Bênções no Português

Blessings in Portuguese...
Today was my second class, and wow. It was fabulous. Absolutely fantastic. It's still a lot of time, but thankfully not too much homework. Today was vocabulary and pronounciation, and some integration with Christianity, learning about Christianity in Brazil and I'll memorize one Bible verse in Portuguese every week. Well, that's more than I do in English, so that's good. This week is John 3:16, which is always a good one to have covered. We also sang a worship song in Portuguese, and it was one that I had heard before and really liked, so that was fun. In less exciting news, we also talked about how to pronounce the alphabet and about when to use certain greetings that I already knew, but it's good to know more about the culture and what is appropriate when, etc. We learned about countries and nationalities, etc. While this is all very basic, it is so wonderful to move at my own pace and fly through that material. At one point she asked if she was going too fast, but that's exactly how I like things to go when I'm learning. My brain turns off if the material starts to move behind my mind, and today it was great to be challenged for a full 3 hours.

My teacher for Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when we'll cover these subjects, is Emilia. I just loved her. She lived for over 20 years in northern Brazil with different indian tribes and is currently studying an indian (not from India) language so she will be able to know the basics of the structure, etc. in case the Lord calls their family back to the jungle. Her husband is a Baptist minister, and she has a daughter my age and a 13 year old son. She almost made me cry at the end of the class...she was telling me that my pronounciation is really very good and with a little more time it will be nearly perfect. She said that she could tell that the ease with which I'm learning is a blessing from God and is an indication of how He is going to use me here in Brasil.
Wow.
I was just so blessed by her honesty and real passion for God that she was so willing to talk about. She asked me if there were any Psalms that I liked in particular, so I could try and read it outloud in Portuguese, and I told her Psalm 86. Then she told me that last month God really spoke to her through that Psalm, and how at the beginning, the writer is complaining and asking God to help him, etc...but then he just starts praising God for who He is, and she was saying that whatever our circumstances, we still need to praise praise praise God. So true.

Anyway, the pronounciation thing was great to hear for obvious reasons, but more superficially, I'm terrified of having an ugly ugly ugly American accent, so that was encouraging as well. Some (not all) Americans I've heard talking just sound...blah. Like they have marbles in their mouths. Then I hear a Brazilian speak and it's like music. I would prefer the latter, for me. It's a lot to do with inflection too, and it's sort of embarrassing to make yourself change the way you would normally "sing" a sentence, but well worth it. Hopefully I can get the hang of that.

Today was really a good day...I got a phone call last night from Becky Abel saying they would be passing through Londrina this morning, so they stopped by my apartment for an hour or so. It was good to "meet" them, though technically we've met before. Cross and Crown, the church I grew up in, has been invested in their ministry for years and my parents have kept in contact with them and been getting their newsletters, etc. It was wonderful to get to know them a little bit and hopefully we'll have a chance to meet again, maybe in Curitiba next time, where they live. Or at the beach after Christmas. : )