An Update

Hello all! I just thought I would post a quick update on how things are going. Right now we're all doing a bit of waiting. We usually have readers booked all morning and all evening with sporadic readers in the afternoon. As such, we sometimes have sometime to do some email, blogging, and such.

Things are going quite well! All of us are around twelve or thirteen readers, which is more or less as much as we can accommodate. It certainly keeps us busy, but in  a good way. The sessions themselves are going quite well. We're working with readers that have a wide variety of English ability. Some are fluent and there are others that are just starting to learn English. Regardless, we're starting to see improvements already in many of them! It's very encouraging. There are times when we wonder if we're being effective, but we keep reminding ourselves that God has us here for a reason and that He will use the work that we're doing in ways that we cannot understand. We found a passage from the Bible that really helped us with this the other day:

"This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" - 2 Corinthians 9:12-15 (NIV)

All we know sometimes is that we are planting seeds. Others here at the church and that will come after us will water these seeds and provide sunlight, and ultimately God will grow them. We have been here long enough to start guessing how some of these seeds will come to fruition, but even those are just guesses. In any case, we trust that God is using our work and will continue to do so long after we're gone!

Speaking of leaving, we're almost halfway through our project already! Time is going very quickly. Sometimes it seems like we've still only just arrived, but when we look at the calendar, the days are running out. We already know that it's going to be hard to leave the people here. In just three weeks, they have already had such an impact on us. It will be good to be with our own families and friends again, but we will certainly miss our Brazilian family and friends.

That's about all I have for today! I may also post some pictures, so stay tuned. Ciao!