Ill in the Algarve

We were home barely two days and on Tuesday we were off again! There were a few matters that had to be tended to in the consulate after my three-week absence, some of which will have to be dealt with at the Embassy in Lisbon next Tuesday before we return home on Wednesday. (The fact that next Tuesday is Election Day and I'll be in meetings at the embassy that day is pure coincidence. No major crisis is expected...and certainly none that I could resolve.)

Headed south

The Algarve is the southernmost strip of Portugal, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to the Spanish border on the right. Click here for larger map.

We spent Tuesday night in the Lisbon area and came by train to the southern coast of Portugal to speak at various meetings arranged by the Baptist Church of Portimão, for their 25th anniversary. Wednesday night I preached in Portuguese and Thursday night in Russian at the weekly Bible Study for Russian-speaking immigrants. Last night I spoke at the city library conference room, on the topic "Evangelical Faith and the Integration of Peoples." Tomorrow the church's main celebration will be at the City Auditorium, where I have been asked to speak once more.

After the service and lunch tomorrow, we'll go over to Faro (see map) and spend the night with Bro. Neilson Amorim and his family, missionaries our church has supported for the past 4 or 5 years.

Strange Illness

As soon as we got down here to Portimão Tuesday evening, I had to deal with a strange illness. Not Abbie's or mine, but my laptop's. It refused to start up. Actually it would start up and at some point I would get the BSOD---the Blue Screen of Death. If you've never seen it on your computer, it's a lovely color and a terrible sight. The instructions say to restart the computer, or start in Safe Mode...I followed all the instructions but to no avail. I decided to take it to the computer technician at a nearby shopping center. He turned on the computer and it worked perfectly! Now, isn't that just like your child? He throws up, has a fever, coughs and hacks, nearly chokes...until you get him inside the doctor's office and he's perfectly fine. The car makes a funny noise...until the mechanic gets in and test drives it, and there's nothing wrong.

Confused, but relieved, all I could do was bring the computer home on Wednesday night. Of course, when I tried to start it up here that night, BSOD, BSOD, BSOD. I resigned myself to taking it back to the computer technician on Thursday morning, saying, "Ahah! I knew there was something wrong!" As I got ready to pack it up yesterday morning to take to the repairman, I tried one more time, just to be sure. Of course, that time it worked fine, and has for two days. While I'm glad it's working, I wish I knew why it didn't work for two days.