LANGUAGE SCHOOL Learning our first language is a natural process; we do it without even realizing it. Our mothers are our primary teachers and they love us and are very patient. Missionaries get the privilege of going through the whole process again when they move to their country of service. This second time around privilege is done with children and adult responsibilities included (it is a lot easier when we are toddlers). Spanish is spoken throughout South America, but each country is different in their vocabulary, syntax and idiomatic phrases. Each country will also mix its culture in with its local dialect. A message preached in Venezuela is difficult to understand in Argentina unless one changes some words and phrases. Some common words in one country are vulgar words in another that no Christian would utter let alone a preacher! Learning to speak a second language is a very humbling experience—one for which you should pray for your missionary. Due to politics, health, support or change of field, a missionary might have to go through this joyful experience multiple times. My wife has written about one of my many “linguistic laughable moments.” Learning another lan- guage is not always fun or easy, but it is interest- ing! Spanish is an easy language, linguistically speaking, to learn. It is a phonetic language where, unlike in English, the phonetic rules rarely have exceptions. Gram- matically, it is ordered and organized around the verbs, so once you learn the forms, you just begin to add vocabulary and work on accents. The most difficult for me is the subjunctive forms of the verbs. Arrggghh! I did not appreciate this aspect of the Spanish language until much later when I would need to learn the Ye'kwana language (Tribal Indian language of the Amazon in Venezuela). The Ye'kwana language is everything the Spanish language is not. Add to that the fact I have no language instructors or anyone around me who even knows what a verb is. The grammar is different in that the nouns are “possessed” and the language is built around the nouns. I used to say that the nouns were possessed all right, DEMON possessed! When we first arrived in Venezuela, my husband took the pastorate of Iglesia Bautista Number 1, 2012 BIMI WORLD 23