FAQs Series #2: The Language Question

Do you already know how to speak the language?

Maybe this seems like a silly question, but we actually get asked this almost every time we are telling someone about our plans for moving to the Philippines. The answer is no. We don't already speak the language. I (Holly) am very familiar with the sounds of the language having grown up in the Philippines and that will be an advantage. I grew up hearing people speak the language. I know some phrases and words. I can mimic the accent and sound like a native speaker (somewhat). It will all be new for Dan: new sounds, grammar, vocab, cadence, etc. A lot will be new for me too. Here's the kicker: after we spend about two years learning our first language...we'll move into a tribal location and start learning another!

We have been equipped in our training with New Tribes Mission with valuable tools/methods for learning language. We learned phonetics, grammar analysis, phonemics, linguistics and language acquisition techniques. The ideal is to learn the language in the country from a native speaker. For this reason it is not recommended to use Rosetta Stone or to start learning some other way before you go overseas. Language and culture are so intrinsically tied together that it would be detrimental to us to separate them. We need to learn both simultaneously.

Some things you need to know about the Philippines/language:

• There are two 'official' languages in the Philippines: Tagalog and English (Yes! English!); and eight major dialects: Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan.
• Speaking of English...English is taught in many public schools (often immersion-style). Signs and billboards are often in English. Exposure to English is high in the Philippines, but that does not mean everyone understands it or is fluent.
• We will be learning Cebuano. This is the language spoken in the area we will be living. It is one of the more widely spoken languages along with Tagalog. Cebuano is also referred to as Visayan.
• Depending on the source, there are roughly 181 different languages spoken in the Philippines. We will be learning at least two of those 181 during our time serving in the Philippines.

FAQs Series #1: The Baby Question

Now that you're having a baby, how does that change your plans?

Let's be honest here. Kids were always in the plan for us. It's not like it was a surprise for us. “Oh, hey, surprise! You're pregnant!” We view kids as a valuable asset to us. Before we got married, we knew when we'd like to start having kids and had already discussed the myriad of things that would mean for our marriage and ministry. Kids are great for building connections with people in any cultural context. As they grow, they can become more and more involved in our ministry. We are excited to teach them about God and His amazing plan of saving the world (and them!).

So our plans have not changed. We are still hoping to have our support raised by next summer and head to the Philippines around then. We look forward to seeing our little girl make friends before she can even speak the language, climb guava trees, slide down mud hills in a tropical rain, and eat weird food. We also look forward to introducing her to a lifestyle where she will see people who live very differently than she does: street kids, beggars, Jeepney drivers, lepers, grocery store clerks, the person we buy our meat from at market, the guy who walks by our house every morning, and so many others.

Pray with us that we keep trusting the Lord to make us the parents she needs, that we would be diligent to teach her the truths of God's Word, and for the good-byes that will have to be said in a year from now. It will be tough.

We view being pregnant now as a huge blessing. Ideally, we wanted to have our first kid at a time in our lives when we weren't also in the middle of language learning and navigating a cultural context we are already out of place in. We are able to have our first baby in a culture/language we grew up in, have family around to help, and introduce our baby to everyone before we leave the country for several years. We have access to great medical knowledge and facilities. We're not against having a baby in another country. That may someday happen for us if God blesses us with more children. For the first kid, however, this experience has been great for us. Maybe this is sooner into a marriage than some people would like to start having kids, but for us the timing could not be more perfect. Did we mention yet how grateful we are that God has given us this baby girl?! We can't wait to meet her!

New Blog Series Starting: FAQs

In the next few weeks and months you should start seeing some more regular posts popping up on here. We have realized the need to have access to some answers to a few questions people have when we don't always have to opportunity to answer them right away. Hence, a series of FAQs about our ministry and plans for going to the Philippines. 

In the next post, please enjoy reading about what having a baby means for our plans.  

MN to MO to TN to GA to...

What a whirlwind of an adventure! We are pretty much recovered from our long journey.

In about 3 ½ weeks, we have driven from Minnesota to Missouri to Nashville, TN to Kingsport, TN to Abingdon, VA to Cumming, GA to Charlotte, NC, to Chesapeake, VA to Missouri to Minnesota. Did you keep track of all that? Now add in a side trip to the Outer Banks. Oh, and a trip to Dan's grandparents' cabin when we got back to Minnesota.

All in all we did roughly 80 hours of driving in 3 ½ weeks when you count in the extra time for stops!

The purpose of our trip was to visit family and friends along the way as well as establish some connections and relationships for building a support team. We were able to meet with the missions committee at my parents' home church and a missions committee at another church that is dear to my family. Dan got to experience good ole Southern churches for the first time. We introduced Dan to the rest of my mom's side of the family. We went to the Bay (Chesapeake Bay) as often as we got a chance. I love the ocean! My parents also treated us to a delicious seafood meal for our anniversary. I won't soon forget the taste! Dan and I took a day trip to the Wright Brothers Memorial and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the Outer Banks with my sister and her family. We had two family get-togethers while in VA and all the girls from my mom's side got to have a girls' night. Many stories were shared and there was plenty of joking all around whenever we were with family and friends.

Another highlight of our trip? We got to tell our family in person that we have some special news to share.

I'm 18 weeks pregnant! Come December 29th our lives will be irrevocably changed. We are very excited. We're looking forward to having our first kid here in the States with family and friends around before we leave for the Philippines next summer.

We've also been married for one year now!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Chesapeake Bay

Typical...

Snuggles with my buddy.

 

The Beginning of Travels

We’re back! Oh, you didn’t know we were gone? Well, we were. We recently spent two weeks in Minnesota and about a week in Wisconsin.

Typical Minnesota

Dan was in a friend’s wedding up North so we went up a little before the wedding and stayed awhile after the wedding. We had opportunities to catch up with friends, meet with a couple of supporters, and (for me, Holly) be reintroduced to some people I met for about 2 minutes at our reception. We ended up spending some time cleaning and painting the house we’ll live in when we move up to Minnesota full-time. We are so blessed to have a place to live already! I also got to experience Mall of America for the first time.

I really wanted to ride the carousel.

In Wisconsin, I got to introduce Dan to a bunch of my dad’s side of the family. I took him to the Bible Institute I graduated from, showed him around downtown Waukesha, and we were able to spend some good time with my grandparents. As a bonus, I experienced my first MLB game! We watched the Brewers beat the Cardinals…from some pretty nice seats, I might add. 

Brewers-5 Cardinals-1

What’s the plan now that we’re back, you ask? It’s the beginning of support-raising for us! It’s quite the daunting task, but God has already used several people to encourage me and to show me that He’s faithful and trustworthy. He has to keep reminding me.

Grandpa and Grandma Tiegs

Dan's a good buddy.

We’ll be traveling out East to Virginia and North Carolina sometime early this summer. We plan on seeing some more family, visiting my family’s home church, and getting into some new churches to seek relationships for support-raising.

If you live in VA, NC, MN…or really any state, and want to meet with us to find out more about our ministry and how you can be a part of our support team (whether through encouragement, prayer, or giving), email us at dan_thannum@ntm.org and make sure to get us your mailing address and a contact phone number.

"Quick! Shoot Uncle Dan!"

January welcomed family back from the far reaches of the world. My (Holly) sister and her family made it back to the States from the Philippines and will be here for a year. Both of my brothers were able to visit then too. It was the first time the whole family has been together in four and a half years.

We've had a lot of fun these last few months. My sister's family only knew Dan through Skype so it's fun to see the kids race for their Nerf guns to shoot Uncle Dan when we go visit. We've spent time with the whole family and some close friends who came back from Asia Pacific. We've gone ice skating, took the kids to Bass Pro Shop, made a treasure hunt for them, and chatted at table with my sister and brother-in-law about the realities of living in the Philippines.

Christmas in January

I made the twins an airplane.

They didn't find Dan for 15 minutes.

Reading with Uncle Dan

They love attacking Uncle Dan.

Aliens and Strangers in This World

There is a box of icicle lights and a pretty tapestry sitting on the shelves beside our bed. They haven’t been put up yet how I’d like them and at this point, I’m kind of thinking: Why bother? We’re leaving this apartment in 4-6 months if our plans don’t go awry. At one point, there were plans for us to move from this apartment to one caddy-corner from it. That was supposed to happen around Christmas time and thank the Lord the leadership where we are living decided to postpone the remodeling that would have required the move in the first place.

The “move that didn’t happen” prompted a lot of discussion and disagreement between my husband and I. I can’t remember how it got started, but the main line of contention was that I didn’t want to put up any decorations and wanted to put most of our stuff in storage. Why would we move into that apartment with any degree of permanency when we are just going to move within a matter of months? He felt that my plan would leave us feeling like we’re living out of suitcases and boxes and not truly be home. Um…exactly! In my mind, yeah, we weren’t going to have a “home” for a few months.

“If we never unpack anywhere that we’re only going to live for a short amount of time, if we never put up any pictures, decorations, or reminders of our lives, then for most of our life, given our chosen career… we’re never going to feel like we’re at home anywhere!”

These are the very wise words my husband spoke that went straight to the heart of the matter for me. I was reminded of the very different ways we have been brought up and the subtle distinctions that have come up in our short 5 months and six days of marriage.

You see…he’s lived in the same state in almost the same house most of his life. I lived between countries and in several different states and houses growing up. My whole life I’ve watched friends come and go when either they’ve moved or I have. He has had the same friends for decades in some cases! I have learned to hold things loosely and not grow attached in an effort to save myself from heartbreak when they get taken away. That has NOT worked out well for me. I’m sentimental whether I want to be or not. I hold even tighter to things that remind me of friends, family, good times, etc. I’m sad and lonely when I try not to make friends so I don’t have to say good-bye when one of us leaves.

During that discussion we came to realize that neither of us was right or wrong. I reminded him that one day he would have to leave his familiar home/family to move a world away and he would then experience a bit of how I’ve lived. I told him too that I was reminded of the passage in the Bible where we are told that we are aliens. We are strangers on this planet. This world is not our home. This will continue to be a struggle for us as we keep moving and going forward. We’ll need to strike a balance between learning to make a “home” wherever we are and remembering that this world is not meant to be our true home forever. With God’s grace (and He’s promised He’ll give it), we’ll be Home, Sweet Home together and in God’s hands.