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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.

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