Greater Portland Baptist Church

Jesse and Tiffany Shanks: August 2007

The month of August brought to us the end of our second session at Université Laval. It is hard to believe that we have 10 weeks of French behind us. That sounds like quite an accomplishment until we think of at least 40 more weeks ahead of us!

Tiffany and I both finished the session well, passing our final oral and written tests. For me, the written tests are usually easy, but the oral part is a little more difficult. For this particular exam we had to pair up with another student, make up a "real life" situation, then act it out in front of the teacher. My partner and I decided that we would make our story as humorous as possible in order to hopefully distract the teacher from our less-than-perfect French. So, we acted out a situation about a student who lost her pet elephant on the college campus and frantically asked a security guard for help. The humorous distraction helped, as our teacher was laughing during the entire exam. Afterwards, however, I told her (in French, of course) that it was a true story. This is when I realized that either my French is better than I thought, or I had a very gullible teacher. Or maybe it was a bit of both, because I had her convinced that there was a real elephant roaming around the university campus! It's times like that when learning a foreign language is fun! In case you are wondering, I did tell her that I was joking, so I really can't figure out why she gave me an F.

During our four week break, Malerie went home to Oregon, and we got to spend some time with my extended family. I have two cousins to whom I am very close, and one of them got married a couple of weeks ago. I had the great privilege of being the best man in the wedding, and also of preaching at their church. Joshua had a wonderful time getting to know my aunt, uncle, and cousins for the first time. They all loved and enjoyed him, except for my uncle when Joshua would call him "Grandpa Gary."

Please continue to pray for our re-enrollment in the French program which we mentioned in last month's letter. There is a potential problem, and we should find out in the next couple of days what the outcome will be.

Also continue to pray for Dmitry. Because of the break, I did not see him for a few weeks, but we have already arranged to meet once the new semester begins. Just pray as the Holy Spirit will do His work of convicting and drawing Dmitry to Christ.

Thank you all so much for your support by prayer and giving!

In His Grace,
Jesse, Tiffany, and Joshua Shanks