a layne post

We are at the two-thirds point now, as we only have four weeks left. That Mexican food keeps calling to me, keeping my loyalties to America strong. Pathetic! ;)

Classes have continued to be productive, and Jon and I feel very good about our progress. Over the past couple of weeks one particular thing that has improved is our writing. I believe this is because we have learned a handful of new verbs, which allow us to speak more specifically about the past.  Also, our comprehension is gradually improving. We are still not where we would like to be, but we are on our way! By October, we should be set. One of our goals when we arrived was to be able understand our host, Maria. Now, we can! There are a few times when she gets going fast, and it all becomes blurred, but for the most part we can understand. Hooray!

Even still, every now and then I will reach busy counter of people ordering and asking questions, and for some reason my mind goes entirely blank. I say really silly things and use big hand motions.  Then I walk away knowing exactly the beautiful sentence I should of said, full of adjectives and adverbs… it is sad!

I had a new surge of inspiration this week to scour the internet for Angolan contacts. I thought I had found everything, but this time I found some new working emails and sent some inquiries. I have had a couple responses, and now we wait. One good contact I will not be able to chat with until the end of September. Honestly, we have so many wonderful people working hard to assist us in this process; people who believe in what we want to do, and are being so very helpful. We are blessed.

This weekend I am missing the birthday party of one of my nieces… these are the times when I remember the sacrifice of leaving. I can overwhelm myself with emotions when I think of these sweet little ones and the fact that they may never know their Aunt Layne and Uncle Jon the way I would want them to. We have counted the cost, and we know it is worth it, but it can be a little tough sometimes. Thank the Lord for internet and Skype. It is more possible than ever before for missionaries to remain connected to their families.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support. We hope in the Lord and trust in His perfect plans for us.

(Click photos to see larger version)

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.