Villa Nova Milfontes

After 3 glorious days away, enjoying the sun, sand and ocean, we have returned to city life and our routine schedules. Our TREK leader Luke has left after what seemed like the fastest week gone by yet since being here, but it was a pretty great week. We have returned refreshed, rejuvenated and refocused.

Monday morning we loaded up our rental van and hit the road. We went to a resort village of sorts about 2 1/2 hours south of Lisbon along the coast. None of us Trekkers were able to drive seeing as we either did not drive stick or we had expired driver's licenses, so Luke courageously stepped up to the plate (driving in Europe is not an easy thing, especially when you're new to the country). Just for the record, Luke did a fabulous job.

We stayed in the town of Villa Nova Milfontes. Our time together was spent exploring the beaches, lots of journaling, drinking lots of coffee and reading and crossword puzzles and also some team building time and working on some of the issues we have experienced over the last 4 months.

The resort was literally like 50 feet from the beach. Minus the cooler temperatures, I would have thought I could be at a resort in Mexico!

While walking along the beach, we discovered some caves. We were able to crawl through a few of them, which was pretty cool.

As we crawled through one particular cave, we discovered on the other side, an old ship washed up on the beach.

Gotta love the beach. This little getaway made me really excited about summer here.

Coffee was consumed at a cute little beach house cafe.

The town of Villa Nova Milfontes is located where the Mira River and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It's amazing how calm the river is as it heads into the ocean whereas the ocean waves crashing into the river are so rough.

Upon our return to Lisbon, we headed out to a local favorite restaurant with our missionary team: Otto & Marjorie, Doug and Myra and Jose and Paula and their family. 

The evening concluded with dessert at Doug and Myra's followed by a prayer time.

We've now hit the ground running again with our various ministries, full of energy and refocused. Now that our midterm retreat has come and gone, we have only 3 months left in Portugal and we want to finish our time here strong. Please continue to pray for our team, that we would be united together as we do ministry and also that we would continue to be obedient to what God is calling us to do here in Portugal.

Also, please pray for one of our friends here, Kiri (she and her husband and kids are here from Australia serving with the Bible College here). She has been sick for 6 weeks already and she continues to get worse. The doctors do not know what is wrong with her, so she needs some prayer for healing. Their family is leaving for their home assignment in Australia in 2 1/2 weeks and there is still lots to be done before they leave. Please pray for healing over her body and for energy to face the day with 3 energetic kids. I have come to love Kiri dearly while here in Portugal and I know what it feels like to have constant pain and no one knowing what to do about it. So please pray for her and her husband Matt and their 3 kids.

Day Trippin

Our leader from Trek, Luke arrived in Portugal for our mid-term retreat this past Wednesday. For the last few days we have been able to show Luke around Lisbon and show him some of the ministries we have been involved in thus far. Today we did an afternoon trip into the area of Belem and downtown Lisbon.

The Mosteiro dos Jeronimos

The Discovery Monument

This bridge (The Ponte 25 de Abril), reminds me of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco. The statue at the end of the bridge is the Cristo Rei statue (the Jesus statue)

The Torre de Belem

This tower was built as a fortress in 1515. This became a symbol of Portugal's great era of expansion.

The architecture is amazing though.

Gotta love the sight of a Starbucks in Belem. It was the last of the Starbucks in Portugal I had yet to visit. Today, I checked it off of my list. Success!

Belem is well known for their amazing Pastel de Belem. It's a phyllo pastry crust with a creamy custard like middle. You sprinkle cinnamon sugar and icing sugar over top and it is absolutely delicious - especially when you get them still warm! This is a very Portuguese pastry.

After spending a few hours in Belem, we caught the train and headed into downtown Lisbon. We were unaware of a protest going on in some of the main squares today, so we unfortunately were not able to show Luke a ton of the downtown, but I think we still had a good time.

Due to the protest, the Po-Po were everywhere and completely decked out in their swat gear.

We ended off the evening with an amazing meal at Jose and Paula's. Paula is an incredible cook and made us a very Portuguese seafood dish with shrimp, clams, prawns and a delicious kind of fish - sorry I can't remember the name of the dish or the fish. Regardless, we left with our stomachs completely satisfied and full. We fed so well when at Jose and Paula's. Plus, we just really enjoy their company. We are very blessed to work alongside them here.

And of course, no evening at the Arrais home is complete without some "Just Dance" on the Wii. Unfortunately their 6 year old daughter Debora was unable to join us tonight - she's usually our excuse to play, but Rachael, Aleah and I busted out our dance moves without Debora's company. I called this working off the meal we had just consumed.

New Sites + Good Company + Delicious Food 

= A Very Awesome Day!

Vision Team

It's been a week now, since the Vision Team has left us. We had a really good week with them - getting to know them better and getting to show them parts of Portugal and Portuguese culture. Over the course of the week, we had the opportunity to engage in some really good conversation with some vision team members and hear their stories. We also got to hear more about Otto and Marjorie's story about missions in Portugal. I know we've been here for 4 months now and we have heard a lot of Otto & Marjorie's story, but not always the tough parts of what life in ministry looks like. I really appreciated that. Missions is not an easy task - it's often a lot of hard work without knowing always how you have impacted someone's life.


Us, as a Trek team, was responsible for the cooking and the hospitality for the Vision Team. I found it extremely enjoyable to cook in a HUGE kitchen with tons of counter space and an industrial dishwasher.

Marjorie got to use the giant mixer. Talk about power. I've never seen gravy mixed so quickly!

We lived out at the Portuguese Bible Institute for the 8 days that Vision team was here. It was nice to be outside of the city. We actually were able to enjoy sunshine and warm temperatures while sitting on the grass. In the city, the grass is full of dog poop - you never want to walk through grass, nevermind sit on it.

One afternoon, we made a new friend Effison, who lives with his parents out at the bible college. We played soccer with him one afternoon and became instant friends.

These are the incredible team we get to work with on a daily basis:

The Vision Team