Thursday

We're home!  After being stuck in Newark Sunday night, we split up and made it home safely on different flights on Monday.  All is well!

What an amazing trip!  It is over, but the experiences will last a lifetime. I don't think any of us came back the same people.  We were so impressed with the staff and volunteers of Teen Challenge and what they are accomplishing in Portugal.  We joined them as they went into the darkest corners of Lisbon to witness to men and women on the streets.  We felt God's presence at the Coffee Shop as some of those men and women gave their hearts and lives to our Lord.  We saw the joy in their hearts serving our Lord.


We thank all of our new friends for their hospitality and love.  We will continue to pray for them and their ministry. We will never forget.  Here are a few snaps of our new friends.......May God Bless you in mighty ways!!

Part of the gang at the coffee shop

Rui and Sandy 

Rui and Sandra

Sophia

Toze

Carlos, Director of Teen Challenge, and his wife Julia, with Pastor Brad and Jana

Paulo and Catalin

Friday - the A team (aka Annointed Team) cleaned the compound. We swept, hauled junk and garbage to the dumpster, and organized the storage area.  When the bosses are away, we tend to play:)

This will be our final posting for awhile. We will not have access to internet tomorrow and Sunday is a travel day. God has blessed us in so many ways. The blessings have been coming and going. Goose bumps from the Holy spirt have been felt all around.

We hope to make more entries in a few days.   We say farewell to our new friends from Fanhoes and Teen Challenge. We appreciate their hospitality and are so amazed with how God is using them on the streets of Lisbon. 

Friday
Today B Team worked in the kitchen to serve lunch to the Teen Challenge Campus.  Bobbie was the top chef with many helpers.  Bobbie is truly gifted at making food for a large number of people.  It was a truly amazing experience, and the food was wonderful.  We were told by one of the counselers that calories are little bugs that sneak into your room at night and eat your clothes until they shrink.  Working side-by-side with our new friends was so much fun! 

This trip has been absolutely life-changing! It was day one.

Operation Joshua has been the most interesting to me, their mission is amazing! They constantly go out on the streets and are known by name by the local men and women, they take classes, they live in a community setting that is close and yet so welcoming.

They have been so kind to all of us and have opened their homes, hearts and lives to us, everyone we met has. It's so nice to see people go out of their way to make complete strangers feel at home. Their joy is contagious!

Thank you for the prayers! They are truly felt!
Amanda

The B team, AKA BLESSED team went to Lisbon to work with the children. They helped serve a snack , sang songs with the children and gave them presents. The children were taught a lesson on forgiveness.

Prior to going to Lisbon they worked in the kitchen, went grocery shopping for tomorrows meal, and cleaned the chapel. They were also honored to be invited into the home of one of the staff members named Toza for coffee, cookies,  and persimons. The hospitality, and love we have been shown has been amazing.

Cooking for 130 folks here at the center. Grandma Bobbie exercising one of her many gifts with Anna Harrington. Pray for these people cuz they ain't ready to eat her cooking cuz it's delicioso my frenz.

Gary

Hey Everyone,  Is there big enough words for what we have seen this week?  Amazing just doesn't cover it !!!  We will have to design a new word for all the incredible things that have happened to us and through us this week.  Memories of a lifetime ---- again is just to cliche' for what we have been part of.  And then there are the friendships that are being established........ WOW !!!!  Again just not a big enough word.  All I can do this thank God for everything, everyone, and all He has done with and through us.  He continues to show us His work in us and hopefully his plans for us.  Thank you again for all your prayers,  in His name,  Lori

"Hello my frenz!" That is my international greeting...whether you're American or from anywhere else - you get the same thing. This trip has been a great experience serving the people of Portugal and several things are astounding.
1. God lives in Portugal too. It's not his summer home, but he actually permanently resides here and get this...he loves every single person here more than you may realize. It's been  so great to assist men and women that don't love, serve, and give in small doses - but day in, day out, rain or shine give until they fall in to bed from the moment they wake up. And they do it with smiles and as though it's a priveledge to extend the same grace they've been given. Certainly a lesson that has kicked my butt and one I need to absorb.

2. Extravegant love doesn't require extravegent actions but more so - simple actions that put feet to the faith we profess. A hug, a high five, a simple word of gratitude, a smile, a kind gesture. How complicated we make the gospel, serving others, and living the church. It's so easy for me to make excuses for why I can't this or that when I'm wrapped up in my world. What if I really embraced the truth that THE greatest is a servant - not the ones clawing their way through this journey scrapping to get everything I want.

Thanks for praying for us and our team. God has been faithful and good to us every step of this trip.
Looking forward to being with you all!

Love and prayers,
Gary and Katie n da team.

Tuesday night

Sorry that we haven't been able to connect to the blog for a few days. We have so much to tell you.

On Tuesday night, we went down to the coffee shop again. This is really a small meeting space, open only to Teen challenge.  Part of their ministry is to go to downtown Lisbon and develop relationships with addicts and prostitutes, offering them sandwiches and tea.  The addicts are then invited back to the coffee house for a brief service, a testimony, worship music, hot soup, and fellowship. This is the first step for them to be introduced to God, and all He offers through Teen Challenge. 

Half the group went out on the street, into some pretty dark corners of the city, while the other half stayed behind and prepared. They brought in 15-20 folks.  Part of our mission here is to speak through the translators, with the street people about our faith and experiences.  At one table, we were sharing favorite scripture, using bibleverses.com to translate. At another table, one shared that he is confused about religion and all the rules. We were able to share that it's not about religion, but about a personal relationship with Jesus.

After a few songs, one of our folks gave his testimony and Pastor Brad shared words of God's compassion from the book of Matthew. 

Wednesday was a fun day. We toured a castle and hit the open air market.

Thursday

Today we split into teams.  One team drove to the Teen Challenge Crisis center in Alter do Chao. One of our team shared her testimony. Pastor Gary shared a message of encouragement, referencing Jeremiah 20:11, Psalm 39:4, and John 10:10.

John 10:10

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

At the end of the service, we were asked to stand up and come up front. The students and staff surrounded us and prayed for us.  It was an incredible experience to receive their blessings.

We had a tour of their facility and a the homes of the staff members. They have beds for 30, and currently have 23 in residence.  They students go through classroom training.  The program lasts a year. We were invited to join the students for lunch. We met Daniel, who has been in the program for 1.5 months. He deaf, but able to read lips, even in English! We also another student who had immigrated with his family to Boston at age 11. But he was deported 13 years ago and hasn't seen his family since. He was proud to tell us that he has been in the program for 4 months.

We even had the opportunity to help harvest olives off their olive street right on the premise! 

Signing off for now. Blessings from Portugal!!

Tuesday!

Half of the team hit the streets of Stuebal to hand out sandwiches, tea, and encourage to the people of the streets.  They toured an adandoned warehouse where several reside. We were told that the people lose their values, their sense of worth.  The team stepped around used needles, waste, and garbage.

The other half worked onsite at the Teen challenge center. We sorted a junk pile of metals and deconstructed electronics, which should help the center generate money.

We were treated to cake and beca (Portugese coffee) at the home of Carlos Desu, Director of Teen challenge, and his wife Julia. 

More to come.  We are heading back out tonight to the streets of Lisbon and the Coffee Shop.

Bruce and Karen

We've arrived in Portugal!  We've had no access to the internet due to the server being down!  What an amazing trip soo far! 

Here are the highlights of what we've experienced so far:

On Saturday, a team went out to the streets Setubal to visit with the homeless, hand out sandwiches and tea, and to show Christ's Love.  We visited some abandoned warehouses where the addicts and homeless "live".  It's hard to put into words what we saw and the conditions that they live in.

On Saturday night, we walked the streets of Lisbon, developing relationship with the people of the streets. We spent time with addicts, prostitutes, and the homeless. We shared sandwiches, tea, and candy.  Let us share a few stories:

Luigi is a young man, recently released from prison for drug trafficing. He wants very much to give up his cocaine addiction, but said that it is very hard. He doesn't know what to do. We talked with him, shared the love of Jesus with him, then laid hands and prayed for him.  Our prayers are that Luigi makes it to the coffee house on Tuesday night and asks for salvation.

We also met Nimi, a 22 year old woman, living on a mattress with only a pillow and blanket, surrounded by cardboard, in an alley.  We were able to encourgage Nimi to join us at the worship service at the coffee house that Teen Challenge runs.  At the service we heard two testimonies, one from our group (Bruce) and one from Teen Challenge.  After a few words of encouragement from Pastor Gary, Nimi raised her hand and gave her heart to our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is why we are in Portugal.  To support God's work, to share the good news of Jesus Christ, and to partner with the Teen Challenge staff.

What a day!

Sunday was a day of rest and fun. We attend the CRC church service in Lisbon. It was a celebration service, welcoming their new Pastor. Our group was recognized as visiting from America. We were proud to be there, representing our church family back in Appleton.

Today, Monday, we hit the streets of Lisbon.  We all had the opportunity to walk through the slums of Lisbon, to see and realize the desperate conditions in which they live. We also had the opportunity to clean a woman's home that Teen challenge is reaching out to help.  She is a young woman in need, with two small children, one with a heart condition.  We scrubbed the home from top to bottom, including her refrigerator that turned stomachs, helped her organize her belongings, and greatly improved the sanitary conditions for her children. Mary had the best job of all. The team bought dolls for her daughters and Mary had the joy of holding the younger girl as they played dolls.

This evening, we attended the service at Teen Challenge. It's amazing to travel overseas to a foreign country, and hear them worship the same God, singing the same songs, as we do back home.  Pastor Brad rocked the house with his message of David and Goliath. We each were moved by the message and felt called to action.

Look for posts from many members of the team, now that we have internet connection...but not till tomorrow :)  We are six hours ahead and it's night-night time.

Love you all and God Bless!

Bruce and Karen

One more day and a wake up. As our anticipation grows, so does our curiosity to see what God has in store for us in Lisbon. The message that I heard from the pulpit this weekend taught me; that God see's beyond what we are, to what we might be. He wants us to begin today with exactly what we have been given. We need to shed anything in our lives that might hold us back, and we especially have to remember that our battles with the flesh can only be won by God. I want to build an alter to our Lord and call it "The Lord is Peace". We were talking tonight at dinner and both feel that God is going to reveal something great to us on this journey. We hope and pray that He touches all of us in a way that we extend the hands and feet of Jesus as we have never before. 
Bruce & Karen

4 Days to Go!

The Portugal team participated in all three services this weekend at Pathways Church. Pastor Brad commissioned us at the end of each service.  May we be God's hands and feet as we journey to Portugal to work with Teen Challenge!

Matthew 28:16-20

New International Version (NIV)

The Great Commission

 ¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

10 Days to go!!

11 days and Counting

A team from Pathways Church is preparing to travel to Lisbon, Portugal to serve with Teen Challenge.  Follow us on our journey as we post daily updates of our experiences. 11 Days until we leave!!!!