The Lord’s Day 2.0

The local churches schedule their services for the evenings so there was not a morning service to attend. Instead the opportunity was taken to get all the missionaries and the “Pastors on Missions” team together for a special time of worship and devotion. We got up the same time as usual, had our breakfast in the hotel dining room and then met with our group in the lobby at 10:30. Most of us got the message that it was to be a ‘casual’ service. The other’s arrived in typical Sunday morning attire. I’m glad I got the memo.J

We van-pooled to the little church we met at Friday evening in the area near Missionary Markham’s apartment. The service began without preliminaries as we sang a couple of older worship songs including “I could never out love the Lord.” Gayla played the keyboard, Brother Wiggins played their guitar, and Arthur Law played the drums. There was a wonderful presence of God as these pastors and ministers joined their hearts and voices in praise. Missionary Markham spoke for a little bit with a great burden and evident passion for the work in Portugal and Spain. He shared a bit of the personal struggle that led him to leave the work in Brazil to come to Portugal.

Missionary Gary Sones spoke next. His message addressed four areas: 1) You must know you are called. 2) You must have a God directed strategy. 3) You must have passion and a burden. 4) You must have a vision. The power of God moved in us all and spoke to our hearts on different levels. You could tell that God was speaking individually to pastors concerning their own calling, burden, and direction for their churches. The missionaries moved around the room praying for each couple. This was probably the most significant service for us personally on the trip.

Brother O’Keefe concluded the service with some remarks from Acts chapter 13 as he made application to the call and burden of missions. He concluded by calling Missionary Sones and Markham to the front where we in turn prayed for them. At the conclusion of the prayer he presented them with a monetary gift from the pastors on this trip in excess of $1000. It was our way of thanking them for the organizing, planning and directing of this tour.

We returned to the mall that we ate at on Friday for lunch. Everyone had euros so we split up and ordered what we wanted from the food court with the instructions to meet again at 2:30 for our trip back to the hotel. We had just enough time to spend some more money! We bought another gift and I picked up a shirt to wear home. Everything I have is dirty by now! Gayla finally found a purse from Spain and purchased it in Portugal. She can rest easy now…

The group was split into three for services this evening. Paul Bertram preached at one of the services, Arthur Law preached at the little church we were at this morning, and Clayton Brown preached in Cha where we were last night. Gayla and I joined the Browns and Miraflors to ride with Missionary Sones to the service in Cha. After one wrong turn we corrected our course and arrived at the church just as they were ready to begin. Within fifteen minutes the place was packed and the extra chairs were set out and occupied. They begin with jubilant singing and worship. During the worship one lady was taken to the baptistery for baptism. When the service was turned to Missionary Sones, he again introduced us to the congregation and asked me to testify. There was no English to Portuguese interpreter available so Brother Sones interpreted into Spanish which most of the people can at least understand most of what was said. They seemed to anyway! Stacy Miraflor sang and played the chorus “You Deserve the Glory.” After she sang through it in English she switched to Spanish. Immediately, the congregation recognized the song and began to sing along in Portuguese and there was an anointed response. It was beautiful.

Clayton Brown preached in Spanish with a Portuguese interpreter. The interpreter was a young married woman in the church. It was also the first time she had interpreted. Though many could probably get the gist of the message in Spanish the translation helped more to understand what was being preached. He read from Matthew 5:14 and preached about the light of the world. Being English only I had no clue what he said so we nodded our heads and said “amen” at the appropriate intervals! There was a good response at the altar call with sinners crying out to God. This is a wonderful church with a good work going on.

Following the service, Sister Ruth’s husband announced that it was her birthday! They brought in a huge birthday cake and invited everyone to stay for the celebration. We had to stay and had to eat a few of the things prepared as well as a piece of birthday cake. It was rather good, not too sweet, with a strawberry layer filling.

We visited for twenty minutes or so and then headed out. They had to send some food items with us, more for Brother Sones who will be driving back to Madrid tomorrow with the Wiggins. It was a wonderful gesture, but there was no place to keep the food overnight to prevent spoiling. They are giving and loving people.

We met up with the rest of our group at the KFC/Pizza Hut that we went to last night. I didn’t eat much at the church so I ordered some pizza and salad. We fellowshipped a little more for our last night in Portugal though things were a little subdued with the prospect of our early morning flight out of Lisbon. Brothers Wiggins and Sones completed the accounting and gave us the total of our expenses for the week. We reimbursed them for all the food they purchased and the tickets for the tours and attractions that we participated in.

When we returned to the hotel at about 11:00 we went immediately to the room to complete our packing and to post my last blog from the country of Portugal. I also made a copy of all our digital pictures for Clayton. He will take pictures from everyone in our group and compile them on a DVD for each couple in the group. I offered to make the DVD available of all the video I took on the trip. It will require five DVDs to record everything. I’m not sure when anyone will have the time to watch it!

It has been a most fulfilling and productive missions trip. We have enjoyed a balance of ministry, sightseeing, fellowship, and the extra blessing of being ministered to by the missionaries and from our fellow ministers. Our lives have been enhanced, our burden for ministry challenged, and a greater desire to see the world reached with the gospel. Thanks to the Western District Foreign Missions for making this opportunity possible!