One major aspect of our life here is the never-ending challenge of learning the french language. I know I’ve mentioned our language-learning so many times that I sound like a broken record.  But, truly, Andy and I have had to become accustomed to the fact that it is actually part of our job to simply talk to people!

Here is Andy with his friend, S*mana. They meet about four times a week to discuss Bible stories, local issues, and share life.

We heard that it takes 7 years to become fluent in a new language. Wow! We still have a long way to go if that statistic is correct! However, now that we are “functional” and can pretty much make our way through most any conversation, it is tempting to want to stop learning and simply say “well, that’s good enough“. Our challenge is to keep going. Not give up. Press on!

Our goal is to teach and train others, which means we can’t stop learning. So we schedule regular meetings with our local friends to hang out and talk. We are thankful for the patience of our local friends here – we couldn’t do this without their help!

And the beautiful thing is that not only do we achieve a greater understanding of the language, we create friendships along the way.