Português Sem Fronteiras

So, today marks a red-letter day in our language training! Our tutor, with endless amounts of patience and perseverance has helped us complete the third and last book in our grammar lessons. What does this really mean? It means that for the moment I don’t have to worry about the difference between a “Preterito perfeito simples do indicativo” and a “Preterito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo”

Now where did I leave that «conjuntivo?»

It means that we shift into more of the conversational part of our studies. Which means I have to worry about not mixing up “cansado” –to be tired, with “casado” –to be married and “cacar” (the second “c” sounds like an “s”) to hunt. Isn’t it interesting how all those words are related? I have a funny feeling that we are going to be wishing that we were back in our grammar books! But then again the whole point of this exercise is to be able to communicate verbally. We have been chatting with people in broken Portuguese, so we are looking forward to improving that skill as much as possible over the next couple of weeks.

That’s right in a little over two weeks we will be on the move again! We are all excited about getting to Angola and getting settled, but as usual we will miss all the new friends that we have made here. God has again be gracious and softened the impact of leaving our home in Canada and giving us new friends wherever He takes us.

I am not sure if we will have another update for you all from Portugal, but if we don’t, the next one will be from Angola YEEHAAAW! Sorry, that’s the Alberta influence coming out!

Recent wanderings

Things continue to progress even if we are ready or not! We are already counting down the days till we leave Portugal. It is a strange thing to be thinking about leaving when so much time, energy and prayer has gone into getting us here. The language learning continues, it is a real roller coaster of victories and... I wouldn´t say defeats, but reality checks. We are understanding more each day, but speaking the language needs some work. We have met a new couple in our church, he is American and she is Portuguese and they want to meet with us regularly to help us to speak better. I think that they are taking pity on us, which we truly appreciate. God is so gracious.

Last week we were able to sneak off on a trip to Germany. The fares were so ridiculously cheap that we couldn´t pass up the opportunity to go. We were told that it was a good idea to take a break at some point and far be it from me to follow advice. It happened pretty quickly so this is the first chance we have had to tell you all about it. We were able to visit with our friends from Three Hills, Dave and Barb Schulz, as well as Mark and Laurie Wiebe from Kamloops, who both work at Black Forest Academy. It was graduation time so things were pretty hectic for them. While they were busy we were able to go into France and visit with Sam and Cecile Herrmann. For those of you that don´t know, Gary worked with Sam in Three Hills flight instructing. It was pretty cool to catch up with friends from Three Hills and Kamloops in France and Germany. We included some pictures of some of the places we went.

Kandern, Germany- home of Mark and Laurie

Holzen, Germany- home of Dave and Barb

Colmar, France- close to Sam and Ceciles

Zurich, Switzerland- not even close to the home of Matt, Tami and Josh

Matt blazing down the Bobsled run at Steinwassen Park, Germany

Josh being as excited as Josh gets!

Gary concentrating so he doesn´t crash...which he did...note wound on knee, there was another on the other and on both shoulders...must not let the kids WIN!! Oh by the way Harvey, I destroyed my sunglasses in the crash! Actually the lady behind me ran over them, I am going to need to order a new pair...again.

Well it is back to work again and looking forward to the next move to Angola. Hey, one last thing, we want to make a little book with the pictures and birthdays and anniversaries of all the people that pray for and support us. If you could e-mails us that info it would be great, that way we can meet the new people that have joined our team, but we have not yet met and have a face when we pray for all of you. Thanks and adeus!

I just noticed that there aren´t any pictures of Kait! She did come along, but she didn´t hang around with mom and dad, so alas no pics this time. We´ll get her into the next one.