Well the crazy holiday season has passed, and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Our team was very busy, but we had a great time. The Saturday and Sunday leading up to Christmas were spent having Christmas services and parties with two of the different churches here. We were all involved in different things, from singing in the choir, to helping with costumes, to preparing food. It was a lot of fun, and I great time to connect with people. We spent Christmas Eve morning in downtown Lisbon picking up the traditional Portugues Christmas cake with Joe Arrais, one of the church leaders who had just arrived back in Portugal with his family after four months of training in Canada. Later that evening, we head over to Otto and Marjorie’s (our host missionaries) house to celebrate Christmas with them. Christmas day we celebrated Christmas with just our team, and on Boxing day we had a larger Christmas with the entire ministry team here in Portugal and their families. We were able to meet some new people, make some new friends, and participate in a good old fashioned game of “white elephant.”
For New Years, we hosted, together with the youth pastor here, and party for all the youth from a few of the different churches. It was then that I learned something very crucial about how the Portuguese celebrate New Years. Now, when I have celebrated New Years in the past, the festivities generally go to somewhere between one and two in the morning. Here, they continue all night. Literally. My team tapped out at about 6:30am, and almost everyone else stayed until 8:00, 8:30ish. It was a lot of fun, but definitely crazy. I’ll be honest, by the time I hit 3:30, 4:00ish, I was absolutely done. But it was a great time to hang out and connect with the youth. The guys barbequed Portuguese style, and I can safely say my mind was blown - it was amazing.
Another thing that has been occupying my time is school. Because I am doing TREK as a part of my BA in Intercultural Studies, I spend one day a week focused on completing assignments, working on required reading, etc. This intentional study of the culture and of how to communicate Christ in cross-cultural settings has really enriched my time here. It forces me to be an intentional student of the culture, and to learn as much as I possibly can.
As we’re now heading into the new year, I’m looking forward to having a more solid ministry schedule. We will begin teaching English classes in the next week or two at two of the different churches here. I’m excited for the doors that will open for us - please pray that that would be a ministry that draws people from the community into the church. My hope in that in meeting a practical need and desire, we will be given the opportunity to also talk and share about spiritual needs and desires.
I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and New Years! Thank you so much for your continued prayers for me. I’m looking forward to seeing what God has for me next in the new year! God bless.
