Mission Trip to Portugal!

I'm excited to be going back to Portugal this year on a mission trip.  I went two years ago on a similar trip but this time Mike is going too as well as 3 cother people from our church.  We are leaving in just two weeks and staying a week and a half!  For some reason I feel much more behind this time.  We will be cooking 5 thanksgiving dinners for about 20 people each night!  At the dinners we get to visit with the guests and learn more about their culture and talk to them about ours.  Since it's Thanksgiving... we pray together and talk about what we are thankful for.  

We have to take some of the food with us because they don't have all the American Thanksgiving food there.  Pumpkin, cranberry sauce, chocolate chip cookies- these are things they don't have.  

 

This is one of the suitcases we were trying to pack two years ago.  Suitcases have to be 50 lbs are less and that can be hard when you have a bunch of canned food.  

 

Here's some of the wonderful food we prepared.  

 

We got to tour the city a little bit.  It was incredible.

 More beautiful food.  Does it look like a traditional Thanksgiving?

And here's one view of the beautiful city.  

We still need some help.  Help covering trip expenses and also help with the groceries we are taking and craft supplies for the kids.  If you want to help- we could use money for the trip as well as grocery gift cards or cash to purchase some of our groceries before we go.  We also purchase lots of groceries when we get there and money would help with that as well.  If you feel like shopping for a particular item- contact me and I can give you a list of what we still need to get.  

Here are some of the fun people we do this for.  There are lots of different areas of ministry going on in Coimbra right now with the Gereckes.  One is a college ministry where they get together with college students and help them practice speaking English.  They also have a small bible study they are getting started, they invite families into their home weekly from the kids schools and their neighborhood.  They are constantly looking for people to minister to and create community. 

If I could I would go on mission trips all the time.  I love learning about different cultures and sharing The Lord with others.  If you feel led to help out financially it would be a huge blessing.  This trip would not be possible without help from others and

Please send checks or gift cards made out to First Colleyville to:

5405 Pleasant Run
Colleyville, TX 76034

Please indicate "Portugal missions" in the memo line of the check and specify in a note if you would like the money to be used for grocery purchases or my personal trip expenses. 

We would also love your prayers!  Pray for the people of Portugal, that it will be easy to get the word out about the dinners and that everyone will be able to come, for trip safety and safety of our kids that we are leaving here, that there will be opportunities to talk about God and what He has done in our lives, for our energy and cooking skills... just about anything!
Our team is Michelle, Josh, Tracy, Mike & Catherine and we are meeting missionaries Michael and Cristi when we get there.  We will be traveling Nov. 5-13th.  Thank you for your prayers!