©  Focus on Jesus.  Focus on Souls.  ©

July 29 2001, Sunday

Sonya and Lucy were baptized by Pastor Kirk Sunday afternoon.  Sonya is 9 and Lucy is 7 years old.  Their tiny bodies submerged into the water and came back out, separately.  Being so young, they both made a clear decision and declared to the rest of the world that they belong to Jesus.  We watched, celebrated and took photos.  It seemed more exciting watching little kids being baptized than being baptized myself.

Chris and Christine’s, Jonathan and Sharon’s family, Kirk and Jane’s, and mine families, Lillian, John (Korean) and a quest Korean pastor Kim were all there.  It was a busy Sunday afternoon at the Village Park Community family pool.  Kids dunked themselves in the water.  They also played boogie boards and had a great time.  Adults socialized and prepared the barbeque.

July 30, Monday - Travel

Lillian took me to John Wayne Airport at 6 a.m.  Flew through Chicago to get to Newark.  On the way to Newark, the lady sitting on my left was reading a book about adoption.  She and her husband Joe is in the adoption process through the Independent Adoption Agency.  She said her brother is a Presbyterian minister.  With her permission, I prayed for her to have a baby by birth or by adoption soon according to God's will. 

At the Newark International Airport, our second batch team met by the boarding gate.  There are eleven of us.  (The first batch started a week earlier for a bus trip through Portugal and part of Spain.)  The first two ladies I met were two beautiful Texan ladies with shiny black hair.  Donna and Martha are sisters.  They are both married and have teenage kids.  The Lord has given them a new project to start a brand new charter school.  They are also intercessors having burdens of praying for China.  The Lord sent them both plus another sister from the family to Beijing on an AAA tour in April 2000.  They met missionaries from different denominations in the US.  They also visited and prayed on the Great Wall in Beijing.

The Continental flight to Portugal was delayed for one and half hour to resolve a mechanical issue.  Seven hours after taking off, we landed in Lisbon at 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning.  There was a whole Portuguese family from America to the right and back of me.  There were the husband and wife, their teenage son Nicolas, 7 and 2-year-old daughters, and the grandparents on the wife's side.  Portuguese sounded more French and Russian to me.
 

July 31, Tuesday - Lisbon, Portugal

The time difference between Lisbon and California is 8 hours.  We could not check in the Hotel Fenix until 12 p.m.  (Bomber, it has no swimming pool.)  Paula, our 30-year-young Portuguese tour guide, briefed us on the vicinity of the hotel.  She left us and will be back to give us a one-day tour on August 6 after all the outreaches and crusades are done.  We started our "walking" tour.  Doug became leader of the pack taking us, making turns and looking for the tram.  He works for UPS and wife Pam has a photography studio.  They had a 3-year-old son.  Doug smuggled bibles into China in the 1985.  Some of us were too sleepy and tired and went back to the hotel.  Seven remained.  Somehow, my body knew the real time was between 2 and 6 a.m. in California while it half slept and half walked. 

At one street corner on a utility box, we saw the crusade posters "Vem e Ve" (meaning "Come and See" Jesus).  We were glad to see them.  They are what we are here for: to serve in the Awake Portugal crusades.  These crusades are also part of the Teen Challenge Conference 2001. 

Hotel Fenix is only few blocks above downtown Lisbon, which is in the valley.  There are big old trees and rest/walk areas along the center of the big avenues.  The temperature is in the mid 70's.  Occasionally, a cool breeze comes by.  Many old buildings have the ancient architecture and look gorgeous.  Some of them looked rundown on the outside though.  We walked through squares with statues and monuments in the center.  Almost all the sidewalks were paved with some kind of small square-ish cobblestones.  Some sections have patterns of black stone paved into white background.  The surface is not entirely even.  In all, Lisbon gives you a relaxed city sensation. 

We took the tram and later walked through a big, green city park.  There was a black swan with bright orange-read beak in the small lake. 

Nobody responded when I talked about hunger earlier.  Finally at around 12:30 noon, Doug suggested lunch.  I was relieved.  In Portugal, lunch hours are between one to three o'clock in the afternoon.  Restaurants normally don't serve until 12:30 p.m.  The so-called 'snack bars' serve warm meals.  We checked into one.  Others got grilled swordfish and cod.  I ordered barbequed cuttlefish, which required much more chewing.  Martha was amazed and disgusted when she saw her three swordfish had heads on them.  Doug took a picture of her holding the plate with three head-attached fish.  More customers came in. Some of us felt pressured to give them seats.  I couldn't get all the chewing done before teammates started leaving and left the last cuttlefish behind.  Alas! 

The written Spanish and Portuguese are similar to each other.  In Spanish, you pronounce exactly the way you read.  But, Portuguese pronunciation is much different and tricky.  For instance, the 'e' before an s is silent.  'S' sounds like 'sh.'  So, the Portuguese dollars 'escudos' is pronounced as shi-koo-doosh.  It sounds like a cartoon character, doesn't it?

Team Leader and Fellowship

The two batches met before dinner.  We had dinner together.  Jim Summers is our official team leader.  He has been working with drug addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes for over 30 years.  He was the one who got Steve Hill out of jail, discipled him, and put him in the Teen Challenge program.  Later, Steve went to work for Jim before the Lord sent him to the mission field in Argentina.  They have been together in Argentina and traveling and serving the Lord together.  At nine o'clock, we all sat and fellowshipped together.  Jim asked us to share how each of us got saved.  Everyone's was different and heart felt.  Some were raised in Christian homes, went on to search their own life, and eventually was touched by God to build a relationship with Jesus.  Others came from dysfunctional families with severe alcoholic and abusive background.  Some were delivered from drugs and drinking. 

Jim said people judge others on their strong points and condemn others on their weak points.  It is so true.  Jim also reminded us our team is submitted to the authority of the Portugal Teen Challenge.  The reason Steve is at the position today is because he has been obedient to the authority God has put him under since he had been trained under Jim.  We as team members need to submit to our team leaders' authority.  Also, Steve asked us to not follow Him but God.

<to be continued...>