Our church building in Dourados was recently repainted. The improvements to the front of the church were funded by interested Christians of the WELS, and we appreciate this help.

The sign boards you see on the sidewalk in front of church are our first attempt to attract the people who walk and bicycle by the church – there are many people, as we found out when we moved here. Each week we have a question, such as we hear from people we talk to, and an answer to the question from the Bible. The same can be seen from both directions. We are thinking of other ways we can capitalize on this traffic past our door.

I am Cathy Meier, the wife of Bill Meier, Lay Missionary to Mozambique.  We arrived in Gaia, Portugal at the end of February ‘08 with our three daughters to learn Portuguese.  We have been doing intense language classes and the girls are going to Portuguese school.  I am originally from Watertown, WI, and graduated from Lakeside Lutheran High School in 1995.  I graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran College with a Bachelors degree in Communication.

Bill and I were in Zomba, Malawi, for six years before we accepted the call to Mozambique.  Being a missionary wife brings alot of challenges, but also many blessings.  Times are often difficult, but it always brings me back to the Word and the promises the Lord has for us.  It is very exciting to meet new people and see others who love the Lord and want to serve Him with their lives.  It is also very exciting to see the mission work being done on a daily basis by our missionaries.  There is so much work to do and they carry an incredible work load, but the Lord provides them with what they need to persevere.

She seeks them out. She draws them out. Nigerian kids of all ages love to flock to Carol Egelseer on the LWMS April visit. This morning we worshiped at Christ the King Lutheran in Calabar. This congregation has children in the worship service instead of closeted away for Sunday School. You could hear their voices piping up loud “Halleluias” at all the appropriate times. Carol had pretty much made eye contact with every child in that church by service end.

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Greetings from Calabar, Nigeria! Carol, Ima, Michelle, and Sarah are half way through their women’s conferences. Three so far, ending in Calabar today. 220 and 160 at the first two, and about 40 today.

What fellowship, what love sister to sister! Our four presenters are just great! What they are learning from the Lutheran women of Nigeria is eye-opening and life-changing.
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We have been in Portugal for about six weeks and things are finally starting to settle down.  Elise and Audrey are still going to school six hours each day and it appears they are picking up some Portuguese.  We found a bus route that we can use to take them to and from school easily.  It still takes about half an hour to go or come home (no direct routes), but at least they are not spending thirty minutes walking and getting exhausted.  They both seem to like school and they are making some new friends.

Maria is doing great and has really taken to her baby sitter, Ana.  She spends about four to five hours a day with Ana while Bill and I are in class.  Ana is fluent in English but we have asked her to speak Portuguese with Maria.  Ana thinks Maria is starting to understand.  Soon she will be saying words in Portuguese that I won’t know and I will need to ask Ana what Maria is saying.

Bill is doing well and keeping very busy.  He is a bit stressed because he is about six weeks behind on the MLC course he is taking on-line.  Since we don’t have the internet he is not able to do his work.  He is also having trouble finding the time to do the work.  Apart from that he is busy running around town taking care of the work that needs to be done on our apartment (like getting the dishwasher fixed) and taking care of busy work that goes along with getting settled in a new country.  We have most of our furniture now and a bank account, so things are starting to slow down.

This week we increased our Portuguese class time from two hours a day to three hours.  It will be a big adjustment for me to be away from home for at least four hours a day (it takes half an hour to walk to class).  We also have about 1-2 hours of homework each night, and we are supposed to make time each day to practice speaking on our own.  Thankfully Bill is very helpful around the house and does much of the cleaning and is great with the kids.  It is hard to know how much Portuguese we have learned to date, but time will tell.  We obviously have learned something because we are slowly starting to communicate with people intown.  Marta, our teacher, is a very good teacher and very patient.

[slideshow=38]This past Saturday we spent the day at the beach.  It was about 80 degrees and very strange weather for April.  (Except for about five days, it has mostly rained since we got here.)  Maria spent three hours shoveling sand into a bucket, Audrey spent three hours building sand castles and Elise spent three hours dodging the big waves.  Most of the time I was holding a towel over Maria to keep her from getting too burnt and Bill spent most of his time watching Elise and Audrey to make sure they did not get swept away by a big wave.  We were happy to find out that it is quite easy for us to get to the beach from our house.  We take the subway for a short ride and then take a train the rest of the way to the beach.  The beach is only two blocks from the train stop.  We plan to spend many days at the beach in the future.

We have monthly bus/train/subway passes now which also makes life much more convenient than having to figure out the fare every time we go somewhere.

God’s Blessings,
Cathy