Spread the Words--and the Rice!

Do you spend a lot of time playing games on the computer? Well, here's a new one that will make you smarter AND help feed people. It's a vocab game, similar to the one in Reader's Digest each month. The catch is--people get food when you get the definition to the word correct! One correct answer is worth 10 grains of rice, and it takes a short time to get to 100 grains, or one bowl. Check it out, it's a lot of fun!

BOTTOM'S UP!!: How to Go Crawdadin'

This weekend a few of us went up to Missouri for a little R & R. On Saturday, we decided it would be fun to go crawdadin'. Here's our little "How to" Guide, in pictures:

Step One: Go in the summer. The water is warmer.

Step Two: Flip over rocks looking for said crawdad.

Step Three: Discover a better spot down stream where you can spot them from five feet up.

Step Four: Decide when ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
(Can you spot the bottom-feeder fish?)

Step Five: Take them home.

Step Six: Let the big ones duke it out.
(What haven't you ever heard of Fighting Crawdads?)

And the winner is....HERCULES!!

Step Seven: Cut dem tails.
(This is not the proper LA method.)

Step Eight: Wash dem tails!

Step Nine: Fry and enjoy!

Good luck next summer on your crawdadin'!

Down at the River

On the Campgrounds

This is "The White Dorm" where I live. I've got my own little cell-like room to enjoy. I keep forgetting to take a picture of it now that there's stuff in it.

This is the building the Linguistics students study in.
Mom, here's the pile of broken wood. :-)

Cherokee with the Scrapers

Everyday, Monday through Friday, Nate, Justin, and I travel about 25 minutes to go see Junior and Eda Scraper. They have been faithfully teaching us Cherokee for 4 weeks now. It's been great getting to know them!

Eda, Junior, Justin, and me

Junior, Justin, and Nate after a language session

Verb Party?

Yes, we really are weird enough to have a verb party--and halfway enjoy it! We had to figure out the prefixes on the verbs as a group. It was...loud? We made a lot of headway, though we didn't finish the task. Our goal for the next two weeks is to continue with the verbs. Thanks for your prayers as we undergo this!

This is Justin the Seal. He's our entertainment. He's also one of the guys I work with for language sessions. Nate and I are in the background working in the corner the three of us claimed for our "office".

Maybe I was confused about the verbs? I don't really know...

Romans Party at Elm Tree Baptist

The Young Adults class at Elm Tree Baptist held a Roman's night for the church. We even had a "craft time" where we made Roman arm bands and crowns. It was a great time, and the young adults had put a lot of work into it.

Visiting the World's Largest McDonalds

Last week we made an emergency run to Missouri and got to stop at the world's largest McDonalds on the way home. We stopped and got a little snack to get us the rest of the way home.

You'll have to trust me on this one...this really is me, and it really is the world's largest McDonalds...and it really was 1:00 AM.

This is Elisabeth; we ventured out together...thankfully we made it home together also!

Time flies when you're having...

...verbs?

Our focus for the past week (and next 3) has been the verbs within Cherokee. We're discovering that you can communicate a full English sentence with only one word in Cherokee. For example, you can say "She will not be stomping" with only one word. We're getting to a very exciting point in the language, as we are now accustomed to writing it down and the sounds we should expect to hear.

I'll post more pictures soon! Thank you for your prayers!

Love,
Carrie

Surprises around every corner...

We got to go to a United Keetoowah Band pow-wow on Saturday. The Keetoowah are a tribe of Cherokee here in Oklahoma. These are only a few pictures of the 115 participants in the pow-wow. They came from all over to participate. It was great to be able to see a pow-wow.

We also were surprised with the presence of Chris and Ginger. They are in Tulsa visiting with family, and decided to drive over to visit us. Please be praying for them as they are waiting to hear if they will be receiving their visas in time to leave in January.

Love,
Carrie

Home on the Range...

Sweeping the Dining Hall

This is the size of our rooms!

It took us about six hours to get to Tahlequah, OK from Roach. This weekend will be full of cleaning and finding a language helper at church on Sunday. I'll be working with one of my classmates, Justin.

Please be praying:
-- that we will find a language helper that we can work well with.
--for us as we rely on each other for meals, cleaning, and bathroom sharing.
--families that will be adjusting.

Love,l
Carrie

Ooooooooooo-klahoma!

On Friday morning, our class is driving down to Oklahoma to begin studying Cherokee for six weeks. We will be staying at a Cherokee-run conference center outside of Tahlequah.

Until then, we are frantically working on "Kuman". Kuman is a language from Papua New Guinea. Our goal is to discover what the Kuman think they are saying, and to discover the grammatical structures within their language. This project is due Thursday morning.

Over the past few weeks, a few viruses have been passed around campus. As our minds are exhausted and our bodies following in exhaustion, would you pray with us that the linguistics students would not get sick? Our desire is to finish strong in this assignment this week, while preparing for our 6-week move to Oklahoma.

Thank you for your prayers!

Love,
Carrie

An Example

These two pictures make one white board of Northern Tepehuan non-action clauses. Northern Tepehuan is a language group from Mexico. Non-action clauses are sentences that resemble "This tree is tall." They describe the subject in the sentence. It took many different color markers and a few hours, but I was finally able to figure out most of the meanings of the words. Today I'm working on the action clauses: "You hit me."

Please pray that I will have a clear mind on this 3 day problem of Northern Tepehuan!

Love, Carrie

More Linguistics

This picture is all that we have learned in the past three weeks of linguistics. This week we will learn and review for two days before we begin the "Long Problems." We'll spend three days to two weeks working on long problems: Northern Tepehuan, Tomi Ksa, and Kuman. Please pray for our class as we begin this stress-ier time.
Love,
Carrie

Table Rock Lake

Our class had the opportunity to go to a lake house this weekend, and we spent many hours out on the water...here's a few pictures of it:

Caution Flagger: Man Down!!

Christin, Janna, and Tiff tubing

I tried wake boarding...but didn't make it up

That was the extent I was ever out of the water!

We had a great time, and tomorrow morning we return to our linguistics studies. (Technically, tonight...we have homework...)

Love C~

My new Apartment...Again

Welcome to my new house!! I finally have a place to hang my hammock, so I'm in it quite often. My door is on the left...come on in...The living area (from the kitchen)
The kitchen (from the living area)
There are two of us in the apartment. Please pray that we would communicate well with each other this semester and enjoy each other's company.

Indiana

Last week I left Louisiana for Missouri and quickly moved my things to a new apartment. Then I went up to my cousin's wedding in Indiana. We had a great time up there, and we're looking forward to the next time we're all together. This is (almost) all the cousins. We're missing three cousins for the picture. I made it safely back to Missouri--but not without stopping at a friend's along the way.
Tyler, Mike, and I were on a SUMMIT trip together a few years ago, and Mike married Ashley this summer. It was so good to see them again!

I'm back on campus now, trying to get my apartment put together. I'll put up pictures, once the boxes are gone!

Thanks for all your prayers,
Carrie

Vacation Bible School

Each night in our classroom, the kids wrote down things they were worried or scared about. We then hung them on the "Tasmania" bulletin board, signifying that they went "walk about" on Tasmania Island.
"Everywhere I look I see Your face": The kids did a great job singing on the last night.

Visitors!

This is my friend Blessing from high school. She and her family were in town for a wedding, and I got to spend a little bit of time with them. It was great to see you guys again!






My brother, Tim, was here on leave for two weeks and we were able to spend some time together. He has some pretty cool shades he got from the bank. :-)



Please be praying for our VBS kids and staff this week. Tonight is the fourth night, and we adults are starting to get tired! Sunday night the kids will have a "Family Night" and sing for their parents. We always enjoy that! Thanks for your prayers--

Love, Carrie

Summer in Louisiana

"Wow, it sure is hot this summer!"
...
"It seems likes it rains all the time!"
...
"I can't believe all the grass is dying!"

These are all things I've heard this summer in Louisiana--and every other summer since 1996! We Louisianians, for I am one so long as I am here, are always surprised that this summer is just like last summer. How easily we humans forget what just happened. Hot and humid--it's a constant for us, and we can always fall back on the weather to start a conversation.

But what about that other great Constant in our lives? Many times I find myself relying on the weather as a constant that I can talk to people, usually strangers, about. What would happen if I chose another Constant in my life, Jesus Christ, to converse about with people? If nothing other that strange stares, my life would change as I focus not on the weather and it's effects on me, but on Jesus Christ and His power in my life.


Update wise, I'm busy getting ready for VBS at Shreve City. It starts next Monday, July 9th. Please pray for our church as we prepare for these fun children. I've also talked to a few people in town about sharing in their churches this summer. As I'll be leaving August 9th for Missouri, that basically leaves July for sharing with other churches.

Happy Independence Day!

Love, Carrie

Goodbye, Pennsylvania

Maryland-Pennsylvania Border from High Rock, MD

Pappy at High Rock, MD

Elliot untying Pappy's shoes

I spent the week with Pappy Leckron this week. We had a restful time, and I was able to visit with many family and friends. We went up to Pen Mar Park, MD one day for a picnic and fed a few Appalachian Trail hikers. It was so fun to spend time in Waynesboro! Now I'm in Maryland with my brother, Tim, for the weekend.

Congratulations!

My cousin Casey and Josh got married last night here in Pennsylvania. It was a beautiful wedding, and fun, too! Have a great time in Rehobath. Love, Carrie