Highbury News             -  12  -                 March 2008
News from Brazil

Dear Friends
We have decided to send a short note only now in February - then you do not get all post before Christmas, but also in the time with less communication afterwards. The weather which you experience at the moment would suggest to send a tea bag, so that you can warm yourselves up not only by a few warm words. It is quite astonishing how fast one can get used to warm weather. Nevertheless, recently we actually had only 15°C - and must embarrassingly admit that we felt really cold. The next day temperature went up again to more than 30°C; so we do not complain.

Stefan's university
The semester begins this week and together with a colleague we have been assigned a course on the subject "How do I approach new testament texts?" Further I will be looking after an Internet correspondence course ("Introduction to Theology"). For this I really need your prayer support for my Portuguese. It will become rather stressful linguistically.

At school
(Pre) school starts for Marit and Simeon today. Marit is really looking forward to be at school again - after 9 weeks of holidays we parents are glad as well. For Simeon this will be a big step. Please, pray that he gets on well. It is almost the same situation as for Marit last year: he will not understand a lot. In addition it will be the first time that he leaves our house regularly for a whole morning. But because he already accompanied Marit a couple of times     
last year, he is also looking forward to it.

Native Contacts
To find Brazilian friends is the next big challenge for us as a family. We decided to approach this a little more offensively. Because of our language skills it sometimes feels rather lonely. Given this we are really glad that we have our Swiss colleagues here in Rolândia - they are a real treat for our souls. Just a couple of weeks ago another family from Switzerland arrived. They are short-termers for 18 months and will work with CERVIN, the drug-rehabilitation centre. Their children are of the same age as ours. We look forward that they can play together.

Portuguese
We will continue to have language lessons. We simply need this and in this way we do not get accustomed to wrong grammar which is so easy to adopt. This would be difficult to adjust later on. Please, also pray for a breakthrough language wise - some things are already well, but talking more than a couple of sentences at a time is still rather tiresome.
Well, for today only very briefly, but we use the opportunity to say a big thank-you: Thank you for your prayers, for keeping in touch and for your continuing interest in us and our life here.

Kind regards and blessings for your no less challenging everyday life.

Stefan and Birgit Kürle,
Marit, Simeon and Jakob