Jon and Jen Quast Preparing for Tribal Church Planting in Paraguay 
Right now at the Missionary Training Center, the third semester class of which we are a part are engrossed 100% in our course called the Culture and Language Acquisition Practicum. We however effectionately call this class “Dobu” for reasons that I will explain as we get going in this post.
One thing that a tribal missionary must do before he can ever hope to teach is to learn. He must learn the culture and the language of the people he has been sent to live among. (For us this will be a tribal group in Paraguay) Our missionary “toolboxes” have been filled with many helpful tools to do this. For learning language we have taken courses such as Phonetics and Grammar so we can learn how to make different sounds that we are unfamiliar with, and also arrange words in grammatical ways we may not be used to. For culture we have practiced techniques and also researched kinds of cultures so we can think outside of our American culture and hopefully correctly assess the tribal culture. We have already taken these course, but one more course remains in our Culture and Language themed courses…the practicum.
This is the class where we try to pull everything together that we have learned at the training center thusfar. How we are doing it is one of the highlights of New Tribes Mission training. Our professors, about 10 in all, have been dressing in complete tribal “disguises” and acting out the Dobo tribal culture to us. They speak some English which, in this drama, is the trade language, but they mostly speak their tribal language. We right now are engaged in sessions where we are trying to learn their language and culture using the tools we have. Jen and I are in a small group of 6 people who meet regularly with a man named Kinosi. Kinonsi is our language helper we have hired. On top of these individual sessions we get to watch all the professors act out a Dobu tribal scene, so we can gain insight into the culture.
It is so encouraging to be using what we have learned. And alot of fun too! We have learned alot of language, and the culture still holds alot of mystery to us. I can’t say we haven’t made any mistakes, because we have. In our first session with Kinosi, I introduced myself and my wife Jen. We proceeded to ask Kinosi about himself and he told us what family he was from. Apparently for the Dobu, it is a point of pride to which family you belong to. When asked what family I belong to I said “Quast”. He then asked Jen what family she was from. He became quite uncomfortable when she replied “Quast” as well because to him he thought we were from the same family before getting married! Woops! Oh well, you live and learn.
While you will always make mistakes when learning language and culture, our ability to function in a tribal location has been greatly enhanced because of the training we are taking a part of. We have a workable plan starting from day one in the tribal village, and going all the way to the day we leave. We know what to do, and how to do it. Now we need pray to the Lord for the strength to do it, and to the Holy Spirit to make what we do count by Him working.
Remember us as we will continue to take this practicum for roughly the next month.
