Nine pastors and leaders from the Portugal District recently traveled to Oregon, USA, as a Nazarene Missions Team, spending 11 days serving, learning, and building relationships with churches in the Oregon Pacific District.

Held in mid-September and led by Missionary Kristin Burchfiel, the trip was part of a year-long Portugal District cohort focused on church multiplication, missional evangelism, and community partnerships. The missions trip experience gave the group an opportunity to explore those themes in a different cultural context while strengthening relationships both within the Portugal District and with churches in Oregon.

The heart of the trip was to serve alongside New Life Church of the Nazarene in Medford, Oregon, during City Care, the church’s annual community outreach event. During City Care, church members of all ages step outside the church building to serve throughout their community.

The event began with light-duty service projects on Thursday evening, followed by a large carnival for students and families at a nearby elementary school on Saturday. On Sunday, church members spent the morning working on practical projects such as yard work, painting, and minor repairs that helped local families.

The leaders from Portugal joined as a Missions Team, working alongside New Life members to serve their neighbors. It was an opportunity for the team to experience firsthand one way a local congregation puts missional evangelism and community partnership into practice.

This trip came together thanks to an ongoing relationship between the Portugal District and New Life Church of the Nazarene in Medford. New Life has sent two Nazarene Missions Teams to Portugal, and the Oregon Pacific District has also sent a team to serve alongside churches and leaders there. This time, the Portugal leaders came to Oregon to serve alongside the church that had previously come to serve with them.

The group also traveled to Corvallis and La Pine, Oregon, meeting with pastors in these communities to talk about ministry, leadership, community engagement, and sharing Christ with their neighbors.

For the Portugal leaders, the experience was about more than discovering new ministry ideas. It was also an opportunity to recognize both the differences between their contexts and the ways the church’s mission remains the same.

“There are experiences that pass, and there are experiences that remain in the heart,” said Pastor Marcio Souza. “Those were days of much sharing, learning, growth, and above all, deep fellowship.”

As the group visited three churches, Marcio said he was struck by the different human and financial realities each congregation experienced, while also seeing a shared vision for ministry.

“Despite the differences, there is a very similar vision among them—the understanding that the church does not exist only for itself but should be an extension of the community and the city where God has placed it,” he said.

“We also shared ideas about what we think could be improved to reach more people for Christ, and how their ideas could be used in our local church and district,” he said.

For Kristin, who serves with the Western Mediterranean Field and was sent with her family to Portugal by the Oregon Pacific District, the trip was also the realization of a long-held dream: bringing a group of Portugal District pastors and leaders to Oregon to serve alongside her sending church.

The Portugal leaders returned home with new ideas, strengthened relationships, and a renewed desire to serve their communities. Pastor Geovane Mota described the experience as one that renewed his “joy of serving, learning, and continuing to place my gifts and life at God’s disposal.”