Soul Saved, Outreach, Baptisms
Dear Pastors and Churches,
I write you today to say how amazed we are. On September 2nd we hit our first year on the field. It has been the best and yet the hardest year of our lives. We have seen God do amazing things where our faith has been increased. We have seen hurt and sadness, joy and love, excitement and disappointment. I think most importantly we have seen God in a way we have never seen him before. We are truly grateful for the sacrifice and love and support we have received from those who have been faithful to the Lord during this time.
September 7th-14th we had the honor of hosting Wings Bearing Precious Seed. They brought a group of 25 people over to help distribute John and Romans for us and our Anniversary service for the church here. While they were here, we were able to get out 15000 John and Romans. On our big Sunday we had 2 visitors! Though we didn't see a lot of attendees, we were encouraged by the ones God sent to us to minister too. The next week we had another visitor come to our service because of the John and Romans. We may never know the full extent of what seeds were sown until we get to heaven but the seed was given, now we have to be faithful to water where God leads us. Please pray as we continue to reach those around us with the gospel that more and more will come to learn of God.
These last few months we have had three people accept Christ and four baptisms. One of them being a teenager that has been attending the church with his family for a few years now. Another was a young girl whose mom we met in language class. The mom had a testimony of salvation already, so both the mother and daughter joined the church. The third person is a young man a lot of people have been praying for a long time. His girlfriend attends the church, and I had the opportunity to go through the Gospel with him multiple times. One week I had him over to our house to present the Gospel, but he still had hesitations. I told him whenever he is ready, he can call on God anywhere at any time. A week after that meeting, he was at work and was under conviction. He bowed his head there at work and accepted Christ in his heart! It has been encouraging seeing what God is doing here in Portugal. We have been able to start discipleship with a few people, and we excited to see how God is going to work in their lives.
As many of you know we have been praying for a new building. God has allowed us to fill where we are. We have seen God working with sending people and families. At the beginning of September, we moved a wall in the building over, to allow us more space and chairs in our auditorium. It allowed us to go from 55 chairs to 67 and we can squish a few more chairs in uncomfortably if need be. We started a youth class in the small room over, where we have 7 to 9 teens come for Sunday school. We are very thankful for the space we have now, and excited to see what God provides in the future. We have been praying for God to open doors for a new place, and I have asked the church to pray for one building in particular. We have laid hands on it. We have prayed for it for months and weeks. I just heard this week the owner would like to have a meeting with me about how much the building and property is worth. I ask you to pray for this meeting. I want to be in Gods will, so please pray he gives us understanding and wisdom as we move forward.
