A Day in the Parque (updating for September 2010)

Sometimes we miss our children and the deep woods and cool green mountains of Pennsylvania but God has not forgotten what is dear to our hearts and what restores us and He sometimes blesses us with a day that brings those memories to life (more or less ; ).

One day we drove about 45 minutes out of Lisbon to help watch the two little girls of our friends while they were doing some important things for their ministry. We drove out of their town to the small city of Caldas da Rainha and went to the park in the  middle of town. It is a beautiful park with lots of trees and shade and even a small donut shaped lake with a little island in the middle.

What made the day even more fun was seeing some other friends from Lisbon, with their 4 children, at the same play area, even though neither of us knew the other's plans for the day. In the middle of some really tough weeks of language school, that weekend was just what we needed to give us a break and to experience things that give us joy.

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A year ago...

I fell off the blog, yes, that is what I did, but life was still moving on with its ups and downs. For us, most of our time was spent in studying Portuguese which taxes our brains and our bodies. The more information that went in, the more there was to process and the general living from day to day could get somewhat hazy. We are still studying Portuguese and going into a summer of self study and more interaction with the Portuguese around us, language partners, neighbors and friends, ministry opportunities...

I do have a little more time now to catch up with things I've been putting off - like blogging and house cleaning. Between the two this morning can you guess what I chose?

Here are some pictures from last August and a day trip to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost land point in Europe (we are as physically close to America, while still being on land, as we can get when we stand at that point ; ) Going back down the coast towards Lisbon is the Boca do Inferno (the mouth of hell).

We've been back several times since then. But this day will be the one I remember most because of the "fog show" put on by God. The day was so bright and vivid and then so dark and cold and then bright once more. A reminder to me that life will often be like this - going great one minute and, suddenly, dark and uncertain the next - but the sun will always come again. Best of all, the final scene of life for God's children will be perfect light.

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