Before we landed in Lisbon airport, I had just been listening to a tape on the plane, "The Word Become Flesh" (India Trip Report) 54-1003 (Paragraph 5 and 6). Bro. Branham mentioned on the tape that he had one of the best meetings that he had in a long time right there while they where visiting Lisbon, Portugal. He mentioned that it was a 100% Catholic nation, "But in the midst of all of it, the Lord poured His Spirit out upon the congregations." That really encouraged me when I heard that just before we got there.
It was our very first time to ever land in Lisbon, though last year we were on a missionary trip in the city of Porto, which is a few hundred miles north of Lisbon. Many times you just don't know where to start when you arrive in a nation and meet the people along the way. We were well loaded with the beautiful new witnessing tracts that VGR has been making available in many different languages. And as we started out right in the airport, the first person that I met took it gladly and smiled as she looked at the attractive colorful card in Portuguese which reads: "In The Name - What Is The Name?" I pointed out the website on the back of the card and she nodded; I knew she understood to check out the website. As we went along our way passing out tracts, we came to find that this new witnessing tool has been a great success to reach people of all walks of life.
These new cards have a real attraction in a Catholic nation. One person got the card with the picture of Hoffman’s head of Christ and smiled and said, "ah Jesus Cristo!" There were many "Obrigado's" as they say in Portuguese, "Thank you!”
We ran into people from all parts of the World that originated from the former Portuguese colonies. We got to witness to people from Angola, Brazil, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Portuguese Islands such as the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde Islands, and Sao Tome and Principe.
As soon as we met in the home of the believers, they all had already been eagerly waiting our arrival. We had already been in contact with a Nigerian brother and his wife that had requested to be baptized, but upon our arrival we met another sister that had heard of the Message, and she also decided to get baptized at the same time.
We decided to go straight to the water and baptize all three of them right there in the Atlantic Ocean in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can imagine how on-looking strangers wondered what was happening, baptizing people right there in the ocean. While you are out there on the mission field you just work with what you have; you never know what to expect, or how things are going to work out. You don't always have all the conveniences and facilities etc. One thing is for sure as Bro. Branham said, "One soul is worth ten thousand worlds." We thank the Lord for bringing in a few more souls that have accepted the Word of God, and have a desire to be baptized in the correct water baptism as the Word tells us to do.
On Sunday, we met again and listened together with the new believers in their home to the Jubilee Message, “The Rapture” with the Portuguese subtitle on our laptop. We congregated in a humble living room right there in Lisbon, Portugal with a handful of believers that wanted to come together to hear the Voice Of God! Wow, what a powerful Message! How timely that Bro. Branham spoke 50 years ago about the Pope that had just come over to visit the United States at that time, and that the moon somehow blacked out at that time. Recently we have seen the Pope coming back to visit the United States again, and then these Blood Moons; it surely shows us what hour we live in today. It sure doesn't matter in which part of the world we are, He is still Hebrews 13:8! He is speaking to His Bride!
We all received a wonderful blessing. Before we left, we made sure that each one got a supply of Portuguese material. There was an excitement in the air for all the messages that we gave them. We took enough supply of Portuguese material, new witnessing tracts, and all available Portuguese books, microSD carts, etc. These supplies also contained children books, like the Opossum story and Footsteps of the Prophet, Cub corner magazines; everything was well received!
We also looked up some addresses that were on our mailing list, and on one occasion we ended up in kind of remote countryside, up in the hills away from the city. When we arrived at the address there was nobody home. So we started asking the neighbors and people that lived in the area. But nobody seemed to know who lived at this old shack which seemed like the poorest place in town. Everybody we asked said that you are probably at the wrong address, but we convinced each one we met that this was the correct address, and we explained we were trying to get a hold of the person that lives there.
Finally, a man stopped by who knew some English, and we asked him about the person who lived at this address. Well he happened to know a brother of this person that lived a little ways down the road.
After he took us to this other address, all we mentioned was "William Branham, Jeffersonville, Indiana." (we don't know any Portuguese), and this person suddenly lit up and it seemed to register! Yes he did know about the Message of Bro. Branham. The other men who took us had to go, but before he went he said, “Who are you guys anyway?” We said we were Christians. Oh, he said he didn't want to have anything to do with God. He said if there is a God at all, why does he allow all these wars and pestilences in the world. Anyway, he did not have any good word to say. He started using bad language and said he only believes in himself. Well, he said what he said, but then I asked him if he could help translate for us so that we could communicate with the other Portuguese brother. I was surprised that he did end up helping us.
Everything is not always as we expect things to happen when you are out on the field. You meet under circumstances that are not in nice buildings and perfect conditions. To me, it was just like I heard Brother Branham talk about the conditions that he saw in India. When he got back home, it took him several days to get over everything he had seen out on streets of India. The man that we met looked rough, and he told us that he plays in a rock band and that he learned English by playing English songs.
We thanked him for helping us. I guess he was surprised that it did not bother us at all how he responded, and later on he drove by and wished us a nice day! He still smiled as he drove off.
As we told our brother about the Portuguese microSD card we had to install on his smartphone. He sure was in a desperate place in his life, and it was the right time that the Lord had us meet up with him. We also left some material for him and his brother who really did not have any Message material.
We were so happy that the Lord had sent this other fellow that helped us find these people, otherwise we would have never been able to get in contact with them.
Another brother, who is originally from Brazil that we met, was very happy and thanked us for the new tracts. He said he had wanted to do some missionary work for a long time, but did not have any witnessing material. We told him how he could go about it by setting up a table and displaying some tracts, thus it would give an opportunity to any newcomers that can take them as they pass by.
We sure thank the Lord for all the opportunities we had to share the Message with all those who came across our path.
God bless you,
Brothers Gerald and Timothy Buitenkamp
VGR Europe