Hello Family,
Hope and pray all is well, as you continue to serve and make known the Lord Jesus!
There has been so much happening here that we thought we would love to share praise items and prayer requests with you all.
As you know, the ministry at and through the cafe is our primary focus, and the Lord continues to bless this in wonderful ways.
When we first felt the Lord lead us to this, there were some key dreams and desires that came with it… connect with our community, love well all people we meet, create jobs for locals, support local artisans, partner with local businesses, and in all of it we wanted to be salt and light, in a very dark place.
The Lord has exceeded all our expectations in all of these areas, and has also led us to much more.The connection to our community has been amazing, we have so many regular and new customers daily, walkers from the Camino, and people visiting Vila do Conde.
One of the things we hear most is that there is a feeling of something different in this place. Although we are a coffee shop, the tagline on our website, and the ethos we communicate to our employees is that “We love people, and really like coffee”.
We have had the chance to build real relationships with locals leading to deep relationships, and conversations about Jesus. One time visitors, or Camino walkers, we are able to engage in shorter conversations often leading us to share why we are in Portugal, what the point of the cafe is, and that often leads to sharing our faith, or praying for, or even with these people.
We have had both pastors and missionaries who are walking the Camino come in for a coffee, recognize we are believers, and encourage us through words of encouragement, donations to the ministry, and on the spot prayer for us and the ministry… these moments are a true blessing.
Through the cafe we have been able to provide jobs for locals. We have currently 9 employees and 2 on contract work, of which 9 are local believers who needed work.
Carlos (Full time) – Pastor/Elder of House Church in Vila do Conde
Joao (Full time) – Son of a Brazilian church planter in the town North of us
Thay (Part time) – A Brazilian believer who works both at the cafe and for a business in the co-work space in our building.
Fernando (Contract for Garden) – Husband of Thay and wonderful man of God
Babi (Part Time) – Daughter of Thay and Fernando.
Marselle (Part time) – Sister of Babi and daughter to Thay and Fernando
Zoey (Part time) – MK and daughter of local missionary friends
Kai (Part time) – MK and our son
Natasha (Contract baking) – Wife of the Pastor from Ukraine who’s family we helped move here shortly after the war began.
Praise – As you can imagine it is not only an encouragement knowing there are other local believers that we had no idea were here before. But having a ministry that can provide work for them as well. In the one case employing the entire family part time as they also have other part time work.
Praise – Having these believers in Christ as part of the Humble Anchor Team allows us to easily communicate to them why we exist as a business and what the point of the ministry is. It also allows us to be family to our non-believing staff who we are able to share our faith with and pray for on a daily basis.
Prayer – That said please pray for Thais. Thais came into the cafe one day almost a year ago. She was obviously distraught as she was sitting by herself, with quiet tears running down her face. Angela approached her to see if she could be of help. Thais shared that her family is in Brazil, and that her dad was undergoing a serious and complicated surgery at the time. Angela sat with her, heard her, encouraged her, and prayed for both her and her dad. The next day Thais emailed us to let us know what an encouragement it was to be treated this way in our coffee shop. She also let us know she was a manager at Starbucks in Porto, but had recently moved to Vila do Conde and would love to work at Humble Anchor. We were not able to give her work then but a few months later we hired her to be our manager. We found out later that she was being extremely poorly treated at her last job and was struggling with depression and despair. We recently received an email from her husband thanking us for the family we have been to him, and that his wife has never been so joyful. We continue to share Jesus with both Thais and her husband. Thais says she has a faith, but wouldn’t say in Jesus, and her husband is an atheist. But both have experienced the love of the cafe, and have been asking a lot of questions. So do please join us in praying that the Spirit of God would touch their hearts and open their eyes to the beauty and life that is available to them in Christ.
Prayer – Also please pray for Luis. Luis works for the guesthouse above the cafe, but works in the cafe every morning helping us serve the guesthouse clients their breakfast. Luis is gay and is dating a transgender boy who he refers to as his girlfriend. When we first started working with Luis he was very strongly against God and Christians, but over the last year and a half he has softened, we have loved him, we have shared our faith with him, we have prayed with and for him and his partner, and have stuck around when he hasn’t always treated us well. He sees and knows there is something different in us and our staff, and we keep telling him its Jesus. We just found out that he will be quitting his job at the guesthouse in January as he isn’t being treated well at his job, and has been taken advantage of too many times. Sometimes not getting paid, or getting paid 2 weeks late. And loads of other stuff. Long story short Luis has asked us if he could work at the cafe. Crazy right. Unfortunately we don’t have capacity to hire him right now… but he has said no matter where he gets a job he will not be a stranger, and that we are like family to him.
Praise/Prayer – This week our 2 MK staff are starting evenings at the cafe to further build connections and foster new friendships. Wednesdays they will be hosting Games Nights at the cafe after we close, and Friday nights they will be hosting Movie nights after close. Both kids love Jesus and love people, so we are excited and hopeful that this will be a place and a people they can build community with and share their faith with. Please pray for Kai and Zoey as they begin this tomorrow. night.
Praise/Prayer – We as a business have also had the opportunity to partner with other local businesses both in our town and in the surrounding areas. This has also led to some very cool friendships and more opportunities to share the Love of Christ.
Praise/Prayer – Humble Anchor has partnered with a local charity that helps feed those in need in our city. Hope charity is run by 2 local Portuguese business women who in their spare time buy food and distribute to those in need. Their positions in the community allow them to see these needs as in a shame/honor culture they are never talked about, and they are able to fill the needs discretely not bringing attention to themselves or the parties they are helping.
Prayer – Our hearts break for one of our employees, Joao, as he is smitten and engaged to a Catholic girl and is considering becoming Catholic. Joao is the son of an local evangelical pastor. Myself and Arbab, the other missionary who helped open the cafe, are going to ask Joao if he will be apart of a mens weekly prayer, and accountability meeting. Pray that he is open to the idea and through a deeper connection we will be able to disciple this young man, so he will understand what he is considering is not something that is just a frivolous choice.
Prayer – We have also been approached recently by a missionary family in eastern Europe who are working with young women coming out of human trafficking. They asked us if the cafe is somewhere we could provide training for these girls, teach them skills to be able to get proper jobs, and help restore their dignity in a loving environment. This is something that we will continue to pray about and seek the Lord in. It is something we would love to do, but we would need help from other believers who understand the phycological and emotional toll that these girls have faced, and have the tools to help us to walk alongside them well. Would appreciate your prayers for this opportunity and clear direction if it is something we are to undertake.
Praise/Prayer – We are so excited about the little church community that is meeting at the cafe on Saturday nights. The Ukrainian pastor who we helped settle here a few years ago is leading the preaching/teaching, we have a couple young believers from Honduras who recently moved here leading worship through music, and we spend a good amount of time each week in prayer for each other, and our city. We have had sometimes 14 people, and sometimes 4 people. Pray that this little church can be a bright light right in the middle of our city, and the space the Lord has so generously blessed us with will continue to be used for His glory.
Prayer – As you know, neither us or the other missionary family that helped us start the cafe take any money from the cafe. We are both supported by friends, families, and the churches that support and pray for us. Our goal for the cafe was ministry, and in that we wanted to create a sustainable business that was able to be generous with our employees, with our customers, and with all people/businesses we connect or collaborate with. And this is happening. However, because of the current state of the Canadian Dollar to Euro exchange rate we have had a decrease in our support close to 30% in the last year alone. This has caused some financial challenges for us. So far we have been able to survive, but we too want to be generous with our community. We love to have people into our home for celebrations, and meals, and be able to meet needs we see around us… but sometimes this is difficult when like last month we had to borrow 50 euros from our son to make it through the month. We are not asking for more from you, but rather prayer. The Lord has always provided for us, as we look back at the last 13 years we have been on the field we are amazed at the various ways the Lord has provided and taken care of us. And we know He will continue to take care of us as we lean into what he has for us.
Praise/Prayer – Both of our boys are doing really well, but we would love for you to join us in praying for them.
Kai is currently living in Vila do Conde, working part time at the cafe, and with the help of his Grandpa studying to become a pilot. He completed his first set of theory exams in the UK a few months ago, and just got back from a month and a half in Mallorca where he started his flying training. 3 weeks after he left for Mallorca we received a text from him saying, “I did my first solo flight today!”. We are really excited for him as this is something he has dreamt about for a long time, just a little strange as a parent when your son who doesn’t have a drivers licence, and 3 weeks earlier was flying on a computer in his bedroom, is now flying airplanes by himself. He has a lot more studying to do over the next 6-8 months, then he will complete 13 more exams in a 6 day period, at which point if he passes them he will be able to work as a pilot of small planes, or as an instructor, while he builds flight hours to get his commercial license. We just would like to ask for prayer for his safety, that he continues to seek the Lord as he pursues each stage of this, and for christian community for him, which is very difficult in a place with so few believers.
Beckham is doing much better. A year ago he was in a bad place, sometimes we didn’t even know where he was or if we would see him again. He had fallen into the wrong friend circle and was not following Jesus, and was hostile towards us for what we believe. And several times we found ourselves at emergency in the city hospital because he was suicidal. This as a parent was an extremely trying time for us and for his brother who he wanted nothing to do with. We did all we could and we cried and prayed, and cried and prayed, and sought the Lord for counsel, for peace, and for wisdom. Last November after not knowing where he was for approximately 3 weeks, we received a call from him. He was crying. He said he was lonely. And he wanted to come home. We went and got him and brought him home where he agreed to a 3 month digital detox, a time to rest, a time for him to regularly see a phycologist, and psychiatrist, a time to get his medications for his OCD back on track, a time for reflection, for quiet, no noise, no friends, just space in a place where he was loved and taken care of. A year later he is doing so much better. He is working again, his relationship with his brother has been restored, and he is no longer hostile to the gospel. We keep praying for his salvation. He is currently dating a sweet girl who grew up in a Christian family, but neither of them are following Jesus. Please join us in praying for Beckham and Sofia. That they would be convicted, repentant, and restored to knowing Jesus and the peace that is available to them.
Wow, sorry… when I started this email I did not think it was going to be so long and there was so much to share.
We just wanted to touch base and let you know what is going on here. So many praises, and so much prayer needed. Thank you for your continued love, encouragement, and support. We love you all and thank God for you often. And we too pray for you and please let us know how we can pray for you guys as well!
Lots of Love, Kevin & Angela
Update from the Janzen Family
Portugal