What’s Happening?
Visitors
October 16 - Dr Eddie Fernandes speaking and Marta Fernandes leads a team of musicians at both our Valença and Porto meetings.
Teaching
During September there will be a short teaching series on the Return of Jesus Christ and the Last Days of the Earth as we know it. The prophets spoke volumes on the subject; Jesus spent two chapters of Matthew's gospel telling His disciples - how can we ignore it?
As we have come to the end of the first series of Discipleship teaching (available at Riverside Resources), we are now taking a good look at some of the Old Testament Heroes - examining the background to their stories; their impact on the overall story of the relationship between God and His creation.
Goodbye to even more of our members!
At the end of September we are saying 'Goodbye' to Gilberto and Paula, who are moving to Brazil with their two children; and Mark and Louise, moving to the USA. This economic crisis in Portugal is really hitting us as people move to take jobs in other parts of the world!
Of course, a constant change of personnel is typical of an international church - but we really miss these guys! On the positive side, we have been pleased to welcome new faces and look forward to getting to know them and the visitors that they bring.
Family News
With great regret we said "Goodbye" to Artur and Gabriele Fuchs on 29 May. Artur has been sent to lead his company's interests in Brazil and they will now live in São Paulo. Artur, Gabi and their daughters have been so involved in everything about the church that they will be irreplacable - however God knows our circumstances and we trust Him to provide all that we need - although not necessarily what we want!
Please remember to pray for them as they approach this new phase in their lives.
Teaching
We are presently emphasising discipleship through a series of messages based on Jesus' teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus took His disciples away and invested His time in teaching them the deeper things of faith. Before He returned to Heaven He told us to "Teach new disciples all that I have taught you". That's one part of our mission.
Check it out yourself each week at Riverside Resources.
If you have never been involved in church planting the phrase may sound strange. Basically it means to take a team to an area where there is a perceived need for a new church and start a new work. Christian Associates International, of whom Bill and Tina are members, is fundamentally a church planting organisation - seeking to spread the gospel and bring people into the Kingdom of God, in this way.
For some time we at Riverside Porto have perceived a need for an English language church in the extreme North of Portugal, serving the expatriate community in Portugal and Spain. We are now thrilled that, after a couple of pilot meetings, the way seems to have opened up for us to have monthly meetings in Valença do Minho - a beautiful town which is fairly central to the community there.
From Sunday January 16, we hope to hold meetings every month, in a joint venture between Riverside Porto and the mission team of Grace Brethren International Missions in Porto. Meetings are planned for the third Sunday in each month at the home of Tony and Jenny Reddin, at Rua de Estrada, 3; Mondim de Baixa; Gandra; Valença.
For the moment, please call 227 627 643, or email contact@riversideporto for directions. In the next few weeks we hope to have a full page for Valença on the web site.
... In sickness and in health ...
As you may have heard, both Tina and Bill, who founded the church, have been in hospital - in fact, in different hospitals at the same time! This is just a brief update about their condition. If you want more detail, including how we see illness in relation to God's will for our lives; then go and read Tina's blog at tinamasonaguda.blogspot.com.
Bill drove himself to Gaia hospital on 10 November to check out some persistent chest pains and found himself on a trolley and connected to intravenous drips and a plethora of monitoring machines before you could say "Is it serious, Doc?". Tests identified a serious blockage of the main arteries from the heart and about a week later he underwent a triple by-pass operation. After a period of convalescing; on 4 January he was declared fit and able to resume a normal life, without restrictions but under instructions to lose a few kilos more. We thank God for protecting him and the wonderful staff at the Cardiology and Cardiothoracic units of Vila Nova de Gaia hospital for their hard work!
Meanwhile, Tina had been diagnosed as having breast cancer some weeks before. She underwent an operation at the Institut Portuguese de Oncologia (IPO) while Bill was in Gaia hospital and recovered well. However, on 5 January she started on a long course of chemo and radio-therapies. In theory these could leave her with quite serious after-effects. To date, she has not suffered greatly and we continue to pray that she will completely recover without experiencing some of the side-effects that these therapies often produce. If you see her, you would not think that she is in any way ill, so our biggest task is to try to keep her from overworking - as usual!
Many thanks to the literally hundreds of people around the world who have been praying for Tina, Bill and the church. We are grateful to the church leaders and the core members who kept everything functioning normally during their absence.
... And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. (Romans 8:28 NLT)Freedom!
"... So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free"
(John 8:36 NLT)Have you ever taken time to study some of the amazing promises that Jesus made to those who will willingly follow Him? Promises like the one above, which is our theme for the next few weeks.
.... but maybe you have often said, "Well, I would really love to have that freedom" - or to be sure that I am a Christian - or any other promise of the bible ... and yet it seems to elude you. 
Our series Freedom! is based on and serves as the introduction to the "Freedom in Christ" course. Riverside Porto will be teaching how to enjoy the freedom that should be ours as Christians. We will be offering the Freedom in Christ course early in the New Year.
Discipleship
Jesus came and told His disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)
During the last third of the year, the focus of the church is on Jesus' command to make disciples and our teaching will be largely aimed at this goal - to teach our new disciples all the things that Jesus taught the church. We began in September, but you can catch up on any messages you missed by visiting the Teaching section of this site.
Visitors most welcome!
Throughout the summer the church takes on a new character as most of our regulars go off to their own countries or elsewhere around the world for their annual holidays. This year we have received a steady stream of visitors, all of whom have added something new and valuable to our meetings and fellwowship. Thank you all!
Power From on High
A series of messages on the work of God's Holy SPirit in the world, the church and in people.
The series "Power From on High" finished with the last message, "The Fruit of the Spirit" on August 22. We believe that this series was important for the church everywhere and we are encouraging all our friends to go to the web site and listen to any message that they might have missed. Why don't you?
A new and thought provoking series of messages called "Power from on High" started on Sunday 25 July and will run for approximately 5 weeks. So far we have looked at "The Holy Spirit"; "Growth of the Church" and "Gifts from the Holy Spirit". Still to come are "The Body of Christ" and "Fruit of the Spirit". Come and discover the relevance of God's Holy Spirit to the modern church. These messages are considered very important to the future of the church and we recommend that you go and listen to them (in the Teaching section) if you were unable to attend on a particular day.
Our usual holiday blues have struck us during August. On 1 August, of the 40 worshippers, only about a quarter were our local regulars and on 8 August the numbers were smaller but the ratio was about 50/50. We do continue to meet all through the summer, so please come and bring your friends.
The last few weeks have been busy for us at Riverside Porto. As well as visits from both of our founding churches, we ourselves visited a new city and we had the privalege of baptizing a young man who wanted to publicly acknowlege and move on with his Lord, Jesus Christ.
23 May 2010 was a Sunday to remember. The Fernandes family came to visit us from Riverside International Church in Cascais. Eddie is a gifted preacher who brought us a message from God's Word. Marta and their daughter Mickey have been gifted with voices and musical skills of angels and Rueben played guitar along with our own musicians. It was a great night.
On 13 June we welcomed Marty Uhler, our Christian Associates connector, and a team from Lisboa Matrix / Grace Church. Marty, Dave, Daphne and Christy worked with our own musicians to produce unbelievable worship again.
Also on 13 June a team, including our CA visitors, carried a portable version of the church to the city of Valença, in the extreme North of Portugal, on the border with Spain. Although the meeting was quite small, it was well received and we hope that it will be repeated at various intervals in the future. Our thanks to our hosts in Valença, Tony and Jenny Redding.
On 20 June, 10 year-old Michael was baptized. Brought up by believing parents, Michael wanted to show his personal comittment to Jesus Christ by following his Lord in this way. Several of his family and friends joined is for the service.
As an International church we have a large turnover of young people who come to Porto for a few months to study, become part of the church and then return to their home countries to continue their studies or careers. This brings us a great richness, but also times of sadness when we have to say 'Goodbye'.
On 4 July we had the sorrow of parting and the pleasure of praying for three people who have enriched our lives over the last few months. Patrycja Kuczybska returns with our love to her native Poland, Kat Newton and Nathan Richards to the United Kingdom. They will be missed very much. Please continue to pray for these young people who have brought much to the church.
The same day that we bid farewell to Pat, Kat and Nat, we welcomed Miguel Santos into membership of the church. Miguel and fiancée Michelle Silvéria have decided to make Riverside Porto their church home now and for the future when they marry and set up home together.
On Sunday 11 July we started the meeting at 6pm in order to show the whole of the World Cup Final on the video screen. Surprisingly few of our regulars attended but some welcome visitors (supporting Holland) made for a lively evening as we enjoyed a barbecue supper with the match.
- Av. Sacadura Cabral 1642
- 4410 - 463 Arcozelo
- Vila Nova de Gaia
- PORTUGAL
+351 227 627 643
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