Kris Mahnke's Missionary Journey

Happy Birthday with Shekinah

WOW!  What an awesome way to celebrate my 34th birthday!  I was even sung Happy Birthday to in Portuguese by new friends from Lisbon! While it was tough to celebrate my birthday without my family, I still had one of the best birthdays of my life.

With Pastor Cindi Angelo´s worship choir, "Shekinah," leading the people of Argana Alta in awesome praise and dance, how could I not have a great birthday!

Afterward, I was able to talk with Cindi and some of the girls from the choir, and I found out that Cindi and I share the same birthday.  How cool is that?

It was awesome to talk and make friends with these ladies, even though their Spanish and mine isn´t the greatest.  That actually made it better, because there was no intimidation.  We could relax and freely speak our own, slow, broken Spanish without fear.  It was great!

Please pray that I would be this free in using the language with those who are more fluent.  Spanish is really a great language!

Blessings,

Kris

P.S. - That´s me at the far right of the picture and Mariela (black shirt and jacket - from Iglesia Emanuel) in the center.

Adjusting to the Climate/Evangelism

When I came here I knew that I was coming to a place that was warm and sunny year-round.  It´s not cold here, right?  I certainly wasn´t thinking of adjusting to the climate.  Then I was warned about the strong island winds.

To tell the truth, the wind feels good when the hot sun is beating down on you, but after dark is another story.

The other night I was leaving a house prayer meating only to find myself cold and wishing I had dressed a little warmer.  Then I saw a temperature sign that read 21deg. C.  That´s about 70 F.  70 F and I was cold!  70 F!  I´m from Illinois.  70 F and the kids in Illinois are putting their shorts on! 

I tell you it´s the wind.  It´s your friend during the day, but after the sun goes down you learn the meaning of the term "wind chill."

  However, none of that stopped Iglesia Emanuel from having a great, Easter weekend evanglism.  I´ll have more to say about the evangelism in my next newsletter, but once again it was great to see the children enjoying the games, music and stories.  Again, one of the highlights was seeing the Emanuel kids participating in the evangelism by doing their musical mime routines.  One song was entitled, "Escribeme" and it basically says, "Sign me up!"  I´m ready to follow Christ.

Please pray that God would continue to touch the hearts of all who attended this blessed event, and that more children and families would make a declaration to follow Christ.

Also pray for the evangelism happening this next Thursday -Sunday.  Shekinah, the 20-person worship choir from Cindi Angelos FM church in Lisbon, Portugal, will be here holding an evangelistic worship conference.  Pray for their safety in travel and that God would prepare their hearts for this time of ministry.