SMT Spain/Portugal – Update #3

Bom Día Alegría!

This third week we had the opportunity to help and observe the ministries here in Lisbon. Please, continue to pray for our team’s mental, spiritual, and physical health. This week was rather more emotionally taxing than physically compared to last week. The only major physical work we found ourselves doing was reorganizing band closets & the corps’ basement.

Since Lisbon is a bigger place than Colares, we also got to see the various outreach ministries in Lisbon. On Tuesday morning, we help out with a senior event in the community center and on Wednesday evening, we had a chance to talk with the homeless in the homeless shelter. In addition we distributed soup and bread to people on the street and to people from the Corps. We were told that without the soup, those people from the corps wouldn’t have had anything to eat at night. It was a joy, personally, to give out bread to those in need, knowing that their hunger will be satiated and that they be taken care of. Despite the sin and brokeness observed in Lisbon, we see great work being done in the name of God. Pray that these ministries will continue with the love and passion for the people and pray that God continues to open doors through these outlets, that the soup distributed will eventually create more opportunities for the salvation of others.

Wednesday morning we were invited to a prayer meeting at Headquarters in Portugal. Within this week, we also had the opportunity to get to know Majors Cleto & Fernanda from the Lisbon Corps. We are amazed at how much they are involved in all the ministries in Lisbon (from being responsible for the growth of the young people there, distributing soup to those in need weekly, to being the chaplains for the homeless shelter, etc.). Pray for Majors Cleto and Fernanda and their daughter Nanda, that they will continue to be fervent in their love with everyone they meet and be unwavering in involvement in all these ministries. Thank you to Nanda, for jumping in to help with translation & becoming part of our team even in the middle of exam week in college.

We ask again you keep the people we met in Portugal in your prayers. We lift up Goncalo at this time as he did so much to support us, whether by translating Portuguese for us, by driving us to the various sites in Portugal these past three weeks, or by simply being with us and getting to know us. It will be hard saying goodbye to what was essentially a ninth team member, but we hope that God has more in store for him and that he continues to grow in faith.

We are officially in Spain now! The first thing planned for Spain is music camp which begins on Monday & we’re excited to take part in band, choir, dance, timbrels, guitar, piano, theory & planning many of the evening programs!

Blessings,
Sam (Rep. Spain/Portugal Team)