January 2019

Dear amazing family and friends,

The past few weeks have been quite emotional and nonstop. Being a missionary and living in a country with no actual family can sometimes be a challenge and quite lonely. I have heavily relied on God’s promise in Matthew 19:18 that, “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

In almost all of the countries I have done long term missions in over the past 29 years, God has provided a family for me. These past 16 years in London, He provided a Portuguese family for me. The matriarch of this family (Teresa Amelia Xavier Pestana) whom I called “Tia,” passed away on Monday, 13 January, at 79 years old.

Thank you so much for all of you who prayed for her after her stroke. I will always remember her big laugh, facial expressions that told you exactly what was she was thinking lol, her stories, her food that no one else could duplicate and her love for her family.

Please continue to pray for my “adopted family,” especially my “Tio” who is 86 and is missing his wife of 60 years.

Lots of love,

Traci