July 19-28

These last days have been busy ones with many late nights.  Many of you know we were able to work on the drama this year.  Our lovely Claudia played Jennine, the older sister with the walker.  It was a stretch but she did amazing,  altho that walker moved pretty fast!  I was back stage assigned to Heather (Beatrice) to assist her with changing, having her props ready to go on stage and being sure she went out the correct side.  The job was easy.   Beatrice was thoroughly prepared and acted with such good  "attitude".  She made the perfect young wife and sister.
I had a demonstration on Fri afternoon right before the drama.  I was the angry, unbelieving mother to Tiago.  I am sure a different name was used at your convention. We all know I am not an actress, but apparently this is one of the gifts Jehovah can bestow.  I managed to portray anger and hurt and authority, all in the span of 2 minutes!  I didn't get the part until the Sunday before the convention and didn't practice with Tiago until Wed evening in fromt of the District overseer.
His comment was "the script says mother is 45" and my comment was "this is what you've got" and he said the message is what is important.  In hindsight I wish I had said "what makes you think they didn't get it right" or perhaps "what gave me away? "
We have been practicing every Monday night for several weeks.
Our schedule this past week was to go to the convention site every evening and practice.  Monday and Tuesday we practiced the drama 2 and 3 times and arrived home close to midnight.  Wednesday was full dress rehearsal for the CO and DO and we got home maybe 11 o'clock and same thing on Thursday.  We were really getting worn out but it was worth it as everyone said it went very well.  I never knew how much time and energy were used to get to the finished product!  I can't imagine the dramas from old times when costumes, beards, and those props like big rocks  have to be made in addition to rehearsing.
We had many new ones at the convention from other countries...Bangladesh, Nepal, Iran, Canada and others. Our peak attendance was on Sunday with 454.  We had some speakers from Bethel and a member of the branch committee gave some talks.  Both of these brothers have been working hard on their english mainly because the governing body wants branch committee members to speak english.  The brother I gave the demo for, Pedro, gave at least 2 talks and has been learning just a little over a year.  Such a humble, kind brother.  We will go to visit the branch in August,  we hope.  We had one young woman baptized.  Her name is Jian and I include a picture of us together.  The talk was so lovely as the brother used her name throughout.  It was so personal, just for her.
What a wonderful and exhausting week it has been, but, all in all another beautiful day in Portugal.

July 14-18

We decided to go to lunch on Wed. And it was the most " Portuguese" experience I think we have had as of now.  The little cafe is just across the street from us and Reuben and his family eat there frequently because it is good and very reasonable.  Problem is it is small and seats no more than maybe 18 people.  We went and no table was empty so the owners seated us with these 2 old Portuguese men
    We started out each minding our own business but eventually we started communicating albeit awkwardly for they spoke virtually no english and well we all know our portuguee skills. Nevertheless,  a delightful conversation ensued. We had language lessons over the food. They told us what what the foods were in Portuguese and we shared the english term.
    We introduced ourselves. They were Ezera and Antonio, the one with the groucho marx eyebrows was delighted because his daughter in laws name is Gloria and his daughters name is Claudia.
   So we had good food and good conversation. But as their  wine supply kept coming the situation began to deteriorate,  especially when they bought us each a glass of port.
  As dessert came. ..they had melon glazed with port wine, they very graciously felt the need to share this with us and wouldn't take no for an answer.
  With coffee they ordered some clear fire water and one old gentleman poured some in my coffee.  It wasn't in my plan, but it was delicious.
We detected the conversation between them may be swerving to one of romance?  I think a marriage propoal to Gloria was on the tip of Antonio's tongue when we decided to excuse ourselves, thanking them for a lovely meal.  It was delightful!
  Thursday we helped to prepare and serve a meal for the English pioneer school. It was very American...meat loaf, mashed potatoes, salad and rolls.  We think it was a hit.
  Today we shopped for something new to wear to the reginal convention next week.  Claudia got a skirt and blouse..I got a dress.
We are excited for convention, but next week is going to be exhausting.
The weather was a little cooler the last few days and there is a chance of rain tomorrow.   All in all, another beautiful day in Portugal.

July 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

This past 4 days have been busy as usual.  Thurs I was in the ministry
With a young sister named No emi.  In US we would call her Naomi, but the name pronunciations are totally different.  We have an Agnes in the comg, but the pronunciation for her name is I neesh.  It has taken me some time to get used to pronouncimg Portuguese names.  I am better now, I THINK.
After service we had lunch with Reuben, Marieka, and his mom.  We were discussing our immigration appt.  We knew we needed proof of address but thought we could just get a letter from them to show we lived here.  No!  We had to get offficial documents authorized and notarized.  So, Maria, Reubens mom, took us to the city hall and we had all we needed.  But, they said we could pick up the document on Monday.  We said our appt with immigration is tomorrow.  They said okay, pick up the documents at 9:30 on Fri.  We said our appt is 9:15.
There was all this Portuguese going rapid fire back and forth. When all was said and done they said come back at 4 and we could have our document.  Whew!
Friday we go to immigration and are probably seen by 9:30 and by 10:15 we had our visa extention. This is totally unheard of in Portugal.  Everyone we spoke to said plan on 3 visits at least.  Jehovah blessed our efforts.  I had prayed that if Jehovah wanted me to stay the full 6 months then we would get the visa.  ANSWER!  We took our young Portuguese sister to translate for us.  She said the immigration official said it was easy because we had all our paperwork in order...she didn't count on our having Jehovah's help.
After our visit we went to Orient station on the metro.   This was all part of expo 1998.  The buildings were beautiful, different than old Lisbon.  Our friend Janille went with us and we all went on a gondola ride and at lunch at the river.
Sat my service partner was Andre and we witnessed in the train station. We met a young Nepalise man that Andre has quite a visit with.  It is interesting to watch his face and see it go from "what do you want from me", to "oh, he knows nepali and that took alot of effort on his part to be able to speak to me in my language."  Had meeting in the evening, of course.
Sunday we went to Sintra.  It is about a 30 minute train ride outside of Lisbon and is on the ocean.  It was much cooler there and in the morning there was some fog, but later in the day it cleared and it was beautiful.  We visited 2 palaces and a Moorish castle.  It was quite a climb but the views were breathtaking.  Janille went with us again. ..she has such a short time in Portugal,  with so much to see.  It was a long day, but I really enjoyed it.
Today, Monday, I preached with Tiago (James) at the cruise line.  It is usually an easier day of service if you can find shade.  We did and I was able to leave some magazines with crew members.  They come from all over the world, but they speak english and like the magazines in English.
All in all another beautiful day in Portugal?

July 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

This afternoon we were to Fridays we sightsee and this week we decided to go back to Belem again.  Belem is at the mouth of the Tagus River a very short ride from Lisbon.  We went several weeks ago, but after we saw the museums our time was up. This Friday we took a sister visiting the hall from New Zealand.  She came for a wedding and decided to stay about 6 weeks to explore.  When she leaves Lisbon she is the going to Thailand for 10 months to work where the need is great.  The place she is going doesn't have a English congregation.   When she arrives she is starting Thai language classes.
In Belem this week we saw more of the towns and some monuments.   The enclosed picture of the small castle structure was the entry port of Lisbon and served as defense of city.  It was built in the early 1500s, I think.  The other monument is for the explorers who started from Portugal.  It begins with Portuguese expansion to Madeira in 1418.  At the foot of the monument there is a wind rose in mosaics which includes a map of the world.  Very interesting things to see and Belem is a must see here in Portugal.
Saturday was meeting and service.  The KH has a major roof problem and we are going to have to move to another hall for a time.  The hall is in an historic part of the city and there are such restricrions on all you can do there.  A new hall would be good, but there is no land.  Not sure how they will proceed.
Sunday we had a lazy day with a little laundry to hang on the line.  I think I will put up a clothes line at home! The clothes smell so fresh.
We walked around the city and then caught the metro to Columbo mall and had burritos at Guacamole.  It's the only Mexican restaurant we have found and, YOU KNOW, somerimes a person needs the spice of Mexican.
Mon and Tues were service days.  I was able to speak to some teen age girls on the metro.  They seem at first to be so disconnected, but everytime I have endeavored to talk to young people they have been very nice and respectful.  I invited them to the convention so you never know.  Today I was with Andre on his bible study with a Nepali man.  It is so humbling to see this beautiful young servant of Jehovah learn English to help this congregation.   Then he has learned Nepali so he can help these in their mother tongue.  The student, Ramtel, has come here to make a better life for his family still in Nepal.   He is struggling because he had yet to find a job  so Andre searches Portuguese web sites to help him find work.  He found some but it might mean Ramtel would miss meetings so he chose not to accept those.  This is rare for Nepali because they usually have only money concern over spiritual.  I really enjoyed our time with him.  This afternoon I was with Beatrice and we were to have a bible study with a young girl from Ghana.  Beatrice rushed to be there on time between her morning job and her evening job and then Sophia wasn't home.  She said this is quite typical with those from Africa.  All in all another beautiful day in Portugal

July 1, 2, 3

We have been busy in the ministry this week.  Went out 2 long days and one not so long.  It is a challenge when you are not able to spesk to many people.  My partner today, Akime, had some calls, but just like home the trick is to find them home again and not busy.  She told me that it is considered very rude to interrupt a Nepali when he is having a meal.  It is almost like a ceremony for them.  So today some were eating and some not home.
We went to a coffee shop that belongs to a Bengali family.  She goes 1 time a month for coffee and then she can leave the mags with the woman.  You could tell that the men were not happy with her visit and she said the woman has no freedom.  It has to be hard to live with that culture.
The temperature is starting to climb so our service days may be shortened.  We start the convention invitation on Sat as our convention begins on the 25th.  We will probably have less than 500 at ours at the assembly hall outside of Lisbon.  I am jealous that you all had or will have a tie in with the governing body. You will have to share all.
Reuben and Marieka will be home from their CO work this evening and I think will be here the rest of the month.  They head for an Intn'l convention in the US on July 31 and won't return home until after we leave for the US in Oct.
I will include some pictures from service this week.
Another beautiful day in Portugal.