Home again!

We arrived home late Tuesday night after an amazing four days at a church camp. It was so wonderful, in fact, that it didn't seem to matter that we got soaked in the rain again coming home from school yesterday, or that the rain has been so continuous that we had to set up a fan to dry our one set of sheets in order to go to bed.

Many churches in the area host Christian camps during carnival for families. So on Saturday, a friend picked us up and drove us to a city about an hour away where the camp was held in the middle of town. We were all a bit nervous arriving as we only knew two people. But God soon took care of that. By the time we left, I was in tears as this group had become like family.

Which really makes no earthly sense. Here we are, foreigners who are struggling to speak the language, yet we were honestly embraced as family. While there were a few people who were nervous to speak to us at first because they didn't speak English, they soon realized that was okay. Everyone became our language tutor and were patient and encouraging. I often sat for an hour or more, chatting to different women about all kinds of things. Another amazing thing considering this was all done in Portuguese! Besides making friends, my confidence has risen tremendously.

And the kids did fantastic. We were so proud of them for jumping in and making friends. They swam, played soccer, and tag with the kids the whole weekend.

Ministry times were incredible as well. We realized that we've felt dry spiritually. Going to church in another language isn't always easy, but for the first time, I actually worshiped in Portuguese. It brought me to tears, realizing that my spirit was singing and being refreshed in Portuguese! Scott preached Sunday night and did a great job (in English.) Before long he'll be preaching in Portuguese!

By the last afternoon, I was completely exhausted, but again we were blessed to spend some time with English students. They had patiently helped us with language all weekend, so we enjoyed a few hours of English conversation with them as well as teaching them a few songs in English.






We know without a doubt that God orchestrated this time here. Five months ago, God shut the door to our going to Portugal and we couldn't understand why. Now we are seeing Him build relationships with people in the most amazing ways. As we look at moving to Mozambique in the next few months, there is a good possibility that we will have additional team mates from here to work with us which is now one of our constant prayers.






God is so good, isn't He!

Thanks for sharing the journey with us,

Lisa