September 24, 2007

Olá wonderful friends and family!

Things have been pretty crazy around here for the past couple of weeks, but life has been crazy because it’s going really well. Kim and I worked really hard to finish our assignments for Dr. Reeves, and then just as we finished that, ESL classes started again in full force after a one-week break. I am now teaching an intermediate level group by myself, creating all the curriculum and lessons. My students are really great people, and some of them are fairly close to my age, so it’s been fun to get to know them a little bit better. Actually, through one of my relationships at ESL, Dad opened up some really good ministry opportunities.

Miguel and Miguel. You can’t see the other Miguel very well, but he’s the one who loves to come to our apartment and play Emily’s piano. One night, he brought his other friend Miguel along, and they enjoyed the piano together.

Here’s the story: During one of the first ESL classes this month, I mentioned that I went to ch. One of the girls, a Korean, said, “Oh, you go to ch? Are you a C?” I said yes, and she said she was too. She didn’t go to ch, though, because she didn’t speak Portuguese and it was too hard to go to Portuguese ch. Later, we went out for coffee together, and we ended up arranging a time to have B study. While we were at coffee, we saw some Mrmons who were handing out free Books of Mrmons in almost any language. My friend got a Portuguese one for her husband, who was studying Portuguese at university. Later, I realized it was not good for a man who hates religion (her husband is not a C) to have a book of Mrmon and possibly believe its lies. I got a Portuguese B and gave it to my friend so she could give it to her husband. Then she asked for an English B. One night at ESL, I was giving my friend her B, and some other people in our ESL classes saw the B sitting on the table. One guy said, “Do you know where I could get one of these in English?” Then another girl, a Chinese girl, said, “What’s this?” My friend Chris (a fellow m) and I ended up having to explain to her what a B was, that it was the words of the one true Father. So now we’re working on finding more Bs we can give out to people, and we have a more open opportunity to talk about faith!

Yay for amazing roommates! I’m on the left, Kim is in the middle, and our other roommate Emily is on the right. I don’t know that Dad could have given us a better roommate than Emily. She’s super fun and loves Dad like crazy!

So many more of Kim’s and my friendships are growing stronger; there’s so much to tell, we can’t possibly cover it all. If you want to have a greater picture of our situation here, then read her update. It’s on the SBU website. We try to talk about different things in our updates so that people can better understand what’s going on in our lives.

There is one story that I can’t help but share. Ever since my friend, Diana, let us tour her Orthodox ch in the Bulgarian embassy, I’ve been going into her shop almost every day just to say hello and talk to her for a few minutes. A while ago, she invited me to attend a service at her ch, and I haven’t been able to go because of other ch obligations. Well, yesterday I finally went. Wow, was that an experience! The service was not in the embassy; it was in a Catholic ch nearby that allows the Orthodox people to use their building. The service was a liturgy; my friend Diana sang the liturgy along with her husband, the priest, and another guy, the deacon. It was all in Ch Slovanic, which is a mixture of Bulgarian and Russian.  Diana gave me an English translation of the liturgy, but I was only able to follow it for a short time. I read it, though, and unfortunately, some of the things the Orthodox church believes are not quite right. After the service, they had a coffee break, and they gave me a special kind of cheesy Bulgarian bread to taste. It was really good.

One of the guys who was also at the service rode home with me on the bus. It turned out that he lived really close to me. He was Bulgarian, but he lived in Brazil for a while, married a Brazilian woman, and has now lived in Portugal for 40 years. He knows 5 languages, including some English, but he’s fluent in Portuguese, so we spoke Portuguese most of the way home on the bus. He was a really interesting person to talk to.

Speaking of Portuguese, Kim’s and my language skills are progressing more quickly now because we have a real language teacher! Hooray! Her name is Ana. She’s not a believer, but she’s taught Portuguese to m's in the past. Hopefully, Kim and I will be able to influence her and her family towards Dad.

Ray and Penny. They are fellow m's and ESL teachers—very sweet people.

Actually, as time passes, and especially as my language skills improve, it becomes more and more frustrating to think about the fact that our time here in Portugal is running short. In only 2 months, we will be going back to the States. I am so thrilled about the thought of seeing my family and friends, but I don’t want to leave Portugal. Kim’s and my ministries are just starting to really blossom, Dad has been doing so much work, we finally have a life and some friends, we can have half-way decent conversations with people—I’m just starting to feel at home here, yet I have to leave soon? What’s up with that?

Anyway, thank you all for reading this update, supporting Kim and me, and yarping for us! We need it!

Beijinhos (that’s one kiss on each cheek—the traditional greeting here) and hugs to all!

In JC,

Brittaney

Yarper Requests:

Praises: Improving language skills, more ministry opportunities, more friendships, and the fact that Dad never gives up on us and uses us even though we screw up.

For Kim’s and my relationships. By now, we’ve made quite a few friends and other contacts here. Sometimes, it’s really hard to know who we should spend our time with, because we might have 50 friends, but we can’t possibly hang out with each of them every week. It sounds funny, but it’s actually a little bit stressful for me. I’m asking, “Who does Dad really want us to reach out to?”

For humility in my life. Dad is revealing more and more areas of my life in which I have a lot of pride. I’m ultra-stubborn, so it’s really hard for me to get over those pride problems.

For schoolwork. Kim and I are trying to figure out the logistics of our 1 Corinthians B study and our ethnography paper. Getting everything done, combining schoolwork and ministry, is appearing a little bit impossible to me right now. However, Dad is really powerful, and he’s brought me through some pretty insane schoolwork situations in the past, so I just have to trust that He will work it out.