Video put out by the AP At this church in Portugal, parishioners surf before they worship | AP News
Hello dear friends and partners. I’m writing to you in the middle of one of the most special weeks of the year at Surf Church Porto. We are approaching the end of our summer season and are in the middle of our annual Surf Camp. As I look out over the beach, I can see some of the participants, the waves and a very foggy day. In our devotional this morning, one of our interns shared how a foggy day can be a good image of how our faith is tested and how we need to trust in God to remind us that even when we don’t have a clear view of what’s in front of us, the horizon is there, just as God is always by our side.
The joy and satisfaction we shared in our last newsletter continues to grow. This summer has been very different. The first week of July we attended the Genesis Collective Conference in Albania and are very grateful for the financial support we received to be a part of this incredible time. It was a time of much encouragement and growth. Hearing from people more mature than us that we are on the right track and that the fruits are proof of that is extremely motivating.
Between July and August we had our first summer vacation and went to Brazil. It was the first time in 10 years that we went on vacation in the middle of summer, without a doubt a big step of faith in our family’s life, since I (Samuel) didn’t work with surfing, which has always been part of our livelihood. Like a foggy day, even though we don’t see it or know it, we believe that the Lord will provide abundantly in our lives this coming semester and the supplement to our livelihood will come in another way.
At the beginning of the year we talked about the media teams that would be filming at Surf Church and the results are starting to come in. This article has just been published (https://apnews.com/article/religion-surfing-church-portugal-beaches-waves-430638bf18320dc0068253c9973c42f1) and there will be more as the semester progresses. Also about the baptisms, you can see some moments on our Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_LrQ0ACeec/?igsh=ZHpzbTE3MnB5c2c1).
And we would like to close with an important prayer request: Since the accident with our car, we still haven’t found a solution despite the many visits to the mechanic and the many expenses we have had, and yesterday Claudia had problems with the car again on the way between the surf camp and our house. We need God’s guidance to know what to do and how to do it. Please pray for this.
To God be all the glory and honor!
Prayer requests:
- We thank God for His blessings in our lives and for His unending faithfulness;
- We give thanks for vacation time and family time like we’ve never had before;
- We praise God for the obvious fruit He has given us;
- We praise God for the partnership and financial support we have received;
- We ask God to continue to send partnerships so that we can continue to do our work and expand the Kingdom of God through this work;
- We pray for the lives of those around us, especially the youngest and those who were baptized this year.
Update from Sam and Claudia
Portugal