Happy Birthday

Jose Carlos and Marcia invited us to eat with them tonight to "celebrate" their daughter's birthday. Susana turned 19 today. It wasn't much of a "party" in the usual sense of the word. Besides us, the only other guest was Emerson, a Brazilian friend and fellow brother in Christ, whose family is in Brazil. Well, Rui, Susana's boyfriend, was also there, of course, but he hardly counts as a guest around there, any more.

But it was a festive time in the sense of being with friends...and Marcia fixed more food than was necessary, of course. And there was cake and there were candles. In the photo, Emerson and Rui are sitting beside Susana, and as the other picture shows, Marcia continues very upbeat and in good spirits.

On the flying of time

Time flies when you're having fun. That's the saying. My experience is that time flies whether I'm having fun, or not. Moses wrote about the passing of our lives, "as a tale that is told" in Psalm 90, and that was before TV and modern technology, so not much has really changed.

The days of the past week were filled with consular duties...still working on the death case of the American who died without any next of kin present. Our part in this bureaucracy will go on for a few more days next week. The Ambassador is planning a trip to Madeira in a couple of months, and we've started working on preparations for that visit.

This is tax season, and I am part of an IRS volunteer program, so I have people coming to me to help them fill out their tax forms. I, who dislike paperwork and doing my own taxes, spend hours filling out forms for other people.

In the church, we had extra practices for the Easter cantata, and by the time I got around to checking e-mail at night I was too exhausted to do any blogging. And we did take a couple of nights to visit Jackie and Marcia.

Marcia will be getting her fourth chemotherapy treatment this week, and she is doing well, it seems. Her hair continues to fall out, but so far, not so much that it is obvious. Other side effects have been minimal.

Jackie caught a bad cold this week, perhaps more due to her anemic condition, for which she has been taking shots. She had to stay at home all during the week, but she was able to be at services today, although she is still far from being healthy.

Abbie continues to practice playing the cantata, and in her spare time, sewed vests for the men in the choir to wear, and has begun going through boxes of photos to put together an album of our church's history, almost 30 years of pictures. Marcia, who has not been teaching for the past couple of months, has been sitting at home, looking for something to do. She's offered to organize the album, but Abbie or I will have to help her with the names of people and dates of events that predate her involvement with the church. In any case, the exercise will be good for her. She'll have many an opportunity to laugh at pictures of the pastor when he had hair (lots of it), or a moustache. My only consolation and defense is that I'm not the only one who's changed in the last 15, 20 or 30 years.

We're back!

"From where?" you say. You probably didn't even know we went anywhere, but if you follow the blog at all, you would have noticed the absence of postings. I know the last one was on Saturday, March 4. That was the weekend I was informed that an American was in the hospital in a coma, and there were no family members on the island. That meant that Monday I started a 4-day stretch of almost constant phone calls to local people, doctors, people who knew the man, and to the family members in the US, as well as the consul-general in Lisbon. The man died on Tuesday morning and the process became so complex that we had to delay our planned trip to Lisbon by one day and fly on Friday rather than Thursday. We had been invited to participate in a missions conference in Lisbon, and we missed the first night and the morning of the next day because of this emergency situation. At one point it appeared likely we would have to cancel the whole trip.

Although we didn't stay for the funeral on Friday afternoon, I couldn't leave until I had guaranteed the funeral would be held, and that there were no documents missing that would require my signature as consular agent. I had to file reports on every detail to the consul-general, and there was no time at all to post on the blog.

We just got home tonight (Thursday) after a week during which time I was only able to check e-mail now and then, because there was no time and/or no Internet access. We were in the Algarve on Portugal's southern coast on Sunday and Monday, visiting a church down there, then we came back to Lisbon, where I had two full days of meetings at the embassy.

After visiting and talking with the members tomorrow, I will be able to let you know how Jackie, Marcia and Raquel are doing. There are also other things to report about the trip, but for today I'll just leave it at this explanation about why you hadn't heard in almost two weeks.

A Brief Appearance

As I wrote on Monday, I could foresee being under for several days, and resurfacing only briefly. In reality, I had to stay under longer than I was counting on. The main translation job I was working on turned out to be more complicated than it appeared at first sight. At this moment I can say it's out of the way, although a couple of small ones still await my attention. Today I let them wait, and Abbie and I went out and worked in the yard, doing general clean-up. The weather cooperated beautifully today, after the bad wind and rain we've been having for a couple of weeks.

This posting is to give news regarding our more pressing prayer requests. Several have written saying you are praying for Raquel, Marcia, and Jackie, and we appreciate that and encourage you to continue praying. Not a one of them is back to normal.

Raquel continues to have problems with choking or strangling. It happens more when she's nursing, but it also occurs at other times. She coughs and gets choked and stops breathing. Roberto and Militina have to be attentive at all times and use a syringe to draw out the phlegm and mucous. The doctor has warned them that if Raquel has another bout as serious as the first one that hospitalized her, she could end up with a chronic condition. As you can imagine, her parents can hardly afford the luxury of sleeping soundly, as they are always listening for the least sign of problems.

Jackie ended the antibiotic treatment and within a day or so felt the return of pains and other symptoms of the kidney infection. A couple of nights ago, as she was lying in bed, her lower right leg cramped and turned inwards at a sharp angle. Her left foot turned outwards from the ankle. She finally got her legs back in proper order, and she tried to contact her doctor but he wasn't in. She seemed to be a little better today.

Abbie and I went to see Marcia for the first time in over a week. Abbie had a slight cough earlier in the week, and she didn't want to chance exposing Marcia to any infections. Following the second treatment, Marcia has started to lose her hair, and for the first time, has started to have problems with nausea. Today, in fact, Jose Carlos had to take her to the hospital to get some medication for intestinal pain she was feeling. The nurse told her that if that was the worst effect she is feeling at the moment, then she's doing well. Marcia continues to be very upbeat and looking forward to coming pack to the church services.

We thank you faithful readers (and pray-ers). I have two or three other postings in preparation, but I'll have to come to the surface for longer periods of time to get them in final form.