I (Dan) was in seminary studing to be a pastor in the US with no intention of going overseas. It was in January of my last year when a missionary came to speak in our small church group. I was at that time getting my resume ready to send out. When we compared the need in the US to the need everywhere else in the world we knew we had to reconsider our plans. As we prayed the Lord gave us a peace about going overseas. At about the same time my brother who is/was a missionary in Portugal came home on furlough. He was all by himself and desperately needed help. It was a logical place to start praying about.

Here in Portugal my wife and I work in two churches, both quite small. I am also the Field Chairman for Portugal. We also helped start a ministry to drug addicts that has been turned over to Portuguese and we also were on the ground floor of a ministry to couples here in the north of Portugal. We are still involved in the second ministry. Our day here is similar to a day in the US only everything starts later. We get up at 7:30 rather than 5:30. I do things most pastors would do in terms of planning and sermon prep. We also teach English several times a week. In the evening we have meetings and most begin at about 9:00 pm. They can go on to midnight with no problem. Both Deb and I have luncheon appointments most weeks, but never a breakfast meeting. That would be unheard of.

God is working in our lives here and in the lives of the Portuguese in the churches. We will have a baptism in June and 5 will be baptized. We do some marriage counseling and discipleship. The focus here though has to be evangelism. At the beginning of the year we had everyone put the name of at least one person (non-believer) in a plastic easter egg. We keep them in a big bowl in the church. We have been praying for these people since then and recently Deb and I had over for dinner a young man whose name is in the bowl and a cousin of his. I think they are close to becoming believers.