home again

All through our preparations to move to Brazil former missionaries told us that after a while you begin to feel like you have a foot in two worlds. I can say that is true to our lives now. Furlough was great and it was great to be back with our family and friends. In many ways the US still kind of feels like home. The people, landscapes, and foods are all still so familiar. But I must admit that it felt different this time. it was great to be back, but it was more like a trip than a homecoming. These trips are essential and wonderful. They help us mark our time on the field and reconnect with the people and churches we love. Being back now, it is hard to think that we are not planning to be going back that way for a couple of years and in that realization there is some sadness. Yet with that sadness is mixed the joy we have experienced in coming home. That is what Brazil is now. this is where God had planted us and it is where for the time He is allowing us to serve in the Kingdom as ministers and evangelist. Brazil has also become a place with familiar people, landscapes, and food. We have had a great time reconnecting with our friends and family here and there are still more to see. Even the heat in some weird way has been comforting. We have now worshiped twice with the body here in Salvador and what a joy that has been. Most of the words to the songs still come readily to our lips and it feels natural to sing praises to God in portuguese. And as far as the language goes we have a little trouble with a few words that aren't real common, but beyond that the language flows very naturally and comfortably.