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We appreciate all of you so much. Thank you for your continued prayers for the Lord’s work in Portugal. Also, thank you for all the kind notes and birthday cards. That really is a blessing to us. Here are some updates on past prayer requests.
- Aura’s mom is still battling cancer. It seems that from now on it will be chemo of one kind or another. They have moved to Alaska where she is continuing her treatments. In June they came, got some of their things and said goodbye (for now) to the church people. They are still involved in the ministry in Portugal, financially and giving their input. They are a huge blessing and inspiration to all of us here. Thank you for continuing to pray.
- The church in Castelo Branco has recovered in terms of attendance and involvement of its members since our return from the US. We have seen in the past month our attendance more than double as four families with children have moved to this area and started to come to our services. They are all professing believers and were looking for a faithful church.
- We are happy to inform that the Portugal Day Offering on June 10th totaled more than 2000$. This allowed us to buy the new chairs for our auditorium, pay for needed electrical work around the building, and buy paint. We would like to thank you for your involvement in this as it was the first year we did the Portugal Day Offering.
- Thank you for your prayers and nice notes regarding our desire to adopt a child. Aura and I went to a meeting regarding adoption in Portugal. It was a three-hour meeting and it was very informative. We are now gathering the necessary paperwork to be able to submit out application. The most complicated of these is Aura’s birth certificate as it needs to come straight from the State Department in the US. We have sent in the request and we are waiting.
Thank you for praying for summer camp. It was the first one without the Newtons, so we were nervous. It was a huge blessing, though. The theme was “The Race” and we wanted to emphasize the fact that the Lord has a perfect plan for each one of His redeemed children. Just to give an example of how the Lord blessed, a twelve-year-old boy came to me after one of the services and said, “God is so good! I now know that He has a plan for my life and I’m even beginning to see what that plan might be. I will start focusing on the Lord and seeking His will in a different way now.” We’re thankful for all that helped to make this a great camp, including our church people and an excellent group that came from a supporting church. To God be the glory!
We continue to hold regular discipleship studies and are about to start a new members’ course as we move towards organizing the church in Castelo Branco. We are planning on organizing in 2018. We’ve been having several people come to our services that are not saved yet. Some of them have agreed to start regular Bible studies. Will you pray for saved souls in Castelo Branco?
Thank you for your love and support for the ministry in Portugal.
In His Service, Mark and Aura Pereira