Oh, Church!

Well, today was my first day at Portuguese church. After tons of introductions as the Americana, nao fala o Portugues, and tons of cheek kissing I finally sat down for church. It started with many questions about if we were ready to worship and after a pretty weak response worship started and I was lost! Luckily they did have it on powerpoint so I was able to read the words as everyone else sang and during easier parts like "o Deus bom" (the good God) I would do my best to sing along.

The pastor did a great sermon on the 10 Commandments. He talked about how the 10 commandments was there as a mirror to show us where our sins were and it was us who had to choose to change them. He also talked about Exodus 20:5-6 and about the promises of following God given there. He talked about how we always focus on the punishment of 4 generations but never look at the love of 1,000 generations for following God. I thought this was a really good point in the sermon.

You might be wondering how I understood what was being preached....well I woke up this morning and miraculously was fluent in Portuguese! Hahaha I wish! That would be total blessing! Actually, Ron throughout the whole service, not including worship, translated the whole thing for me! So I sat hunched over so I could hear him better because I had to tune out the Portuguese and try to hear him whispering to me in English. By half way through the sermon my back was starting to hurt from being hunched and I was I was getting mentally exhausted from having to concentrate so hard. Fortunately, the extreme concentration caused me to remember a lot of what was said in the sermon without taking notes, which is what I normally do.

I never thought church could be so exhausting! I was ready for a nap by the time church was done but I had to have lunch with the Fairbanks at their home and then we got to have a wonderful time sipping bicas with the Ericsons. Jerry and Karen Ericson are one of the first missionaries from GEM in Portugal, they came around the same time as the Wootens who I mentioned in a previous blog. It was really cool to talk with missionaries who have been in Portugal for about 40 years now. I hope that today was not my only interaction with them!

Well that was basically my first Sunday in Portugal and I am exhausted!!!

Tomorrow's adventure includes me going on a bus by myself to Vialonga to the Fairbanks' house to start my Portuguese lessons! Wish me luck! I am really nervous about riding the bus by myself since I know no Portuguese! Hopefully I will survive so I can continue writing on this blog! Hahaha!

Peace out!