November 29, 2007

Olá! Hello and smiles to my family and friends!

And so…only 8 days left in Portugal! How crazy is that? Sorry for the lateness of this update. We have been so busy—it’s insane. But we finished our ethnography paper, and it seems to have turned out well. Our supervisor likes it. Now we’ve just been trying to find time to finish all of our language learning stuff and to hang out with all of our friends one last time before we have to go home. I’m really excited to see all of you at home, but I would have to say that part of me just doesn’t want to leave. Portugal is the kind of place where you have to stay for a long time in order to really have those deep friendships, those connections with the people. Those things are just now really solidifying, and we have to leave! And I think I’m just now starting to get over the culture shock. But God knows what He’s doing, which is why we’re coming back to America in 8 days!

Two weeks ago, Kim and I went to London for the weekend. It was amazing. In case you all didn’t know, London is incredibly expensive (Here’s a tip: Never fly into London late at night, because the public transport prices are higher at night. We got into London after midnight, and we ended up paying 40 pounds for a taxi ride. That’s over 80 dollars!) We stayed in a cheap but nice hostel, and we spent nearly all of our time just walking around the city taking pictures. Between the two of us, Kim and I probably have about 400 photos.

Portugal doesn’t have Starbucks. The drinks at Starbucks are so expensive and so fancy that the Portuguese don’t like it. They prefer to stick to the basic espresso, maybe a little milk or sugar—it’s simple and cheap and it tastes great. But we were really craving huge, extravagant American-esque coffee things.

After London, our lives got busier. On Thanksgiving Day, the other ESL teachers and I hosted a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner for our friends in English class. At the same time, Kim and Emily had a dinner at our apartment with some other friends. I was sad that I couldn’t be at Kim and Emily’s dinner. It turned out well for them, though, because they were able to talk a lot about Dad and the Book and worship with one of the girls who was there.

The ESL dinner was one of the best experiences I’ve had since I’ve been here. About 20 people came. At first, we chatted and had dinner. Everyone was so nervous to try the food! One lady said, “I thought Americans didn’t know how to cook, but now I know they can.” After dinner, we explained the history of Thanksgiving and made everyone say what they were thankful for in English.

So many times here in Portugal, it’s hard to tell if we’re making an impact on people’s lives, but that time of sharing showed all of us ESL teachers that we were. One Portuguese woman shared how amazing it was for her that we had gathered people from so many different countries for one dinner (We had people from Portugal, the US, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, China, South Korea, and the Czech Republic). Another man said that he was a believer, and was thankful that God had answered his prayers about moving to Portugal. Many people shared how they felt like they were part of a family. Most moving of all for me, though, was one woman who said, “Since living in Portugal and traveling around Europe and being in this English class, I think I might start to believe in Dad.” This same woman is one who, when we first met her, knew nothing about Dad or the Book, but she asked a lot of questions, and we shared with her several times about who Dad was and what the Book said.

One of the guys at the dinner, Everton, was someone who came to almost every one of Kim’s and my Book discussion groups. After the discussion groups were over, he started going to Saturday night Book study with Chris, another m on our team. Everton even mentioned the Book discussion groups when he talked about what he was thankful for. Then this past Sunday, Chris, Jill, Ray, and Penny got to share the Good News with him for an hour and a half!

Then yesterday, Emily and I had lunch with our friend from the Czech Republic. We started talking about Christmas and the meaning behind it, which somehow led to a conversation about how what ev believe is not about rules and church buildings, it’s about a relationship with Dad. If we tried to keep the sacraments of the Catholic Church, it would be like trying to pay Dad back for the eternal life He gave us as a gift.

Today, the same girl and I went to a conversation group for internationals who are learning Portuguese. A group of ev university students leads the group. The conversation lasted for about 3 hours, and at one point, the conversation turned to religion. The other girls shared how they both came from Catholic areas (Germany and Czech Republic), but that most people didn’t actually practice Catholicism. The other guy in the group was from Japan, and he said that a lot of Japanese people don’t have a religion. Some people are Buddies but most young people don’t have a religion. Carolina, the girl who was leading the discussion, and I were able to share a bit again about how we believed in a relationship, not a bunch of rules.

Almost every minute of our last 8 days is already full. We’re trying to spend as much time with our friends as we can before we go. Also, the night before we fly out, Kim and Emily will have the first performance of the Christmas program with the teenagers in Tires. We’re pretty sure we won’t sleep that night. By the time the program ends, and the fellowship time ends, and we finish packing, it will be time to wake up and fly back to America! Wow!

Well, everyone, this is the last update I will write while in Portugal. The next time I write, I’ll be writing from my house in Kansas City!

Beijinhos (and American goodbye things too, like love and hugs and see you soon…),

Brittaney

Yarper Requests:

For my friend Sra. She is leaving Lisbon this Saturday, so after she leaves, I may never have a chance to talk to her about the Father again. I don’t want her to be without some connection to Him, so I’m trying to find something about Him to give her before she leaves. Yarp that she can find JC and find the joy that He gives, even in old age and bad financial situations.

For Kim and Emily and the Tires teens as they do the Christmas program. The teens will have several performances around Lisbon, so pray that they can make a wide impact in showing people who Dad really is and what Christmas really is.

For the other friends that we’ve made. We want to continue having fun with them, and we really want them to know who Dad is. It will be so sad to leave all of them, but we’re trying to get email addresses and Skype contacts and anything else we can get.

For safe travels back to the United States! When we were going back to Lisbon from London, we barely made our flight. We had to run top-speed through the airport. I guess it would be OK if we had another experience like that, as long as we made it on the plane, but…