Hello Again,

I am writing to tell everyone about my experience yesterday.  We were suppose to have our internet installed yesterday, but it didn’t happen (we are not surprised).  The installation man was suppose to come around 2pm and Bill decided to stay home so he could be there when the guy got there.  I then had to pick up the girls from school, which I had never done before.  I always rushed home from class so the baby sitter who is watching Maria can go home and get ready to go to night classes.  So, Bill gave me directions on what bus to take home, but somehow I misunderstood him and we took the wrong bus.  Elise and Audrey thought it was great fun to be on a bus and go a different route, but they never told me I was going the wrong way.  I suspected we were on the wrong but after about five minutes, but told myself not to worry since this was new to me.  Then we ended up crossing a huge bridge between Porto and Gaia, and I knew we were going the wrong way.  We should have been close to home by then but instead we were going farther and farther away from home.  I did not have a map with me so, I called Bill so he could look at a map and figure out what we should do.  We ended up getting off the bus at the next stop and I started looking for a bus on the other side of the street that would take us back on the same route we just came on, but I couldn’t find a bus stop.  So Bill saw on the map that we were about six blocks from the subway and he walked us through the streets until we got to the subway.  The subway is very easy to use once you know where you want to go.  So after figuring out where we wanted to go we were home in about thirty minutes.  All in all it wasn’t a terrible experience, just a little nerve wracking to have no clue where you are.  The worst part is that Elise and Audrey were getting hungry and needed to use the bathroom.  But we eventually made it home about an hour and a half later then normal.  Now I know how to use the bus and subway system better!

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Our LWMS visitors decided they like the bush churches. Like yesterday in Yala area SW of Ogoja. Rural village, small church, short walls, tin roof not far overhead, over 200 eager women plus a few men and lots of children crowded into every space. About 100 degrees indoors.[slideshow=41]
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Once a month Pastor Villares holds worship services with the church in Lisbon. We went along this past weekend and had a great time! We stopped part way and had traditional roast pig in a city along the way. In Lisbon we visited with some of the church members, went out for dinner and spent the evening seeing the city. It was very beautiful at night with all of the monuments lit up. After spending the evening in a hotel we stopped at a few key sights in Lisbon. The worship service was a 3pm Sunday afternoon and I had the pleasure of playing keyboard for it. On the return trip the Villares stopped to show us a recently built church to “Our Lady Fatima.” Apparently in 1917 the Virgin Mary appeared to three children in the country side. Since that time people can come to the now booming city, visit the enormous cathedral, crawl on their knees across a long court yard and say several prayers in order to receive forgiveness for past sins. All in all it was a great weekend. We are looking forward to visiting Lisbon again. Read more ›

More than a year ago, we got to know Carlos Cezar. He was invited to a youth meeting by a neighbor, Christiane, who is a communicant member. She is the only member of her family to participate in our church. When I asked Cezar last week why he continued to come after that first meeting, he said, “I liked what I saw and heard.”

At first we thought Cezar was really coming because of the pretty girls in the group who also attend church regularly. That would have been natural for a boy of 15. But we soon saw that, though he enjoyed the company of the girls, and in fact of all the other youth, he was coming to church regularly even if they were not in attendance, and even when he moved to another part of town. Soon Cezar was taking part in other activities of the congregation, helping the men make sidewalks, taking part in church cleaning, and such. Read more ›

The temperature was certainly hot in the beach city of Krabi in southern Thailand, but it was the Holy Spirit that was on fire during a recent outreach trip by a WELS mission team to the city in early April.

About thirty youths attended a three-day English camp put together by the mission team, who traveled across the country to get to the southern province. During the morning hours each day, a WELS missionary and Kingdom Workers served as English teachers, while students and staff from the “It is Finished” Bible Institute and By Grace Church in Chiang Mai filled in with songs and games. [slideshow=40] Read more ›