Monday, August 25, 2003 The Word from Babel: Well, when God said in Genesis, "Let's go down and confuse their language so they won't understand each other", he wasn't kidding! He did a great job! But thanks to the past six months of language school we're finally starting to bridge the gap between us and the Portuguese. Everything here is going great; our speaking is slowly catching up with our reading and listening. We've also had the chance to harass a new teacher this month. She has definitely been a breath of fresh air to us. For the first four months we learned mostly grammar and some basic conversation, and now this new teacher is teaching us how to use all of our grammar skills in conversation. And so I guess you could say that on a Portuguese level we just graduated to the first grade! Now that's something to be proud of! But over all everything is looking like nine months is the perfect amount of time to get a good foundation of Portuguese. Ann turned a quarter of a century this month. Which was actually good for both of us because it gave us one more excuse to go to Hard Rock cafe and enjoy a good American meal. I tried to sing to her in Portuguese but I couldn't remember the words to the Portuguese birthday song. So it sounded a lot like... 'Parabens a voce......la, la, la.....Ann, .....la, la,...and many more'. Anyway, she said she had a great birthday despite my lousy singing. We've had several changes of scenery on our team this month. One is our new teammate Abigail Ruth Howell who was born to Alan and Rachel on July 30th. She's already a blonde bombshell, getting all the attention from the other two boys on the team. Her proud parents have plenty of pictures on the team website that you're welcome to look at. Another change is the arrival of Aaron and Mika Roland tomorrow on the 26th. They decided to stay a few more months in the states in order to finish up some business but are now rejoining us so they too can fall in love with language learning like the rest of us. Please pray for their safe arrival and and their now intensive language learning. There is a new worship song that has really blessed me lately. The chorus says, "Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise". This has sparked thought within my tiny little brain about how do I react to the blessings God lavishes on me? This month God has shown himself faithful as he does month after month, day after day, minute by minute. He's given us a new teammate, brought teammates back to us, sent people through Lisbon to encourage us, and the list goes on and on. Now how are we to respond to the faithfulness of God? David said, "May my lips speak of your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night." May our lips never tire and hearts never weary in responding to his reckless, abounding love with worship and adoration......"For He has done great things." May your month be blessed, -Rusty and Ann Caldwell Please be in prayer this month for: 1. Our remaining three months of language learning. 2. The Rolands safe arrival and language study. 3. Final preparations for leaving for Mozambique. 4. Our marriage. 5. The Makua people. 6. The last amount of our start-up fund to be raised.