Blog 10

The Christmas season is upon us! Its December 4th which means we have 21 days until Christmas! Don’t worry, if you think we are deprived us Christmas, let your hearts be settled. Christmas is a big holiday in Cape Verde. They put up Christmas lights and trees; the whole shabang. Of course we are missing just one thing….the cold. Now, this isn’t to say it isn’t getting colder here, just not the norm. It was pretty chilly last night with the low temperature being 76° F. The team is doing a great job of getting ready for the Christmas spirit. We helped the girls put a tree in their apartment and some lights. We jammed to some Christmas tunes, which by the way I have been listening to for a couple months now. With all that said, Tis’ the season!

This past week has been slightly different! That seems to be the theme here. No one day is the same.

If I didn’t mention previously, we went and saw Thor: Ragnarok last Monday as a team with a few of our friends here. It was so much fun!! That is pretty much the only noteworthy thing I did last Monday.

So I wake up Tuesday morning, walk to the bathroom and to my surprise, my left eye is extremely swollen. Obviously I was slightly concerned but I knew it would eventually be okay. Tuesday was the day we all started at our new Pepe locations. My new location is called Terra Branca. It is amazing there. I was definitely missing the only location so much but it is always nice to have change. At lunch I found out I would be moving on to Portuguese 2 along with Ashlyn and Hadassah. I am definitely excited to continue learning more and improving my knowledge. I feel like as of recent, the language has really begun to come to me better, especially with understanding. When it comes to speaking, it is slightly more difficult. We were supposed to begin language class on Tuesday but our teacher had a meeting so we ended up postponing until Wednesday (This happens pretty often). Tuesday was still a really amazing day because I had the blessing of being able to go to our neighbors prayer meeting. The number of people that come can vary but only 5 others came this specific night. We had a beautiful 30-45 minute time we devoted to just getting on our knees and just talking to Jesus. Afterwards, I was able to share a word from Matthew 15. I really enjoyed my time at the prayer meeting if you didn’t pick up on the context clues. Also, if you didn’t know, typically we have our Jean Michelle basketball ministry but instead I went to the prayer meeting.

Wednesday we had our 2nd day of Pepe which was definitely a different experience. Wednesday is our exercise day and at São Filipe we had 1 park with 3 different playground varying in size. In Terra Branca we didn’t even leave our room that we do story time in. We did more stretches and some things like jumping jacks, squats etc. We also had our official first language class today. It was definitely a different dynamic, but it is good. I think its good to have smaller classes specifically for the more individual attention each student gets. I also officially started my devotion with Joseph. It is called Consider Christ. It is extremely convicting and has taught me a lot in just one lesson. For our ATGCC (American Team Group Cult Church), we had a really great time. Micah taught but it was largely conversation oriented which I enjoyed. He did a great job. To my great sorrow, I found our that our friend Lucas is going home to Brazil for good. I know the Lord will continue to use him in great ways. After we finished our church we had a time of prayer Matthias and Lucas as they both headed to different places. If you are wondering where Matthias is going, he is headed on a 4 day mission trip to the islands of Fogo and Brava.

Thursday I started to feel really sick. I decided to go to Pepe despite how I was feeling. I had felt some symptoms prior to Thursday, but it hit me Thursday morning. After we got back home from Pepe I immediately went up to the girls apartment, laid on the floor and feel asleep. That was about 12:00 pm. I woke up at 4:30 pm. So I got a good nap, but I still wasn’t feeling very good. Soon-thereafter Matthias and I headed back to our house so we could eat dinner and get some rest.

Friday morning we had a meeting with Pastor Emmanuel and his wife Diva. Basically we went over how the last 2 months have gone. I was assigned 3 new discipleship groups; 2 with Matthias and one with Ashlyn. I am really looking forward to these! I was pretty disappointed though because my discipleship with Samuel ended up not working out but I am still going to try to pursue his friendship. At the end of the meeting I found out Serge is going to his house in Pedra Badejo. I quickly jumped on the opportunity and asked if he would be okay with me coming with him. He replied of course. So, after language class that day, Serge and I headed out. This may not sound as crazy to you guys, but it took me and Serge almost a full hour to get a taxi. This is insane if you wondering. I have hardly ever had to wait for a taxi in my couple months here and I’ve taken a lot of taxis. Once we finally got to his house we had a great time just talking to each other and hanging out.

The following morning we went to a soccer field and he played for a couple minutes and then we went out to the beach. Shortly after we headed back to his house and then back to Praia just in time for our Christmas concert practice. Yeah, thats pretty much all that happened on Saturday.

Sunday we had church as usual. I was still feeling pretty sick but I had to teach so I pushed through. I thought we had a great class. Some people who never talk finally spoke up a little bit. It was a great time. After lunch Micah, Joseph and I all went to the hospital to see Madison. She is currently in the hospital with a parasite. She has been sick for about 4 or 5 days now. Keep her in your prayers. At 3:30 the van pulled up to take us to Ribonegua. Well it just so happens at 3:28 my stomach decided to give up on me. I felt horrible, but after thinking it over, I decided to go on. While we were there, it happened to me again so I had to use one of the villagers bathroom… I felt bad. Micah and I asked Serge if we could stay with him in Pedra Badejo after we left Ribonegua. So now, here I am. I am sitting in Serge’s house in Pedra Badejo writing to you. I hope you’ve had a blessed week and it is the same this week.

Prayer Requests: Lucas as he heads back to Brazil in a couple days, Matthias who is currently on the island of Brava, Madisons health, Christian (Samuels Brother) has been coughing up blood so for his health, Unity for the team.