Let’s Check It Out
As I laid out in my post , “A Calling,” God is calling us to Portugal as missionaries! Somewhere in the middle of our preliminary “Is God really calling us to Portugal as missionaries” thoughts, we connected with our now great friends, David and Sarah Booth. In a zoom call earlier this year, I shared with David my heart that God might be calling us to Portugal as missionaries. At some point in that conversation he recommended the first thing for us to do is come for a visit. He added that visiting would allow God to speak to us more and help us figure things out. That sounded pretty good since I still owed my wife a 20th anniversary trip–our anniversary cruise was shut down about five times. Shortly after that we booked the tickets and about six months later we were on our first flight over the ocean to Europe. This trip was different in so many ways. Starting with on board the flight–they actually feed you breakfast and dinner! I thought planes only had that little Chex-Mix snack. It was a great flight and we were greeted at the airport by David who had a rental car and then we figured out how to drive through Lisbon, which is quite different.
The plan was to spend five days in Lisbon with David and then go off on our own exploring the rest of Portugal, which we were able to travel to both edges of the country. We met with many missionaries and even a couple national pastors. I could spend all day talking about this trip if you wanna give me a call. It was a different trip. On one hand it was somewhat of a vacation but on the other hand it was so much more. To call it a work trip probably wouldn’t do it justice. It was a trip to figure out the rest of our life. It felt so important. So daunting. If you know anything about me. I want to plan everything, and I want to know every tiny little detail that goes into that plan. I know I drive my wife nuts with that sometimes because she just wants to enjoy the trip and I want to analyze everything. Ask Mary Ann. I do that with movies too.
I’m going to be honest, the first three days were a little overwhelming and we got a little discouraged. We started to question if this was going to work. The food was different, good but different. If you have ever traveled to a foreign country, you know that functioning in a culture that speaks a different language can be frustrating. Some of the missionaries we met were straightforward and frank. For some reason I thought I was going to be able to come over here and have a ministry in English and I was told very quickly by many missionaries that it’s not possible. I then realized I’m going to have to learn a foreign language which seriously scares me, but God has given me peace about that and we’re just gonna see what happens.
I don’t want to be cliché, but here’s the truth. Sunday came, and things just started to change. From that day forward, we saw that God can work in Portugal and in the hearts of the Portuguese people, and they need someone to tell them about Him.
I will tell you one story that we felt was a God thing. Originally we thought we were going to do all of our video footage and photos on this trip for a promotional video. We realized that wasn’t going to happen on this trip. We tried to cancel our photo shoot but Rachel was quite persistent and made it work. So glad God kept that appointment. Rachel was a young girl from England that was kind of in the same boat as we will be in. She transferred there about a year ago for work. She was pretty overwhelmed by the different culture at the beginning, but now she loves it and is thriving. God used her to show us that we can live here and be used greatly in Portugal. She said that she’s coming to our church and bringing friends!
The next day David made a statement in passing that really changed me. He said, “Just get here and God will guide you and work out all the details.” Normally I would have a hard time with that but I really have peace and have found myself putting my trust in Him on this one.
God continued to bless and guide us on this trip. We met many more great Christians that have a true heart for God. In Porto we were able to meet Daniel and Ana, a National Pastor in the heart of Porto. Again, he was extremely encouraging about how God could use us in Portugal.
Read my post “Are You a Missionary?” to see what God did on our trip home to really show us that He is in control. Portugal is a beautiful country but what makes her even more beautiful are the people, and we are so excited and thankful that God has chosen to use us to serve them.