Mark and Aura Pereira | Nov.-Dec. ’15 Prayer Letter

[Click here to download the PDF version of this letter]

It’s a huge blessing to see God’s hand at work in Portugal. The Gospel truly is the power of God to save and it is a huge privilege to see it have full work in places and lives that had never been exposed to it.

Baptisms:

About a month ago we had two people in Castelo Branco follow the Lord in believer’s baptism. Lean is a 14-year-old boy that was saved years ago at our first camp. I am privileged to meet with him weekly for Bible study and it is a joy to see him grow. After we finished our Discipleship material, he came to me and suggested we could keep meeting for Bible study. What do you think was my answer? We will start studying together through a book of the Bible. Please pray for him and for the Lord to give us many young men like him to train to live for the Lord. Carla was baptized as well. She was saved when we met her, but had never been discipled. The day of the baptisms, the church was full of people she invited for the special day. Some of her friends and relatives that came had never been in a Gospel preaching church. They commented how much they enjoyed it. Pray that we can stay in touch with them and that they will be saved. After the service we went down to a nearby river and baptized them. There were other people there that were curious about what was going on. Biblical baptism is still not a very common thing in Portugal.

Christmas Dinner:

All our church people got together and prepared a special evangelistic Christmas dinner activity. Some helped with decorations, others with food and others with the special music and Bible readings. It was a great night with over 40 in attendance. Jesus was magnified and the Gospel was preached. Since then, we have had the opportunity to carry on meaningful conversations with some of the people that attended for the first time. Definitely is something to do again in the future.

Plans:

We ask you to continue to pray for our next church planting projects. Some doors have closed in places we thought would be the next areas to reach, but others are in the preparation stages. We continue to see progress in the improvement of our Bible Institute materials and we are planning a one week intensive course for early 2016. In February we have the teen Winter Camp. Pray that the Lord would use it for His glory and for the furthering of the Gospel in this nation.

Thank you for your love and support for the ministry in Portugal.

Have a blessed Christmas.