Over the summer I will be working and saving up money for school. Since I'm not supposed to have a job while attending this school, I must rely on savings and donations to pay the tuition and living costs. I am ever so grateful that God has provided employment for me so far and I'm excited to see how He will provide in the future.
You may be asking what they will teach me and why I need to go there. I'm glad you asked. The reason is because the kind of people I intend to work with do not speak English and they don't have an American culture. Quite possibly, they won't even have a written language.
So how do you reach a people group like this with the message of the gospel? Go learn their word for 'died' and tell them a man by the name of Jesus died for them? But without any context, that doesn't communicate anything meaningful to them. Suppose you were working on your car and I came up to you and said, "The bird at the pet shop died for you." Wouldn't you be a little confused? In what sense was that for me? I didn't benefit from it. How does that concern me when I wasn't even there? Why are you telling me this?
Forgive me for a poor illustration, but the point is that effectively communicating the gospel to such people takes extra work and preparation. Much more groundwork needs to be laid than if you were talking to the average American. That is where the training comes in handy. Among other things, I will be studying phonetics, translation, literacy teaching, church planting, worldviews, and missionary technology. This training will take 3 semesters, which will put graduation in December of 2011 if all goes as planned.
Please feel free to comment or ask questions so I can keep you better informed.