Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20to such a place as Caronport, SK if we were willing to move to Thailand. The very next day, when I looked at the cccu.org site, I saw a reposting of the position at Briercrest. I emailed Erin and said, guess what? So I applied and it seemed that similar ways of God leading were also happening at Briercrest. They believed that the right person was not yet ready to apply when the first notice went out—which was true. The story continues, but I’ll just say that we came to visit in May, expediting our passports, and discerned a confirmation that this is where God was leading our family. Since that time, there hasn’t been a day of doubt in His leading us here. When did you discover your love for languages and how did that develop? It is hard to point to one thing specifically. I took German in school, starting in grade seven and loved singing German songs in class. In high school, I read a book called, Called to Die, which doesn’t sound like a book you would choose for inspiration. But it introduced me to the reality of many languages around the world and that many of them aren’t written and don’t have access to Scripture. I was fascinated by this and became interested in linguistics as a result. As I have learned more and more about the linguistic context of language communities around the world, I believe very passionately that learning languages is one means of expressing humility, love, and a desire to reconcile any past instances of aggression or domination, especially in the name of Christ. This is why, when I first came to Caronport, one of my hopes was to learn the Cree language. I was able to take a Cree class along with Erin at the Moose Jaw library during the fall and enjoyed the learning and the relationships immensely. Which languages do you know? I have learned Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, and Lao, though I don’t speak Bahasa Indonesia as much now since I haven’t used it a lot since 2002. I am currently teaching Thai. I also learned some Tagalog (Philippines), some Manado Malay, Khamet, and Hmong. I have also been exposed a little to Sunda and the Minahasan languages of northern Sulawesi in Indonesia. I learned Greek in college and studied German when I was younger. As I mentioned, I have just started learning Cree and am excited to be able to learn more and hopefully become semi-fluent. It is hard to remain fluent in many languages unless you live in a multilingual context and are able to use them to varying degrees every day. How have you seen God work through your passion for languages? Language has great potential for building bridges when it is approached in humility, love, and desire for relationship. It can break down the concept of the “Other” as one 18