Back at It!

We're off and running with our summer intensive classes. Eric is teaching Doctrine 4 (the church and last things) with 11 students, and I'm teaching Counseling with eight students. What a difference managing a class of eight compared to having just taught it with 22! Also, what a difference to only have two cultures represented (Palauan and Chuukese) compared to the five cultures represented in my spring class. But, the best part for me, is the incredible opportunities this small class size allows for interfacing. As I type that word "interfacing," I am immediately reminded that that word would undoubtedly not be known by my students. This, actually, is my greatest challenge--to change my vocabulary. I have to laugh because it took me years and much education to acquire my vocabulary, and now, it is my greatest impediment to effective communication. One of my students who had Eric as his professor last semester, informed me that Eric has been more successful at adapting his vocabulary to fit an English as a second language population. When I brought this up to Eric, he articulated that he is forever running synonyms through his head as he teaches, scrambling for the clearest word. Maybe I should get a synonym finder book!

If you know us well, you probably already know this; if not, here is the exciting news: our son, Teyler, and my mom, Judy, will be arriving in Guam on July 3. They will be spending a month with us! Yippee!! We are all SO EXCITED. We literally have a countdown that records to the second how much time until their arrival. They will get to experience first-hand our work here, and we will relish our time together.