass and a map to locate our campsite (aka: random spot in the woods), and built a shelter (waterproof, ‘warm’) with tarps.
Noe built a fantastic shelter (see photos), and we spent three chilly nights there with some of our classmates, with classes (i.e.
knife sharpening, chainsaws, chicken butchering, etc.), and cooking our meals over a fire. We also experienced some likely
on-the-field scenarios, such as no power or no running water
for 1-2 days.
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| working together to build our shelter |
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| the completed shelter! |
Our Teaching Considerations class reminded us that the way
and the method we use to teach Biblical truths in our Western culture may not
connect at all with a tribal person’s culture and context!
fact that learning language is NOT sufficient for translating and teaching
God’s Word in a way that the people will understand! A teacher of the Bible
MUST understand the culture, beliefs, behaviors and motivations, and influences
of the people being spoken to! We risk losing the connection if we do not
consider these significant barriers to understanding and meaning!
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| The birthday girl!! (aka “Cinderella”) |
- 1.5 months left of our training! (Then next semester’s Linguistics course for Lisa)
- 1 year from now, we anticipate having just moved to Seattle to prepare for the field!
- Jocellyn turned 3 on November 2nd!
- We have finished developing new photo cards! Expect newsletters and photo cards in your mailbox (yes, your real mailbox) soon! If you’d like extras to share what we’re doing with others, please let us know.
- We will be IN SEATTLE for Christmas break! Would you or your small group be interested in hearing from us/getting involved? We will be in the Northwest from Christmas until mid-January.
hey we miss you dudes. pray that we make it mtc this coming year. and make sure we are on you r mailing list. mac.kara.pratt@gmail.com
I forgot about your blog, it's great to connect to it. Cute kids, but Noe, man you need a bigger back pack 🙂
Buzz
Cannot wait (well I really can and must) to see you!
Such a a helpful and informative post, Lisa and Noe. Thank you! You already know that this Grandma was very much missing our "irregular regular" texts and emails and phone calls, but I am so glad for the reality experience you all had. And I am challenged today to contact several missionaries per your counsel. So–did Lisa stitch up Noe's cut finger? 🙂