Leaving Lisbon

After not blogging for so long, I am not sure where to start or how far to go back. There are so many things that I want to put down here, but for my own thought process and for the space allowed, it needs to be in bite size pieces.

I guess that our blog title should, for today, read "Leaving Lisbon" (not that we have stopped "loving Lisbon" at all) and soon I will change the title to something all together different. God has stepped into the middle of our dream of living and serving in Lisbon for years to come and has shown us that we are now to be on an all together different journey in life, one that we never expected or would have wished to chose, but one that we are confident that God has planned and will walk through with us.

The Portuguese language requirement just proved too difficult to reach.  Don continued to struggle with exhaustion as he studied and we just couldn't figure out what was wrong and why he was having trouble to the extent that he was having it - even after doctor visits and surgery to correct his sleep apnea. We came back at the beginning of September for our 6 months of stateside assignment and then hoped to go overseas again - if there would be a position open in an English speaking country.

Now, after continuing some more medical exams and evaluations, we have been told that Don has Frontotemporal Dementia and that he will not be able to drive a car or work again. We bless the Lord for giving us the experience of serving for 3 years in Portugal and for the timing of stateside happening at just the right time for us to still have insurance for a little while and find out that Don has this disease. With a limited number of years left, we can make the most of them and God can still use us in whatever way He will - in, through, and/or around this disease.

We trust the Lord and have a great sense of peace that God has our lives in His hands and will provide all that we need, but for now, we are trying to work our way through the maze of doctor visits, social services, and all that goes with finding out about how our lives will be affected. 

So as sad as we were to have to leave the dream of serving overseas and leaving our dear Portuguese friends and the city of Lisbon that we had come to love and call home, we can see that God, was arranging things to bring us back in His timing and in His way. We find comfort in being with our children in Greensboro, NC, knowing the God will continue to arrange things in our lives that will be the best for us and also bring glory to Him.

Don in our empty living room after the movers had gone.

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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I fell off the blog for sometime now...

I have nothing to report right now, it is too late and I am brain tired, but after several times of being asked to get back to the blog, I've decided that I need to update and reacquaint myself with blogging. I can't believe that I let it go for this much time, it seems like just a few months of not writing but it has been over 9 months!

Hopefully you will be hearing from me again in just a few days. Stay tuned for further installments.

Pruning the Palm Trees and Fixing Umbrellas

I didn't know that some palm trees need to be pruned. The other day I heard all this noise and talking outside our bedroom balcony and went to see what it was. I'm glad that I was dressed for the day because as I came around the corner into the bedroom there was a man in a bucket, who turned his head and looked at me as I came to the sliding glass door. He was using a small chainsaw to cut all the dead fronds off the tree. They worked on several trees for several hours and then packed up and went away.

Later the umbrella repair/knife sharpener guy came along blowing his flute and looking for customers. This is a job that is a cultural heritage type of thing that they don't want to let die out - the government pays these guys a wage to push the bike around and play this type of pan flute to let people know they are in the neighborhood. (Remember the ice cream trucks that used to go around neighborhoods when we were kids, playing music to let you know they were coming?) Usually on the weekends he is out playing the flute earlier than he should be but I guess on this Saturday he had to wait until later in the day to do his rounds as no one could have heard his flute above the chain saw noise.

Big Game in September

I'm a little behind with the blogging but have a few minutes now, so will try to write at least one...

I can't remember if I've ever mentioned Benfica and Sporting, two of the well know soccer clubs and top rivalries here in Lisbon. We happen to live between the two stadiums, about a 15-20 minute walk to either of them from our apartment. At least twice a year they will play each other and they have a custom that is interesting to see. It is also the times of the year that you will see the largest amount of police, police vehicles and vans, police dogs, and medical vehicles all in one place at one time - well, maybe the Pope's visit to Lisbon topped the Benfica/Sporting games but it would have been a close call. It is surprising to see so many security personnel and vehicles when most of the time you rarely ever see any.

The home team fans gather at their own stadium and then walk to the "away" game stadium. The police block off the streets and then escort before, behind and along the sides, the huge mass of people that are walking, singing and chanting as they go. One of the streets that they take passes right in front of our building, so on that day we know to leave or come before or after the crowd has passed by.

The visiting team has to stay in the stadium for a whole hour after the end of the game and then they are released to do the return walk with all the security again. If they let them out at the same time it would be too hard to control the crowd.

The last game they had was September 19 and Sporting lost to Benficia, so they were a little more subdued on the walk back to their stadium but that didn't stop them from stopping in the walk from time to time to loudly cheer their team and sing the team song.

Embarrassing to say, as I was taking pictures from our balcony, I had to delete one that I had taken and had not noticed that 3 of the male fans had come into the yard of our building and were using the bushes to relieve themselves of some of the beer they were drinking.

The team colors of Sporting are green and white, Benfica's are red and white, and I can't help but think  of the Harry Potter movies and the "teams" when I see these fans. (Side note: it was too dark to get a good picture on the return walk that night. I'd intended to get one of all the police vans but missed that one too.)

Metro Stops and Meeting Needs

It is still hot in September, really hot, and most days we look to find some shade and/or a cool place to study where we won't get totally sleepy right away. The nice thing about city living and using the metro is that you have lots of options on where to go. Between our metro stop and where we get off to go to language school there are several nice choices.

One day, after class, we got off at the metro stop that comes out at Campo Pequeno, an area of the city with the building of the bull fights. We walked around until we found a park bench in the shade and then got our books and homework out. It was still hot enough, with very little wind, for us to have trouble staying focused and we began to watch some of the things going on around us.

We watched as some birds began to gather at a place on the cobblestones where the sprinkler that was watering the grass was getting water on the walkway and pooling up some. The pigeons were quite comical as they sat in the sprinkling water, taking a little shower like we would, opening up one wing and then the other and holding them out and up so the water could get under their wings. Other little sparrows would come right down among the pigeons and roll around, soaking up as much water as they could.

It made me think about how the overflow of water was being used by the birds, water not intentionally meant for them, and how our own lives should be a little like that. Out of the overflow of our walk with Christ, needs around us will be met and some of those needs we will not be ones that we even thought about meeting.

Campo Pequeno

Thinking about Golf and Cooler Places

It is hot in August in Lisbon, but it is also the month that a large majority of people in Portugal take their month long holidays. Shops will put out signs and say they are closed from this day to that day - usually covering at least two weeks or more. Our little neighborhood market was opened today but as of tomorrow they will be closed until the end of the month, and last night we went in and said, "Boas Férias" to our friendly clerks. We already miss these people and the hot rolls they sell every day : ) 

It is also strange for our "American" minds to think that they would just close up shop and miss all the sales that would come from the store being open.

Today we went driving around to see if we could find the golf course near our neighborhood. We drove in congested Friday traffic, took a few wrong turns, but found it at last. Some courses are better than others but Don would just like to play sometime. Well, this is August and once again we found that this place has "holiday hours" and you just can't walk up and play anytime.

Well, seeing this course today brought back happy memories of days of golf in Pennsylvania and reminded us that even though we had very long, hard, cold winters at least for awhile it was cool and beautiful ; )

We are finding though like Paul, that we can be content in all situations and even grateful for variety. But it would be nice for Don if he could play somewhere as it has been well over a year since he played and he would just like to play somewhere.

Doors and Windows in Évora

Tiny Streets and Open Plazas

There are tiny streets and open plazas in almost every town in Portugal. When you walk down the small streets, you have to be very careful because there is not much room for your body and a car that might be passing at the same time. This day in Évora, a very hot, over 100 degree, day (most of the people were in the shops, cafes or restaurants staying out of the sun), we were looking for a place to buy some hats. There was a sign at the head of a street,  just off the plaza, with a store listed that sold hats (chapéu). We went down to check it out and our friends each bought a hat. We then went on to a little restaurant, tucked away in another side street that served traditional Alentejo food (the region of the country). I found that I really enjoyed everything I ate - even the little appetizer that was made of bacalhau (cod fish).  We stopped at several cafés for water or coffee, visited the palace, an art exhibit, and the Chapel of Bones, and just had a very good day spent with our Portuguese friends.

A Normal Day

Yesterday we found out that our driver's license paper (the temporary paper we have before our real Portugal cards come) was expiring today.  A few months ago, I would have had a little worry attack, dreading all the possible difficulties, but this time the first thing that came to mind was, "Lord, help me not to worry about this and help us to just get this taken care of."

Not only were we able to find the place this morning (about a 25 minute drive away), with the help of good directions from a friend, be we also had our Portuguese friend able to go with us, as his day was open. There was no problems and then we went back in the afternoon (again with our Portuguese friend) to pick up our "renewed pieces of paper"(aka our temporary driver's licenses).

But the biggest thrill of the day for me was being able to drive there in the afternoon traffic, navigate the traffic, not stall the car or grind the gears, make all the right turns and have the sense of things just being a "normal" day. (Have we told you about there being very few legal left turns on the roads here and when you miss an exit or turn you have to sometimes go a long distance before you can find a way back?)

When we got back to our apartment building and were going into the garage I didn't have the sense of relief I used to have when we'd go somewhere new (usually with a few wrong turns) and would get back - so glad to be off the roads and safely home. It was just a normal day that I thought would never come!

From Segovia back to Lisbon

Castles, Kings and Queens

I have always loved going inside houses and seeing how people live (or lived), what their daily lives look like as they move around the rooms, how they decorate, the view from their windows...

I have always wanted to go inside a castle, too, to feel what it might have been like to have lived in a certain time period. Last week I got to go into two castles in Spain. The splendor and workmanship that went into the surroundings was beautiful and in some cases, according to my taste, almost gaudy. But more than that, I had a feeling of hollowness, an emptiness, of knowing that years have come and gone, wars have been fought, some of the kings and queens were good rulers and others horrible. Living in a castle might have made life a little better but not necessarily happier, and a life without God and the love of Christ leaves only the momentary wealth and power of a spec in eternity.

I am so happy to be living in a small apartment without a lot of worldly possessions and having a relationship with the creator of the universe! And, as far as grand houses go, isn't that what Jesus said, that He is getting a place ready for us in His Father's house?

Come Inside the Castle (Segovia, Spain)

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An Old Picture of the Castle

Outside the Castle (Segovia)

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Storks

Storks are a common bird in Portugal and Spain. As we were driving we saw many areas where the nests would be on top of the power line platforms, one after another, and sometimes a field would have a whole flock of them on the ground pecking for grain or whatever it is that they eat.

When we were walking down to the castle in Segovia we saw this little park and Don looked up and noticed a stork. It was sitting by it's nest in the tallest tree in the park.

Market Day in the Square (Segovia)

A Trip to Madrid and Segovia

On Sunday, this past week, we took a trip to Madrid for four days of meetings. It was nice to be with co-workers, re-connect with friends from past training, be blessed by worship and music in English (!), and just be out of our city and apartment for a break.

For this meeting we were able to ride with co-workers who have been here for more years then we have and have worked and traveled in Spain. There is just something comforting in being able to go to a new place with someone who already knows how to get around and can navigate and show you some interesting sights. They even brought along a delicious picnic lunch to eat on the way.

We had an afternoon off on Tuesday and went to see some of the sights in Madrid and then on the day we left, we went home to Lisbon by way of Segovia - a really neat town in Spain, known for the best preserved aqueducts left by the Romans on the Iberian Peninsula. There is also a beautiful castle that was used by the kings and queens over the years. I'll put more pictures up later.

To Madrid

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