Language Acquisition

Portuguese is the language of Portugal. It is very similar to Spanish and those of us who've studied Spanish will recognise many words. Here are some words/phrases it would be helpful for our team to become familiar with:

Good morning = Bom dia
Yes, no = Sim/Não
Please = Por favor
Excuse me, ... = Desculpe-me
Where is ...? = onde é que é
Thank you = Obrigado
How much is it? = Quanto custa?
Do you speak English? = Fala Ingles?
Good bye = Adeus

Melissa, will you please help us with pronunciation?

Planning Session Two

Yesterday the FOCUS team had a delicious lunch and our second planning meeting. We had a discussion of chapter nine of John Piper's book Desiring God, including defining the terms "Christian hedonist" and "frontier missions." Our latest assignments are: 1) to begin reading the book of Psalms and make notes of verses and ideas that are especially meaningful to each of us and 2) to read the first chapter in John Piper's book Let the Nations be Glad before our next meeting on April 13. Each member attending the meeting wrote a short salvation testimony to be compiled and copied for our notebooks. Larry showed a few pictures from the Madrid's trip to Portugal in 2006. Several of the team are still working on obtaining passports.

Psalm 67:4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. Selah

Preparations

The 2008 F.O.C.U.S. team has had its first planning meeting and we are getting excited! We have five high school students, two college students and six adults making plans to head to Lisbon, Portugal in June. We are composing information/prayer letters, applying for passports and praying. Our fearless leader, Pastor Dan, is in contact with our missionaries Gil and Denise Thomas and they are working on our assignments. Stay tuned for more information.