2000-06-23

1st Week at MLC
Greetings from Richmond, Virginia!
We’ve had a very busy week (it’s difficult to believe it has only been a week), but today we have some leisure time to get caught up on a few things and we’ve been looking forward to giving our prayer warriors an update.
Life at the MLC (Missionary Learning Center) is centered among some beautiful rolling green hills of Virginia with temps ranging in the 70-80’s. We do not miss those hot Texas temps! There are approximately 150 adults in training and nearly as many children. The children are in a separate teaching facility 8:00-3:00 and the families are pretty much encouraged to be with their children the rest of the day & weekends. A wide variety of folks are here. Many are career missionaries preparing to return to the field, many are pastors with family’s fulfilling their long time goal after years of seminary and pastoral ministry here in the states, some are young single journeyman, and many are like us – middle aged laymen.
Part of our training, consists of living in the community as responsible citizens and good neighbors. The housing consists of quad units with a central living/den area. It’s more like 4 apts with a center room. Our personal living space consists of a small kitchen area w/frig, sink & dinette, a utility area with our own washer/dryer, a bath area and a bedroom. Amazingly, once we close the door, we have the privacy similar to apartment living.
This Wed – Fri consisted of introductory material and familiarizing ourselves with the facilities. Our training will begin Monday. We will hear Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board (IMB), speak on the amour of God. One of our immediate assignments was to choose a team to serve on. Jackie chose the computer team (isn’t that a surprise) where he will help introduce Microsoft Word to those without computer skills. I will serve on the prayer team, leading a team of twelve.
I haven’t missed cooking and doing dishes yet, but I didn’t do a lot of that anyway with all the transition of packing and selling our stuff. The food is good, although it’s like a buffet that temps me to try it all. At each meal, we sit at large tables in the dining hall and meet new folks, hearing how they ended up here also. Thirteen different regions are represented and we will all be scattered around the world for the gospel of Christ when we go our separate ways. On Thursday, we had an informal ceremony where we each introduced ourselves and placed our photograph on a large (15’ X 7’) world map on our targeted destination. Awesome! We are the only ones going to Taiwan, so our picture hangs alone in the deep blue sea. What’s chilling is to see the many folks called to serve in China and remaining 10-40 window. Our Lord is moving in a mighty way to spread the written word among un-reached people groups.
The library is amazing, and we each have a study desk in a large quiet area of the library with a recommended reading list for our country. Videos, tapes, cd’s, books and magazines are there for us to study about our people group and region. I think I will try the children’s books first – to get a simple glimpse at things. We found an English/Chinese picture-book we can purchase. For instance, I can point to a photo of a policeman, a donut shop, or bus stop and be able to communicate with the Chinese. The couple in the apt next to us has some great tips and we plan to meet with them and learn from them. They learned basic Vietnamese within a week from a method he wants to share with us. That cut our language anxiety level in half after visiting with him.
We received our first series of shots Friday (Polio, Hepatitis B, & Japanese Encephalitis). We will receive shots twice more while here and then need a few more after arriving in Taiwan.
We will try to give an occasional (shorter) update while we are here.
Please pray:
We have teachable & quick minds.
The contract on the house didn’t work out, so please pray that it will sell at a fair price before we leave the country.
We need a buyer – the 95 Prizm is still for sale
There is a glitch in our Visa, we are now attempting application with a different consulate & a different type. Please pray it go swift so we can depart as scheduled in Sept.
Jackie’s mom is recovering well in Baylor Dallas after have a graft in her leg (groin to ankle) in an effort to improve the circulation in her remaining leg.
Love,
Jackie & Fran