O Senhor te abençoe e te guarde

Confession: I've been less that faithful in keeping up with Portuguese on Duolingo. This one I've got, though: The Lord bless and keep you. 

A full Proyecto Alianza post will be forthcoming, but last night's despedida service + BBQ, during which our Brazilian brothers & sisters presented the DRLM with a hand-painted (literally) canvas adorned with the title phrase, needs its own. 

The phrase happens to be the first line of a blessing song in Portuguese, which the whole group sang for us. 

After, I was humbled to go up with Tirzah and accept the gift on behalf of the team. 

Missing the other half of the Fab Four: Jamielynn (in FL supporting the Schumann family) and Courtney (vacay). 

Couldn't have done it all without our fearless Regional Director (brother, in Tirzah's case).   

One of the pastors, Carlos, bakes bread (he also runs marathons and cycles)!?

He brought a selection of loaves from his 2nd batch to share, first waxing eloquent about how breaking bread - in, with, and under Christ's body in the Lord's Supper - unites us in the faith. 

It tasted exactly like the bread an elderly neighbor lady used to bring my family when I was little. Carlos even had butter and grape jelly to slather on top, just like we used to!

I rightly suspected that there'd be A LOT of photos taken. Here's me with some people I'm going to miss dearly, although I now have a reason to go visit each of their fields of service, in parenthesis.  

Lucas & Agatha (Santo Domingo, DR - OK I won't have to miss them for too long since they're coming back!), aka my houseguests for the past month. 

Rafael & Lucia [not pictured: Mariana] (Puerto Barrios, Guatemala)

Daniel & Sabrina (Jinja, Uganda)

Volmir & Cristane and Ana (Jinja, Uganda)

Maicon & Jéssica Schieferdecker and Livia and Talita (Salto, Uruguay)

Carlos & Marcia Kracke (Pretoria, South Africa)

Moacyr (Brazzaville, Congo) and Raphael (Panama City, Panama)

L to R: Tirzah, Sabrina, Ana, Lucia, Cristiane, Jéssica, me, Marcia, and Agatha. 

I'm so thankful to have gotten to know each of these individuals over the past month (well, 3 weeks), and pray that God would bless and keep them as they make the same transition I did 2 1/2 years ago. 

With the exception of Raphael, who'll stay on in the DR until June 1, the LAC missionaries depart tomorrow. Lucas & Agatha will return once they have all of the necessary Dominican visa paperwork in hand. The Africa missionaries will spend a week in Puerto Plata before heading to Kenya for on-field orientation on Easter Monday. 

At least that's the plan. We learned this morning that Kenya put some rather severe restrictions in place overnight. While the airport remains open, we may need to be agile and adapt to the reality of a situation we have no control over. Of course something like this would come up on the literal last day of a 4-week ordeal, but not today, Satan! An urgent request from Africa's regional director, Rev. Shauen Trump: "please join us in prayer for wisdom, discernment, patience, and courage for the leaders of our countries and church partners as they adapt to the changing circumstances around the world."

Until next time, bênçãos!