Top Ten: Together in Portugal

On May 4th, the Reeses and the Meyers finally arrived in Portugal after months of waiting. For the first time in our history, the entire Angola Team is now living in the same city! (Technically, I guess that's not true right now because our family is in the States for the next several weeks.) We have really been enjoying being together, and have tried to implement a schedule that makes time for "business" meetings as well as fellowship and fun activities -- in addition to language classes and study time, which is, of course, our primary purpose for being in Portugal.

The Angola Team, sans Alex and Stephen, with our teacher, Eunice (This picture was taken the morning after the Meyers and Reeses arrived.)

Danny and Katie have started watching Stephen for us three days a week while Rusty and I are in class, to help us save money on childcare. Eliana and Stephen are getting to be great buddies.

All the kids in their Ethiopian outfits (a gift from the Meyers) at one of our Monday team meetings.

One Friday a month is Girls' Night Out, and the guys keep the kids. On this night, we made a mountain of tortillas (some to eat, some to take home), ate dinner together, and then watched the new BBC version of "Emma."

One Friday a month is Guy's Night Out, and the girls keep the kids. The girls decided to have a little Bible class for the kids on these nights and rotate the teaching responsibilities. This was our first lesson, and I taught Noah and the Ark.

On the other Friday nights, we have a team dinner and fellowship at our house. This particular night included birthday celebrations for Rusty and Teague.

Every other Saturday is Date Night. One couple keeps all the kids for the evening so the other two couples can have a night out. On this night, while our kids were hanging out at the Reeses', Rusty and I enjoyed dinner at Chili's and going to see the new "Robin Hood."

On the other Saturdays, we have a team outing. Here are Eliana and Stephen digging in the sand on our first trip to the beach...

...and Alex and Efesson chasing the waves.

At the end of May, we had our first field trip all together. We went to Sintra, about a 40-minute train ride from Lisbon. More pictures to follow in another post. This was the group shot in front of the palace we toured.