Michael and Nancy Dore Tribal Missions We arrived on a Friday afternoon (10/04/07) to the Cherokee Baptist Association Camp in OK. We all had a few minutes to figure out who got what room we wanted, (they really were all the same) then we started figuring out how many bunk beds we wanted for our furniture. We ended up keeping six sets, two for the kids three for us and then a set as shelves. We then made a couch out of several mattresses. We actually are very comfortable, though Nancy is not sure how climbing in and out of bunk beds is going to go as the pregnancy progresses…
We were supposed to start with our language helpers on Monday but the nephew of our Cherokee Pastor died Saturday night so that has slowed things up. We were able to start our sessions today with our language helper. It was nice to finally start with the official language study.
We have been trying to learn some practical expressions (Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, Etc. ) Fortunately we don’t need to get those from an official language helper, we can just get them from anyone who speaks Cherokee. It is hard to use them though, as a lot of people do not actually speak it.
Our first Saturday here we were able go to a festival that had authentic Cherokee food, a stomp dance, Pow Wow and Cherokee crafts. It was really neat to observe the beginning ceremonies of the Pow Wow and see how the men and women did different dance rhythms at the same time.
Please pray for us as our whole class (50 adults plus kids) is eating together and living in the same building together. We are finding it hard for the kids to wait until it is the official meal time to eat. We have also been fighting a fever, so it is hard to not let the kids play with friends or even leave the room much.
Please pray for our Language Helper as he has dialysis three times a week and he has a surgery this Wednesday. He seems very friendly and we are excited to make a new friend!
We have a praise, actually two…we had gone into the laundro-mat only once so far and had to pay over $5 for three loads of laundry, but then they were able to hook up a washer here so now if Nancy just goes and does one load a day we may not need to go pay again! They also were able to get a better internet connection here so we are able to have internet here instead of going into town to a restaurant and having to order food to send e-mail.
Thank you all for your prayers, we love to hear back from you all…Hint, Hint!
We are trying to put some new pictures and videos up on our Picasa Web album! Check them out!
