In Between

June 3, 2024

Name of our new road
Translation: Pathway of Peace

A chaotic blessing!!
Life in between…

We have moved… or better put, we are in the midst of moving.

We are still at the old place in Matosinhos, Porto over Surf Church Porto.

Cleaning out the old place and waiting for electricity and water in the new place (thanks to the Elders for their generousity for us to stay a bit longer).

It’s fitting for us. Life in transition…

Here we are desiring to end well, to clean up, be responsible but also to simply be loving to the next people that come into this space above Surf Church, Porto. It’s not so much about the expectations on us.

It is understanding that someone else is in THEIR transition:

tired,
hopeful,
just had endings,
needing a place to land and breathe.

It is with joy and honor to clean out the old,

prepare for others,

and hand it off with confidence that life will carry on here.

But dang, I really am not a great cleaner!!! Hahahahah

I am reminding myself to be gentle with myself; not comparing how others clean or move but doing my best and praying for the people that will take over this space that has been “home” for us.

The old place will be turned into an intern home for Surf Church.

Which is beyond amazing!

They will have a South African couple move in and be the house mom and dad. Then the other rooms will be used for those in their own “in between”. I am excited to hear of the stories that God has in store for this community. I truly believe the best is yet to come for Surf Church. It’s been truly fun to pray in to this.

For our new place, Vila Chá

We have met some of our neighbors who are very sweet and lovely. I am looking forward to getting to know them more. Our neighbor who is right next to us is named Linda; which means “pretty” in Portuguese. She really has a lovely grandmotherly smile. I look forward to learning from her about the area and people!

But the transition life at the new place is exactly what you would expect… CHAOS! We have lived in Portugal for about 8 years. We are wondering how in the world did we ‘collect’ all these random things?!

We are doing continuous purging- so pray for endurance!

It has been a good opportunity to see what is needed in this next chapter and to also say how we have appreciated the past, even the really hard and painful parts. It is time to let go of things, things that have even traveled the world with us and been a part of our story. Letting go of something doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate it, and it doesn’t mean we don’t value it, it is just knowing that it won’t serve us well while moving into the next.

These thoughts go well beyond moving physically;

it fits for where God is moving us in ministry, emotionally, and spiritually.

Exciting future!

House Church

With various people out of town/country our House Church is taking a ‘vacation’. We hope to reunite at the end of June with a big BBQ and celebration of being together.

Collaboration in Portugal:
CRU
We have a connection with a great couple who are apart of CRU that run youth/college groups (They run an SHINE/Alpha group at Surf Church!). Yesterday the husband reached out to me about something else and I gave him a picture of our new backyard space and told him to please remember it as a place where he could gather. We have a lot of outside space (indoor is “cozy”!) and that it is a 25 min walk from the beach. He was excited to think about staff retreats and possible other opportunities.

It was great to hear his excitement!!

House Church Vila do Conde
We have dear friends that run a house church about 15 minutes north of our new place. Over the summer we are hoping that our house church and theirs can meet occasionally Park Days (Sun, activities, food, RELATIONSHIPS).

Other House churches?
The beauty of house church is the depth that the relationships can go. However one of the hard and often blindspots is that house churches can become very isolated and accidentally disconnect with the larger body of Christ.

That can leave the body of Christ vulnerable:

Pride in thinking we are the one’s who ‘get it’, who are right.
Vulnerable to the lie and pride that we are ‘unique’, no one else in the whole world is doing things like us.
Vulnerable to growing weary because we are trying to do it all in our own strengths.
Vulnerable to gossip and slander.

Now, bigger traditional churches struggle with this as well, but it is imperative to be intentional in collaborating with others beyond ‘our own’.

Collaboration allows us not to just share resources but allows us the opportunity to weep with those who are weeping, and rejoice with those that are rejoicing.

God has so generously given this place to us, on no merit of our own, but through the generousity of family. We long to honor this gift and this place to be a place of refuge, a home for all that come and enter this space…

A PLACE OF PEACE.

Join the next chapter!