Language School

This question is for you missionaries out there. Is there a language school for you in your country or service? Was there one there when you arrived. How long did you spend in study until you preached your first message?
I have been in Sri Lanka for a year and a half. This country is very new to Biblical Missions and the Gospel message. Sinhala is only known to the people of this country. We have no formal language school here. The British Counsel just recently started Sinhala classes, but they are very, very basic. We are at the point of trying to find a good, language tutor. What we have learned, we have learned our own. Three of our four kids can read, write and speak Sinhala (speaking is very basic). My wife and I can both read, write and speak (speech is very basic). I will be attempting to preach my first sermon tomorrow in the Sinhala language, I would appreciate your prayers, as this is a big step of faith for me.

As some of you may know, Biblical language is very different from day to day language. I feel like I am learning two seperate languages. Pretty hard for an Ole Jar Head.

 

Well, it went for ten minutes, Amen. It took three days of preparation but I got through it with only one word mispronounced. You should have seen the look on their faces, they were so pleased and excited for me. I am going to try it again next month, I will see if I can speak longer. It is hard with out a solid school to learn from, so we do what we can. Not many are trying to learn the language, it is probably out of frustration, especially when words change constantly over here. Already there have been words I have learned that they are not using anymore. We have Old Sinhala, which is spoken in the villages, we have new Sinhala, which the youth is learning, we have High Sinhala, which the rich and politicians use and we have Sinhalish, a mixture of English and Sinhala. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Anyway, I believe that the sun will rise tomorrow and it will come together, sometime before the trumpet sounds.