From John

John wrote:

Today is one of the hardest...

Wow, talk about a coincidence. Just as I started one of my rare posts, and I typed the words above, Parker came in our room crying. It's 9:30 pm and he has been asleep for about 2 hours. But his headache woke him up out of a dead sleep causing him to scream from the pain.

As I was saying, today was probably the hardest day I personally have had since we have been here. Kids are sick, Jessica is sick, I'm sick, I have a test tomorrow, we have to make the choice between keeping up with Spanish or staying home with our kids, cleaning up vomit, washing vomit filled cribs, cleaning up vomit glazed Avery. When I went out to take care of Parker, I found a bucket of vomit that we forgot to dispose of. You know things are out of control when disposing of a vomit filled bucket falls to the bottom of the priority list. But let's move on.

Learning Spanish is getting really hard. In my grammar class on Friday, I actually teared up out of frustration. If I wasn't sitting in the front row and my teacher wasn't right in front of me, I probably would have broken down and started crying right there in class. Up until the middle of last weeks, I was able to keep up and grasp everything, but Friday, I hit full capacity in the brain tank. On top of .... HOLD ON!!!

Sorry, I'm back. I had to put the computer down, because Parker and Avery were in the bathroom vomiting at the same time. Jessica went in to check on Avery just in time and took her to the bathroom and held her over the sink. Then Parker came in and made good use of the toilet because the headache pain was so grand that it made him vomit. 2 kids at one time - that's a first in the Pham house. Not a first to be proud of, but definitely a memory.

Anyways, what makes things challenging for me is this underlying urgency to learn everything all at once. Everyday that I don't know how to speak coherently in Spanish is one more day I can't present the Gospel to someone. So there's always this huge question going on in my mind. "Do I learn more verbs; should I take a break on the verbs and learn nouns; do I learn spiritual words first or everyday vocabulary; should I be learning Scripture, like the Roman Road; should I learn my testimony in Spanish." All of this on top of the daily homework and tests that we have in school.

I have never had a problem with prioritizing my work. Even when I was an engineer or a construction project manager. A myriad of projects and tasks needing to be done at the same time. Millions of dollars worth of construction to be managed. But no task has been as important as learning a language to be able to bring words of life to the lost. Every word we learn is a potential word of life to those around us.

But the huge blessing that is coming out of this is that I am becoming painfully aware that sometimes I have made the Gospel of Jesus Christ much more complicated than it needs to be. Because, all I need to learn to say in Spanish is that, "God loves us, Jesus died for us, He rose, He offers us forgiveness and fellowship with Him, and He wants to transform our lives."

Please pray for us as we take care of our family, learn language and learn what to learn first.