Prayer Letter
January 2010
Dear Praying Friends,
Portuguese children as well as their parents look forward to this
season all year long. With anticipation they count down the days
until this time arrives. Is it their holiday vacations they await?
No. Is it the Christmas presents they desire? No. Is it the quality
time they can spend together as families that they look forward to?
No.
For many middle and upper class Portuguese, the New Year’s holiday
is the most anticipated time of the year. Why? Because it is the
time when parents make hotel reservations for their children and
send them down south to the Algarve region for days of unsupervised
partying and revelry. While the children as young as 12 are down
south in hotels paid for by their parents, the grownups are involved
in their own carousing at home.
Drunkenness, immorality, drug abuse and crime abound during this
season among both the parents and their unsupervised children. Lives
are scarred and ruined each year yet this evil tradition is growing
in popularity. Once again, God has shown us why He called us here to
shine His light into this dark and hopeless nation.
Reflecting His light,
Mark Hale
"Praying
always ... for all
saints and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my
mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel."
Ephesians 6:18-19
