Kids Week

What a full week it's been! From Tuesday to Saturday, we had a kids week at the church here in Massama. The pictures really do speak for themselves, but we had a great time planning songs, games, crafts and stories for the kids. 

The language barrier was a challenge at first, but with Paula or Joe (our hosts and translators) there, we made it work! And the kids definitely learnt a lot too. We were able to share Christ's truths as well as some English words!

As mentioned earlier, the week was all about God's plan. We told the stories of Abraham, Esther, David, Jonah and of the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Each day, the kids were able to make a craft that reminded them of how God's plan worked in the lives of these people and how he can work in the lives of us. 

The songs were definitely a favourite. They requested to sing 'My God is so Big' and 'Jesus loves Me' multiple times! We are praying that the truth of God's love and His great plans stick with them as the songs did! They also loved how we could have fun with them and sing silly songs such as another favourite, 'Baby Shark' (seen below!)

We ended off the week with a water balloon fight to fight off some hot weather! The balloons that took over an hour to fill were gone within a few minutes! We had lots of fun, and they expressed to us how grateful they were that we could be there. We definitely felt like they had blessed us as well, as we saw how easily they could accept the things we were teaching them about, and how a child-like faith really is something to aspire towards. 

We praise God for a full week with lots of kids who came, and for a great time teaching them about the great love and plans of our great God!

This week, as we are at a new location, cooking and helping out with an English Camp, please pray:

- that we can continue to have energy 

- that we are able to connect (or re-connect) with the youth that come out for the camp

- patience 

- for the North Fresno team that is organizing and running the English camp 

Thanks so much for praying with us!

Ola friends!

    Today was a balmy 100 Degrees F and also the first day of our ´Kids week´.  The kids are all adorable and we can´t help but love them.  Our fears of a lack of communication and\or miscommunication due to language barriers were relieved today after an amazing afternoon of songs, stories, and games.  Our theme at Kids week is God´s plan. With translators in tow, after we finished our first story, we asked the kids if they believe in God and trust him and would follow him even if they didn´t know where he was leading them.  The response was a thundering roar of "SIM!", translated to english, this of course means "YES!".  It was also awesome to hear their responses and understanding to other questions from the story and about God.
    Please pray that the children would continue to immerse themselves in God´s love and understand his plan for them!
    Four more days of kids week, woo!

 More fun to come, Les    

First week!

Hello friends and supporters! thanks again for continuing to pray for us. We are really settling in on this first week, and learning a lot! Portugal is deeply rooted in its history, and we have been fed with lots of history from our wonderful host Jose! (below) It's been extremely beneficial to get to know the background of this culture and then starting to assist in the ministry that is already going on here as opposed to starting a ministry with no familiarity with life here. We thank God for an opportunity to learn so much!

After a meeting with Otto and Marjorie Ekk, the missionary couple that has been here for 23 years, about what we would be doing while we are here, today we jumped into cleaning and organizing the Espaco (one of the churches here in Lisbon). What we thought would be a day of sorting turned out to be a day filled with playing! Nearly as soon as we opened the doors to the church, kids started arriving! By the end of the day, we had over ten kids hanging out with us. We did accomplish some sorting, but playing games, drawing with chalk, and listening to the kids was the majority of our day. All of us felt like this day was really joyful and definitely felt like both the organizing and relational parts of our day was what we were called to be doing, but the language barrier was a little frustrating. Thankfully Kara (top photo, far right) knows a little Portuguese, and some of the kids knew English. Pray that we can reach the kids even with that language barrier!

Also pray:

-for the Massama area of Lisbon. This is where we will be doing the majority of our work, especially with the church. We would love to see it be a place of joy and hope in Christ. 

-for our team! We are definitely getting over jet lag, but please pray that we would keep up our energy! Much of our time will be spent with the kids in these next few weeks.

Thanks so much for supporting us!

We have arrived!

 And are excited to be here! Our journey started in Winnipeg, we had a quick stop in Chicago, then the travelling really began.

 From New Jersey.... to Lisbon, Portugal!

We are just beginning to settle in with our host family, and loving it! Just a few prayer requests as we get started:

- that we would get good sleeps tonight so we can really jump into ministry with energy!

- that we would settle in quickly to the European culture

-and that we would bless our host family, even though we are taking up a good chunk of space in their 3-bedroom apartment! 

Thanks so much for partnering with team Portugal!

Kristen - Team portugal

Portugal Team 2012

The Portugal team has begun our adventure! We spent this week in Manitoba for orientation and will head off to Lisbon on Friday. We will be updating this blog regularly while we are away, and invite you to keep reading for the month of July. Please pray with us as we serve in Lisbon. We met our hosts via Skype on Monday and are really feeling the anticipation now!

Meet the team!



Kara (team leader), from Winnipeg, ventured to Portugal on TREK last year with MBmission and is excited to show her new team around the place she loves!

Laura, from Winnipeg, just finished her fist year of college at Red River College in Early Childhood Education, and is excited to work with kids on the trip!

Lesley, also from Winnipeg, recently graduated from UofW with a Bachelor of Science and is looking forward to see where God will direct her in the future. 

Kristen, from Saskatoon, graduated in April from Bethany College with a Diploma of Biblical Studies and is looking forward to helping teach English in Portugal as she is working towards her TESOL certificate. 

We will keep you updated on what we will be experiencing, learning, and growing in as we venture out in two days - this Friday! We can't wait!

Kristen - Team Portugal