We spent the last week at a Surfcamp in Esmoriz organized by the awesome Surf Church Porto! On Sunday afternoon most of the surf group met at the local beach in Matosinhos. After that we were heading to the Surfchurch for their Sunday evening service. It was a great start into the week.
Monday morning we left our hotel in Matosinhos and went to a retreat center, where we would stay for the week with everyone else (we were more than 60 people). It was a great place to be. There was a soccer, volleyball and basketball field, a table tennis and foosball table, where we had sport challenges throughout the whole week.
Every morning started with a devotion time after breakfast. And either in the morning or afternoon we would go to a nearby beach for surfing.
At night we had a time of worship and a sermon prepared by John McCarthy. He’s a big wave surfer, surf teacher and pastor from Ireland. If you want to hear more about him and his work go to www.cliffsofhope.com. We loved listening to him and his stories. We are glad we met him, his wife Rachel and their kids. They are a lovely family.
The last day was special. We had a surf contest in which our kids participated. Everyone was surprised that Noam made 2nd and Nate made 1st place. Which they were super happy about. At our last night we had a bonfire at the beach. This was one of my favorite moments.
Overall we had a really great time. Pastor Samuel and his family are such loving and caring people, with a big heart for everyone. We can highly recommend visiting their church, when you‘re in Porto. We also loved getting to know so many new people and enjoyed every conversation, surf session, car ride, guitar lesson (thank you Nuno ;-)) and game (e.g. Spikeball) that we had together.
(This post contains photos by: Amanda Senareli, Ana Júlia and Thomas Mandl)
