Portugal #4

Over the last several days traveled to the Algarve, an area along Portugal's southern coast, and back. One major difference between Portugal and most of Brazil is that the former has good multi lane highways, which are not busy. Anderson, the pastor of the church here and I, along with two young adults, traveled down Thursday morning. We were met by a Portuguese brother named Joao, who led us to a little cafe hidden away in Lagos that only locals would know about, which had superb hamburgers for a reasonable price. Afterwards we went to an area ofcliffs hollowed out by the wind and surf. Anderson\s son Paulo and I descended a series of steps to the beach. On our return I counted 194 steps. Eventually we went to the home of Miguel where a portion of the church had gathered. They played one worship song from the Internet on the TV screen. Then I was asked to preach. In recent days I have been powerfully affected by the Holy Spirit to seek the Lord in a more determined and sustained manner so I spoke about knowing God. The greatest commandment ( Mark 12\30 reflects this as do many other verses. ( Phil 3\8, John 17\3) If preaching is proclaiming and teaching is explaining, then God has me doing a lot more preaching these days. This morning we had breakfast with Joao and his family, and then a second repast with a brother Christiano and his wife. I was asked to pray for a number of individuals. Thankfully I have some facility to do this in Portuguese. On your way back we traveled through a lot of farm and grazing land. Unfortunately I am ignorant of this and although i can identify a cow or a sheep, I don't know what is being grown or planted. Today\s new memory verse reallychecked my approach to prayer. Hebrews 5\7 says that Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears, and was heard because of His reverence. (ESV)