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

The September 11–21 trip was part of a year-long Portugal District cohort led by Missionary Kristin Burchfiel and focused on church multiplication, missional evangelism, and community partnerships. The Oregon 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 serving alongside New Life Church of the Nazarene in Medford during City Care, the church’s annual community outreach event. During City Care, New Life members of all ages step outside the church building to serve throughout their community. The event begins with light-duty service projects on Thursday evening, followed by a large carnival for students and families at a nearby elementary school on Saturday, where the church has had a decades-long partnership. On Sunday, church members spend the morning working on practical projects such as yard work, painting, and minor repairs that help local families.

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

This trip grew out of 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, 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.”

Pedro Gomes described the trip as a time of “edification, learning and sharing of ideas.” He said the group saw new ways to reach their communities while also recognizing similarities between the Oregon churches and their own ministry contexts.

“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.

The trip also strengthened relationships within the Portugal District. The nine leaders serve in different locations across Portugal and the Western Mediterranean Field, making opportunities to spend extended time together especially valuable. Their days in Oregon created space not only for ministry and learning, but also for fellowship and deeper relationships among the leaders themselves.

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 and spend time with pastors and leaders from the district that originally sent her to Portugal.

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.”

“I return from this trip with a grateful heart, with new learnings, and with the desire to continue growing and serving with dedication, humility, and love,” he said.

The work that began with a trip to Oregon now continues in Portugal, as these leaders carry new ideas, relationships, and a renewed vision for serving the communities where God has placed them.

The trip was a reminder that missions is not simply about going somewhere to serve. It is about joining what God is already doing, learning from one another, and discovering how the global Church can serve together.

– written by Kristin Burchfiel, missionary serving in Portugal