Dear Friends and Family,
Summer already? Wow, has time flown by! Before it gets any later in the year, I thought I had better give you all an update of our happenings. Other than a couple weeks of ministry in Germany, our Spring has been concentrating on the home front. Helen has been investing time with her art and is cooperating with a local gallery, where she is painting and showing her work. More and more people have shown interest in her art and are buying the glecée prints she had made up. (You can see her art at her site: www.fineartbyhelenreimer.com) Each painting has a message to it and there are accompanying Scripture verses, from which she received her inspiration. The owner of the gallery in Ericeira was impacted by the paintings and prayed with Helen to receive Christ as Savior. This is what Helen lives for and is so blessed when she sees her talent being used in this way.
I have been involved in renewing old relationships with pastors and churches around the country. I have sensed an urgency in gathering the Body of Christ together for a national day of repentance and seeking God. We will hold this event, the 22nd of October, here in Lisbon and are expecting thousands to participate. There is a growing sense of the need to humble ourselves as instructed in II Chronicles 7.14 and to seek God’s grace and mercy. The Body of Christ has been quite divided here in Portugal, but attitudes are changing. We are excited for what we sense the Lord is about to do, but it will not occur by sitting on the sidelines. There is much that we need to do in preparation.
The second half of the year will be quite busy in our mission work outside of Portugal. Let me just list the dates and places, so that you can accompany us in prayer.
June 23 – July 1 England
July 19-31 New York, USA
August 1-7 Florida, USA (SIM board meeting)
August 15-30 Angola
Sept. 25-Oct.5 Morocco
Oct. 24-31 Sweden
Nov. 14-29 Russia
December Swaziland/Mozambique/South Africa (dates to be confirmed)
Your prayers, financial support and encouragement have enabled us to reach many nations. We need co-workers like you to be able to meet the needs of those we touch. This December, when we go to Swaziland, we want to bring a substantial financial gift to help the New Hope Center. This orphanage was founded by a childhood friend of Helen’s and is caring for the abandoned children of AIDS victims. By helping in this way, we want to continue sowing into the nation where the Stark family invested so much of their lives. The torch is now in our hands and to be passed to the future generations. “It is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2.4)
Giving is through Strategic Indigenous Missions (www.simissions.org). Please specify for the projects you want to support.
Lord bless – Jim and Helen