July ’16 Prayer Letter

A lot has happened since our last Prayer Letter in May.

[Click here for a printer-friendly PDF version of this letter]

S. is a young lady from a village near by that has just moved to Castelo Branco. Over past she has visited the church services and was even coming regularly until work and family circumstances prevented her from coming any more. Recently, S. accepted our invitation to come to a special service and again seemed very interested in the Gospel. We made an appointment to go visit her in her home to answer some of her questions. This was a precious opportunity where for a long time, with an open Bible, we talked about those very special truths that can be summed up in the fact that Christ is sufficient where we are not. I believe S. was aware of God’s invitation for her salvation and it was obvious that the Spirit was starting to open her heart and understanding. We believe that salvation is a work of God in the heart, so I prayed out loud that the Lord would help her to truly repent and call upon Jesus for salvation. As far as we know, no decision has been made, so we would ask you to join us in prayer for this young lady.

My one-on-one Bible studies are going well. I believe that there has been some development in Alexander’s studies (11 years old). He has asked to be baptized and we have been studying together for about 2 months now. Please pray that his understanding of Scripture would grow, but also that he would evidence clear indications of a true conversion to Christ. My studies with Lean (14 years old) are more advanced. After an initial course of studies that ended around the time of his baptism in November, he wanted to study the book of Revelation. We are about to close that study and it went very well. His growth in Bible knowledge is obvious. I have helped him prepare a 5-minute sermon that he preached during camp and will soon preach it in church. It was the very first time Lean has done anything like this. Please pray that the Lord will continue to guide and protect him. I can see the Lord calling him for the ministry one day. We are praying that the Lord would call several young men to be trained for church planting work here in Portugal.

Several continue to ask about Aura’s ear situation. In 2013 Aura had her 5th operation to the left ear. That time they were able to successfully put in an eardrum without any new infection. She has now been called for what should be the final procedure on that ear. They will be putting in a titanium part that should allow Aura to recover her hearing on that side. There is no set date yet, but we believe it might be around the second week of September. Thank you for praying for that.

We want you to know about our recent camps, our plans for a short furlough the end of the year and about the upcoming missions trip to the Azores (September 5^th), so we will be sending out another letter in about 3 weeks.

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