Kingdom Seekers

Over the past two months we have been extremely challenged by the fact that we cannot be disciples of Jesus if we do not DIE TO OURSELVES DAILY. We are greatly challenged to let go of our desires and plans and allow Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus. We want to live the same life that Jesus did and therefore we also need to learn to die to ourselves like Jesus did. We have found that although dying to self is not glamorous or easy, it opens the door for Christlike character to be formed in us. As we fellowship with Holy Spirit, study the Bible and spend time with people, we will regularly be challenged to die to ourselves and engage with what Jesus wants to do. We are admonished by Paul to regard ourselves as living sacrifices to God. May our lives be a pleasing aroma to God and may we be vessels of honour in the Household of God. AMEN.

FEBRUARY & MARCH AT A GLIMPSE

February and March were eventful months for us and went by in a flash. It is hard to believe that we are already in April. We would like to share with you some of the things we had going on in this time and also would like to share what is awaiting us in April and beyond.

We finished our A2.1 Portuguese language classes on 7 February, and also finished A2.2 on 28 March. It is a privilege to have an awesome language school, but we are challenged by the language mountain we have in front of us. We are thinking about starting B1 in May but first need to do the necessary revision and practice before we can go onto B1.

On 16 February Luca joined us for the Surf Church internship. It is a joy to have him in the house with us and to do life together. For the first part of the internship we are focusing on Spiritual Disciplines, Building a rule of life and crafting our 20 mile march. We are enjoying working through the “Practicing the Way” material by John Mark Comer.

In our previous blog we mentioned that Cenny will also be doing the Internship this year, but unfortunately he was unable to join us. We are continuing to pray for him, knowing that Jesus will finish the work that he started in him.

On 18 February we finally had the opportunity to visit Nazare and watch the world famous Big Waves. Although the waves were not at its biggest, we still saw some 10 – 15 meter waves.

From 20 -27 February our German friends Micha & Sarah visited us. They lived in the house with us last year and we really formed a great friendship. They are also thinking about church planting and we enjoyed dreaming with them on how church planting can look for them. We are excited about how Jesus wants to use them in the nations.

Frederika, a German lady in our church invited us to join her exercise group at the beach. She is a really passionate follower of Christ and uses exercise as a way to reach people in the community. We are thankful to be able to combine exercise with reaching out. We attend the exercise group twice a week.

We are continuing with our weekly prayer nights and we are trusting that prayer will continue to grow in Surf Church, Portugal and the rest of Europe. We jokingly call ourselves “The Secret Service”. We also have a monthly prayer and worship night where we spend a Friday night before the Lord, praying that He will send the wave of His Spirit over Europe. This is also a great opportunity for our community to Worship God together.

We are continuing to build relationships in the church and we are really trusting to grow as a community in fellowship and discipleship. We enjoy forming new friendships and want to see people growing in their relationship with Jesus.

At the end of March, Surf Church turned 10 and we had a weekend of celebrations. We are excited to look ahead and dream about what the next 10 years can look like. Some of the leaders from the other Surf Churches also attended the celebration and we enjoyed celebrating with our Surf Church community.

In April we will be continuing with the Internship and we will also be hosting a German family of 4 for the entire month. We will also be receiving more interns in the coming months (2 interns from Germany and 2 from Slovakia).

PRAYER POINTS

• As we shared in the intro of the newsletter, the Lord is challenging us to grow in dying to ourselves, and we really need His Grace to sustain us in this.
• The Internship, that the Lord will continue to guide us through this year and that all of us will grow in Christlike character.
• Our marriage, that we will grow in our relationship and that the pressures of life will not cause us to grow apart.
• Finances. We need to raise more finances in order for us to be in Portugal long term and we really need the Lord’s guidance in this.