Welcome to Portugal!

My best days in North America are when I have a flight booked for going over seas. October 23rd had me sitting in the Vancouver International Airport waiting for my plane to London then on to Lisbon. And so here I am sitting in the sun, beside the pool eating lunch with happiest family ever.

ASI Portugal

Friday night ASI Portugal started it's first anual meeting. Mark Finley gave us the message in the Lisbon SDA church. It was packed! The next morning church was held at a large building built for speakers for the college students near by. The building holds 1,600, but 1,800 were able to hear the message. The guards would not let anyone else in after 1,800 people came in, because of safety reasons. Portugal has around 10,000 Adventists in the whole country. That means almost 20% of all the Adventist in the country were there. I loved hearing about the ministries they were supporting. So many of the youth have started their own ministries. ASI was trying to raise 33,000 euros, but God truly blessed them there. They raised an astounding amount of 47,000 euros, that is not including some pledges. After church a news crew came and interviewed Mark Finley and Ruben (We are staying at his house). It was such a blessing to listen to Mark Finley speek to the interviewer. He has such a way of witnessing to people. In the end he prayed with the lady and for her career. I respect pastors so much more when they practice what they preach, and let me tell you, Mark Finley is one of those men. It was such a blessing to see so many people on fire for God. The fire there is growing fast. I was so honored to be there and whiteness this history being made, to see the first ASI in Portugal. It was a huge success!

Skagen

Alonna called me up last friday and said "Ceri you have to get this kitten that is at the feed store, it is so cute! If nobody takes it tonight, they are going to kill it." Talk about laying a guilt trip on me. She then proceeded to tell me all of the ways that people get rid of their unwanted kittens. They were not pleasant stories. I said I would love to take the cat, but had no place to keep it. She then offered, "well it can stay at my house"! That was it, how could I leave such a little kitten to die? So now, I have a cat or what our family calls a part time cat. I only have to take care of it when the Smiths are gone, or when i want to come up and visit it. It's name is Skagen, named after the town most north in Denmark. And I? Well I fell in love at the first sight. Isn't he Handsome? (of course there is still a debate over whether it is a boy or a girl).

The Ultimate Pizza Shop

Every summer my family spends one evening at gourmet pizza restaurant . Its not a normal restaurant, and I am not even sure what to call it, but I do have one word for it, Amazing! This is how it works, you bring your own, tables, chairs, silverware, salad, drinks, and friends and they will provide the pizza. It takes about 30 minutes to drive to, and are located way out in the farmlands of Wisconsin. Surrounded by cornfields on all sides except for one little quaint white church there are cars lined up for a 1/4 mile. Oh and did I mention, you have to take your trash home with you. Sounds like more work than service. But its the close atmosphere of the comutinty that makes this place fly. The place is run by a family who fulfilled the american dream. The father is the head chef of a gourmet restaurant in a near by town on the mississippi river. My parents go there on their dates, but have always said that I can not go until I am married. When we arrived we were shocked at the amount of people already there. The family started making these pizzas in their one outdoor stone oven for their friends. The word spread, and more people started to come and that is when we started coming. It was such a small little place, but now they serve 200 pizzas in a few hours. So if you ever come and visit me, make sure you come on a tuesday, because they only serve once a week.

Keith and Tammy's Wedding

This is the first wedding I got to shoot. Thankfully there were 2 other photographers there so there was no as much pressure as there would be if i was by myself. It was really sunny outside so it was a challange to get good lighting, but its good for me, it builds my character!