AFWIS Joins Operation World in Prayer for the Portuguese Republic - Europe

Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)

Home > Oct 07: Portugal

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Oct 07: Portugal

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Portugal

Portuguese Republic

Europe

See Prayer Information

Geography

Area: 92,389 sq km
occupying 15% of the Iberian Peninsula, which is shared with Spain. Also, the Atlantic islands of the Azores (2,247 sq km, nine islands) and Madeira (794 sq km, two islands).
Population: 10,732,357    Annual Growth: 0.35%
Capital: Lisbon
Urbanites: 60.7%
HDI Rank: 34 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)

Peoples

Peoples: 31 (13% unreached) All peoples
Unreached Peoples Prayer Card

Official language: Portuguese    Languages: 9 All languages

Religion

Largest Religion: Christian

Religion		Pop %	Ann Gr
Christians	10,131,345	94.40	0.3
Evangelicals	318,868	3.0	1.1

Prayercast

Challenges for Prayer

There remain pioneer challenges, despite recent church growth. Pray for:
a) The seven northern and northeastern provinces, which are strongly traditional Catholic; relatively few evangelical churches exist. Brethren, Baptists, AoG, GEM, TEAM, ECM, Missão Antioquia and several other missions all have church-planting programmes in the area.
b) The four provinces in the south that are poorer and much less religious. Attendance at mass is very low, and evangelical churches are few.
c) The 316 counties, 44 of which still have no evangelical congregation. This is praiseworthy progress from the 69 in 2000 that lacked a church. The Evangelical Alliance set a target to plant a church in every county by 2015 through its member churches and organizations. Pray for this goal to be met and surpassed.
d) Madeira Island (270,000), which has fewer than 20 small evangelical churches, and the Azores (250,000), with a further 26, most being Assemblies of God and Baptist.
e) Ethnic minorities. Large numbers of immigrants continue to flow into Portugal. The earlier waves of Portuguese-speaking West Africans and Brazilians are joined by Chinese, Macanese and Eastern Europeans – especially Ukrainians, who now comprise Portugal’s second-largest community. Many of these are unevangelized but open to the gospel; pray for the churches (both Portuguese and foreign) to gain a vision to reach them.
Young people are often spiritually neglected.
a) Drug abuse is a growing problem – over 50% have experimented with drugs. Teen Challenge, Betel-Spain as well as TEAM and ECM have ministries rehabilitating and discipling addicts.
b) Student work is still in a pioneer stage. GBUP(IFES) has a ministry in eight universities and some high schools. CCCI (Agape) and Navigators also have ministries on several campuses.
c) SU and CEF have ministries among school children.
d) Sports are a useful form of outreach. Agape (Athletes in Action) and YWAM (Athletes for Christ) both minister in this way.
     For an additional 6 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.

More Information

The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Portugal.