the coffee house.

After months of planning, the day finally came. This afternoon, from 2-5pm, just over one hundred people filled Sam's Place to hear awesome music performed by the Mittenclaps, enjoyed good coffee and good food, and heard about what God is doing in Portugal. Despite waking up with a sore throat and ridiculous amounts of fluid collecting in my head, the event turned out fabulous and I felt pretty good too. Thank goodness for drugs! 
As I had all sorts of people from all sorts of communities in my life come together, I was blown away by the love and generosity shown to me. So thank you! 


For those of you who were unable to be at the event, here is what I shared with everyone:

First of all, I want to thank everyone here for coming and for supporting both Lesley and I as we prepare ourselves to go on ACTION this summer with MB Mission.

In 2010/2011 I was privileged to spend 7 1/2 months in Portugal through MB Mission's TREK program. I went into the TREK program completely ignorant of what I would experience through missions, through another culture, through people I would encounter and of what God would teach me. It was a huge leap of faith for me to go on TREK, and now, looking back, I cannot imagine my life not having done it. Through my experience on TREK, God has ignited in me a heart for Missions and since then, it has been a neat journey discovering what that looks like in my life.

So, Portugal. Simply put, my heart fell in love last year - I fell in love with the people and the country. I had the opportunity to work alongside some incredible, God-fearing men and women, from all ethnic backgrounds - Angolans, Americans, Congolese, Australians, Russians, Brazilians and Portuguese. It was humbling to see the greater body of Christ come together for one purpose - to bring the love of Jesus to the country of Portugal and to see their love for not only the lost, but for each other. I learned a lot from each of these individuals. They are people full of passion, humility and great joy, even in the midst of opposition. These are relationships that have grown over the months, even as we find ourselves thousands of miles away from each other. Each of these relationships have made a mark in my life and I am so very excited to have the opportunity to return to Portugal this summer and connect and to live in community with each of them again.

 

Not only does Portugal have some of the most beautiful people I know, but it also happens to be an incredibly beautiful country! I have never experienced having my heart broken for a country and for people in the way that I have experienced while in Portugal. It began last December 2010, praying for God to give me his heart and eyes for the people in Portugal. God answered that prayer. My heart broke as I witnessed people trapped in a world of addiction. My heart broke as I heard stories of brokenness and loneliness. Last year, we as a TREK team had a number of opportunities to go on prayer walks through some of the different communities we were plugged in with. I remember one of those days in particular. We were praying for the community of Massama - where we lived and where one of the MB churches is located. During my time in prayer, God gave me a picture. Just as a bit of background, Lisbon and its greater communities consist of a ton of concrete. There is little green space. The concept of a backyard with grass is completely foreign to most people. So, with that being said, as I walked the streets of Massama, I was drawn to the endless amounts of cobblestone and concrete, and yet, every once in a while you come across a beautiful, thriving tree, but it is completely surrounded by stone. It seems unfathomable that something so beautiful could grow out of concrete. That picture of a thriving tree surrounded by stone reminded me of the churches - beautiful, green and thriving, despite the oppositions people are facing in their lives and that the country is facing. But God says, "I will bring up springs of living water in dry and desolate wastelands". That is a promise and I believe that to be a promise for the churches in Portugal. God is raising up leaders and people deeply rooted in the love of Jesus. I am confident that God has some incredible things planned for this country, for these churches. I want to see the church rise up in that place. For the month that I will be back in Portugal, it is my prayer that our team would be the hands and feet of Jesus in each of the communities we serve.

There are some exciting things happening in the life of the church in Portugal right now.

Since Christmas, the Loures Church – one of the MB church plants has started it’s first ever Sunday School class. There has been incredible interest from people in the church and it has attracted those outside the church.

Within the Massama Church, one of the other church plants, there have been nationals who have started taking initiative over the church – truly making it their own instead of depending solely on Otto & Marjorie Ekk – the MB Mission team leaders out in Portugal. This is what church planting is about – creating a space for locals to take leadership of their church so that they can eventually be self-sufficient.

In the past few months, there have been several new people start attending regularly – a huge thing for the church! Just a quick story. Dona Joanna, a lovely lady who attends the Massama church with her family had a friend – Dona Leonilde over for the afternoon one Sunday. This friend was not a believer and probably had never stepped foot in the church before in her life. As 3:00 came closer – the time church starts on Sundays, Dona Joanna mentioned to her friend, that on Sunday afternoon’s we go to the church down the street and invited her friend to join them. Dona Leonilde agreed. That first week, she sat in the service attentive and attracted to the community she entered in to. The following week, Dona Leonilde asked Dona Joanna if she could come again to church with her. The answer was, “of course”. That week, one of the leaders of the church, after his sermon asked if there was anyone who wanted to accept Christ. Dona Leonilde quickly raised her hand and the entire church (which is somewhere around 40 people) gathered around her and prayed with her.
People are being attentive to the Spirit and being bold in their response to the Spirit. I continue to be amazed how God has brings groups of people, broken people, together and uses them and grows them in their faith.

I am excited to have the opportunity to return to Portugal, to continue building the relationships that were formed last year and to explore further, global missions. I have no doubt that these six weeks of ACTION will be transformational in my life, and I am excited to see what God wants to do in and through me, both in Portugal and as I return home.

So, what will we be doing in Portugal this summer? We will be organizing and running VBS programs for the kids in the Massama community - this is a community that is exploding with young kids and kids who spend a great deal of time at the church. We will also be doing some ESL work with some of the youth and adults in both the Loures and Massama churches. We will be spending time with the youth in Loures - they are a vibrant bunch of students, with lots of leadership potential - we will be doing some mentoring and just pouring into their lives by spending time with them, probably playing sports. And we will be there to encourage those who are there serving long term. Being available to encourage and walk alongside some of these people is a huge blessing for them.

Please pray for our team as we prepare our hearts to go. Pray that we would be united together as we serve and that we would be obedient in where God leads us.

Pray for the churches. Many of its members are leaving the country in order to find better jobs in other countries because of the economic downfall currently going on in Portugal. The church is in need of strong leaders to rise up.

Pray for the leaders of the churches - Jose and Paula, Otto & Marjorie, Mente and Theresa and Walter and Nadia, Marques, and Matt and Kiri.

Lastly, pray for this country. Pray for transformation and that the name of God would be lifted up.


I have a slideshow I put together to give you a glimpse of the people and the country that I have come to love deeply. Enjoy!