Friday night ASI Portugal started it's first anual meeting. Mark Finley gave us the message in the Lisbon SDA church. It was packed! The next morning church was held at a large building built for speakers for the college students near by. The building holds 1,600, but 1,800 were able to hear the message. The guards would not let anyone else in after 1,800 people came in, because of safety reasons. Portugal has around 10,000 Adventists in the whole country. That means almost 20% of all the Adventist in the country were there. I loved hearing about the ministries they were supporting. So many of the youth have started their own ministries. ASI was trying to raise 33,000 euros, but God truly blessed them there. They raised an astounding amount of 47,000 euros, that is not including some pledges. After church a news crew came and interviewed Mark Finley and Ruben (We are staying at his house). It was such a blessing to listen to Mark Finley speek to the interviewer. He has such a way of witnessing to people. In the end he prayed with the lady and for her career. I respect pastors so much more when they practice what they preach, and let me tell you, Mark Finley is one of those men. It was such a blessing to see so many people on fire for God. The fire there is growing fast. I was so honored to be there and whiteness this history being made, to see the first ASI in Portugal. It was a huge success!
