I’m so thankful for the time that I spent in Quebec. The Lord truly met all of my needs and exceeded my expectations. I praise the Lord that I never had to find my own housing in a hotel, and I had to purchase only two meals the entire 34 days. Since the churches are so small in Quebec (most have around 20 people, though a few had as many as 70-80), I was praying that the love offerings could at least cover my travel expenses. But as it turns out, the people gave so generously that the offerings were at least three times higher than my travel expenses, and there are still some gifts on their way! I’m also very thankful for the church and a young couple who promised to begin supporting me. Most importantly, I greatly appreciate the ministry I accomplished by God’s grace, the friendships I’ve established, and the prayer supporters I’ve gained. The people truly gained a vision for the worldwide needs of Bible translation. One Quebec pastor sent me a message yesterday saying that he sees my prayer card on the refrigerators of the members of his church. The people continue to pray. Praise the Lord!
I began the long trip back to the USA on Thursday morning. I drove 6 hours south to stay with the Claude Jutras family. I left bright and early on Friday in order to get back into Grand Rapids before the banks closed. I ended up missing my target by about half an hour, but I’m thankful for the safety and the good fellowship with the Lord that I enjoyed on the trip.
That evening was quite hectic as I had to unpack, do laundry, sort through the mail at the office, and re-pack for my trip the following morning, as well as find time to squeeze a supper in. I ended up finishing all those activities by around 1:30am on Sat. I was up at 5:20am to make final preparations for my train departure at 7:30. The Amtrak trip from GR to Chicago was uneventful and enjoyable, but the fun began in Chicago. I had to walk two blocks to the commuter train, but I never could find it. After lugging four heavy pieces of luggage around a few blocks on a hot and steamy day, I hailed for a taxi. The commuter train took me straight to O’Hare airport.
Because of bad weather in Chicago, we were delayed in leaving. The delay caused me to miss my second flight, which means I also missed my third flight. I ended up staying the night in Minneapolis and took a plane on Sunday morning to Grand Forks. So, after around 28 hours, I finally arrived at my destination, tired but thankful to be here!
I’ve learned much since I arrived on Sunday, both about the course material and about this program in general. The University of ND has outsourced their entire linguistics department to SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics). Though SIL is a Christian organization, they have to operate within the confines of a secular university. This interesting mix leads to a unique situation here. Though most of the 140+ students are evangelical Christian, some are not. Classes aren’t begun in prayer, and chapel is optional. There’s much more that could be said, but I’ll leave it at that.
My schedule is nicely grouped around the middle of the day–Translation of Texts at 9am, Typology and Discourse at 10am, chapel at 11am, lunch at 12pm, and Semantics and Pragmatics at 1pm. On T and Th I will be taking the students’ kids to the pool for a couple of hours; this is my work assignment to help keep the costs down.
Please pray that I would be salt and light here. Please also pray that my studies would not suffer too much as I take a trip to Chicago this weekend for my sister’s wedding.
