"Normal" (?) week

Looking at my last posting, I see more than a week has gone by. Nothing spectacular happened; it was life as usual. Monday was the Bible study at the prison, an hour with women prisoners, then an hour with men. (They are not allowed to meet at the same time and place.) The meetings are usually conducted in English to accommodate the various nationalities represented, but the men's meeting has become a bit more complicated with the entry of some who understand Portuguese, but not English, and others who understand Russian/Ukrainian, but not English or Portuguese. One of the newcomers is a Pole, who fortunately understands a little English (but no Portuguese). It will be good news for him tomorrow when I take him the Polish Bible I ordered for him. Bah, one of the prisoners from Africa, called this week to tell me his good news: the judge has ordered his release and deportation, so he should be going home in a couple of weeks. At the moment, he is probably the one who has been attending the meetings for the longest time, perhaps 3 or 4 years.

I had to go to the consulate, of course, to take care of some things, but I spent as much time as possible at home trying to finish the built-in closets in our bedroom. My brother, who's a wallpaper expert, wrote that he was going to see about getting three weeks' work done in two weeks. Well, I can top that: I can take three weeks to get one week's work done! I believe the closet will be finished this week, though.

We did say good-bye to the old wood-frame sliding windows this week. They were supposed to slide, that is, which is why we replaced them. They were loose enough to rattle in the slightest breeze, but actually opening and shutting them on any given day was another matter. Heat and cold, rainy weather or dry weather---the windows managed to swell or warp, as the case might be, and get wedged in the track, or suddenly become unstuck. The new aluminum windows do not seem to pose a threat to our fingers.

Then there was a funeral this week. As far as we know, this man had never accepted the gospel. Some of his family members are believers, but it is difficult to offer comfort when we have no reason to believe the person has departed this life without a saving knowledge of Christ. And just for balance, I was asked to preach at the wedding of a brother who's working on the island at the moment. Blanchard will be getting married in Lisbon on April 16 at the Third Baptist Church where he's a member, but he asked me to bring the message. More about that in coming weeks.

And finally, for those of you following Jackie's health, there have been no further developments. We just ask that you keep praying for her, and for us all.

I'm reminded of our Ukrainian brethren, who, when asked how they are, often respond in Portuguese, "normal". (The word is the same and has the same meaning in Portuguese as in English, but the last syllable is stressed, rather than the first one.) In studying Ukrainian, however, I discovered that the word "normalno" is the Ukrainian equivalent of "OK". So, if next week at this time I say that the week was "normal", it might be in order to ask what brand of normal I mean: English, Portuguese, or Ukrainian Portuguese.