The 3 City Tour

One of the benefits of living and exploring Europe, is that everything is close together. I wish we would have time to go venture into other countries, but that is not for this trip. So, we are trying to fill up our time exploring Portugal and trying to gain a better understanding of what this country is all about.

On Monday, 23 people set out in 3 vans to tour the cities of Fatima, Alcobaca and Obidos. The sun was out off and on (mostly off), which was too bad, but I'm just glad it didn't rain too much. You really need to see these places with the sun - pictures turn out so much nicer.

First Stop: Fatima

Fatima is an interesting place. In the Catholic faith, Fatima is a place of pilgramage. This is where a lot of Catholic believers journey to at least once in their lifetime. It is most well known for the religous visions that reportedly took place there in 1917.
Fátima is famous for the shrine called the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, built to commemorate the events of 1917 when three peasant shepherd children claimed to have seen the "Virgin of the Rosary", Our Lady of Fatima. When the children asked for her name, she said "I am The Lady of The Rosary".
The Marian shrine in Fátima attracts a large number of Catholics, and every year pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the shrine with crowds that approach one million on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of Fatima apparitions

People will often go on their knees for about 270m until they come to the Chapel of Apparations. There, they can purchase candles and they will be burned as a prayer offering.

The bigger the candle, the better. The longer a candle burns, the more a person's prayers are heard by God. You can also purchase candles in the shape of every imaginable body part. You would do this if there was a certain body part that was ailing you. If you burn that candle/body part, you may be healed of your condition.

The church is amazingly beautiful. It doesn't matter how many churches you visit here, each one makes me stop and admire the architecture and the incredible detail of the carvings.

In this church, 2 of the peasant shepherd children are buried - a boy and a girl.

On our way to the next little city, we passed this incredible castle in Batalha and stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures.

 

 Second stop: Alcobaca

Here we enjoyed a delicious lunch and part of the afternoon. In Alcobaca, there is an old monastery, which we visited.

In this church, the famous Ines and Pedro are buried - a Portuguese King and Queen. They are buried on opposite sides of the church, facing each other, so that when they get to Heaven, they rise and they are what each other sees first.

Team photo

Third and final stop: the walled city of Obidos.

Us Trekkers had been here before in January, but it was fun to go back. Us girls decided to have some fun and do an impromptu little photo shoot.

And we enjoyed the yummiest hot chocolate I have ever had. It was the perfect balance of creamy and chocolaty and it wasn't overly sweet. I thought it was perfect!

We returned back to the Bible College, completely exhausted but ended off the evening on a incredibly encouraging note as we all gathered together to encourage Otto and Marjorie in the work they are doing here in Portugal. 

They have arrived...

It's been 6 weeks of planning and preperations and the day has finally come and gone. The Vision Team has arrived. This team consists of MB pastors and church leaders from California and Ontario. Their purpose in being here in Portugal is to offer support and encouragement to Otto and Marjorie. It is also our hope and prayer that this team will return to their respected churches and tell them what is happening in Portugal. We need churches to have a renewed vision for Portugal and we need workers to be here for the long haul.
So, this week we are helping Otto & Marjorie out by hosting this team of 12. Us as a Trek team are doing all of the cooking. We are currently residing at PBI (Portuguese Bible Institute), which is located in the Tojal area just outside of Lisbon and we will be here until February 26th. So far we are enjoying ourselves and enjoying meeting with and getting to know the vision team members, even if our room does reak of moth balls :)


Saturday during the day, we headed over to the Amadora church to take part in a Leadership in the Church seminar that the vision team put on. It was a neat day full of interacting with great people and seeing people from the different churches interacting and dialoging with each other about leadership. It was encouraging to see and hear as this is not necessarily a common occurance.

I have neglected my camera as of late, so I have been trying to get more shutter-happy these last few days. Enjoy the pictures!

A typical Sunday includes Heidi and I singing on the worship team at the Loures church. We unfortunately are unable to look up from our sheet of music often due to the language thing. We're working on it though and actually today we had the opportunity to sing the Revelation Song in english for the vision team. It was a nice treat.

We also teach the sunday school class, which is made up of 3 extremely awesome kids: Mieka, Sofia and Josh.

On Friday we had the opportunity to take some time to explore the town of Tojal.

Like I said, on Saturday, we had the opportunity to attend a leadership workshop put on by members of the vision team. The event required a lot of translating between Portuguese and English. We have some extremely gifted leaders here with us who did a phenomenal job.

Today we attended all 3 church services. I always love going to the Amadora church. The community and the music is phenomenal.

Plus, they serve deep-fried dough balls after every service. I LOVE deep fried dough. I mean, what's not to love???

These are a few of the kids in the Massama church. They are a neat bunch of kids. Most of the kids attend church weekly without their parents. Their parents are not part of the church, but these kids are some of our most faithful attenders each week. It's neat to see the joy on their faces when they enter the church.

I apologize for the scatteredness of this post. Please continue to keep our team and the vision team here with us in your prayers this week. It is our prayer that this would be a really neat week of encouragement and renewed vision for the global church and what is going on here in Portugal.

Please also continue to pray for the people in our churches. I hope that they feel supported and encouraged by the vision team and also by us this week in particular. We want to see them grow in their faith and have boldness to lead in their churches.

Thanks!

Waiting

Waiting is a hard thing for me. I've never been particularly good at it (my family can attest to this). I feel like this is something I have been having to do more often lately. I'm learning to be patient; patient in plans for the future, patient in relationships (or lack thereof) and patient in waiting for God's timing. Being patient is hard.

At the beginning of Trek in September, we were given Life Journals. This is a bible reading program essentially. Each day, we are given some scripture to read and then we journal about what we have read - what has stood out to us and how God spoke. Over the course of a year, I will have read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice. Not long ago we finished reading through Exodus. I have a new appreciation for this book. I love how I can read a certain piece of scripture numerous times and each time God speaks differently to me through it. Talk about Living Word! Anyway, we had a team devotional time this past week and God reiterated a piece of scripture that stood out to me a few weeks back in Exodus.

The chapter is Exodus 24. I'm not going to write out the chapter, it's a tad lengthy, but I'll sum up a bit of it. God has called Moses, Aaron and 70 other leaders of Israel up to the Mountain of God. It's probably not a short journey up and they have no idea when they will be coming back down. They are just required to be obedient to God. They are told that they are going up on that mountain to worship - some from a distance, but Moses gets to worship God up close. One of our teammates pointed out this last week in our bible study time that so often when we plan a trip, we are focused not only in getting there, but also how we are getting back. These leaders of Israel probably functioned in a similar way.
I think too often we are overly focused on the journey as a whole - what will happen next. We have to have our plans made ahead of time and we forget to take the time to sit and enjoy the awesomeness of God's presence. I am so guilty of this. I like to know my plans, to have things figured out. I am not a fly by the seat of your pants sort of girl. During this journey up the mountain, Moses and the leaders had an incredible encounter with the Living God.

"There they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there seemed to be a pavement of brilliant sapphire, as clear as the heavens...The awesome glory of the Lord on the mountaintop looked like a devouring fire".

On this journey, God altered their focus from the bigger picture to more of Him. They get up to the top of the mountain and they are told to wait. In their waiting process Moses and the seventy other leaders took the time to enjoy God's Holy presence.
I feel especially challenged by this story. I want to alter my focus as well. Rather than worrying myself with the details of the future, I am choosing to enjoy the waiting process and look for the presence of the Living God. I don't want to miss any chance at an encounter with the Lord.

Hello February!

Sorry it has been awhile since I have updated the blog. It's been a busy couple of weeks and at the end of the day, the last thing I really feel like doing is blogging. However, today is a day off and I am finding myself with some time to do an update.
We have now been in Portugal for 3 months. It's incredible how fast time has gone by and yet it feels like we have been here for a lot longer. After a few weeks of feeling tired and fatigued, I am happy to report that this past week I have felt more energized and excited for what God is doing here in our ministries and also what God has been doing in my heart.

Last week Monday, we had the opportunity to go to IBP (the bible college here in Portugal) for the afternoon to hear Tom Blackaby speak. I had no idea who this was, but apparently his father, Henry Blackaby is quite well known. Anyway, the workshop we attended was called Spiritual Leadership. I left the workshop excited, stretched and challenged in some of my thinking. Tom Blackaby posed the question, "when we pray, do we want God or do we want only what God can fix or do for us?"

Those words have been resonating in my heart over the past week. I want to enjoy God and know God with my whole heart rather than only going to him with my list of prayer requests. I want God, not just what he can do for me. So often I am guilty of going to God with my long lists of prayer requests rather than taking the time to spend it in the presence of my King - to truly bask in His presence and experience His glory. I am challenged to refocus my prayer life so that I am spending more time in awe and admiration. I want to echo the cry of Moses,
"Let me see your Glory"

I want to revere the Holy name of God and stand in awe in His presence. I want God to be in every step I take and along the ground I walk on.
This got me thinking back to Moses and his burning bush experience. When Moses encounters the presence of the living God, he is told to remove his shoes for he is standing on Holy Ground. I don't have many burning bush experiences in my life, but I want to be aware and have my eyes opened to moving of God in my life each and everyday. I want to stop often throughout my day to be conscious and to stand in Holy fear and wonder at the majesty and presence of God.

Blackaby continued on to talk about vision. Ours versus God's. Again, I tend to have an agenda and a plan for my life. I know where I want to go and what I want to accomplish (most of the time). Where is God in that though? Rather than asking God to join me in my plans, I instead need to submit myself to God's ways. This means waiting and allowing God to reveal the details and the overall vision to me.

"God doesn't need us to dream big for him, but rather we need God to reveal to us what God wants to accomplish." ~ Tom Blackaby

When we let God lead and he asks us to go, we need only to step out in faith and allow God to take care of the details. He only asks that we be obedient. When I choose to let God transform my life and take control; when I learn to submit my plans and dreams and trade them for His, the plans and dreams become God-sized.
Perhaps my future plans won't change or be too different from God's, but regardless, I am choosing to submit myself, to be quiet and still, so that He can reveal His plans and His dreams to me. My mind cannot fully comprehend how God will move and what He will choose to do in and through me. What I do know is that He will be able to infinately more than I could ever ask for or dream of. Talk about exciting!

I apologize for the large amount of writing. I'll end off by sharing a few pictures of life here in the churches.