A short commute

We are very grateful to all of you who prayed with us for God’s provision for housing here in Eugene. The house is very conveniently located just off campus. The daily commute for Becky has been ideal. Classes and her office are a short walk or a quick bike ride away. Thanks also for your prayers for us to find a faith community/church to be a part of.

• We are so grateful for the family who opened their house to us, invited us to their church, let us borrow things like ladders, and have been good friends to us.
• Becky was invited to be a part of a Graduate Student Prayer group each Friday, and we have also regularly seen several SIL colleagues who live in the area whom Becky actually first met in Nigeria.
• Sometime during Christmas break we hope to make about a 2 hour drive to visit another family who are colleagues from Nigeria; they are on furlough just a ways down the road!

Prayer points

• Our financial situation: we are looking for new financial partners to help with the increase in the cost of living. We need about $550 more per month. End of year gifts help, but monthly partnership makes our work possible. Pray and ask God how you might help meet this need.
• Our relationships during this time of transition to new roles and a new place and as we are far from family during this Christmas season.
• Hugh as he learns more about his job and working remotely.
• Becky as she recovers from one quarter and prepares for the next. Also, she'll be having her wisdom teeth removed on Dec. 20th. Pray for a quick recovery!
• Pray we find renters for our house in Dallas.

 

A short quarter

You can see from the stack of books in the first image above that there has been a lot of reading and processing going on at our house. Last Friday marked the end of the term... we are still getting used to calling it a term/quarter instead of semester. Becky has been busy - teaching, classes, grading, reading, reading, reading. Classes wrapped up last Friday with final papers and final exams. She is studying

• German - to meet one of her language requirements for the degree;
• acoustic phonetics - theory and methods for analyzing sound waves and the acoustic characteristics that distinguish one speech sound from another;
• and a theory of syntax (grammar) called Construction Grammar.

She’s been a teaching assistant for a class called Analytical Methods in Morphology and Syntax. It is similar to the course she took at SIL-UND her very first summer of training in 2001. Familiar material, but from a different theoretical perspective. She has also been processing some of the data collected when she was in Nigeria. Getting back in touch with colleagues there, finding out what work has continued since she left and what she can do to support the work there has also taken some of her time.
 
Looking ahead to next quarter, she’ll be taking another syntax analysis class from a functional perspective, continuing her German study, spending more time on reading and analyzing with a focus on Nigerian languages, auditing a precolonial African history course(for broader perspective on African language and culture), and teaching a morphology class to help undergrad students with complex English words (it’s called the Structure of English Words…. so far there are 116 enrolled!).
 
Did I mention that Becky has been busy?
 
Look for our January newsletter with more about what Hugh has been up to with his work for the SIL International Training office based in Dallas and the redesign of the SIL website.
 
And don’t miss the video attached below!
 

Why do we study linguistics?

Linguistic analysis helps us ask the right questions when doing translation.  This short video provides a great example.


Translating for Understanding from Wycliffe USA on Vimeo.

Fictional characters Christy and Kaiya work through a difficult Bible translation challenge. When cultural perspective changes the meaning of Scripture, the translation team has to work harder to make sure the translation communicates the true message of spiritual freedom God intended.

May you and your family have a joyous Christmas!