EnRouTe tO AnNUaL CoNFerEnce

Friday morning bright and early Cec, Lisa and myself hopped on a bus and headed for the main Bus/Metro station in Lisbon. Where we promptly caught a cab and headed for the airport. Timing was good because the Landers family arrived shortly after and the Crew headed for the Lufthansa check-in.

The day before I had been pondering the thought...this is kind of like flying from state to state in the US, only we are actually flying to another country. I wondered if the same "3 hour" rule applied here. Well rule or no rule we weren't 3 hours early but since Ron and his family had just arrived I thought NO BIGGY! That was until I arrived at the ticket line for check-in.

We waited in line for at least an hour. Fourtnately this was no DIA and I was not another hour from getting through security and arriving at my gate! We managed to get through security and find the gate with time to spare. I and 2 others were happy for the time to spare as you can see. Our stomachs were telling us we needed a little American grub and we answered it.

After safely arriving at the airport, silencing my stomachs jungle cry, and boarding the plane I was able to sit quietly and think about the events of the coming week. I was not really sure what to expect. This was to be a week long conference where many GEM missionaries gather from all over Europe. Here I am, a 1 year'er who has no idea what the future holds beyond that - How am I going to fit? What could I glean?

Well I decided there were many things I was excited about: to see another country, hear more about GEM, learn & grow, but most of all - I was excited about meeting new people and hearing about their ministries. Little did I know just how powerful this conference would be. 

The GEM Crew

From left to right:
Cec, Kris, Lisa, Ron, Terence (in front), Heidi, Bri, and Bobb

So this is my CREW, let me introduce them to you.

Cec - is one of my fabulous roommates who has blessed me during these past two months. She unfortunately is only here for the short-term and will be heading back to the states the end of September. She is a woman of prayer and tremendously optimistic. She will be greatly missed when she returns to the states.

Kris - arrived in Portugal in June and is Ron's assistant. She is a career worker with GEM and currently is focused on learning the language. She has an eye for detail and is no wide-eyed newcomer to the ins and outs of Portugal as she has been here previously for a year stint. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Kris and look forward to this year with her.

Lisa - is "that girl Lisa" to my friends back home. She is literally my roommate as we share a room in our 3 bedroom house. It is cozy but nice for late night chats. She has a tremendous passion for Jesus and a desire to share Him with those around her. Lisa has a heart for missions and signed up for this year in Portugal with the intent to possibly become career with GEM in the future. She is not yet sure where but I know the Lord is at work and will lead her where she needs to go.

Ron - is our supervisor here in Portugal and has been running this internship since 1996. He and his wife Linda have been involved in ministry here in Portugal for almost 20 years now and have two great daughters named Andreia and Olivia. Ron is passionate about relationships and helping to improve character of Christian Leaders. He also plays tennis, so I am hoping to get in a game sometime and see how I measure up.

Terence - is an extremely passionate guy that is devoted to serving the Lord. He is participating in this ministry here in Portugal for one year. After finishing this year he plans to head to Romania for a 5 year committment and help with a form of Youth Ministry there. He has the heart of a servant and is always willing to jump in and help in any way he can.

Me - I am gal who loves the Lord and wants to live life to bring Him honor. Currently the Lord has really been working on me in the area of prayer and leadership. He is encouraging me to spend more time talking to Him in prayer - and its working! He is also teaching me that there are many different facets of leadership and reminding me that I do not know them all.

Bobb & Bri - are graduates of Moody Bible Institute, so you know they are cool! They really have been such a joy to get to know. They love people and have a passion for discipleship. They too are career with GEM, however they do not yet know where they will be working in Europe for the long-term.

 

The EDGE "Kids"

From left to right:
Debra, Dan, Amy, Sarah, Bethany Daisha, Melissa, and Carla

The EDGE students are part of a 6 month study abroad/internship program through Grace University in Omaha, NE. They arrived in early June and will be taking a full semester course load in addition to their ministry experience here. Currently, during the month of August, they are all enrolled in an intensive month long language class. While studying this month they have begun to reach out to their classmates and build relationships. Many of these classmates came to our Cafe Concert in early August and have continued friendships with the EDGE "kids" since then. They are all gifted people and a wonderful addition to this years team. They will all be greatly missed when the return to the US in late November.

 

The Enghedi House Explained

Reflections from my roommate Lisa on our purpose and reasoning for naming our Home here in Portugal. She speaks for all of us, and does it beautifully.

Welcome to our home, Enghedi! En Gedi, located in eastern Israel is known for its refreshing pools and natural springs. In 1 Samuel 24 we see it is one of the places that David finds refuge from Saul. As much as the waters of En Gedi could only provide temporal refreshment to David, he longed for the living water that refreshes both body and soul. In Psalm 63:1 David writes, "O God, you are my God, earnestly I see you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." We here athe Enghedi House have found that we desire and long for something more than we ourselves can satisfy. So we've taken Jesus up on his offer found in John 7:37-38, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." As we build relationships with university students and individuals, our hope and prayer is that our home might be a place where they feel welcomed, refreshed, and experience Jesus. We wanted to give our home a name that reflected our desire and EnGhedi it is! Our prayer and hope for those who visit the Enghedi house is that they leave having "tasted and seen that the Lord is good" and seek Him to fill their heart's longing.

Fun Times at the Enghedi House

My roommates and I all hope to use our home as a place to entertain and reach out to those around us. A place where people will feel refreshed. We have thus named it the Enghedi House, which I will try to elaborate on a bit later.

Our first opportunity to entertain was when we realized a team member's birthday was coming. Terence, or Big T as I like to call him, tried to keep it quiet. However, when we found out it enabled us to host a dessert birthday party where everyone was able to enjoy our back patio, while Heidi's Hip-Hop-A-Hipity-Hop-Party Mix played in the background with the wonderful fragrance of grapes turning overhead.

This wonderful evening ended with a rip-roaring game of Crainium - with each team making up the items for the other team resulting in the birthday boy doing a little dance as he hummed a song from the good 'ole days. Good times, good times.

 

Big T's Birthday Party

A couple of weeks ago we threw a birthday party at our home for Terence. He is a member of the GEM team and is planning to serve in Romania for a 5 year term after his time here in Portugal. It was his 24th birthday and we all had a ton of fun.

As I have grown acustomed to, I do not call people by their real names...well at least I try not to - I have now dubbed Terence "Big T." Most of the team came, it was pretty much the best birthday party EVER! I was able to supply the party mix with my ipod - thanks to whomever gave me the veggie tales Cheese burger song - Big T loves veggie tales and was excited I played the song for him.

God is Dead...or is He?

Originally posted August 10th:

Last night my roommate Lisa & I met two 20 something Portuguese young men. Their names were Louis (Lou-ish) and Nuno (New-no). They both were graduates of university in the field philosophy and were very open to "practicing" their english with us. We sat with them for quite sometime at the empty table in the picture. We talked about Portuguese culture, travel and many other trivial things. They shared their plans for the future, to do NOTHING and drink lots of beer while doing it. But then for some reason Nuno made a statement. He said, "God is dead." I have no idea where it came from or why he said it but when I heard those words come from the man sitting next to me, I began to ask myself, "what does that statement really mean?" It is one I have heard before, and is one that gives such a clear picture to the darkness of Europe.

I wrestled with that question again today and began to realize that I must first forget everything I have learned from the bible and His realness in my own life. What does that leave me? Nothing. So I turned to philosophy and logic for answers. I mean if Nuno believes that God is dead by implication God must have been alive at one point. If God was at one time living, why is He now dead? What happened? How did He die?

These questions did not lead me to answer, instead they led to more questions. Is God dead because, like other religious icons, they are human like us and humanity dies? Or maybe it is more subjective than that. Maybe God is dead because we have deemed Him irrelevent to my life or the world around me, and is therefore of no use to me, could this be why God is dead? Yep, still only questions. No answers.

God is so real to me, so relevent to the manner in which I live my life. I cherish the gift of His love letter and the times I can see His hands of love and protection in my life. It breaks my heart to hear those words spoken - "God is dead!" I want to look at them and tell them, "No my friend He is not dead but died, died and rose again!" But you see that is not how things are done here in Europe.

The darkness of this continent and the coldness to the things of God astound me when I try to take it all in, Europe's rejection of God. But God never asked me to take on the burdens of Europe. He asked me to live a life surrendered to Him, demonstrating His love through my life. So what does that mean here in Portugal when those around me say "God is dead."? Its one person at a time, one conversation at a time. Conversation by conversation the darkness of Europe will not look so daunting an obstacle.

Though Lisa and I did not share the beauty of the name of Jesus with Louis and Nuno, we did start that conversation. A conversation that Lord willing will continue into the future when one day we might share the work that Jesus did in their behalf on the cross. Yes He did die, but He is not dead - HE IS ALIVE! 

mY ROoMiEs

Yes, yes - I know I have been delinquent but here it is, a picture of me and my roommates. I have truly been blessed as I have wonderful roommates including my Portuguese roommate Andreia who unfortunately is not in the picture.

Cec in the middle was living in Omaha, NE before coming to Portugal. She will be here for a shorter term than Lisa or I. Please be praying for her finances as she may need to return to the states in September. Lisa and I both feel there would be a great hole without her here and are praying the Lord sees fit to bless her and enable her to stay longer.

Lisa was living in Palm Springs, CA before coming to Portugal. She is my actual roommate and while our room is small we are enjoying each other. Lisa is also Sammy's mommy :) and has vowed not to adopt anymore stray dogs. Also, for those of you in the Young Adults - No I have not establish dominance yet, but everything seems to be going just fine:)

Answered Prayer

Praise God! He certainly does answer prayer! Tonight was our cafe concert. Bryan did a a great job and it was awesome to hear see that the EDGE kids had invited so many people. All together we had around 30 people attend tonight, over half a dozen of those were unbelieving students from the university.

As I sat at the cafe sipping a cup of coffee (nothing like starbucks, but still good) I looked around and there were so many good conversations going on around me. That is what I prayed for, good conversations and the possibility of ongoing relationships. And that is exactly what the Lord provided tonight.

The foundation has been laid, pray that opportunities will come to plant the seeds - hoping that someday they might be part of His harvest.

Brian's Song

This past week The EDGE kids (the college part of our team) began their language studies. We have planned several infomal get togethers for them to invite university students to. While we have not seen any turn out yet from the university one member of our team has made a connection with a 20 something Portuguese guy. He has hung out several times with our team or members of the team. He is asking a lot of questions but needs prayer that he will be open to hearing about Christ.

While none of our plans have yet seen any connections with university students I am hopeful that tomorrow night may be different. We have the priviledge of have a College student with us for two weeks, he is a talented musician and will be playing a small concert at a cafe near the university. We are hoping that through personal invitations, flyers and foot traffic people will drop by and listen to Brian's music.

My prayer is this will open the door for conversations and possibly open the door for continuing relationships with some in attendance. Please pray that God will be honored through this event. That Brian will be used to share Christ and open doors for many on the team to have good conversations. And also that there might be some doors opened for ongoing relationships with some attending.

Concert is scheduled to begin about 6pm here - Portuguese time that will probably be more like 7pm :)
That is around lunch time for many in the states, please lift us up in prayer. Thank you!

An Invitation to Fast & Pray

For any unfamiliar with the spiritual purpose of fasting please let me share from my own experience and understanding. As I read through the scriptures I see that a discipline of fasting is practiced by many seeking to grow closer to God. It is very often closely tied to prayer in its practice. As I read through the life of Jesus, I see that these were disciplines He practiced often and put great value in. Through my own experience I can see that abstaining from something (food) and spending that time in prayer opens up my mind and my heart to communicate with God. It is really the act of sacrificing & dedicating something, in this case our time, to Him.

This is what I am inviting you to participate in. The team of people serving here has set aside Tuesday evenings to Fast & Pray for this ministry. By fasting we are choosing to set aside that time for us to spend in prayer with God. Please feel no pressure to participate, please join us as you feel lead.

This would also include the manner in which you participate. For some that may be setting aside a different time (as your schedule allows) for fasting & prayer, while others it might only be a commitment to a time of prayer on Tuesdays. However the Lord is leading you, I know He will honor His children and their commitments. While I have tried to keep this simple and communicate clearly, I hope that if there are still questions you will serch the scriptures yourself to better understand.

For those wishing to participate, I will try to send out points for focused prayer through email, this may not be on a weekly basis but I will try to keep you apprised of the prayer needs. Here are just a few areas for this next week.

- Internship ministry opportunities
- Team harmony, effectiveness, growth – both personal & spiritual
- Team health
- Language Studies (The EDGE group begins Aug. 3 & the one year interns begin Sept. 18)
- Preparation of the hearts of students we will come into contact with
- Friday evening – this is our first activity for reaching out to students, pray that we will be proactively inviting people to this activity, that people will be interested in joining us, that we will have good conversations and the Lord will open doors for us to invite them to our Saturday activity
- Saturday afternoon – this is only our second activity, pray that we will again be proactively inviting people, that people will be interested, that we will have good conversations, that some of the relationships started on Friday will be continued through this activity, that the Lord will begin a work in students hearts to open the door to conversations about spiritual things.

Thank you again for your prayers! I am so excited to see how the Lord uses the participation in His spiritual disciplines to connect His children & further His ministry to those that do not claim His name.

"For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them." Matthew 18:20

The Breakdown

So we're on our way home from a coffee bar night, caravaning along the highway...and the car began acting a little funny. We phoned the lead car and told him we were having trouble and might have to pull of the road. No sooner had be hung up the phone then it got worse and decided to pull over. The car was having trouble shifting and once we pulled over we actually could not even get the car back into gear.

We sat there in the car for no more than two minutes and all of a sudden a tow truck pulled up in front of us. The driver got out and came to our window beginning to speak to us in Portuguese. We asked him to speak english but he unfortunately only spoke Portuguese. We (very badly) tried to communicate that the car was broken and we needed to be towed to PBI, no progress. We called Matt who was in the car ahead of us, he was studying Portuguese and thought maybe he could help. After a long conversation with Matt the tow-truck driver handed the phone back to us (thank God for cell phones, we had picked ours up just the week before!) and suggested we phone Ron (who speaks fluent Portuguese) for assistance.

We had already phoned Ron once, we called him again and this time had him speak to the driver. After conversing for a while the driver gave us the phone back and started hooking up our car to the truck. Ron told us he was on his way and would be there shortly. One thing to note in all this is - here in Portugal it is AGAINST THE LAW to get out of your car on the side of the road without an orange vest. So picture a broken car, on the side of the road, with 5 girls in it being pulled up on a tow truck - quite the sight let me tell you!

While we were sitting there I mentioned to the other girls, "you know I know is no such thing as coincidences, but how random that we sat here for seriously no less than two minutes and a tow-truck of ALL things pulls up?!" So my friend Sarah, who was sitting next to me says very humbly and very confidently, "well I prayed. I prayed that someone would stop to help us." Yet again the Lord surprises! 5 American girls, driving at night, in a foriegn country - car breaks down and He provides. While there are many bumps in the road and turns along the journey, there is no place I would rather be than in the arms of the Lord our great provider. He brought us the tow-truck and transportation home. He is good.

Snails Anyone?

Sunday evening a group of us on the team decided to attend the evening festivities at the Loures (pronounced Lor-esh) Snail Festival. Yes, there is a huge tent with tables where people order plates of snails and sit and eat them. No, I did not eat any...well not yet at least :)

We were all standing around waiting for a table, and I think many of us would have at least tried them, but it was taking too long so we decided to walk around the grounds. There was an area with booths, many people were selling their creations. The creations were of all types, paintings, jewelry, shoes, sculptures, and many others. We walked around for a while but then proceeded into a gym area were the concert of the evening was to take place, this was the reason many of us had come that night.

The concert was of Fado (Pronounced Fa-Doo), this is a style of acustic music and is played with an acustic guitar and another instrument of which I do not know the name. These musicians play the entire time while various singers come out and each sing two songs kind of in folk style. This kind of music is quite popular here in the Portuguese culture and as I looked around the crowd there were people of all ages there in attendance. Quite the experience and introduction to an aspect of culture here in Portugal.

My Own BiG Adventure

Well unlike Saturday we were not going to be early, we were actually very late (yes I realize you are not surprised). It was Sunday morning and we were finally ready for church and I was backing the car out when a policeman walked up and began talking to us in Portuguese. I of course stayed calm and collected, not expecting a worst case scenario in the least. Ok, so maybe that's not exactly how it went down, I actually immediately began to wonder if he wanted to see my passport, Drivers License, Insurance...any and ALL paperwork a foreigner is SUPPOSED to have...and saying to myself, NOT NOW!

We kept asking him to speak to us in english but he would not, finally after we sat in the car for a minute or two wandering what to do he spoke in english and asked us to move the car back into the driveway. I did and it was then that he decided to tell us why. It was not to examine any paperwork but rather because there was a bike race coming our way. He told us that when it was ok for us to leave he would let us know. Within minutes some riders passed and he let us out of the driveway and we were able to head onto church. Well it wasn't exactly as easy as all that.

We were supposed to pick up two girls, Carla & Daisha at PBI to attend church with us. Carla was not feeling well so Daisha joined us and we were on our way, and making good time too. We were within eye shot of our next round-a-bout when traffic was at a standstill. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. People began to turn around and try to take alternate routes. A woman in front of us turned around and Daisha said she looked familiar...I made a joke (surprise) and we WAITED some more. Finally part of the bike race came through the round-a-bout and we were on our way again. We had now been delayed twice by the bike race.

As we proceeded we reached a place where two roads were supposed to merge together, I had the right of way (however much that means in Europe) but I looked over and in the next car was that same woman Daisha had recognized. I let her in and we all joked that she too was on her way to church also. As we proceeded and Daisha continued to give me directions it turned into...just turn where that lady did or follow that lady. The funny thing is, we followed her all the way to church - BOY, am I glad I let her merge! :)

We were sure that we were late, because contrary to other churches in Portugal this one is supposed to start ontime. Well as we entered the sanctuary they were just starting...see I really am not late ALL the time! The entire service was in Portuguese, which I enjoyed but at the same time I began to realize just how lonely it is to be somewhere and not understand the language. Many of the songs I could recognize from the music and tried to follow along and sing the words in Portuguese, yes the emphisis is on TRIED. The sermon on the other hand was quite difficult to follow. I really look forward to starting language school and hope that my understanding will increase quickly even if my ability to speak is slow.

So that was my BiG adventure on my way to church. I do hope that it is not repeated, however I am a little nervous as I have learned that Sunday's are biking days and usually have a race.

Sammy's BiG Adventure

So this past Saturday morning we are on our way to PMO (Pre Ministry Orientation). Like all good interns we are attempting to arrive EARLY. That's right, you read it correctly...I, Heidi was in the group attempting to be early to something. We would have been there early too except that a certain dog decided to have a stare down with our car.

My roommate Lisa was driving and the dog was in the middle of the road just staring down our car. Lisa slowed down and immediately told us we needed to open the door and grab it. Cec and I were like "WHAT?!" Lisa pulled over and proceeded to try and get the dog off the road and to run away, nicely of course. When that was unsuccessful and the dog just laid down on the side of the road she was distressed and didn't know what to do. She tried coxing the dog to follow her, but it would not. Lisa kept asking us if she should try and pick it up, now keep in mind that this is definately a STRAY dog. The dog did look hurt and like it had been stray for a little while, however it was not that old. Well after waiting what I considered a VERY polite amount of time I gently informed Lisa that if she was in fact going to pick up the dog and bring it with us she needed to do it soon or my "D" personality was REALLY going to kick in!

Lisa picked the dog up and we proceeded onto the PBI (the Bible Institute) where we hold our PMO classes. Before we arrived at PBI the dog had already been named Sam and once there Lisa got the her settled outside and we participated in our class. At the end of the day Sam received a bath, a visit to the Vet, another bath and we headed home. Now keep in mind that we do have landlords, they speak no english, its 9PM at night and we are coming home with a stray dog. Thankfully Lisa had a note written in Portuguese to show them and as soon as they saw the dog they were happy to let her stay until Monday. The plan being to try and find her a home or take her to a shelter.

Well Monday has now come, there is no room in the shelter and no new home for Sammy. You see here in Portugal dogs are not seen as pets, they are instead viewed as guard dogs and often are mistreated. In addition, the month of August is when everyone in Europe goes on holiday. Here in Portugal people often release their dogs while they are on holiday rather than finding someone to care for them. This is why the shelters fill up so quickly and why there are so many stray animals.

Well Lisa spoke with our landlords (with the help of our Portuguese roommate, Andreia) and they have told Lisa she can keep Sammy until she finds her a home, all Lisa has to do is buy a dog house for her. So Sammy now has a temorary home here with us...and that was Sammy's BIG adventure.

Now I know that I did not come here to minister to dogs but hey I've got to start small :)

Sights of Sevilla

After receiving our visa's we began scouting out Hostals for our overnight stay. They were all pretty much the same and a little more expensive than we originally anticipated. However, in the end we decided on one - a key factor being there was air conditioning. Air conditioning is a luxury we had been learning to live without during this past month and was an exciting perk on our trip.

Once our night's sleeping arrangments were secure we decised to use the "tour bus pass" we had purchased. It was good for both days and would take us to many of the "sights" of Sevilla. As we wondered around the city I found that there were some beautiful buildings but could not exactly understand why this was a touristic city. We wandered the streets and saw so many tourists milling around. While I am not sure if this is true but, there was an enormous cathedral and I can only imagine that with the influence of Catholicism in Spain this may be a source attracting people to Sevilla.

There were many plaza's and parks throughout the city. This picture is one I took looking out of the doorway of a building in the form of a semi-circle, across its plaza at a tower on the other side. I am not sure yet what this building and plaza are or were used for, however the structure itself was a treat to see.

VISA is in HAND!

Mission number three...the Portuguese Consulate - Pickup visa. Well we were a little aprehensive about this process as we had heard stories of people going to a government office and being told different information then what was provided through email or via the phone. Praise God that was not the case for us. We walked into the office and stepped into line behind just a few people. A woman behind the counter told us she would be with us shortly. When it was our turn, she had papers sitting in front of her and asked each of us "which one are you?" - meaning she was expecting us and ready to process our visa's.

The ONLY issue we ran into was that she asked Lisa to re-take her passport picture for the visa. However, she told Lisa exactly where to go and that once Lisa came back she would process all of them for us within the hour. What an answer to prayer!

I just really want to thank you all for lifting us up over these past few days. The trip went better than I could have imagined with little to no issues, we really walked away from the consulate knowing that God had paved our way and blessed us.

Sevilla, Spain

We arrived safely in Sevilla, Spain and began our pilgrimmage to find the Portuguese Consulate. At first we tried to drive around, according to our directions, and find it. Well after that was unsuccessful we began to look for a parking spot.

Contrary to parking in the US, it seems that in Spain you can park pretty much ANYWHERE you desire. While this seemed to be true, the funny thing is we still couldn't seem to find one. After driving around for about 10-15 minutes we found a small plot of dirt on the corner, large enough for two cars. Since there was one there already, we decided that it MUST be ok for us to park in the remaining area. Well mission one accomplished, parked car.

Now onto mission number two, find consulate. Well we knew the general area of the consulate's location and headed in that direction. After walking around for at least an hour, stoping to ask multiple people, being reminded each time that MOST Spanish people do NOT speak any english (contrary to portugal) we FINALLY asked a person that knew where it was. Interestingly enough it was directly across the street! In a matter of minutes we were off again, this time deffinately headed to accomplish mission number three. VISA'S

Starbucks...hmmmm GOOD

Well we arrived in Sevilla, Spain ontime and safely - Praise God! Then we proceeded to drive around in search of the consulate. After many turns and back tracking we stumbled on a sight for sore eyes, no it was not the consulate but a STARBUCKS!

There are no Starbucks in Portugal and the Portuguese idea of coffee is more along the lines of order, down it, leave - all while standing at the bar. While I am sure I will adapt to the Portuguese coffee scenerio I was extremely pleased to have my Vanilla Latte one last time...ok so we went twice - a year is a LONG time to go without Starbucks:)

CaN YOu SAy RoAD TriP?

Well I can say road trip! After a long week of PMT (Pre Ministry Training) Ron has given us two days off. So, since all of our visa's have now been approved - PRAISE GOD! We (Myself, Lisa, Bobb, Bri and Nichol) will all be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning. Our desination - Seville, Spain. Or as its pronounced here, Sevilla.

Please try to keep us in your prayers this Wednesday & Thursday.

- For safe travel

- That we will have ALL documentation needed to receive the visa's (the government can sometimes tell you one thing over the phone and another thing when you show up)

- Some relaxation

- Maybe even a LITTLE sight-seeing.

Thank you all for lifting us up over these next couple of days!