Silly Isrealites

As I said I have been reading in Exodus. Yesterday I read the chapters following Moses' descent from Mount Sinai. God was telling him what to do next after the golden calf incident (foolish, untrusting Israelites). I came across a verse that interested me. God was telling Moses to go up and inhabit the land that was promised to them. And then the verse God said, Exodus 33:1-2 "And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:" I never realized this part of the exodus story. God had told them that He would send His angel before them into the land and drive out the enemy. Ok if that is true (and of course it is God said it) than why the conflicting reports of the spies. HELLO! they all should have come back like Joshua and Caleb. Yes there are giants but our God is bigger than they are!!!!! Anyway it was a lesson to me about the consequences of not trustin Our Lord when He has told us we could trust Him.

In other news, I finished translating the book 'Stay in the Castle' by Jerry Ross. This is such an excellent book on personal purity. It is told in a 'fairy tale' way but has soo much truth in it. It was required reading at college and I think it will help young people here to realize the importance of abstainance before marriage and waiting for the one the Lord has for you instead of going your own way.

This seems to be a catch up blog post. I have completed about 3/4 of Nina's sweater and it is turning out very cool. I had to change the cuffs of it because they were not turning out right, but they look good now. I will post some pictures when I am finished.

What an AWESOME God we serve!!

I have challenged myself this year to read through the Bible. So I have been reading in Exodus and the building of the Tabernacle, and it struck me how detailed God really is. He gave the Israelites specific instructions on how to build the Tabernacle. If you read it you can see the incredible detail that He gives. It hit me that God cares about not just the big things but the tiny things as well. I knew this of course but it struck me in a diferent way this time. God wants us to be like Him so I must be detail oriented but also keep the big picture in mind when I look at the details. Kind of like a combination of Mary and Martha. Yes, be concerned with the little day to day details of our Christian lives but set those aside if it will interfer with what is truly important, our relationship with Jesus Christ. This tells me it is ok to be detail oriented but don't focas so much on the details that you forget the big things too. They all have their importance. Reading about the Tabernacle, I also see that big things are made up of small details. The Tabernacle as a whole was the place to worship God, but God gave the children of Israel the specifics. The interesting part is that all the details had to be right or the priest could not come before God. I am going to have to think some more on this subject and see what other wonders God has in this book. Isn't God GREAT!!

What in the World!!

Do you know how dangerous home improvement shows are? NO!! Well I'll tell you how dangerous they are. They give you IDEAS!!!!!
So this is what you do at 12 midnight when you have an IDEA. You move furniture. So now my piano and a comfy chair are in my craft room and I put up the knitting machine for a little while. I now have my laptop on the craft table so I can spread out to translate without my dining room table having books all over it. (It was starting to bug me.) I also switched my dining room and my living room (two ends of a big room) so that the living room is next to the fireplace. Now I have a BIG empty wall that needs filling and NO IDEAS. So back to the home improvement show. Oh well it is a viscious cycle!! If you can save me from this terrible cycle with some IDEAS, PLEASE help.

Work, Work, Work

That sounds like a complaint but really it isn't. I would like to tell you of some of the projects on which I am working. Nina's blog really hit me hard, you know the one on transparency. You see I am one of Trinity's Sunday School teachers. In fact, I am the only one who speaks both languages. So as her SS teacher I should also be helping her learn about God. Yikes! So I am working on a special set of lessons entitled 'Discoverers of Truth'. We are starting with the wordless book and then moving on from there. You have to start with salvation because that is where the Christian life starts. That is one of my projects.

Next, I was recently asked to head up a ladies choral group in one of the other congregations with whom we work. So I am gathering special music for us to sing. This is hader than it needs to be as everytime I think of a song, ... Wait i can't use that one it is in English ... this thought pops up in my mind. I have been working on gathering PORTUGUESE songs together so that we can sing them. I may have to write some.

I am also continuing to work on the translations. So I am busy, which I prefer to being not busy. I will keep you updated on the progress of these projects and if you have any ideas I would sure appreciate them. I love to bounce ideas off others. (don't worry this does not hurt even though it sounds like it would.) I love getting ideas from all over. My mother recently told me about Martha Stewart.com. While I don't like her ethics, she has a lot of good ideas that can be transformed into SS crafts or object lessons. The great thing is that all of her stuff is usually made from scratch, which is good for a missionary.

Hospital Hassle

Today I visited one of our ladies who is in the hospital. I went with the niece of the woman in the hospital. I thought getting in to see someone would be fairly easy, wow was I wrong. There is a line you have to wait in to get a visitors pass. The patient can only have two visitors at a time. We waited half an hour until the current visitors left and then had to leave our Portuguese tax id number card with the receptionist so we could get a pass to see the patient. Talk about complicated. Once we got in, we were able to visit for quite a while and had a good visit. Getting out was much simpler. Just a sample of life here in Portugal. Not your normal American hospital experience. Next time, I will be prepared for the hassle.

Interesting week

This week has been very interesting. I started it off by watching the children of a missionary here in Portugal. That was fun. They have 8 children and I watched 6 of them. I even got some translating done, WOW!
Then I got news from my parents that they have finally gotten all the paperwork done and can stay in Moçambique for another year.
After that I had a big blessing in the form of my computer. WHAT a blessing in a computer? Aren't they tools of the devil and when ever you need one It does not work right? Though at times it seems that is true, I got a BIG blessing from my computer. I recently had to buy a new laptop as my old one was not keeping up with the work I am doing here on the field. So I had a new laptop with a version of Microsoft Office in Portuguese. (Big blessing there as I am translating and the program catches my errors) Well, it was only a trial version and required a key to keep running. AAHHH where am I going to get a key for Office??? My version is in English. Deep Breath. So I put in what I had and guess what ... wait for it ... It kept the portuguese version and went on working. YEAHHHHHH! This is a blessing because as I said I am translating and it is sooooo much easier when I use a Portuguese program for a Portuguese book.
(Now if I could just remember how to talk in either language that would help.)
Finally, last night I watched Nina's girls and boy while she and her husband went to that place ... you know the dentist. I can certainly empathise with Nina. I have had a lot of work done on my mouth and it is not fun to sit in a dentist's chair. Then on top of that to get a dentist who does not speak the same language. Yikes!! I would be running for the door right behind her.
My week is almost over so maybe next week will be a bit less hectic ... or maybe not. Is that the theme to Jaws I am hearing?

The Christmas Gifts

I told you that I would put up a picture of the gifts I made for Christmas. Well here they are. I used a combination of my knitting machine and hand knitting to make each sweater. The patterns came from the Knitters Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. I came up with the variations. I hope you like the pictures of them. I had fun making them even though I finished on Christmas Eve. (I know that was cutting it a bit close there.) The other picture is a photo of the sweater i am making for Nina. She knows it is coming and I am knitting it as fast as possible.

Last friday, we had a shocking thing happen, it snowed. In all the years I have lived in Portugal, this is only the second time I have seen it do that. I had so much fun watching it come down, but I didn't like the cold it brought with it. It was so cold that I could see my breath in the house. That was sure fun, NOT! All you sceptics require proof I bet. Well check out Nina's Blog at Portugal Bound. She has some lovely pictures of the snow. I know it wasn't for Christmas but it was close enough to count. (especially as we don't see it very often here in this part of the world.