Monday, February 13, 2006
I Am Not Shooting Myself Or My Cabinet Members
Oh, the weather! While New York City was under dumptrucks of snow, people here in Portugal went to the beaches this weekend because of the beautiful sunshine. I personally enjoyed a little basketball in a park. My friends didn't show, because they slept in too late, but I enjoyed God's creation just the same. I was up, had gone to church services, and had lunch, but oh, well.
Beside these colleagues, I really am grateful to God for giving me good Portuguese friends. I need them for practice in the language, but they are much more than this. They are a good opportunity to fellowship and study God's Word.
I still have no news on the grade of my exam, but as classes start, I received some good grades on some compositions that were handed in at the end of the last semester. The grading is a little different for this course. For example, we started the second semester with the exact same classes and courses as before, just some new students and some new verb tenses. However, the "final exam," by the account of the teachers, was for the purpose of informing them as to the focus of the second semester courses. The grade percentage will not be counted into the final grade, but the grade is necessary to complete the course. I am translating here, and some information is lost, but that is it more or less. At any rate, I am not as nervous about this exam, since my objective is not to get a piece of paper to hang on my wall, but to be able to speak fluently in any situation in a Portuguese speaking country. That is moving along. One man at the church services Sunday night reminded me of my first day here and how I could not really even say "Hi, my name is Arnie" without making errors, and now, we can talk and understand each other much better. Praise the Lord.
Here are some prayer requests from the Mozambique Field:
Please pray for the Rodgers family as they prepare to move to Mozambique soon.
Please pray for the Germann family as they travel to Portugal this week to share in our study.
Please pray for the tribal teams as they are studying tribal languages.
Please pray for those of us here studying Portuguese that we would have good understanding and desire to learn the language.
Beside these colleagues, I really am grateful to God for giving me good Portuguese friends. I need them for practice in the language, but they are much more than this. They are a good opportunity to fellowship and study God's Word.
I still have no news on the grade of my exam, but as classes start, I received some good grades on some compositions that were handed in at the end of the last semester. The grading is a little different for this course. For example, we started the second semester with the exact same classes and courses as before, just some new students and some new verb tenses. However, the "final exam," by the account of the teachers, was for the purpose of informing them as to the focus of the second semester courses. The grade percentage will not be counted into the final grade, but the grade is necessary to complete the course. I am translating here, and some information is lost, but that is it more or less. At any rate, I am not as nervous about this exam, since my objective is not to get a piece of paper to hang on my wall, but to be able to speak fluently in any situation in a Portuguese speaking country. That is moving along. One man at the church services Sunday night reminded me of my first day here and how I could not really even say "Hi, my name is Arnie" without making errors, and now, we can talk and understand each other much better. Praise the Lord.
Here are some prayer requests from the Mozambique Field:
Please pray for the Rodgers family as they prepare to move to Mozambique soon.
Please pray for the Germann family as they travel to Portugal this week to share in our study.
Please pray for the tribal teams as they are studying tribal languages.
Please pray for those of us here studying Portuguese that we would have good understanding and desire to learn the language.
