The time has come, the walrus said...

Well the day is here that I am leaving Londrina. At first I didn't know my place in this city, and I felt like a nuisance and an imposter, to put it simply...after a while, and after learning Portuguese, I was able to jump in and get involved in areas that not only blessed my life through the friendships I made, but I know allowed me to be a blessing.

I didn't end up working in the seminary office much at all. I was probably there for a collective 7 or 8 mornings during this whole time. Gwen, with whom I lived, needed the help, but happened to be more overcommitted than she could handle and therefore has spent the entire time that I have been here, running around. She rarely went to the office as well. While I was able to help with little tasks here and there, I was anxious to get more involved with people.

My month spent helping at WEBB was a nice experience, and my 6 weeks studying Portuguese there were incredibly helpful. I am amazed at the amount God allowed me to learn while being in this country and studying the language at the same time. It's the best combination, if you ask me.

The last month, I have been busy. I didn't know at first what I would be doing, but I invested a lot more in friendships and in people and in being involved at the church. There was rarely a dull or bored moment as a result.

Saturday night and Sunday night were wonderful for me, at church. On Saturday, Nice, a dear friend, sang me a song and they had a party for me to say goodbye. On Sunday, Pastor Jhonatas asked me to come up and sing Shout to the Lord with the congregation, in English. That was such a blessing. I was able to sing 3 times in the last month, at church, and wow...it was incredible. I just started to sing that song, and didn't want to give the microphone back to the pastor, ha...So I kept worshipping, in English, harmonizing and just basking in the sound of all of our voices praising the Lord.

The entry below has pictures of me singing and of people and of the party...also including some pictures of me that Pastor Jhonatas had used to make a slideshow of embarrassing Christine pictures for my goodbye party...that was lovely of course.
Enjoy. : )