Studying languages

Learning languages just takes time–so much time. In the work of translation, obviously learning languages is going to play a critical role. I (Paul) am so thankful for this time that we have had to study the Biblical languages. Here at seminary, I have picked up some invaluable tools. I’m no expert, but I have learned some tools for studying the Scriptures in the original languages. This investment of time here at seminary has been laying a great foundation for assisting with  Bible translation in Congo. I’ve been here for two and a half years, but I have learned some things that I will use for the rest of my life.

Now the next step is studying French. Once again it means an investment of time. I am trying to get a jump start on our French studies, so I started watching American movies dubbed in French. We are trying to shave off some of our time in language learning in Europe by brushing up on it here. Time, time, time. . . thank you, God, for the chance to study!

Ironies

I think it is rather ironic that the address of this blog is paulfranklinmorgan, yet I’ve only written about four of the seventy posts! My wife is an incredible communicator!

Rooster Killin’

Similar to our last post, I would like to preface this by saying that if you are an animal lover then you might want to skip this post.

Recently, some church friends of ours were planning to kill two of their roosters because they were pestering the hens.  They said that anyone was welcome to come along if they were interested.  Well, normally, I would have put myself in the category of “not interested” but since I am planning to live in Congo, I decided that I should be more familiar with the process since it is probably fairly ordinary in Congolese life.  What a better environment to experience the shock?  People here won’t be surprised at me when I’m grossed out because I’ve never seen a chicken killed before.  In Congo, people may be surprised to find out that I only cook boneless, skinless chicken breast from the grocery store and that I don’t know where it came from.  So I saw this as a good opportunity for preparation for life in Congo.

Thankfully, Paul was also interested in learning the process.  And he learned by doing!  I’ll spare you the details…. I was just glad that he was interested in observing this too because now if we ever have to butcher a chicken for ourselves, then he knows what to do and isn’t grossed out by it!  So guess who will get to do it? Not me!

At the end of the afternoon, our host graciously sent us home with one of the roosters.  We cooked up some of it that night and I have to admit that I did have trouble separating myself from seeing it in the coop earlier that day.  But hey!  It was free range, organic chicken and a priceless learning opportunity before we move to Congo!

Mouse Hunt

On Saturday, January the 16th, we discovered evidence of small rodents in our apartment.  Gross!  We had just finished our regular Saturday activity of cleaning our apartment.  We cleaned the bathroom, caught up on laundry, vacuumed, mopped the floor, dusted, put clean dishes away, etc.  This was some serious cleaning!  But the moment we found this “evidence”, our entire apartment felt disgusting.  Little did I know that this was only the beginning.  The next day, we discovered that he ate into some of our food stored in the pantry.  Then while I (Laurel) was at work the following day, I discovered that he had snuck into my purse and nibbled his way into a bag of almonds.  He also left a  little more “evidence” of his presence in my purse.  I called Paul at work to tell him what happened and I was upset.  This little rascal had gone too far.  ”In my purse, Paul!” I told him.  Paul agreed with me that we were declaring war.  ”This mouse messed with the wrong lady” Paul said.

If you are an animal lover, then I would like to encourage you to discontinue reading this post.  The content may be offensive as desperate times call for desperate measures.

We then proceeded to set up 7 mouse traps staged at strategic points in our little home.  The first night, nothing happened.  A good friend that also recently dealt with a rodent problem gave us some good advice.  He said to grease up the hinge with some Pam.  Paul also really crammed the peanut butter into the little notch so the mouse would really have to work at it to get it.  Then that Thursday evening, we left our apartment fully booby-trapped while we had dinner over at some friends’ house.  By the time we got home, we discovered that we were successful!  One mouse down, any other takers?

An interesting side note is that I hadn’t lost any sleep over this matter, literally.  But the night that I saw his face, I then tossed and turned.  Up to that point, he was a mystery because we’d never seen him.  But seeing him made it so real to me that there was indeed a mouse in our home.  I dreamed that he crawled into my ear!  Yuck.  Thankfully, since then we have had no more catches as well as no more evidence of mice.  I think that’s the end of that story!  I also feel better prepared for life in Congo because we will probably have rodent problems there.  As a result, I have purchased a few airtight, mouse proof, food storage containers that we can hopefully take with us.

Christmas

As you can see, we had a great time with my Grandma Crannell and my immediate family this past Christmas.  In the picture, you see (from top left) my younger brother David, my dad, my mom, my older brother Brad and (from bottom left) Paul, me, my sister’s fiance Alec, my younger sister Dana, and my brother’s wife Sandy.  Then of course there’s my 80 year old Grandma.  We all met up at Grandma’s in Pittsburgh for the big day.  The day this family picture was taken, we all had gone ice skating in downtown Pittsburgh.  There, my sister’s boyfriend, Alec, surprised her by coming all the way from Ohio.  He met us on the ice skating rink and proposed to her after skating one time around together.  It was so fun that our whole family got to be there for this special time.  All the pictures are great too because someone in our family is in the background of every single one.  Like this one:

We are so excited for them!  I smile every time I think about it (and see this picture!)

Again, we were sooo thankful to get to spend time with family.  We got to spend a week and a half with everyone.  After Christmas, we drove to Ohio where I also got to catch up with several girlfriends.  I also enjoyed seeing Paul and my family continue to get to know one another better.  Since we dated and were engaged long distance, they didn’t get to spend much time together.  So we’re catching up when we can!  Some other highlights of our time with my family include: playing the card game Blink with mom and David, going to Zumba with mom and Dana, dad fixing my laptop, watching movies, playing ping pong, snuggling with my dog Duchess, eating Chipotle with the fam, swimming laps with Grandma, ice skating, Bob Evans with Melinda, coffee with Alisha, dinner with Katie, Dad’s dinners off the grill, visiting with Campbells (family friends), taking Duchess for a walk with Dana, Grandma cheating during the Game of Things, hiking in the woods with mom, Paul, and Dana…. I could probably go on and on.  Needless to say, we had a great time – one that we’ll cherish when we’re far away from everyone!

Laurel speaks about translation work in Ohio

In mid-December, I was invited to speak at my childhood church, Fairhaven Community Church.  The women’s missions group, called Alliance Women, had their monthly luncheon and had invited me to share about Bible translation in Congo.  I was so thankful for the opportunity because I know this group really has a heart, vision, and passion for seeing the Gospel shared throughout the world.  I really admire this group of ladies because of their creativity in being involved and in supporting missions/missionaries.  They just find ways to respond to practical needs and I would say emotional needs too.  I know they also stay in touch with missionaries; sending them cards and packages while they are away.  During my brief visit, they provided great food, asked all sorts of questions about Bible translation, showered me with encouragement and took me to their missionary closet.  They keep things there to give to missionaries when they are in town – like sheets, towels, kitchen items, stationary, house decorations, etc.  They are such a thoughtful group of women!  I am blessed to know them!

Thanksgiving

At Thanksgiving, we were so thankful to have the chance to drive down to Birmingham, Alabama to visit Paul’s oldest brother, Andrew, and his family (wife: Melinda and kids: Alena, Josiah, and Tabitha).  It worked out so we could drive down there with Paul’s younger brother, James, and his wife, Sarah.  They live in town with us and James is also studying at the seminary.  So it was nice to make the road trip together!  James and Sarah spent a day with us all in Birmingham before they headed on to visit Sarah’s family in Memphis.  While we were all together, we got to celebrate Paul’s 29th birthday and also his nephew, Josiah’s, 2nd birthday.  It was fun to celebrate together!

Then for the holiday, I got to try smoked turkey for the first time.  I guess it’s more of a Southern thing to smoke the turkey?  I’d never heard of that in Ohio!  But it was delicious.  Melinda is a great cook!  We had such a good time being together.  We are cherishing times like these while we are in the States and able to see everyone!

One Year Anniversary

On November 22nd, Paul and I celebrated one year of marriage!  We decided to treat ourselves to a weekend at Wrightsville Beach, NC (the closest beach to us – about 2.5 hours away) because when we’re in the Congo, we probably won’t be able to spend a weekend at the beach or in a cabin in the mountains or something like that.  So we took advantage of the opportunity and really enjoyed the weekend.  The beach was really quiet since it’s off season and our room had a beautiful view of the ocean.  We especially enjoyed waking up to the sunrise on the beach and spotting a dolphin in the surf!  This weekend was also a good opportunity to spend time talking about this past year and all that we’ve learned about one another.  We also spent time talking about this next year and all the changes we’ll probably experience – finishing seminary, leaving the States, spending time in Europe, and getting ready for the Congo!  Big changes!  We thanked the Lord too for bringing us together and calling us to ministry together.  We look forward to serving God as a team and are thankful for his direction in our lives.  We’re also thankful for all the people God has put in our lives that have positively impacted our marriage as well as our relationship with God.  As you can see, the weekend was a good time for reflection and thanksgiving!

The view from our balcony

Our Motorcycle

It’s been a while since we officially bought our motorcycle – sorry for the delay in posting a picture!  We bought our ‘95 Honda Nighthawk on September 24th and have enjoyed riding it whenever the weather permits.  We learned alot during the NC Motorcycle Safety Course and are thankful to have found a bike in good shape and for the right price so we can continue to get more comfortable riding.  Our primary goal in buying a motorcycle was to familiarize ourselves with a motorcycle so that it will ease our transition to life in the Congo.  Once there, we’ll probably ride around mostly on one of these little 2 wheelers.  Actually, our director in the Congo and his wife don’t even own a car.  They just zip around on motorcycles.  So that is our expectation for ourselves too.  In the meantime, we’re learning the basic mechanics and getting more comfortable on the road (even though we won’t be riding on paved roads in the Congo!).  We’re intending to fix up a few things on it and then we’ll just sell it when we get ready to leave.  So let us know around May if you’d like it!

For those of you who are uncomfortable with the idea of us on a motorcycle: Let us reassure you that we are exercising quite a bit of caution!  We are not riding the motorcycle at night or in any questionable weather.  We haven’t even gone above 40 mph yet!  We’re only riding around in the neighborhoods right around campus when we take it out for a spin.  So don’t worry!  And of course we do appreciate prayers for our safety if it comes to mind.

Posing for a picture - we do wear our helmets when we ride. That's our apartment in the background - we live on the right side.

We love riding our new motorcycle!

Motorcycle Safety Course

A few weekends ago, Paul and I attended the NC Motorcycle Safety Course.  The class lasted all weekend long, starting Friday at 6 and ending Sunday at 4.  We took the class primarily because we want to be more educated and more comfortable with motorcycles since we will probably be riding them in the Congo.  This class was just what we were hoping for.  They taught us alot about riding safely and we got to spend a lot of time actually riding a bike.  This is a great way to learn because it’s a low pressure and safe environment.  There were only 6 of us in the class and we rode around in an empty parking lot.  We liked being able to take it slow and ask lots of questions.  If we waited to learn until we got to the Congo, we would probably feel more pressure because it’d be like “Ok here’s your bike” and we’d just have to figure it out.  So we were thankful for this opportunity and learned alot!  And at the end of the course, we both passed our riding skills test!