Church News

Wanted to let you all know how things were going in the church here.

Edilson will be officially stepping down at the end of the month, although he is really already out. He is taking advantage of his vacation time to prepare and get ready for what's to come. He has been studying like a madman for his driver's license (here the test is a pain in the Kister), and then he plans to move to England for 6 months and study English (I'ts been an elusive language for Edilson; after years of half-hearted attempts of learning, he's not much closer!)

Ricardo Neves is now the minister. I was really hoping that we could find someone else with more experience and from outside the church that might be able to cast a new vision and lead in a more administrative capacity (to give the members more hands on experience). Ricardo is very young and during the time that he shared in the leadership with Edilson, I was saddened by his know-it-all attitude and his bad example of followership.

Ricardo and Edilson are very different. and I know it wasn't easy for either one to work with the other. So now I am waiting to see if Ricardo does better without Edilson in the sense that he is freer to be himself and lead in a more natural way.

Vaninho is a Brasilian that has been coming to the church with his family for about a year now. He started working for the church about 3 months ago; he is a part-time minister and has been doing some of the preaching and teaching. He is very young as well and while doing a good job with the teaching, it doesn't seem like the church is relating very well with him. Another case of wait and see.

Noémia and I continue to be active with our small group and are really enjoying getting to know a young couple that joined a few months ago, Lourival and Denise. We'll be starting it up again, after a summer break, in September. On Sundays, Noémia continues teaching the preeschoolers, and I'm teaching the teens.

Since I've started working, I haven't participated in the leadership meetings and, more and more, I see the importance of the role and also the "power" of a member. I assume this comes from feeling more like a member than a leader now. I feel like even with the loss of not participation in planning, etc., I haven't lost the influence that I had which I believe, more than anything else, is a perspective. A perspective that seeks to see the reality of our community, understands how I contribute to this reality and then what I do to move the reality in a more healthy, positive direction.

We love you all and are so grateful for your prayers and support for the work here in Lisbon.
Stephen and Noémia