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.