Upcoming Events

What's next? Here's a brief outline of what we're looking at in the next few months:

1. American Association for Applied Linguistics conference: March 21-24. It's being hosted in Denver and there's over 600 different sessions going on over 4 days (this Sat-Tues) and we're looking forward to learning lots! Pray that we'll pick the right sessions to go to that will benefit our work.

2. Participatory Methods Training: March 28-April 4. We are excited to have a convergence here of SL surveyors and soon-t0-be surveyors, people about to head to the field to work on translation, and our trainer coming in for a week to give us some new ideas about survey methodology through a participatory method strategy. We'll have 8 participants, 2 interpreters, and 1 trainer. Pray for us as we coordinate logistics beforehand.

3. We have another surveyor joining us for a short-time! She will be arriving here for the Participatory Methods training and, if all goes as planned, will stay until October (and possibly longer) to work with us on sign language assessment.

4. Chile, in May. While Jason works on the Paraguay report, Liz will be getting things pulled together for a survey stint in May. They're already interested in translation in the SL of Chile and are eager for us to come help survey the country. Pray we get all the necessary background research and ground-work laid in the next month and a half. It seems a bit fast following Jamaica (and is), but one of the main reasons we are pushing it a bit is because we're headed to...

5. UND in June to August. Jason's going to pursue finishing his MA in Applied Linguistics at the University of North Dakota. He has identified a very useful thesis topic and hopes to complete the degree by summer '10. That takes us back to Grand Forks, where I will either be teaching Intro to Sociolinguistics or Survey Principles. That decision will be made later this week, please pray that I'll take on responsibility for teaching the right class.

Wonder what our coworkers/interns are doing and how you can pray for them?

• Christie - She'll be doing her first analysis and write-up for the Jamaica survey. Pray for her as she works through this for the first time. She's also thinking about whether or not to work as a TA and take a class at UND. Pray for her for wisdom in this decision.

• Holly - She'll be analyzing and writing-up the Honduras survey that she and Julia are currently on. Pray for them as they finish up there this week and that she'll be able to work fast because the plan right now is that she'd also being joining us in Chile.

• Julia - She'll be preparing for fieldwork in El Salvador. Pray for her as she's juggling some family needs, Asia Area needs, her MA thesis, and this internship.

And there's one more! Can you believe how God is working?!?

• Dannah hopes to join our survey team this fall. Pray for her partnership development during this time - that the right churches, groups, and individuals would join with her in prayer and financial support. Also pray for the logistics as she looks toward being assigned to the Americas Area. We're looking forward to her arrival!