Empowering Children’s Leaders in Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal

We went to Portugal on a mission trip, and my controlling husband allowed me to go on this one because he went with me. The trip was spiritually fruitful, and I saw God at work in the things we set out to do for the Lord. However, it was emotionally damaging for me because, behind the scenes, there was a battle going on. Satan was attempting to use the issues in my marriage to come against our ministry plans.

Despite this, I felt grateful that I was able to go

We organized a two-day training conference for children’s leaders, welcoming potential leaders from all over Portugal. We equipped them with the skills needed for children’s ministry during this event. The leaders learned to use creative arts to share the Gospel with children and build a children’s ministry in their local areas.

The culminating event involved selecting a passage from the Bible and creating a program based on it. Participants were provided with professional puppets and learned to build mobile puppetry stages to use with them. They would then take the stages and all of the resources back to begin their ministry. They practiced their performances and presented the program they had designed, all centered around one small Bible passage. About 6 or 8 teams from all around Portugal performed their program, showing off their newly learned skills.

It was a wonderful experience.

Like the old saying goes – We did not just give them a fish but taught them how to fish, provided the resources they needed to get started and modeled fishing techniques for them.

When they left, they took the beginnings of six or eight newly formed children’s ministries with them. These ministries had the potential to reach thousands of children all throughout Portugal.

This was the biggest bang for our buck.

We found that the most effective way to elevate our ministry effort was to train the leaders who will carry it out. In a short time, these training sessions and modeling approaches were extremely fruitful in multiplying ministry.

Even though there were challenges, God was faithful, and the mission was accomplished.