New Friends

Time has once again been moving quicker than I think is physically possible at times.  It is hard to believe that February is coming to a close.  In the last month two things have been happening that I would like to share with you.  The first is that I was in the park one day and I met a lady who was very friendly and started to speak to me in Portuguese, I said to her "Desculpe, não Portuguese (Sorry, no Portuguese)."  Right away she started to speak to me in English and she asked me where I was from and why I was here.  We had a nice conversation and she gave me her phone number and told me that she would love to have me over sometime to meet her daughter.  I said I would love to meet her daughter sometime.  I called her later that week and made plans to get together for coffee.  We met at our apartment and had a nice visit and she said that she would like to come to English classes where we teach.  I was so excited.  So this Monday is going to be the first class that she would come to.  I am praying that she does actually come!  Please join me in praying that God will use this friendship in great ways.  This lady is a Catholic and she was hesitant to come into the church for English classes, but she was also so happy to meet me and some of the others on my team.  She said that she was so happy to have new friends. 
Another thing that has been happening this month that you can keep in your prayers is our English classes here at the Loures church.  There have been many people coming from outside of the church and we are so excited to see new faces every week.  We are praying that God will use us in this ministry, that we will be doing more than just teaching English, that we will be making friends, building relationships, and be open to however God wants to use us in this ministry. 
Thank you all for your prayers and keeping up with what is going on in my life in Portugal!  I apologize that these updates are so few and far between. 
Blessings to you all!

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that a New Year has begun!  I hope that you all had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas wherever you are and with whoever you celebrated with.  It was a little bit hard to be away from home and my family for Christmas, but at the same time I felt very blessed with an "adopted" family here in Portugal: my team, the missionaries here, and the churches that we have been working with.  I was reminded in a special way that no matter where you are or how you celebrate, the reason for Christmas is always the same.  It was amazing to be able to celebrate the birth of Christ in another country.  We had many Christmas programs that we were able to help out with and it was a blessing to be apart of the cultural traditions of Christmas in Portugal.  I was also very blessed by my team as we all tried to take our own family traditions and blend them into a Christmas of our own. 

I'm excited to see how God is going to work in our lives in this New Year.  We are going to be starting to really get into ministry now.  Including starting English classes at two of the churches that we are working with here.  Please pray that our ministries will begin to draw in outsiders to the churches here and that God might use us to share His love for the people in Portugal. 

The New Year also brought us some furniture to our quite empty apartment.  This was very good news to us girls, and we were very happy when we received a fridge.  It came a month after we moved into our apartment so we have a much greater appreciation for it now!  We also received some tables and couches which gives our living room a much more homey feel to it.  We are very much looking forward to having people over and letting our apartment be a place of rest and community.

Thank you all for your prayers and I will try to continue to keep you updated, although once again I'm always amazed at how quickly time goes by.  Blessings to you all!

Breaking Down Doors and Breaking Down Walls

It seems like the time here in Portugal has been going by very quickly, I apologize for not updating my blog more often.   I will try to do better but life is very busy here and I find that the weeks are gone before I barely realize they started.  Here are a few things that have been happening:
The girls on my team have finally gotten an apartment, it is a very nice place on the 11th floor of the building that the Loures church is in, this in one of the churches that we will be working with the most.  Language is in full swing.  This is frustrating for me at times because I still can't understand spoken language very well, although I am encouraged that I am recognizing a lot more words when they are written down.  Please pray that language will not be a discouragement for me and that I will have the persistence to keep studying. 

I will share two stories with you that happened this week, which are the freshest in my mind as I write this. 

The other day, us girls were getting ready to leave our apartment and we went to unlock the door, which you have to lock and unlock with a key from the inside as well as the out.  We tried and tried and the key would not budge.  I tried oiling the lock and still nothing.  Finally we called Otto, who was waiting downstairs for us.  He came up and tried to unlock it from the outside, but no luck.  So we then proceeded to take the locks off the door (these are not our typical Canadian dead bolt, there are about five locks on the door, including metal bars and three dead bolts, all locked by the same key in the same hole).  In the end we had to pry off the lock box, which took quite the effort and then finally we were released from our "prison".  Otto then got a new lock and fixed it all up for us, it was quite the adventure though.

The next story is about the youth/young adults night that same evening.  It was a very good night, youth here starts at about 4pm and goes until midnight or later.  We started at the park, playing soccer and volley-ball and then went back to the church.  Once at the church the girls went across the street to the grocery store to buy food to make for supper, then we all came back, made supper and ate together.  After that the guys all clean up, no questions asked, although there is a lot of good natured teasing that comes with that.  Then we all hang out, playing games, listening to music and talking.  At the park other people from the area often come to play sports with us but then they leave right away after.  This time we invited one of them to join us at the church after, and he came.  This was such an encouragement to me to see a new face join us and I pray that we will see this happen more and more.  It was a very cool night to see how the young adults here function together.  I have been loving my time in Portugal but I truly was starting to feel at home with the people of the church after that night. 

We had to "break down our door" to get out of our apartment, but later that night God continued to help us break down walls to build relationships with the people around us.  The people here are becoming my friends and I am very excited to continue to get to know them in the next several months.  This is truly a journey of faith that I am on, trusting that God is using us in the small things, including playing volleyball and making supper with the youth.  Thank you all for you prayers and keeping up with my blog.  God bless!

Our Door and Fort Knox like locks!

God Provides

It is just over a week since I landed in Portugal, but it seems like I have been here much longer, it is already feeling like a second home to me.  Many of you are probably wondering the facts of where I'm living, what I'm doing, and how my trip was, so let me fill you in a little.  We arrived in Portugal will all of our luggage, except for the guitar that came with our team.  This was a huge answer to prayer and we got the guitar right away the next day as well.  God was definitely present as we traveled and I so appreciated every ones prayers.  Our team of six is divided for our living arrangements.  The two guys on our team are living with Pastor Marques, the pastor of the one of the churches here.  And we four girls are living in the dorms at a Bible College right now, but we just found out today that we were accepted for a seven month lease at an apartment that we wanted and were really praying that we would get.  It is in a great location, on the 11th floor, right above one of the churches that we will be working with a lot. This is such an answer to prayer, God is good and He has shown His provision!
The first week and a half have been fairly low key, Otto and Marjorie, the missionaries that we are working with, have been very good to us and have been letting us adjust and have time to get over jet leg at a good pace.  So this first little bit we have been getting to know people and the city in and around where we live.  We have spent a couple of days with our Portuguese language teacher touring the city a bit and seeing the sights.  The people here are very proud of their country so we are trying to learn and absorb as much history and culture as we can.  It has been a great experience so far and I have been so excited to see how God is working in our lives and answering our prayers on a daily basis.
We will be focusing mainly on language learning until Christmas, as well as getting to know the churches we will be working with and starting to get to know people, especially the youth/young adults.  I am really looking forward to building relationships with the people here in Portugal!  Please pray that language learning will go well and that we will be able to build trust and relationships with the people here.  Pray that God will continue to guide us to whatever ministries God has in mind for us.  Thank  you so much for your prayers and support.  I will try and continue to keep you posted! 

Here are some pictures of Lisbon!

The Countdown Is On!

Training is done.  Commissioning has happened.  Good-byes have been said.  Other teams have left.  And we are next.  My team will be leaving on Wednesday to start the next step of our journey in Lisbon, Portugal!  This week we have been on our own in Abbotsford and we have been doing different ministry opportunities here.  Today we went to Gleaners to help in the process of making soup to send to people overseas.  Tomorrow we will be going out to pick up some ministry supplies to bring with us to Portugal.  Our team has also had some good team building experiences in the last few weeks.  We are becoming such a united and close team.  This is truly an answer to my prayers that I have been praying since I decided to do TREK.  I feel that God has blessed our team abundantly and He will use us in great ways!  Last week on the last official day of training we did foot washing in our team and it was a time of fellowship and a very good way to connect and encourage each other.  That night was then our TREK commissioning service where we were blessed by many people coming out to send us off, pray for us, worship together, and encourage us.  I was also blessed by having one last day at home where I go to go to church and see many people (thank you everyone for all your prayers and encouragement, I will carry that with me always).  It was also very nice to have one last day with my family before I get on a plane for 7 and 1/2 months.
Speaking of planes, we will be getting on a plane at 8:25pm on Wednesday.  Please pray that our travels will go smoothly, that we will get through all of the security and customs with no issues, and that all of our luggage will arrive when we do.  We will arrive in Portugal at about 6pm on Thursday (Portugal Time, which is 8 hours ahead).  I am very excited to take this next step in this Journey of Faith that I am on, I take it with confidence that God is walking with me.  I will try and keep you updated on what is happening when I get to Portugal, but I do not know what my Internet access will be like or what my schedule will be like in the first few weeks.  Thank you all for reading my blog and praying for me!  God bless you!

"You Will Be My Witnesses"

Acts 1:8 says: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."  This week we saw what this means for us as Christians wherever we are, even in Abbotsford.  We have had a few different speakers come talk to us this past week about Evangelism and Witnessing.  Yesterday afternoon we put to "practice" what we learned.  Something that we learned about witnessing is that it is not about how well we do it, what we say, or how many people become believers.  It is about how we say what we say and it is about obeying and being open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes we may be blessed to see God use us to bring someone into relationship with Him, sometimes we may only be used to plant a seed in that person's life that someone else will get to see the fruit of.  Either way when we obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit we can be at peace that God will use us in some way, witnessing is all about obedience.  So yesterday at 3 o'clock all of us TREKKERS piled into vehicles and headed to the mail to have conversations with people and share the Gospel in whatever way we felt God prompting us.  I was quite nervous to go and do this.  Starting conversations with strangers is stepping way out of my comfort zone.  As soon as I stepped into the mall I was asked by a group of four UVF students if they could interview me for a school project they were doing on bullying and suicide.  I said yes, something that I normally would probably not have done.  They asked me their questions and I started to talk to them a little bit.  I told them that I was a CBC student and went to church.  Then I asked them if they had any research on how churches are responding or getting involved in this issue.    They told me that that was a really good idea and that they might check into that.  They also said that they really appreciated that I took the time to stop and talk to them.  I don't know what God will do with that encounter but I believe that He will use it for some good. 

Another conversation that I had was with a older gentleman named Paul.  He was charging his Moby at the Mall and was very talkative.  After talking to him for a while I found out a little bit about him and asked him if he was connected to a church.  He said, "Oh no, if you want to get robbed, that's where you go, to church."  I was quite surprised by his answer and asked him why he said that.  It turns out that he had some bad experiences in his life with church.  I talked with him some more, telling him that not all churches are like that, he mostly had experience in the Catholic church. I found out that he believed in God and Jesus, but his faith seemed very much based on being a good person and doing good things.  I talked with him some more but didn't seem to get very far.  I asked if I could pray for him and he said, "oh sure, I pray for people sometimes too and they don't even know it."  I asked him if I could pray for him right there out loud and he said, "oh no, not out loud".  I pray that Paul really does have a relationship with Jesus and I also pray that God will send more people to him that will be able to help him heal of the times he has been hurt by the church.  Please join me in praying for Paul as well.  As difficult as yesterday was, I believe that God used me and the other TREKKERS to plant some seeds in the lives of the people that we connected with yesterday. 

Yesterday night was also MB Mission's "All Night Prayer for the Nations"  From 8pm until 5:30am we gathered together to hear about what God is doing in various countries and then spend time in prayer for the leaders, the missionaries, the locals, and various ministries and things going on in each country.  The night was split into one hour blocks that focused on a different country each hour.  We also had times of worship throughout the night.  I have to admit that I was hesitant going into it because I am a big fan of sleeping and I was concerned that I would have trouble staying awake and focused.  We started with worship though, and God just filled my heart and I became so excited to spend time hearing and praying about various countries.  It was a night of great encouragement and fellowship with other believers.  We even Skyped Peru and had an opportunity to pray with the missionaries there from thousands of miles away.  The later is got the harder it was to focus but I believe that God gave us the energy to make it through the night!  It was a time of encouragement and blessing for all who participated.  God hears our prayers and answers us and I feel confident that He was in our presence last night and will be faithful in answering our prayers!

Here are some pictures from the evening:

Thank you all for your prayers as I continue training!

"Come to Me"

The last week has been a very full week.  We had our 48 hour silent retreat.  This was a time to listen to God's voice and hear what He had to say to us.  It was a time of rest and restoration.  We were allowed our Bibles, journals, and that's about it.  It was a powerful retreat for all of us and we all received word from God in various ways.  Throughout the retreat I felt Him calling to me, all the passages I read were an invitation to come to Him.  I have been memorizing Isaiah 55 and it spoke to me, especially the parts of it that say "Come to me all who are thirsty.  Come to the waters, you who have no money, come buy and eat.  Come buy wine and milk, without money and without cost...Listen, listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.  Give ear and come to me, hear me that your soul may live!"  On the silent retreat He called to me and I came.  He restored my soul and made me alive again.  Taking time for silence with God, to pray, listen to His voice and to read His Word is such a gift.  I know as well as anyone that life gets busy and it is hard to take the time out of our days to just be in the presence of God.  But I would encourage you to make it happen. Be intentional and He will be faithful to meet with you!  Even being at a place like the Mark Centre that is designed to be a place to meet with God, life gets busy.  The schedule gets full and the days go by quickly.  No matter where we are, what we are doing, who we are with, we need to be intentional in our relationship with God.  Please pray that I will be intentional and continue to hear His voice and take time out of my days to spend with God. 

So that is what the end of my last week looked like.  And now the moment you have all been waiting for ... on Tuesday they announced the teams and where we will be going.  I am going to Portugal!  My team is Joanna (who is our team leader), Rebecca, Brittany, Kenny, Justin, and myself.  It is an awesome team and I believe that God will bless us as we serve Him and the people of Portugal.  I feel such a peace about the place that I am going to and that God is already stirring my heart with a passion for the people!  Thank you all for your prayers as the teams and locations were discerned.  God is good and there is much peace within our group as a whole about where we are going and who we are going with.  May the name of the Lord be praised!