Such is Life

It's been a long week. My head has been most uncooperative, which has been extremely discouraging most days. I hate having to miss out on ministry opportunities, so I have pushed through the pain many days, but there were days when all I could do was lay in bed. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude, but I will admit, it can be easier said than done. 


Enough of that, despite my throbbing head, there were moments this past week that were simply lovely. It was another busy week for us. It's amazing how fast the week passes by - many days I find myself confused about what day it actually is. The days seem to just blur together.


The sun has provided much enjoyment for me this past week. I am actually getting some colour - nowhere near the same amount of colour other teammates are getting, but for me, it's colour. On our day off last Monday, with the 29 degree weather, I took my journal and sat in the park and soaked up all the sun I could - which really only lasted an hour tops because I was already turning quite pink. I resumed my journaling on our balcony, which is conveniently shaded after 11:30am.

Us girls have been running into our neighbor Pina a lot over the last 2 weeks. God has placed this unique character in our path, so we have taken the opportunity to get to know him and invest a little more into his life. He is definitely an interesting guy and although we have no idea what he is talking about most of the time, we continue to smile and listen to him talk. We continue to build relationship with Pina and we are hoping that an invitation to our Easter service on Sunday might bring him into the church. We continue to pray that God would orchestrate divine conversations and interactions with Pina and that his heart would continue to be prepared to hear more about Jesus. 


This past week, a large part of our focus was evangelism. We are working with Marques in this area and spent a number of hours handing out tracts with the youth (which was a good time getting to know the youth better), for the 3 churches, giving more information about what Easter is about and inviting them to join us for our Easter services. It is our hope that these tracts will be well received and that they would speak into people's hearts - that the Holy Spirit would be moving and transforming lives as we speak.


The rest of our week consisted of our regular routine sort of things like ESL, bible studies, bazar clothes sorting (where I scored a pretty awesome cardigan and scarf), youth, worship team practice, basketball and Portuguese classes. The following pictures have captured some of the usual going-ons of life here in Portugal.

Our team with the lovely Doug & Myra - we had them over for dinner this past week, which is always a good time. 

With the weather being so nice, we enjoyed our first meal out on the patio this week. We wondered what people must have been thinking as they saw us because this is not done here - or at least not until it gets really hot. Such North Americans we are!

Me doing Portuguese homework - which I need to be more disciplined in. One of my regrets of being here is not getting a better handle on the language. That has definitely been discouraging at times, which is no fault but my own. 

And lastly, us in our Portuguese class with our teacher Eunice.

There is a thunderstorm going on outside as I write this, which makes me happy. There is something so comforting about a thunderstorm - especially when you get to be inside, on the couch, watching Alias and updating the blog :) Temperatures will be cooler this week, but it's shaping up to be another busy week as we prepare for the Easter services this coming weekend. It is my hope that this week also brings me a pain-free head. 

Happy Easter Week!!!