Portugal and Back
Dearest Patient Friends,
I shudder to think when was the last time i wrote an update to let you all know that I am still alive. Just to clarify what's been going on, I've been in Portugal for the last 2 weeks on a missions trip with my family and 4 other students, though one graduated just before joining us and another is doing his Phd.
I would like to start by urging you to all pray for Portugal. As my friends and I will tell you, it's such a hard and spiritually dry land. We are so thankful to the Lord for so many of the pastors and missionaries that we met there who have been serving Him faithfully for so many years, some over 30 years! One man in particular, whom we met, named Russell was 79 and though he lives now in the States, he returns to Portgual every year during the summer to continue his ministry. It can be very discouraging to many of the missionaries there who have lived in this nation for such a long time and hardly seen any fruits. It was really good for us to be there and hopefully, to be a blessing and encouragement to them. We, of course, ourselves learnt many lessons from them and I am always touched who they continue to press on for Christ and His kingdom. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in mercy, grace and strength.
The members of our humble group included, of course, both my parents and myself as well as two guys, Andrew and Daniel, as well as two other girls, Sin Li and Trina. We managed to do some dramas here and there but I think the best part of the trip was simply interacting with people around us and hopefully living and showing the Love of Jesus in the places we visited. We first flew into Porto but stayed in a church in a very little town called Vizela. There we met some wonderful missionaries and a very enthusiastic pastor. Please pray for them as the church there is just one years old that it might grow not only in numbers but in depth and passion for the Lord.
From Vizela, we headed to Porto with another very close (as in like a family) church. We managed to visit the birthplace of Portugal, a place called Guimares (don't even try to pronounce it if you don't know how... =0). It was very fascinated and if I had all the time and space in the world to tell you the many stories of people and things we saw and did, I would. After Porto we arrived in Lisbon, where we had a very brief but good opportunity to speak to the teenagers and other people that were on their way to TeenStreet in Germany. If you don't know what TeenStreet is, check out www.teenstreet.om.org. Please do pray for this amazing ministry and for all the Teens and leaders and staff who go there that it won't be jsut an emotional once a year thing but it will be a life-changing and growing experience for Teenagers. In this case, pray specifically for the Teenagers going from Portugal because we want to see them spread the gospel in this hard nation. Lisbon, being our final destination before returning to UK, was much more relaxed than our previous stopovers and we were very thankful to our host, Alvaro who as carzy and sometimes scary as he was, was a joy and blessing to have around. In truth, we were all tremendously blessed and challenged by all the Christians we met there in Portugal and we would really like to continue to lift them up in pray and hopefully keep in touch.
If any of you guys reading this want to go to Portgual and be a blessing to the churches there or something, anything, please do let me know or even my dad and PLEASE do remember to pray for Portugal.
I know I've taken a lot of time and space already writing all of this but just a few notices I'd like to throw at you. My family and I are probably going to be moving in the not too distant future so please stay tuned for updates about that and pray that we will have enough time to do all the paperwork and moving before it comes to winter. =0( Also, we are heading back to Singapore on the 22nd of August because my mum has some medical concerns that need taking care of. Please do continue to pray for her and her health as some of the doctors suspect she might have some form of cancer. During this coming trip back to Singapore we will also be heading to the Doulos inb HongKong because it was cheaper to pay for a flight to HongKong via Singapore than to just fly to Singapore.
Oh yes, one more thing- last but not least, THANK YOU ALL for all your prayers. I know it is not by my strength or mind-power but by God's grace through your faitfhulness in prayer that I managed to pass all my exams and am gratefully carrying on to the next year. Praise the Lord I don't have any resits to hold me back! Thank you all because I know some of you guys who have been so wonderful in remembering me in prayer. You cannot imagine how blessed I feel.
Whew! I think you mighht have all forgotten now what IU've been talking about these last moments so in summary- Praise God for time in Portgual! Praise God for his faithful servants in Portugal! Pray for moving of houses. Pray for my mum's health. Praise God for good exam results! Praise God for His faithfulness and sovereignty and holiness and......! Let everything that has breath PRAISE THE LORD!
