Deem gracas….

“Deem gracas em todas as circunstancias, pois esta e a vontade de Deus para voces em Cristo Jesus.”  1 Thess. 5.18

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”  1 Thess. 5:18

This is the first memory verse I have learned in Portugese!  I hope there will be many more to come.  We have different English memory verses each week, so our Portugese teacher encouraged us to learn some of the in Portugese as well.  I love this verse and think it is a perfect one to learn first…we will need to remember to give thanks as we go through this process–especially with learning a new language!

I can’t believe it has been a month since I did my first blog…it is a goal to become more consistent.  We just completed our 6th week of training—time is flying.  And, sometimes I fell like my brain is going to explode!  We are learning so much!  We have been having class on Urban Evangelism.  We are learning different strategies to evangelize and reach the people of Niteroi—it makes us really excited!  There is so much work to be done! 

 A couple highlights from February…Wes mentioned our trip to Kansas City, which was really great.  We also had some special Valentines celebrations!  (see the picture)  Jill fixes everyone lunch every Monday (which is amazing!) and the week of Valentines we did a special “romantic” lunch.  It was a lot of fun.  Wes took me to a Brazilian Churrascaria for Valentine’s Day.  It was an amazing meal that I will call more of a meat fest.  The entire meal people are bringing around rich meat on these skewers for you to select.  Wes was in heaven!  He kept pointing at me and saying “no more salad for you!  I expect you to put up some serious numbers in meat!”  At the end of the meal he pulled his lower eye lids down and asked me if he had meat coming out of his eyes.  I proclaimed that I was experiencing my first “meat headache.”  Something to look forward to more of in Brazil.

We also have been really enjoying our cultural nights.  Every Thursday evening the whole team and other members of Continent of Great Cities go to Ron and Georgia Freitas’ lovely home for a wonderful Brazilian meal and lesson on Brazilian culture.  We have so much fun together.  I am really excited for the Brazilian food!  I am only a little concerned that I may like it a little too much! 

There is SO MUCH coming up in March and I will be really anxious to blog about it!  First of all, Park Plaza has their Sowing For Eternity Sunday, which is their Missions Sunday, on March 2nd.  So, all of you reading this we would love for your prayers for God’s blessings on that day.  March 7th we leave for Brazil (for our first trip ever!!!) for our survey trip!  I can’t explain how excited we are!  We would LOVE your prayers for that as well.  March 9th Wes TURNS 30!!!!!  What a huge day!  We are having some celebrations beforehand, but we are also really excited to celebrate in Brazil.  I am sure Wes hopes for another meat fest :).  There is lots going on and we feel extremely busy, but extremely blessed.  We are so thankful to be a part of this work and can’t wait to get a view of the city and what it will be like.

 So, more to come soon!

Birthday Celebration

Carrie and I made a quick trip up to Braymer, MO this past weekend to visit my grandparents and celebrate my grandpa’s 89th birthday and my grandma’s 87th birthday.  Collectively they turned 177 years old on Feb. 2nd and although the Braymer Fire Marshall shut down the attempt at lighting 177 candels in the nursing home, we all had cake and celebrated the lives of our grandparents.  It was great to spend time with my parents, Nic/Jennifer, Uncle Bill and the rest of the MO family.

On Friday night and Sunday we got to see KC friends and had a great time catching up.  We stayed with Mike and Camille both nights and had a lot of fun and made some memories.  I showed them “Old Greg” which was a waste of 6 minutes and 55 seconds but all in all we had a fabulous time.