Dear brother,
We are in a very special season. This weekend we celebrate the greatest event in human history, and in the words of Paul to the Corinthians, “if Christ had not risen, our faith would be useless.” The foundation of what we believe and live — our justification, our hope, and our sanctification — is grounded in Jesus and in the fulfillment of His mission to redeem us from our sins. The pure and simple gospel is the message we live and proclaim.
And in this brief reflection on Easter and its message, I want to boast, as Paul did to the Thessalonians, in the work we have been carrying out here in Portugal and in the Lord’s church gathered at Surf Church Porto. We began this year with the goal of leveling up ourselves, believing that the Lord desires to take us to the next level. And we ended this quarter with a sense of mission accomplished. Our next challenge will be to encourage the church to work toward reaching that next level.
This quarter we have been studying the books of Samuel — what a privilege. There have been many lessons, especially on a personal level, and one of the great takeaways from these studies is that God has chosen processes to work in and shape His chosen ones. Therefore, we believe and desire to prepare the church and our family for God’s processes, because we will not reach this next level with the Lord without submitting to the deserts and valleys, without submitting to the Lord’s refining fire. With that said, I want to encourage you with our three baptism candidates for this semester. The Lord is wonderful, and in June we will baptize three new young people: Mykael, Giovanna, and Sofia. Among them, I had the privilege of personally guiding Mykael to surrender to the Lord Jesus. Please pray for these young people; they are all single and at ages when seeds can easily be choked by thorns and by the voices of this world.
I also want to offer another encouragement: Rondi, one of the young men baptized last year, remains steadfast and not only steadfast, but also supportive of various evangelism initiatives. You will still see him in many photos.
I also want to praise the Lord with you and ask for prayer for our vocational training plan. It is an initiative that has always been on our hearts and that, on several occasions, we tried to develop. We believe that this year we have finally found the necessary partnership to train and equip young people who want to serve the Lord in different ministerial capacities. I hope to share more news about this in our next letter.
I also want to celebrate our new digital platform, with the new Surf Church Porto website: https://surfchurch.pt/en/ and the Surf Church Collective website: https://surfchurchcollective.com. Personally, I have been encouraged to be able to say that in our work we strive to communicate to the world in a Christ-centered, biblical, and especially culturally relevant language. It is a challenge to think about and live out the church in its essence: “OUTWARD,” but the Lord has been merciful and has given us strategies and vision that have worked very well.
Finally, I want to praise the Lord for the privilege He gave us of having family gathered together. In recent days, Claudia’s relatives were here in our home, and we were able to enjoy a wonderful time together as a family, a true gift from the Lord.
I want to leave you with a challenge. During the month of April we will contact some potential partners to accept the challenge of walking with us financially. I have been preaching about this need and about the reality of full-time missionaries in ministry, including at the last pastors’ gathering here in northern Portugal. You can listen to part of that message on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/0WOXmUrVkmw?is=YLc_78KnqM30k83Y. It has become increasingly important for us to find brothers and sisters who understand this challenge and who can walk with us in this mission. So if you are contacted by us, or if you know someone who would like to support a missionary family financially, please reply to us.
Also, if you have the skill and availability to edit videos, or if you know someone who can help us in this area, we would greatly appreciate that support for our channel.
Please keep us in your prayers!
Prayer requests:
- We thank God for the privilege of serving Him in His work, as the Lord Jesus Himself said: “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”; and we have been able to answer this call and live it full-time for the last 12 years.
- We thank God for our family, and we constantly remind our children of the joy we have in walking together in this calling from God.
- We praise the Lord of the harvest, who has faithfully sustained all our needs, and we have experienced the best of God in our lives.
- We praise the Lord for the Surf Church family, in Porto and around the world.
- We ask for prayer for our family, that the Lord would keep us united in His purpose and that the right partners would increasingly join what He has been doing in our lives and through our lives.
- We ask the Lord to continue inspiring and strengthening His Church in the world, but especially in Portugal.
Update from Sam and Claudia
Portugal