The Last Sunday!

We started the day on the road, arriving home at 12:50 a.m. from our Saturday night Prophetic Conference. We set our alarms before heading to bed so that we would arrive at the Sunday morning service by 10:00 a.m.

We've been driving around in a 1989 nine-passenger Fiat van rented from another church. When we arrived, we asked Eduardo who would be driving. He shrugged and said, "9 members of the team; 9-passenger van." Then he circled his hand among us to indicate that one of us would have to drive! We thank God for Neil, who learned to drive on a diesel powered, stick shift just like ours. He was the one to drive! The first few days we followed Eduardo, but then a GPS appeared and we were on our own. We travel on two kinds of roads: narrow, winding drives on the sides of steep hills or crowded freeways where motorcycles zip in and out of lanes squeezing past cars at an alarming rate of speed, but thankfully cars travel on the right side of the road. On Saturday night we passed the 1000 km mark - and eventually accumulated 1300 km; 808 miles on the road. Thank you for your prayers for safety.

Our faithful Fiat

During the morning service, our team sang "To God Be the Glory" with one verse in Portuguese. Sherry was our music leader and Beth our linguist; we were still working on pronunciation in the van on the way to church. Road hazards were not the only distractions for Neal as he drove! God helped us, and the people smiled at our feeble attempt to sing in their own language. A sweet spirit pervaded the service and Neil preached with power. At the end of the service, our team stood in the front of the church with our hands extended, palms up. The people in the church raised their hands to offer their prayers of blessings on us, and Eduardo moved from person to person anointing our hands with oil. He told us later that he wanted us to return to America anointed by the Spirit to continue spreading the good news of Jesus. It was a precious time!

Cindi and Neil picking up supplies for the food distribution

Our schedule allowed us to catch a few minutes of rest on Sunday afternoon before heading to Santa Marta for the Feast of the Family Celebration. Some came in response to the fliers we had distributed the week before at the African "Can Community." Neal, Steven, and Eduardo had picked up the food from the Food Bank on Wednesday. With the help of others, it was packaged and ready to distribute at the end of the service. The opening music set the tone for the unified worship of people from Brazil, America, Canada, and several communities in the Lisbon area Team members gave short testimonies about their experiences in Portugal; we sang our Portuguese song and repeated our silent, cardboard testimonies. Pastora Cida gave a compelling sermon on the Samaritan woman from John 4 and invited people to come to Christ at the end of her sermon.

Cindi Angelo summed up the the experience in her Facebook post: "The feast of the family at our Church in Santa Marta was simply wonderful! 8 people (all of them, African) surrendered their lives to Christ! The Church was full, and the glory of God, so real!! I thank God for the fantastic team of workers that he has given us there! :)"

This dear woman, Mariana, had been attending the services for many weeks.  She was always the first to arrive and the last to leave, but she had never been ready to commit her life to the Lord until this Sunday night, July 29, 2012.  Great celebration followed her prayer of repentance!