A Jon Post

Well, we’re still here and we’re still learning Portuguese.

Last weekend, Layne and I were a little discouraged. We felt like we weren’t moving very fast with the language, we felt like nothing was happening with our visa to Angola, we felt like our time here was just not being used to its fullest.

Language: We both did well when we were in college and, when we don’t feel like we’re excelling in a class we’re taking, we get frustrated. Last weekend we just felt like we weren’t doing very well. We took it as a wake-up call and buckled down and resolved to study more, speak to each other more in Portuguese, and not take for granted that we were one third of our way through language school. This last week we were rewarded with noticing that we are beginning to understand more and more and feel more and more comfortable speaking.

Church: We visited a new church. It is about a 30 minute train ride away but is without a doubt our favorite church we’ve found here. Riverside Porto (www.riversideporto.com) is an English speaking church specifically ministering to people here for a short time. We met some new friends there who are anxious to help us get into Angola and start ministry there. They are missionaries themselves, working here in Portugal, and we spent Wednesday afternoon with them talking about ministry and how they want to help us get into and stay in Angola. It was so refreshing and encouraging to meet these new friends and feel so supported in our heart to serve the people of Angola. They know and introduced us to some missionaries to Mozambique who are on furlough here in Portugal. Mozambique is another Portuguese speaking country and it was a great time of fellowship and talking about Southern Africa and the needs there.

Our friends from church invited us to a Medieval Festival near Porto and after that we were able to go with them to see a basketball game between the Portugal national team and the national team of Bosnia. For those of you who have been to the Renaissance Fair in Arizona it was like that but with a castle up on a hill built in the 900s. Definitely cooler.

Please keep praying for us. We need it so much. We cannot do any of this alone. We need prayer that we continue to learn Portuguese. Please, please pray that we learn well. Please pray that we get a visa to Angola.

We love you all. Thanks for reading this massive post. Click on the pictures below to see the full sizes.