A Layne Post

Jon and I have been here in Porto for a whole month! In some ways it completely feels like it, and then when I think that we are now 1/3 through,  I can’t believe it.  It is hard to gauge our progress with language. We feel okay about it. We hope to study and practice more with each other this month. It is hard to get motivated to study in the evenings. My mind is tired of translating all day! Our tutor this week said we aren’t ahead or behind… we would rather be ahead. =)

The church we tried last week did not work out so well. We were the only ones there… Due to some awkwardness, we ended up leaving. Instead we went home and listened to a sermon we downloaded.  It was quite refreshing to be challenged spiritually. We decided that we should go on-line and do some searching. Jon has found an English speaking church that we will try tomorrow. We really liked the looks of their website and the sound of their hearts. It is about a 30 minute train ride, but will be worth it if we can find a church family. We will update this week!

No news on visas yet. As soon as we know, you’ll know!

Churches here are in the evenings,  so it leaves us most of the day on Sunday to relax. All of the museums here in Porto are free on Sunday mornings, and we decided to take advantage! We went to a museum of contemporary art and quite honestly, Jon and I do not have an “appreciation” for that kind of art. We did, however, get some good laughs in. Also, the grounds of the museum has some amazing gardens. Click on the pictures below to see full sizes.

This past Thursday we went surfing with a guy from our school. I cannot say we caught a lot of waves, but we had a good time. To our credit, it did not seem like anyone in the water was catching much. The water was very cold. We rented wetsuits, but my feet still went numb, which can be a tad problematic when you are trying to stand on surfboard that is moving.

We ate some McDonald’s this week. Wow, I believe it was the best beef that I have had since being here. Sad? Perhaps. I savored every bite, and the ketchup… oh, the ketchup! Ha! It is the little things when you are overseas. =)

We love you guys. Thanks for your prayers and support. Any questions, feel free to comment and ask!

Layne

A Jon Post

Three weeks and counting and we’re one quarter of the way through our stay in Portugal. It seems like it’s going fast and we are encouraged by what we are able to communicate in Portuguese. Right now the biggest obstacle is our comprehension. People here speak FAST! Many times we are caught staring blankly at a person who has just asked us a question as we try to put together the few words we DID understand into what that person might have meant.

We are planning to visit a new church on Sunday. “Pentecostal Igreja Novo Jerusalem” or “New Jerusalem Pentecostal Church”. Meh… we’ll see how it goes and see if God says to stay there.

Last weekend we decided that we could stand for a little adventure while here. I had read about a place to go rock climbing near Porto and so we figured we’d try to make it there last Saturday with a friend we have met at school. We got up, grabbed a meal at the only Subway in Portugal, rendezvoused with our friend at the train station and headed out. A train to a village 30 minutes away and half-understood directions from a girl at the station saying “about 10 kilometers that way” and we were off, lugging a 40 pound backpack full of climbing equipment and hoping to hitch a ride from a nice driver “that way”. 1 hour later and with tired thumbs and legs we arrived at our destination. It was a beautiful little area right next to an old chapel and a gurgling stream. We climbed for about 3 hours and, exhausted and hoping for better luck with our thumbs, headed back towards the train station. About half-way back a flatbed truck driver saw our weary thumbs and pulled over and gave us a lift back to the train station. It was a great day. Click on the pictures below for full sizes.

We have received some encouraging communication about our visas from some friends in Angola and we are hoping to hear more from them and soon.

We could not be here without your prayers. We are so proud to represent Christ and to represent all of our supporters here in Portugal and into the world.

Please continue to pray for us and for our time here and for our time in Angola.

We love you all.

Jon and Layne

A Layne Post

Basilica

Old Convent

Has it only been a week since our last post? Wow! I feel as if I could sit with each of you for an hour or two and share with you stories and updates. I will attempt not to go on and on; however, no promises! =)

For those of you praying that we would find a good church, we have found a small one! We are not fully convinced that we will stay there, but we have attended two services, and plan to go again this Sunday. The church is a small Assemblies of God. Their praise and worship is fun, and we recognize a few of the songs! Tuesday night there was even an accordion player; I had to giggle a bit.  It is about a thirty minute walk from our apartment, which is an enjoyable time for Jon and I to chat about our  opinions and whatnot. There have been approximately 20 people attending, one of which is the sweetest girl from Angola! What a blessing! She is willing to offer as much help for us as possible, however, she has lived in Portugal most of her life. Her parents are still living in Luanda, Angola and attend an Assemblies of God church there. She wants to contact the church to see if they would be able to help with the visa, which would be amazing!

As the days pass and slowly the months, I have to fight the urge to panic more and more. So far, my faith can overcome quickly! Continue praying for that peace in our hearts. I know the Lord has a plan and a time. I know we are where we are supposed to be right now, so the next step is up to Him.

In other news, our schooling is going quite well. We had a little switch up with our tutors, which was a bit difficult during the beginning of the week; we had gotten into a rythym with our previous tutor. By Wednesday we felt like we were learning quickly again. There are a lot of grammatical technicalities that are just a matter of practicing and memorizing. We can say more than we understand. If people talk slow, we follow better, but the sermons remind me just how far we have to go!

We went on another outing with the school. We went to see an old stock exchange building, which was quite amazing. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures. It was a bit of a shame because the detailed granite work, beautiful wooden floors, and plaster decorated walls were unique and gorgeous! There was a room called the room to “impress”. No kidding! The walls, columns, and ceilings were terribly intricate with gold, blue, red, etc. plaster work to look Arabian, along with rose glass windows full of color. I was impressed!

Food here is quite interesting. Due to our lack of vocabulary, we never quite know what we are getting. The other night I accidentally ordered boiled squid. Boy was that bummer. Ha! The Portuguese love their starches. Your meal will include a roll, rice, and french fries. Vegetables are a bit hard to come by. We did find a Subway. Oh the joy that filled my heart! I filled my sandwich with lettuce, bell peppers, onions, and more. So refreshing!

I will share something with you that you may scoff at… Jon did. This morning I sighed on our walk to school and Jon asked me if I was alright. My response: “Oh the monotony of life!” Go ahead…scoff, like I said, he did! Here was my train of thought: We wake every morning and eat one piece of toast with butter and cheese, and one with peach jam; we drink earl grey tea (no variety); we read the Bible together; we catch the same bus, walk the exact same streets, take the same elevator, go to class, and walk the same streets back, etc. It feels a bit more monotonous than life in the states for me. Jon’s response, “Oh yes Layne, we should get out more, take more adventures, travel more.” I know, I know. I have an amazing life, though I want you to know that I have the same feelings and struggles no matter where I am at. I am like you! We are like you!

Because of that… we need your prayers!

• Pray for our witness here in Porto, our witness at the school.
• Pray for our ministry at the church.
• Pray for our faith and peace about the visa.
• Pray for the Lord to move.

It may sound repetitive, but my heart is overwhelmed with gratefulness when I think about you. I tear up thinking now. We could not be here without you. We want to make you proud. We want to honor your generosity.

A Jon Post

Hello From Porto,

This week we’ve been thrown into the city and language at a breakneck pace. We’ve been studying with our tutor for three hours a day and going out with other students or simply on our own in the afternoons and evenings using what little we’ve learned so far. We found out that Porto is full of incredible sites and culture. Gustav Eiffel (of that one well known tower in Paris) began his career here in Porto designing bridges. The one in this picture is a well traveled bridge and it turns out people are allowed and often do jump from the edges (the lowest line in the picture, not the highest) into the water below. Upon seeing some people jumping, Layne and I immediately made plans to do so ourselves some time in the next three months.

Our lessons have been going very well and we have been told we are learning very fast. My Spanish language background and Layne’s French have helped us quite a bit (though some times they just end up confusing us). Last night, after one week of classes, we were able to converse enough in Portuguese to explain what we want to do in Angola, why we want to do it, and that we want to raise a family there and live there indefinitely. There are still plenty of words and terms and tenses we don’t know but we were encouraged by our first week.

Our tutor, Ana Raquel, is a wonderful woman and is currently studying to graduate in December with her PhD in teaching language (it has a longer and more official sounding name but it’s in Portuguese and I don’t remember it). She is a perfect fit for us and, after meeting and spending some time with all the other tutors, we like her the best.

Today we went out and explored Porto more than we had all week. We actually went on quite an adventure because many of the bus routes were closed or changed for a car race/show/some-kind-of-event down at the beach. We had no idea it was there until we got there and found rows and rows of incredibly expensive cars. We jumped at the chance to get our pictures with a supped up Ferrari and an antique Lotus.

Please continue to pray that we study and learn well and that we progress to the level of understanding our staggeringly fast speaking host named Maria. At the moment we are able to get OUR point across but she responds with a flurry of words we’ve never heard of or can’t understand for about five minutes every time she speaks.

Also, please pray we find a church that is alive in Christ that we can plug into while we are here. We have noticed some in town and we will try one out tomorrow.

Enjoy our pictures. Click on them to see a full size view. Please pray, send us emails, comment here, or just remember we’re here.

God bless!

a layne post

We are here!

The journey was good. As Jon has mentioned, it was sort of “half” our regular journey, so really no prob. Neither of us slept much on the London flight, so we crashed hard on the 2 hour Portugal flight. After taking a taxi to our apartment, and thankfully finding it, it was time to meet our host! Maria is precious. She is round (is that a nice way of putting it?) and joyful. She speaks very little English, which make our conversations quite comical. Many laughs and strange looks. Soon though, we should be understanding more and more.

Descriptions…

The apartment is small, but nice. Our bathroom is good. Hot water. The bed reminds me of a slab concrete. =) No air conditioning. Very humid. A lovely balcony coming off our bedroom, over looking a bit of a noisy street. (Fun during the day, loud at night) The temperature highs are in the 70’s. It is great, even a little chilly in the evenings and mornings. Buildings are old. They like tile, and the fronts of buildings have their own flair. Shops typically line the bottom floor and apartments and more shops on top. Our apartment happens to be on top of “Sublime Lingerie”. Ha! It is no longer open though. =) Right next door is a little shop full of veggies and fruit, which is great. And one more door down is a little internet cafe with free Wi-fi. Awesome!!

Getting to school was an adventure. Because Maria speaks such little English, it really was a joke trying to get directions. We got that we needed to take bus 701 or 702 and then walk to the school. From what we understood, you need a pass, but could pay cash. We took a leap of faith, and got on the bus we thought. Jon attempted to ask the driver about the stops or how much, but for now, we do not speak Portuguese… The driver = not friendly. He grumbled something, pointed to the back, and starting driving. Jon and I scurried to find a bar to hang on to and not fall over. Well, that ride was free. Ha!

We hopped off and then started walking. Where? We didn’t know. Finally we decided to ask. We know how to say “excuse me”, and we knew the address of the school, so we could ask where the street was. Okay! We got a few directions. A little fuzzy, but we could ask when we knew we were a little closer. Walk, walk, walk. Confused. We ask a very friendly man, who did not know, but was determined to find out. We were at the right road! Walking a little further, we found it! The 5th floor… boo! We had been walking all over, uphill! I am thinking we are going to get in better shape. =)

We walked in and they were waiting… speaking English! How nice. We chatted and laughed a bit, which felt nice to be understood. Off to our room for lessons! Our teacher, Ana Rachel (pronounced more like Raquel), is just wonderful. She is 27 and married, so it is a nice fit for us. According to her, we had a great first day and we are moving faster than most. Normally she does not speak much Portuguese on the first day, but she was able to speak quite a bit. We follow OK. Speaking is alright. The “sh” sound is all over. It will just be a matter of practicing. I am sure our Spanish and French backgrounds are helping. We have been promised we will be speaking well by September. Encouraging!

After lunch, we went to lunch with the other students (from England and Holland) and teachers from the school and had a traditional famous Portuguese sandwich. It was pretty good. Two pieces of bread, a piece of cheese on top, lots of meat… some that I am not sure what they were, and a sauce poured over the top.

This afternoon we napped and read, and now we are e-mailing.

First two days = Success!