Memory Verse:

Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance. (Proverbs 1:5)

Dear Grandchildren,

Once somebody told me that if you want to learn something, the best way to learn is by doing it. Mrs. McKune must have strongly believed in that saying. She wanted me to learn enough English that first summer so that when I started college, I might be able to understand some English. The way that she went about teaching me was to expose me to hearing the language spoken all of the time. She took lots and lots of her time to talk to me, to ask me questions, and make me read some simple English stories that I could understand without too much strain on my poor brain.

By nature I was a quiet person and didn’t talk very much. I would have preferred being quiet, because that was not an effort for me. Mrs. McKune knew better than to leave me alone to my daydreaming. She understood perfectly well that I could never learn English by merely thinking about it. Every time we were riding in a car, she would point out things to me, say them, and ask me to repeat them back to her. Or she would ask me to tell her what I saw around me, or what I had been reading, and what it was all about. This way we also helped to keep Mr. McKune awake while driving, because he would very easily fall asleep at the wheel. Many times he would laugh out loud when I happened to say something in a funny way, and I had such times every day.

The most difficult thing for me to learn to pronounce was the combined consonants “th.” (I am still very poor at that.) That was just not in my vocabulary. It was always the worst tongue twister for me, but especially when I just began to learn to speak the English language.

By the end of summer, I learned English enough to understand the McKunes, and to me it was a great accomplishment. In my own estimation, I thought that I knew English quite well, until I came to college. I found out that I didn’t know anything. Not everyone spoke as clearly as the McKunes did, but especially the professors in the classes when they began to lecture. Later on I want to tell you about the big surprise that the McKunes had for me before I left for Muskingum College.

—Grandma Nadzia

Questions

1) Have you ever had to learn something new and difficult? How did you do it?

2) Nadzia was wise to listen to Mrs. McKune. She accepted her guidance just as the Bible verse above describes. How can we accept Gods’ guidance in our lives?

3) Mr. and Mrs. McKune loved Nadzia even though she wasn’t their daughter. In a way she was adopted by them. Do you know who has adopted us as His children?