Portugal- Sarah

Sarah Rinn

1/29/08

On January 16th we landed in a country where only 1.6% of the people are evangelical Christian and only a mere 3% of the total population attends any sort of church.  This country is influenced by witch craft, idolatry, and atheism.  Most of the people lack the understanding of a personal relationship with Jesus.  It is a country in one of the most resistant mission fields and on the least evangelized continent.  Needless to say, our week in Portugal was very eye opening! 

When we arrived the pastor of an evangelical church and South African missionaries were there to greet us at the airport. We immediately were thrown into a very busy week.  The church had arranged families for us to stay with.  Kim and I stayed with a young married couple that spoke no english. Even though we couldn't always communicate the best, us trying to speak the little Spanish we knew because it was close to Portugues than English, Patricia and Tiago were so hospitable and wonderful to us.   

Every day in Portugal was well planned out and different.  We did things such as work at the salvation army, evangelize on the streets, speak at church, observe the religious practices, and garden at the Bible college.  I really enjoyed seeing different aspects of ministry in Portugal.

My most memorable moment involved a woman named Liliana.  She showed up the day we were playing/evangelizing/worshipping in the park.  She walked up to us while Roelf and Francios were playing the guitars.  She listened to us worship for about an hour getting teary eyed quite often.

After a while a couple of us tried to talk to her (she knew a little English).  We found out by her showing us a picture that she had 2 beautiful kids but they were not with her in Portugal.  Later we also found out her husband is a drug addict.  My heart broke for this woman as she tried to play with any little kid that came near...obviously longing for her own.  We invited her to churchbut had very little hope of actually seeing her the next day.

As I walked in the next morning, I was shocked to see Liliana sitting in the 3rd row.  I went to sit by her and had the privaledge of putting my arm around her while she prayed to give her life to Christ at the end of the service.  God showed me He is faithful when we make ourselves availiable to love people...even when they don't really speak your language.  

I am very thankful to have met some amazing Christians in Portugal.  They opened their homes, drove us around, took days off work to hang out with us, cooked for us, and even did our laundry.  I also met incredible missionaries willing to leave home and children to follow the Lord's call in a very tough mission field.  Please pray for the body of Christ in Portugal as they seek to reach a very lost country.