Portugal : 1

. Thursday morning at 11 in the morning began my travel to Portugal. One car ride, one bus ride, one subway ride and one flight later i arrived at the Dublin, Ireland airport at about 5 in the morning. Ten hours would elapse before my next flight. Although this was the least expensive ticket that I could find, somehow i have to plan better the next time. Part of the problem is putting a 6'3"frame in an economy plane seat for an extended period. I have never been able to sleep on planes. To my surprise all the signs in the airport were in both Gaelic and English. Although i understand that the original language of the country was Gaelic, I did not think it was being used much anymore. But at least they speak English. As is probably the case in all airports, having a captive audience means high prices for everything but i did have a box of high protein energy bars. Finally at 3 boarded the flight to Portugal and arrived in Lisbon a little before six. My friend Anderson and his young adult son Paulo met me at the airport. Originally from Brazil, Anderson was sent out as a missionary eight years ago. Now God has blessed him with a church of both Brazilians and Portuguese. I will meet them and preach on Sunday. We had a good conversation in Portuguese as he took me to the home of two Brazilians who lived in the US for many years who have now emigrated here. Danilo and Dayane speak good english although I prefer to practice Portuguese. I was exhausted and went to bed early. Today Anderson came and we went for a little sightseeing. They live across the broad Tagus river from Lisbon in a suburb. There is a huge edifice surmounted by a statue of Jesus resembling the famous one in Rio de Janeiro. I don't know how to guess heights but i think maybe 300 feet in all. We also had beverages in a little cafe hewn out of the side of a cliff overlooking the river. The temperature was 55 or so, clear until evening when rain began to fall. Am reading a biography of Leonard Ravenhill, the British preacher and evangelist. It is already impacting me. He wanted to be known as a man of prayer before anything else.