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....assisting Christian outreach in Portugal |
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Peter and Marilyn Hawkes, VN Famalicão
Pete and Marilyn arrived in Portugal in 1989 with their 4 children. They are now living in Vila Nova de Famalicão (30 miles north-east of Oporto) and the following is a resumé of what they are presently involved in. Famalicão "Famalicão is a fairly densely populated area with 40,000 living in the town centre and about 120,000 living in close proximity. The need for a healthy biblically-based church to be planted here in the centre is very great, given that there are only 3 other evangelical churches in the whole area, with maybe a total of 100 believers. This gives a ratio of one believer to 1,200 unbelievers (0.08%)! The town is a mixture of wealthy well-educated middle-class people and poor people with little education, so is quite different from other places we have lived in. There is a high level of unemployment here (12%). As with other northern towns in Portugal (except Oporto) it is strongly Catholic and not very open to the gospel. People who respond to the Lord pay a high price by being ostracised by their families and society where the worship of Mary and saints has a stronghold.
Church planting We have been meeting on a Sunday morning for nearly three months now in our own rented hall, which is a shop in a shopping centre in the centre of town. It's good to feel we have a beachhead in the centre of Famalicão and it is a light, airy room located near a council estate where we have done quite a bit of evangelism. We are trying to help some of the poorer families who live there with food and clothing.
At present we have four committed young people with whom we are doing a discipleship course on a Sunday, as well as having a cell group on a Saturday evening. We are preparing the believers to be ready for baptism next year. There are some older believers who come occasionally as well. We need the Lord to add to our numbers and develop gifting so that the meetings are not all done by the two of us.
English-language teaching Pete continues to teach part-time in a private language school as well as having some private students at home. The school is well run and he enjoys it on the whole!
Marilyn's website Marilyn set up an evangelistic website in Portuguese about four years ago and has been very surprised at the number of people who visit it, not only from Portugal but also from Brazil and other countries as well. People write in with problems and questions, so she is kept quite busy counselling people who need help. We are also involved in counselling people who contact the new http://conhecerdeus.com evangelistic website, which has been running here in Portugal since September and is receiving a lot of visitors.
Our family Anna (22), our youngest, finished her University course in translation in July and is now living in England indefinitely! Our other three children live in the UK too. Our second son, Richard, is engaged to Damola, and they are getting married in February. Our greatest blessing is that all our children are following the Lord. We are also very happy to have three grandsons, Joshua, Micah and Isaac (Andy and Lucy’s children)."
Peter and Marilyn December 2008 forward to Samuel Paulo Santos and Jacinta, Ermesinde
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