Today was a transition day for our team and ministry here in Portugal. The guys spent the morning doing some furniture delivery and helping a family move. Phil said it felt a lot like doing ministry with Loren! A couple of the women went shopping with Marjorie Ekk to buy all the groceries needed for the camps this week. The rest did laundry and other preparations. We also had some time off to relax, connect with family and friends via email or skype, and just personally recharge.
In the evening, we met together with Marques and Christian & Camille. These are the three main leaders who will be leading the Summer Youth Camp this week. They are excellent people and significant leaders here in the Lisbon-area churches. They are also passionate followers of Jesus. They have been and will be fun to work with. We met to do our last preparations and spent a significant time in prayer for each of the campers by name and over the rooms we will be meeting in. There will be about 20 teens and college students staying on campus for the Youth Camp (these 20 will also be part of the English Camp). There will be more during the day for the English Camp. We would appreciate your prayers for the campers and for the leaders. Our English Camp portion of the day will be from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. The Youth Camp will be from about dinner until midnight or so (maybe later - they like to stay up late). We begin tomorrow, Tuesday, and finish with lunch on Saturday.
Our team is doing great. I always wonder how you know if a team is prepared and realize you never fully know until 'game time.' Well, we are now here and I can see all of our preparations and God's hand bringing things together well. The team is doing great. We are 'gelling' well, getting along as a team, fulfilling our roles with each other and in ministry, and spending time reading and reflecting on God's Word. We are reading through Ephesians while we are here. We read and reflect in our personal quiet times and then take a 1/2 hour to share and pray together as a team. These times have been significant.
We have been really impacted by the missionaries, church leaders, and the context of doing ministry here in Portugal. I am really exited about our ongoing partnership with NFC and these churches. We have much to learn from each other and much to offer too. The post-Christian context here and the relational/missional philosophy of the leaders and the churches really resonate with what we are also doing in Fresno. I think on ongoing, long-term, reciprocal relationship will bear much fruit.
It was a huge blessing to Skype with NFC on Sunday. We continue to pray for the congregation in general and also some of the specific things going on with ministries and people having surgeries. Thanks for your continued prayers. We are healthy and anticipating a great week of intensive ministry. There is some anxiety about starting English Camp though - please pray for that.
Blessings,
James, for the rest of the team
Pic #1 - Lores Church
Pic #2 - Getting ready to Skype with NFC
Pic #3 - Room at Lores Church that was painted by the team we sent last year
Pic #4 - James with Paulino - showing off his table tennis skills
Pic #5 - Sheryl and Dani on kitchen duty
Pic #6 - Grant and Steve on kitchen duty
Pic #7 - Hillsides of Portugal (Dani, Sheryl, Elizabeth walking)
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3 comments:
Dear Team,
Thank for the blog. We also very much enjoyed the skype at church yesterday. Many memories have been enjoyed seeing the pictures and reading your comments. Sounds like you are ready for English camp. Having summer camp also sounds like a lot of work but lots of fun. Tell the kids hi. we are praying for you.
Lee and Grace.
It's fun watching you guys. When I was in Bible College we did our missions trip in Portugal and hung out with the Ekk's and Joe, so it's cool to see them. Keep being awesome.
The girls' shirts at the end have a nice one in every color quality, emphasized by the black shorts! I like! Still praying for y'all!
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