Firsts

In one of Paul's New Testament letters he gives a long list of all the bad things that had happened to him during his missionary travels.  His list was to make a good point.  As I have been considering our last term of missionary service (2009 - 2013), I considered the length of such a list for me.  But I decided on a more positive list and found that there were at lots of "firsts" during the past four years which is quite remarkable actually since my husband and I have been on the field for twenty some years now.  I guess you can teach old dogs new tricks!  In spite of being veterans or old-timers we can still be fresh and innovative.  My husband could add more to this long line, but the items in this list are things in which I actually participated or initiated.  Some of these were things I had wanted to do for a long time and I suppose the time was right!

• first time to speak for women in Bahia and on the island
• first kids free retreats 
• first English retreats on the island 
• first time to successfully teach English as a second language in a classroom situation
• first successful ladies' meetings with our congregation
• first of the boys to take the Brazilian college board exams
• first child of ours seen off on a missions trip to a foreign country
• First church retreat for our congregation
• First missions conference for our church
• First church work day
• First time to develop a college level class/curriculum (camping for Aventura Brasil)
• First Bible teaching events in local public schools
• First domestic air travel within Brazil ((trip with Greyson to Belem)
• First people directly saved from our work in Sobradinho to be baptized

First super long trip for my parents - they've been many times to Brazil, 

but in 2011 they stayed for close to five weeks!  Best trip ever.