Stepping up

Gambles Newsletter                                    03/22/17                               Volume 3, Issue 3 Serving Cambodia through engineering design and discipleship A model of the final presentation that Chad was asked to review by some local architecture students.   Just before Miriam scored her first goal! We are renting a scooter to help with transportation back and forth to school.  This was the first test drive in our neighborhood. You've perhaps seen those funny translations where people have taken English, translated into another language and then back into English?  What you get at the end isn't quite what you started with.  We thought it would be neat to share a excerpt from a conversation between Nate and Chad speaking Mandarin (普通话) and Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ).  Neither one had any idea what the other was saying when we filmed it. Somethings definitely get lost in the translation! FYI - We haven't forgotten that some of you sent Chad birthday cards 2 months ago.  If we received it, Chad sent a thank you.  I know of 10 cards that we have NOT received yet. But on the flip side, we sent out about 20 postcards from here and have heard back from half a dozen people that they received them after just 2 weeks.   Baby Steps... It seems like everything we do is slow.  We are starting to understand more Khmer, but still can't speak well enough to have an entire conversation.  We know where to get some things, but still have to hunt to obtain other ordinary items.  We have made some friends, but not yet anyone we have really connected with yet.       Two Steps forward... Nearly two modules of language learning has been complete.  The amount of words and phrases that we now know is unbelievable!  Everyday we are taught nearly 20 new words and expected to remember them.  Most of the time only 5 stick, but we have been listening to Khmer recordings, radio and even the Bible.  Regularly we can pick up some phrases and understand a bit of what is going on. One Step forward... The kids are plugged into school, sports and friends.  The school has been a great blessing with wonderful teachers, good friends and lots of activities.  Chesna and Miriam are playing soccer, while Moses is on the volleyball team!  Nathan is doing great at Calvin College and starts Spring Break this week. Future steps... While we are officially not open as an office yet, we are making great connections with future partners.  Chad has met with a number of engineering and architectural students who could be potential interns next year.   We are still feeling the stress of transition and talking baby steps in our new home culture.  Please pray for wisdom for the many decisions that need to be made on a moment by moment basis.   Continue to pray for language acquisition.  Our next EXAM is THIS Friday March 24th, your THURSDAY. Please pray that we would speak well and remember our words. We are missing good friends and haven't yet established a network of friends.  Please pray that God would lead us to great local and international friendships! Thank you for praying for our marriage.  We are going to a "marriage intensive" next week.  It kind of like a marriage conference, but one on one and more counseling like.  Please keep praying that we would communicate well and have grace and patience with each other, espeically during these next several months when the temperatures typically get into the 90's plus the humidity. Miriam's Massages (or was that messages?) You know that kids say the darnedest things.  Here you will get a few funny quotes from our kids. "Did you know that one of the people in the Jackson 5 grew up to be a famous singer? Yeah. It was Michael Jackson!" ~ Miriam "I know why they call it Phase 10 now." ~Miriam, after playing the game for years. In case you don't know it's a game with 10 phases. Lol. "Your armpit still smells nice! What the heck!?" ~ Miriam after smelling Chad's armpit in the evening.  She's actually said this more than once.  I guess Chad has a sweet aroma about him. Moses' Corner Kick I go to a school that is big, so there are more sports. Soccer season just ended for middle school.  I'm bummed because I only got to play 7 games and I was hoping for a bit more.  Now, I've joined volleyball and played 3 games already.  My P.E. teacher said I was good and encouraged me to try out so I did.  Also the 3rd quarter just ended and I got A's and B's. I learned that going to this school is a lot harder than American schools.  Asian people take their grades very seriously.  I got 20 out of 20 on one of my test and I was the only one who got 100 on that test.  A girl got 19/20 and she said, "Oh my gosh I did so bad."  It is very different when you live in a different culture.