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I'm such a bad blogger, I know, I know! Please forgive me for not posting more often. I really do want to be better at this and keep all of you informed about what's going on in my life here in Salvador. Above you can see the biggest change in our lives in the last month. This is my newest teammate and adopted "nephew", Calen Xavier Sass. He is so precious!!! I love holding him and letting him sleep in my arms or on my chest. There's just nothing that ministers to your spirit like a sweet newborn baby!

So, what's been happening since my last post, you ask? Well, my parents and brother came for a visit. We had a great time!! I showed them around Salvador, and they were huge helps in getting our building ready for the inaugural service we had on August 17. It was of course hard to see them go, but I'm so glad they got to come.

Now I'm trying to settle into the "routine" (if you can call it that) of "normal life" around here. I am down to two LST follow-up studies, and I'm shadowing Mary on an evangelistic Bible study to learn how to conduct one myself. I teach all of the children's time on Sunday mornings since Alicia is on maternity leave. Today, I also began teaching the beginner's English class now that Val is on furlough. I really enjoy that! Teaching adults is a new experience for me. It's a little different than teaching my peers in Spanish lab at ACU or the first-graders I'm used to, but it's still a lot of fun. Adults know how to take responsibility for their own learning and ask good questions, so that is neat! And I still get to teach them silly songs to help them remember the days of the week and months of the year! I'm also continuing my twice a week Portuguese class, and we're still offering a free hot lunch to our neighborhood every other Saturday.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a visitor come to our church named Ana Carolina. She is my age, and she has jumped right in to our life at the church, helping out with lunches, participating in English class and Women's Day. Last night, I went out to the movies with her and Leandro (see previous post), and tomorrow the three of us and some others are going to the beach. I think I might finally be making friends my age...yay!!!

I have to confess that I still get pretty homesick every once in a while. Alicia said I was going through some culture shock. My mom said I also have job shock (first September since kindergarten not to be in a school setting). And add to that fly-the-nest shock. Yeah, sometimes my emotions get the better of me. But I know there are lots of people praying for me daily, and that really keeps me going. Beginning to make friends here also helps. Please pray that I will continue to develop good relationships with the Brazilians here and to deepen my relationships with my teammates. Please pray also for our work here and that we will continue to glorify God in all that we do.

That's all for now, and I promise to be more consistent with updating from now on. Thanks for reading, everyone!