A New Year

Hello everyone...

Sorry to be so delinquent in posting an update to our blog... it has been such a busy semester at CANIL. It has been full of homework, projects and language analysis. We are really enjoying the program and feel it is really productive. We are excited for all that the spring semester will hold but it sure has been nice to have a December break. We have spent a lot of time with both of our families in WA and CA, which has been the highlight. It has been fun and restful.

One of the highlights of the semester was learning some Karen (a language of Myanmar/Burma). We learned from two Karen women who have recently moved to Canada. It was a great experience getting to know them and putting our language learning and language analysis skills into practice. We had a few pretty snows, but overall it isn't that much colder than Seattle.

Beyond this spring semester we don't know what to expect. We don't have the finances to continue at CANIL and we can't go part-time since we only have study permits (not work permits). So we are praying about the next steps God has for us--we know He'll take care of us.

Brian and Jenn

It's a Sunny Day in Langley

This is me making blackberry jam while we were on break, visiting family.

Well, with our classes getting into full swing, we are adjusting to our new schedules. Our linguistic courses will be keeping us busy as we seek to learn some basics of the Karen language in order to practically apply the linguistic theory and language acquisition skills we are studying. We are both really looking forward to this as it is such practical realistic experience.

God has also given us an opportunity to lead a young adult ministry in our church here in Langley. We are looking forward to being a part of that and seeing how God will shape us through that as well.

We are doing well but miss all our friends and family. Pray for us to grow through these experiences, to have wisdom in ministry and balance, and to gain much from our classes.

September is here!

We have just returned to Langley to begin our fall semester at Canada Institute of Linguistics (CANIL) after a wonderful break visiting family. It was a lot of fun and very restful. We were able to take a family trip to Ocean Shores with Jenn's family including reading, games and sandcastles on the sunny beach. We also spent some great time with Brian's family in Castro Valley, including barbeque out on the deck and raiding the abundant tomato patch.

The summer session of classes went really well. We completed the 13 units of prerequisites required for the program in 9 weeks. It was a challenging pace but we learned a lot and made some great new friends within the CANIL community.

Our fall semester begins Sept. 6th so we are trying to get unpacked, catch up on our to-do lists, and buy books, etc before our schedule picks up again next week. After such a restful break we are ready to begin our new classes. We will be taking Syntax & Semantics, Language and Culture Acquisition, Field Methods: Data Management & Analysis, Research Strategies, and 1 course from the seminary, Exposition of Acts. The first year of the master's program will be more heavily weighted in linguistics, and the latter half will be more heavily weighted with bible and exegesis. We take the lingusitics courses at CANIL and the seminary courses next door at ACTS seminary.

Pray with us that this will be a fruitful semester, both in studies and personal growth. Pray that we will have wisdom in how we can be in ministry at our school and the church we are attending here in Langley.

Brian & Jenn

Update 6/1/07

Click on the picture to enlarge

And check out this video of our new place! Copy and paste it into your address bar. Sorry, the address for the video doesn't seem to be working all the time. You can try http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/brianwigand and check out the video of our new house.

http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/brianwigand/?action=view¤t=newhouse.flv