New Friends

Time has once again been moving quicker than I think is physically possible at times.  It is hard to believe that February is coming to a close.  In the last month two things have been happening that I would like to share with you.  The first is that I was in the park one day and I met a lady who was very friendly and started to speak to me in Portuguese, I said to her "Desculpe, não Portuguese (Sorry, no Portuguese)."  Right away she started to speak to me in English and she asked me where I was from and why I was here.  We had a nice conversation and she gave me her phone number and told me that she would love to have me over sometime to meet her daughter.  I said I would love to meet her daughter sometime.  I called her later that week and made plans to get together for coffee.  We met at our apartment and had a nice visit and she said that she would like to come to English classes where we teach.  I was so excited.  So this Monday is going to be the first class that she would come to.  I am praying that she does actually come!  Please join me in praying that God will use this friendship in great ways.  This lady is a Catholic and she was hesitant to come into the church for English classes, but she was also so happy to meet me and some of the others on my team.  She said that she was so happy to have new friends. 
Another thing that has been happening this month that you can keep in your prayers is our English classes here at the Loures church.  There have been many people coming from outside of the church and we are so excited to see new faces every week.  We are praying that God will use us in this ministry, that we will be doing more than just teaching English, that we will be making friends, building relationships, and be open to however God wants to use us in this ministry. 
Thank you all for your prayers and keeping up with what is going on in my life in Portugal!  I apologize that these updates are so few and far between. 
Blessings to you all!

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that a New Year has begun!  I hope that you all had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas wherever you are and with whoever you celebrated with.  It was a little bit hard to be away from home and my family for Christmas, but at the same time I felt very blessed with an "adopted" family here in Portugal: my team, the missionaries here, and the churches that we have been working with.  I was reminded in a special way that no matter where you are or how you celebrate, the reason for Christmas is always the same.  It was amazing to be able to celebrate the birth of Christ in another country.  We had many Christmas programs that we were able to help out with and it was a blessing to be apart of the cultural traditions of Christmas in Portugal.  I was also very blessed by my team as we all tried to take our own family traditions and blend them into a Christmas of our own. 

I'm excited to see how God is going to work in our lives in this New Year.  We are going to be starting to really get into ministry now.  Including starting English classes at two of the churches that we are working with here.  Please pray that our ministries will begin to draw in outsiders to the churches here and that God might use us to share His love for the people in Portugal. 

The New Year also brought us some furniture to our quite empty apartment.  This was very good news to us girls, and we were very happy when we received a fridge.  It came a month after we moved into our apartment so we have a much greater appreciation for it now!  We also received some tables and couches which gives our living room a much more homey feel to it.  We are very much looking forward to having people over and letting our apartment be a place of rest and community.

Thank you all for your prayers and I will try to continue to keep you updated, although once again I'm always amazed at how quickly time goes by.  Blessings to you all!