the chase: Festas, Fatima and Paper Mache

Pinata for camp

Hola!! I am just checking in really quickly to let everyone know I am doing well. I got to play tourist this weekend!! I was staying with a missionary family for a few days who have been here for over 20 years!! They are teachers at the Baptist Seminary here in Portugal. It was a great time living with them for a few days and seeing what life is like for long termers like them! I got some good insight on life in missions, the ups and downs, and everything in between. (I promise I will share some of these amazing insights I've been gaining eventually, but I just arrived home and I leave in the morning for a week of camp with 8-13 year olds!! so wish me luck)!

For this camp I have been making pinatas and getting crafts ready for the camp! Heres my finished product!!

Photo of the Festa dos Tabuleiros

I was busy last week working in the library of the church I mentioned before. I was also able to visit a few different ministry sites and Bible Colleges here in the area. One ministry is called Teen Challenge and they work with drug addictions, their facility was enormous and from what I hear their ministry is quite effective. The Bible schools are small, and their enrollment numbers are dropping. The movement in Portugal is stagnant, after talking to the workers here they just keep telling me the same thing. "The work is hard, there isnt much going on" etc. Which after today, I understand why. We visited a city about 2 hours north of Lisbon called Tomar. There was a big festival called "Festa dos Tabuleiros" and it was beautiful, they decorated the city with crepe paper flowers and grapevines and all sorts of pretty things. Then they had a parade of these headdresses that were flowers and bread with a crown on top.. ok, hard to describe so I'll post a picture of what it is supposed to look like.. then later you can see the pictures I was able to take (there were a lot of people, so I couldnt get too close)! It was a fun day and I got a little sun-burnt, but that's okay.

Fatima

But then on our way out of town we took a detour and stopped in a city called Fatima. Fatima is famous for a church, and a story. Its legend-ed that three kids were in a field one day and Mary appeared to them, and then for 6 months on the same day (it was a 13th) she appeared to them each month. So they have built a huge catholic church in this city, and there is (for lack of better words) a shrine to Mary there. And this is why I find it so easy to believe that work here in Portugal is difficult. As we toured this complex, and yes I said complex- this church (actually there were like 3 churches) was huge!!- I saw people burning huge candles for penance, women crawling on their knees for hundreds of yards, and statues of Mary everywhere. Its hard to imagine the bondage that keeps them from Christ's freedom and his gift- a bondage that has them paying for candles to burn for their sins, that has them rubbing their knees raw to pay for their sins- when Christ has already done so on the cross. So I mourn for them, and I pray for their freedom.

Okay, now to the fun pictures!! It was a beautiful day today in Tomar, and the town was so pretty!! Enjoy my pictures and I will update as soon as I'm back to civilization next week after camp!! Pray the week goes well and the kids learn!! Also that I will pick up some more language!!