Details

Today we got some exciting news. We finally got in touch with the long-term missionary couple in Portugal. After almost a month of trying to get in touch with them, we finally heard something and as a result we finally got some details about Portugal.
We will be living in the city of Portugal. The guys will be billeted out by a Christian Portugese family with 2 teenage boys. Us girls will be living in a 2 bedroom apartment close to the guys (about a 15 min walk away) where our apartment will also function as a meeting place for the team and where we will eat all of our meals. I'm kind of excited about being able to cook our own meals and eating whatever we want. Our apartment is located across the street from a grocery store and we have internet access in our apartment - yahoo!

Temperatures in Portugal are not all that warm. On average between the months of November and June, temperatures range from 10-21 degrees celcius. There is no such thing as indoor heat in our apartment, so it has been recommended that we bring sweaters to wear around the apartment and to bring along slippers. Weather is similar to that of Vancouver, so it's not too bad, but it definitely won't be a shorts and tank top kind of climate.

From what we know at this point, we will be working alongside another missionary couple in Porgtugal in a church plant. Their youth and young adult ministry is big there, so we will be doing stuff in that area. Exact details of that are unknown at this point.

Our first month once we arrive will be focused mostly language training so that we will be able to communicate with the locals more easily. I'm on the hunt this weekend for a Portugese language book.

I think those are all of the details that we know that this point in time. We as a team are definitely getting more excited about going now that we have a bit more information about what life might look like once we get there. It's starting to feel more real. We are pretty much down to 2 weeks until our departure date and we are beaming with excitement - the nervousness might set in just before we leave or once we get there (or at least it might for me). But for the moment, I am just going run with the excitement.

Peace.