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Congratulations Adrian for guessing correctly! And Hannah, you were close. Farsi (or Persian) is the national language of Iran...but Iraq is Arabic. Now, why I posted that in the first place. On Sunday morning, our assistant pastor asked us (Sarah, Mary, and Susie) if we were available the next day (Monday, yesterday) to help an elder of our church teach an English class to Iraqi refugees. Mary couldn't because of her babysitting job, but Sarah and I said we would do it. All together, we were working with five women and one man. (One of the reasons our pastor asked us to help: we were female, and so the ladies would be more comfortable.) Our head pastor's wife was also there to help. There were three ladies from Iraq, one from Lebanon (who spoke Arabic, although I'm not sure if that's the national language of Lebanon), and one from Russia. (she was from Russia, but had lived in Uzbekistan for a while.) It was exceedingly helpful that they all spoke the same language, even the Russian woman who knew a little English and a little Arabic in addition to her native tongue. However, none of us knew any Arabic, so it was definitely an adventure. We went over basic English words (table, chair, girl, etc.) and also the correct use of 'this' and 'that'. Some of them got it right away, but some of them didn't. It was really fun to see the hypothetical light bulb turn on when they understood. It was also exciting when all but one of them understood, and then the other four would explain it to them in Arabic. All four, at the same time. :) We then explained to them (with the help of visual aids) how to call the doctor/dentist's office to make an appointment, and how to refill a drug prescription at the pharmacy. One thing they had a lot of trouble with was their birthdate, which as you know, is required by the doctor. They were confused because in Arabic you write the day first and then the month, (which I think makes more sense, anyway) and because they knew the names of the months but not what number they corresponded with, and they wrote the year backwords. If they were born in
1969, they would write 1996. I have no idea why they write the last two letters switched and not the first two, but they do. They also had trouble saying the numbers (like, they would say "November twenty three instead of November twenty third and they would say one-nine instead of nineteen) They knew how to read English fairly well, which is surprising considering how different it is from Arabic. It was really fun to watch them write, because they wrote in Arabic and they wrote from right to left. We also had to teach them how to make the sound a 'p' does because there is no sound like a 'p' in Arabic. They didn't know how to make the sound at all. Sarah and I had a lot of fun. The ladies would say something in Arabic and then laugh. and laugh. and laugh. We would laugh, too, even though we didn't know what was funny. The elder from our church who teaches the class plans to do it all summer, and Sarah and I are planning on helping whenever we can.

What is the national language of Iraq? When someone guesses it right, I will write a post explaining how it has anything to do with anything right now. If your last name is Zeglen, you are officially disqualified because I already told you. If you google it first, that is cheating. Unfortunately, I can't catch you googling it, but if you can live with yourself after I told you not to, then I guess I can deal with it, too. Asking family members is not prohibited, but discouraged. (Esp. because none of mine knew the right answer.) :)

She did inspire me. While she was looking over my shoulder, Caroline saw my blog. And the picture of SJ laying on the garage floor looking dead. She was perfectly fine with the fact that Sarah appeared to be dead. In fact she asked if she was. Mary and I explained that no, she was just laying on the floor and there happened to be red paint there. (we didn't elaborate further and explain that SJ had wanted to look dead. we thought it wasn't necessary information.) She then asked "oh, so she wasn't praying or eating or going places?" We said no, that she wasn't right then, but that when she got up she did. She nodded, as if satisfied. When I remembered this, the first thing that struck me was "wow, she mentioned prayer first." Her parents are not perfect, and they don't pretend to be. Right now, they are even going through some rocky times in their marriage. Caroline is completely unaware of any of this. But even unconciously, she is learning from them that prayer is important. Other times I have talked with her and she has asked me if I had Jesus in my heart. Without even waiting to hear the spiritual state of my heart, she proceeded to tell me how amazing He was. "...He loves you and me and he comes into you when you ask. And He never leaves. Sometimes Mommy and Daddy leave and go somewhere and I have to stay behind but He never does. He's right here..." She said all this in the Nursery with me during church a few weeks ago. Exact quote. Granted, she doesn't really understand what she's talking about or what it means, exactly, but it's still one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. She talks about prayer the same way, explaining how God really does hear you every time you talk to Him. She says she talks to Him about the flowers and the butterflies and her little sister.She's only four, so she doesn't understand how badly she really needs Jesus in her heart and how often in this life she's going to be falling apart and cry out to God, wondering if He's still there. But for now, she's on the right track, and I thank God every time I see her for the precious little gift she is.

Due to "severe weather conditions" church was cancelled today. Just FYI.