Saturday Recap

It was another gorgeous day in Sintra! 

The schedule for the day was quite similar to that of Friday, with Josef Sykora starting out the day with the second part of his Bible teaching. Considering the parable of the sower, he helped us to see that parables both hide and reveal. We must ourselves enter into the story in order to engage with the riddle and be able to speak about the ultimate mystery of God. We need to create a space in how we speak so that other people can enter and themselves engage with the story.

The two workshops that were offered on Friday were repeated today, this time with translation in different language from that of the previous day. As had been the case on Friday, people were shocked to hear about the prevalence of human trafficking throughout Europe. And Norbi's emphasis on holistic biblical counseling stirred many people to reflect on how their own counseling ministries could be more effective.

During the afternoon free time a large group took a bus tour to Cascais and Lisbon. The European MEG Board meet during this time to interview six ministerial candidates - Carmelo Palmés Guedes from the Canary Islands, Joel Louidor from France, Hugo and Carla Conceiçâo from Portugal, and Santiago and Laysse Magalhâes from Portugal. These candidates were received as European Ministerial Candidates during the evening service.

Ildikó Kóber from Hungary shared her testimony during her interview with Júlia, telling about her recent studies in a YWAM discipleship program in Romania and Moldova. You can hear Ildikó's recorded testimony at https://vimeo.com/64550078

Marites Aquino from Belgium also shared her testimony, telling of her emigration from the Philippines and the trials of faith that she encountered in the years that followed.

The highlight of the evening was the reception of the European Ministerial Candidates, named above. It was wonderful to hear about their current ministries and their vision for the future. They are men and women who are passionate about following Christ and helping others come to him by faith.

The evening speaker was Pastor Keith Cowart from the Christ Community Church in Columbus, Georgia. He spoke on biblical leadership and challenged every leader present to go forward in faith, following God's call and to bring others along with them.