April - May 2024 Update

As I write this, I am sitting at a friendly little Portuguese café in Lisbon, drinking great Portuguese coffee and eating a pastel de nata. You will definitely want to try these when you come to visit. We started our survey trip a week ago, and it has been amazing. There have been lots of emotions, mostly good ones. It has been fun wandering around and figuring out what we need to do to prepare for our life here in Portugal.

April and May were great. We purposely tried to keep a slower pace than in the fall. We were able to enjoy Easter together as a family and spend time with extended family who came in for Andrew's graduation. We have officially survived school-age children and the teen years. We are so happy with and proud of our children. Now on to the next stage: empty nesting in Portugal.

The few meetings we had in the last couple of months were truly a blessing and encouraging. We not only gained some wonderful partnering churches but also made lifelong friends. It's always a blessing when we can connect with Christians who genuinely share our heart for Jesus and lost souls.

Prayer

I sent a letter out in May presenting our need to fund our start-up expenses. To be honest, I was quite overwhelmed as I tallied up what we will need in our first two months. It was such a blessing when I received the report from our agency that $8,000 has already come in! Wow, God is so good. As we have spent a week here in Portugal, I can see how we will need every bit of these funds. Please pray about what you could contribute towards these expenses. 

Here is the link to the detailed article about our start-up costs: https://www.proclaimmissions.com/blog/special-need-start-up-fund

Thank you again for all your love, prayers, and partnership.

Billy and Mary Marks

For a Printable version of this update please go to: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14GgE0PJX7csjaOA4gR1AklUEOBNwPFEo/view?usp=sharing