Greetings from Lima.
Nan and I got back a few days ago and are ready to kick off classes tomorrow morning, the 22nd. We have 17 CILTA students from Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and the US (a woman married to a Venezuelan). It’s our largest and most diverse group ever.
Although our group is largely latino (two are Amerindians, plus the one “gringa”), they come from different cultures and backgrounds and it is always fun, yet sometimes tense, as people get used to studying together and largely living in close proximity. We’d appreciate prayer for a good start to the academic year. They will be in classes until the week before Christmas, Lord enabling.
Another part of the training we do is with TA’s (teaching assistants) who are former students of ours from years gone by. These people are in final preparation for heading into cross-cultural ministry themselves, so it is great to have them here helping to teach. This also gives them additional opportunity to learn and to be around Christian linguists who are hopefully role models for godliness and scholarship. We have four TA’s hailing from Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru and Chile. Pray that God gives us good relationships with these stellar young people.
Nan and I plan to travel to Pucallpa, a large town on the upper Amazon (actually the Ucayali) to scout out the site for our next CLAVE training course that begins in late October. Whereas the CILTA training mentioned above is aimed at native Spanish-speaking latinos, CLAVE is aimed at speakers of indigenous languages. Both courses deal with linguistics and literacy, but from very different points of view. At CILTA we are training future missionaries who need to learn a minority language and engage a new culture; CLAVE students already speak these languages and have grown up inas members of a minority culture. Most are involved as teachers, authors, or Scripture translators. Their training needs are very different from those of their latino counterparts.
We just completed the first CLAVE. It took place in Guatemala from late October ’09 to March 1 with four profs, a total of six TA's and ten students . The second one will be held in the Peruvian jungle during the same time frame one year later—late October through February 2011. Nan and I will be finalizing documents, budget, responsibilities and details for this course over the next few weeks, and we plan to visit for a few days to check things out.
We were able to be with family for a few weeks between stints in Guatemala and Peru. Molly is working and living with Elisa and Yury. The twins are healthy and into everything. Isaac’s band was offered a contract with a new recording company and they are in the midst of negotiating details. is a Christian band that plays mostly in non-Christian venues. You can scoot around on Google and listen to some of their stuff if you’d like. One of their songs has had over 100,000 hits. The guys would certainly appreciate prayer for their negotiations and the opportunities they have to play and live for Christ.
Thanks for your prayers and interest.
Wes
