Picnic at the Park

This past Monday was a national holiday for the Portuguese. 25 de Abril is a day where Portugal celebrates the Revolution in 1974, so due to everyone being off of work that day, our church in Loures decided it would be the perfect day for a picnic. 
We headed just outside the city to Montachique Parque (for those Manitobans out there - it reminded me a little of Bird's Hill Park) where we enjoyed gorgeous weather (temperatures were somewhere in the high 20's), lots of great games like baseball, bocce ball and card games, and a great bbq full of all kinds of delicious meat.

GAMES

Teaching the Youth how to play Baseball.

Can you tell I was the "white sheep" on my team? haha. Our team won the game though, so that was awesome.

The youth taught us the most confusing game ever. In the end I did not even end up playing as I still didn't understand what I was supposed to do. It was entertaining to watch though. I believe the game was called 35.

Playing Bocce Ball with Doug and Myra

~ Community Life ~

BBQing the Meat

It was a fabulous day spent with wonderful people. I'm hoping that we might be able to do something like this again before we leave in a few short weeks. Good food, good conversation and good people always makes for an awesome day!

Easter Celebrations

Easter preparations began last week Wednesday, when us as a TREK team were asked to make a backdrop for Easter Sunday. The kids in Massama would be doing a little drama of sorts and they needed a backdrop. We put our artistic skills to use and the result was this:

We were pretty impressed with how the whole thing turned out. I mean, check out that roll away tomb!

One of my teammates, Heidi, has left us for a week. She is currently en route to Abbotsford, BC as we speak to take part in Spring Adventure. We had planned to do a little team Easter Egg Hunt on Easter, but because Heidi left us this morning, we had it last night. Some Easter traditions are just not meant to be broken :)

Easter Sunday consisted of us remaining girls joining Doug, Myra and their granddaughter (who is here visiting for a week) for lunch and the regular 2 church services in Massama and Loures.

Myra's very special and traditional Easter cake she makes.

The kids in Massama took part in a little drama of sorts for today's Easter service. They were very cute with their costumes and their songs. 

After both services today, we had a little snack of sorts. Lots of yummy goodies to indulge in, but no paska to eat unfortunately. Next year, I will eat paska again!

Just as a little side note and praise, our neighbour came to church with us for the first time today. Us girls have had the opportunity to connect with Pina more regularly over the course of the last few weeks, which has been really good. He's definitely an interesting character, but one we feel God is continually placing in our path, so we invited him to church, half expecting he would bail out at the last minute, but he proved us wrong and showed up for the service in Massama today. He seemed to enjoy himself and actually re-connected with a few people he already knew, which was even cooler. Hopefully some seeds were planted in his heart today as he heard the message of the cross and of the resurrection. Please pray for Pina and for us girls as we continue to have conversation with him and as God continues to soften his heart.

Happy Easter!

Christ has Risen Indeed!!!

Journey to the Cross

Today is Good Friday. It is a day meant for reflection and contemplation and it seems as though the weather is aware of it too. It is a quiet day - solemn if you will. The sky is grey and rain comes and goes periodically. The outside world matches the sorrow and the angst in our hearts as we remember what Christ accomplished on the Cross all those years ago. Today we are invited to take opportunity to stop, sit and absorb the Passion Week story. 

For me, the story this week started in Mark 14, where Jesus is anointed for burial by an unnamed woman. I find this story fascinating. Jesus is sitting in a room, eating with His disciples and in walks this woman, no one knows. She enters, bringing with her, a beautiful jar of perfume, which she breaks open and pours over Jesus' head. A couple things stand out to me about this story:

• The jar is made out of alabaster and contains expensive perfume. There is a level of extravagance in her gift and she chooses to break it. 
• She is accused of wasting the perfume. After all, it would have cost her about a year's wage. This may have in fact been some inheritance she received. The cost was high, yet she sacrificed it in order to anoint Jesus for burial.
• Jesus comes to her defense and praises her for doing such a selfless act. Jesus even goes as far to tell the bystanders in the room that what she has done will be discussed and talked about in years to come. That is how significant this act was and it was performed by a woman. A woman would be remembered for what she did for centuries.
• The act of breaking open the jar and pouring out the perfume on Christ's head foreshadows what Christ does only a few days later on the cross. And, we practice this through communion.

I was doing some reading from a book we received from TREK entitled, "Trained by Jesus", and we read,

"The woman in our story provides an inspiration to all who would follow Jesus with sacrificial and extravagant love that values relationships above things, people above money. With this lofty declaration that this woman's story would go with the gospel around the world, Jesus made it clear that her example would be relevant to many through the ages."

In Mark 14:32, we see the story of Jesus in Gethsemane. It is through this scene where we see the pain and the tension of Christ as He knows full well what lies ahead of Him. There is tension between obedience to God's will and plan and the human instinct to avoid suffering. Jesus repeats the line, "Please take this cup of suffering from me, yet I want your will, not mine" (v.36).
Jesus knew the path ahead of Him - the tension he experienced  was indeed agonizing, but the choice for Him was a no-brainer. Right from the moment He set foot on this earth, Jesus' life was one of obedience and submission to His Father's plan. A life headed in the direction of the Cross is indeed one of self-denial and submission. In the shadow of the cross we discover our identity and who we are in Christ. We are called in Mark 8:34 to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow in the footsteps of Christ. A life of obedience to Christ is not an easy one - it is full of tension - even Jesus himself experienced that tension. 

At the end of Chapter 14 of Mark, we have the account of Peter's denial of Christ. Again, we witness emotional and spiritual tension going on inside Peter. A few verses prior, Peter publicly declares, that he would never deny Christ (v. 31). Peter makes the statement pre-trial. It's an easy statement to make, saying that we would sooner die ourselves than deny Christ when life is going on as usual. Yet, as the tension and the trouble grows for Jesus, and for Peter, we see the struggle Peter has. Upon realizing what he has done, shame and anguish overcome Peter. Life as a disciple of Christ is not an easy one, even for a guy like Peter - a man who walked, talked and lived with Christ. Peter's experience of denial is one we have probably all faced at one time or another and we experience a similar tension as Peter did. Loving God extravagantly and relinquishing our plans for God's is no easy task, but one that promises life - life abundantly. 

Lastly, my journey takes me to the site of the cross. Growing up in the church, it is a scene that has become familiar to me, and yet, no matter how familiar the words are, the impact they have, continues to leave me in awe and in reverence. This is the climax of the story. Jesus upon the cross - with blood falling down his face and pain raging through his body, has no anger or bitterness in him. . Instead He continues to seek the face of God. He pleads on our behalf, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do". Minutes later, Jesus breathes his last and the words the Roman soldier says, "Surely, this was the Son of God", get to me. Can you imagine the realization after it was too late? Imagine the tension occurring in that man. What a powerful scene. It is the moment where we become reconciled with God. Our sins have been washed away by the broken body of Christ and His blood has been poured out on our behalf.

Jesus has given us the most extravagant gift anyone could ever give us - Life - just like the unnamed woman from Bethany. Only in our case, we are undeserving of such a costly gift.
The story does not end on the Cross. We experience more tension in the next two days as we wait with hopeful anticipation for the empty tomb.

Such is Life

It's been a long week. My head has been most uncooperative, which has been extremely discouraging most days. I hate having to miss out on ministry opportunities, so I have pushed through the pain many days, but there were days when all I could do was lay in bed. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude, but I will admit, it can be easier said than done. 


Enough of that, despite my throbbing head, there were moments this past week that were simply lovely. It was another busy week for us. It's amazing how fast the week passes by - many days I find myself confused about what day it actually is. The days seem to just blur together.


The sun has provided much enjoyment for me this past week. I am actually getting some colour - nowhere near the same amount of colour other teammates are getting, but for me, it's colour. On our day off last Monday, with the 29 degree weather, I took my journal and sat in the park and soaked up all the sun I could - which really only lasted an hour tops because I was already turning quite pink. I resumed my journaling on our balcony, which is conveniently shaded after 11:30am.

Us girls have been running into our neighbor Pina a lot over the last 2 weeks. God has placed this unique character in our path, so we have taken the opportunity to get to know him and invest a little more into his life. He is definitely an interesting guy and although we have no idea what he is talking about most of the time, we continue to smile and listen to him talk. We continue to build relationship with Pina and we are hoping that an invitation to our Easter service on Sunday might bring him into the church. We continue to pray that God would orchestrate divine conversations and interactions with Pina and that his heart would continue to be prepared to hear more about Jesus. 


This past week, a large part of our focus was evangelism. We are working with Marques in this area and spent a number of hours handing out tracts with the youth (which was a good time getting to know the youth better), for the 3 churches, giving more information about what Easter is about and inviting them to join us for our Easter services. It is our hope that these tracts will be well received and that they would speak into people's hearts - that the Holy Spirit would be moving and transforming lives as we speak.


The rest of our week consisted of our regular routine sort of things like ESL, bible studies, bazar clothes sorting (where I scored a pretty awesome cardigan and scarf), youth, worship team practice, basketball and Portuguese classes. The following pictures have captured some of the usual going-ons of life here in Portugal.

Our team with the lovely Doug & Myra - we had them over for dinner this past week, which is always a good time. 

With the weather being so nice, we enjoyed our first meal out on the patio this week. We wondered what people must have been thinking as they saw us because this is not done here - or at least not until it gets really hot. Such North Americans we are!

Me doing Portuguese homework - which I need to be more disciplined in. One of my regrets of being here is not getting a better handle on the language. That has definitely been discouraging at times, which is no fault but my own. 

And lastly, us in our Portuguese class with our teacher Eunice.

There is a thunderstorm going on outside as I write this, which makes me happy. There is something so comforting about a thunderstorm - especially when you get to be inside, on the couch, watching Alias and updating the blog :) Temperatures will be cooler this week, but it's shaping up to be another busy week as we prepare for the Easter services this coming weekend. It is my hope that this week also brings me a pain-free head. 

Happy Easter Week!!!

Music Performances and All-Nighters

Summer has officially arrived here in Portugal (according to my standards - the Portuguese still believe it's spring and continue to wear long pants and jackets). The temperatures this past week have ranged from 23-32 degrees celcius, which has found me in shorts, tank tops and flip flops. Love it!! I have enjoyed some moments in the morning, sitting on our balcony with my coffee while I do my life journaling. Us girls have enjoyed sipping something cool to drink while we chat. We are just trying to enjoy the Portugal sun while we can. This next week is looking like temperatures will continue to be like they were this past week. I anticipate a lovely day off on Monday enjoying the sunshine at a local cafe while I journal and drink the perfect cup of coffee. Total bliss!!

Now for a little of what I have been up to this past week:

The majority of the week was full of our usual activities: ESL, Portuguese language classes, bible studies and prep time. But the last 2 days in particular have been full of activity.

Friday morning we had the opportunity to go to a local elementary school to sing some songs for the kids over the lunch hour. The purpose as we knew it, was to sing some worship songs with the kids. Due to a great deal of miscommunication, this did not exactly go according to plan. Prior to Friday, we had very few details about what was expected of us, but what we did know, was that we would be singing some worship songs to 6-10 year olds for an hour, that we would have mics and that we would be singing outside by the playground.

Well....we showed up and discovered we would be singing in a tiled wall enclosure, not exactly by the playground (which makes the sound just bounce like crazy so any noise made was a million times louder than it needed to be). The mics were not working, so not only could you not hear 7 people sing, but we also were unable to communicate with us. Lastly, these kids were not interested in listening to worship music - they needed "get up and move" kinda songs. The pure level of gong show activity was at its highest, but it was a prime opportunity for learning.

Rumor has it they want us to come and do this again, so we will be modifying our songs and our approach. My head may have been ringing after Friday morning's performance, but memories were definitely made. We were all able to laugh about the whole experience :)

Eventually we got overtaken by all the kids. My music ended up being taken away from me.

7pm Friday night, the youth lock-in commenced. Despite the tiredness and exhaustion that plagued my body, it was a really good time with the youth. There was a really good turnout - there were about 26 people in attendance and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was good to chat with the youth and get to know them better and it was even cooler to see the youth getting to know each other better.

Celma, Josephina & Mila

Tatyana

Celma and Sofia

And no youth event is complete without a rousing game of Spoons. Who would have thought the game Spoons would be so demanding???

I have spent the last day and a half catching up on some much needed sleep after the all-nighter in order to take on another week. Bring on more coffee and lots more sunshine!