We were extremely blessed to celebrate with the church in Castelo Branco its first anniversary. We were very happy to have Bro. Rui Simão as the speaker for this event. Bro. Simão is the pastor of a church we helped organize in Northern Portugal a few year ago and it is amazing to see God’s hand at work through time. He preached a message regarding the race God has for us. There were about 70 people in attendance! Mostly it was our regular church people, some guests from the community and a group of people from the new church plant in Fundão. They organized their trip, divided the group into two cars and drove the 40 minutes to be part of this big day. It is great to see the two groups getting connected and involved with each other. It was also amazing to see how the church people themselves took care of all the decorations, food, and other logistical activities always with very visible joy and servant’s hearts. Praise the Lord!
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Also during the month of October we had a dear friend from a supporting church in Illinois come again to Portugal, this time to help at the camp property. Together with Bro. João who is in charge of the maintenance at the camp, they worked on electrical wiring, and other technical details. It is great to see people use their gifts and talents to the glory of God in the mission field. If you would like to come for a short-term missions’ trip, we can definitely put you to work! Lets talk!
In October we were also able to go and visit the church in Albufeira where we served until 2014. I preached both at the church and at the church plant they have going on 45 minutes away. We saw many people we had not seen in a long time. We also saw new people and got to hear how the Lord has been saving souls at these two locations. While there it was good to spend time with Bro. Lenildo who is doing a very good job pastoring this church. Bro. Lenildo worked and studied alongside me for about 4 years and for the last 5 years he has been the senior pastor there. One of the things we talked about was training of men and all the details regarding the organization of a new church.
Recently we wrote a letter regarding a pressing financial need that affects our ministry. We are very thankful to all that have responded sending funds and offering to pray. We will continue to keep you informed as things progress.
We have started to contact churches regarding our furlough next year. It now seems there is a good chance that we will be staying from September of 2020 to March of 2021. This allows us enough time to reconnect and report to our supporting churches, but also to raise much needed new support. We have begun the preparation for our absence from our field of work. Directly under our care we currently have the church in Castelo Branco, that just completed the first anniversary of its organization and the new church plant in Fundão. Please pray as we will take the next few months to continue to train leaders and ministry teams. Contact us if you would like us to come to your church and feel free to recommend our ministry to any churches looking to invest in missions in the country of Portugal.
Thank you for your love and support for the ministry in Portugal.
In His Service, Mark and Aura Pereira
Blessings to You, Aura, and your Wonderful Ministry, Mark. We Love All of You Very Much!