COLLOQUIUM Porto - Portugal

"but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" 1 Pe. 3:15

Greetings! greetings from Porto! How are you? We pray this email finds you well, and as we approach Thanksgiving, we lift our voices to the Lord in gratitude for his provisions, power, presence, and promises that sustain us in everything!!! "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." This email is to report on our last two months of ministry activities and to let you know how we are doing. If, for some reason, you don't have the time to read the whole letter, I'm bringing up first our praises and prayer requests that summarize the email's contents. I pray this will bring you joy and encouragement.   Praises and Prayer Requests🙏 Praise God for Mila's smooth adjustment and great enjoyment of College life. Praise God for the growth of Colloquium, the near particularization (becoming an instituted church) of the church planting (CPV), and for the beginning of a new church planting out of our home and Colloquium. Praise God for the many different opportunities to minister to college students and young professionals in Porto. For all the ministry part, pray for strength, stamina, well-prepared lectures, and above all, that people are transformed and equipped to proclaim the Gospel and witness Christ through all they do at work. We are deeply thankful for having non-Christians also coming; please pray for them to be impacted and transformed by the Gospel and, ultimately, to join us at the new church planting. Pray for our finances regarding our ongoing monthly support, which is down 30%, and our salary reserve, which needs to be replenished.

Colloquium and all the other aspects of our ministry are going well. In October, I spoke at a Baptist youth retreat in town and a Brethren church the following Sunday. At the youth retreat, the topic addressed was "Apologetics and the Christian Life," and at the Brethren's church, the message was on Romans 8:31-39, "Who will set us apart from the love of Jesus?". I also preached at the church plant (CPV) on the Reformation Sunday. By God's grace and for His glory, we did not have any seats available that day, which brings me to share some fantastic news! (see pic below)

Our Presbytery met last week (see pic on the side) and approved the organization of the church plant into a particular ("official") church which will take place in February! After the organization, the Comunidade Pedras Vivas (CPV) will be the first Presbyterian church in Northern Portugal and the largest church in our denomination. We'll receive 22 new members in a few weeks and will take our membership up to about 85 people. Praise God for His blessing of strengthening and expanding His kingdom! As the CPV moves into adulthood, and after prayerful considerations, we feel the moment is right to begin another church plant out of our home. For that reason, since early October, the three of us have gathered for an entire worship service in our living room on Sunday evenings. We pray that the Lord brings us into fellowship with Him and those whom he will call through our lives and Colloquium ministry. Please, join us in prayer for the Lord to bless our efforts and desire to see one more church planted!

Regarding Colloquium, Luciene and I have our one-to-one mentoring and discipleship with college students and young professionals during the week and host the Colloquium events every other Saturday at our home. Colloquium's attendance has moved up from 10 to 15 people, praise the Lord, per event with non-Christians among them. This semester's lectures at Colloquium are based on the book "Faith and Work" by Dr. Dan Doriani, who, by God's grace, will be joining us in Portugal next Fall for a series of lectures. These are some of the topics we are addressing this semester: "Restoring work: its origin, its glory, its adversities," "Vocation and Fidelity at Work," and "Work, Rest, and the Rhythms of life."   So, for all the ministry part, pray for strength, stamina, well-prepared lectures, and above all, that people are transformed and equipped to proclaim the Gospel and witness Christ through all they do at work. We are deeply thankful for having non-Christians also coming; please pray for them to be impacted and transformed by the Gospel and, ultimately, to join us at the new church planting.

Lastly, we want to present you with a couple of opportunities to pray for and bless us financially. At this time, I'll only outline them for this email length's sake and will send you more info after Thanksgiving.  1- Our salary reserve is low. Would you consider an end-of-year gift towards it? 2- Our ongoing monthly support is down about 30%. Could you prayerfully consider being part of our ministry support partners for 2023? And/or would you have family, friends, or churches you could refer us to for financial support?   Our family rejoices in the Lord and, with thanksgiving, offers praise for his love, care, and provision brought to us through your prayers and financial support.   With sincere gratitude.   In Christ’s love,   Luciano for Luciene, Mila and Pedro.