Fall in winter - March update

Well, here we are almost in the middle of March, and there is news!  I promised to share about our neighbors.  Across the street live Jocelyne and Gerard Buros, who have already been over for an afternoon snack.  He gave us some wood for a small repair job in our house (he teaches woodworking), and she is a peschool teacher an director (like Barb used to be in the States! - what a bond!).  Barb has been to see Jocelyne's school and is invited to teach a song in English this week (March 18).

We also met a Portuguese couple down the street, Delfina and Manuel, who are very friendly (on our first visit with them they even told us we could stay in their home in Portugal!!!).  Manuel especially seems very open to Harold sharing the Gospel.

Harold has preached in a couple of churches, and is invited to do more.  His passion is stimulating the members to "make disciples" a la Matthew 28:19-20, thus resuilting in church growth.

There is no home group as yet, but Harold is planning other ways of getting a group going - possibly an evangelistic Bible study.  He had planned to go see the mayor, but "a funny thing happened on the way..."

Monday night, Feb. 28, Harold tripped on some steps leading into the dining room, and, long story short, ended up in ER with a broken left upper arm and a broken rib.  His left arm is immobilized for 3 weeks.  He now has greater empathy for his oldest son, Phil, who's been operating successfully with one arm since age 6!

Barb continues to study French in creative ways: besides the normal venues (French textbooks, TV, computer programs), she learns a lot through children's library books (local library - both in French and bilingual), children's game books (paper and pencil - crossword, word search, follow the directions, etc), and especially a beginning reader for pronounciation help (Harold listens and corrects:).