January 31^st – February 7^th, 2007

Missionaries to the Preborn conducted a special international mission to Portugal to warn the people of Portugal NOT to do what our nation has done, namely, not to legalize the killing of their sons and daughters through abortion.  A team of seven spent seven full days out on the streets of Portugal passing out 50,000 pieces of literature and conducting demonstrations.

The Americans have landed!  Missionaries to the Preborn team of seven to Portugal.  (from left to right)  Pastor Matt Trewhella, Clara Trewhella, Dan Holman, Caytie Davis, Donna Holman, Jim Soderna & Mark Gabriel.

The team spent three days in Lisbon, but also spent four days traveling on trains to nine other Portuguese cities – Setubal, Sintra, Estoril, Cascais, Breja, Faro, Coimbra, Braga and Porto.  A referendum was going to be held on February 11^th, 2007, wherein the people of Portugal would vote whether or not to accept the legalization of abortion-on-demand in their country.  We wrote a piece of literature, made 50,000 copies, and passed all of them out in seven days.  The team worked tirelessly.  Not only did they not take a day for sightseeing, they didn’t even take one hour.  The need to get the word out was too urgent!  

This is the literature we passed out with an English translation.  A godly, Christian, Portuguese-speaking woman translated our literature into Portuguese and the literature we actually passed out was written in Portuguese.

As the team flew into Portugal, it was a beautiful scene from the plane window.  The morning sun had just broken over the horizon.  We wondered how can seven people impact so many (10 million reside in the nation of Portugal)?  Our hearts were burdened with utter dependence upon the Lord.  We prayed He would lead, guide and use us. 

This was the first international effort wherein we did not have anyone on the ground to aid us in our efforts.  The pro-lifers there did not want to work with us as we were considered too radical because of our use of the photographs of the murdered preborn.  They decided to make their focus on the woman with negligible effort going into exposing the humanity and horrific murder of the preborn.  The Christians there wanted nothing to do with us because they have embraced the lie of “we should just preach the gospel.”  In spite of this, the Lord led us amazingly.

DAY 1

Upon our arrival, we immediately realized that we had entered upon a battlefield.  Everywhere throughout the city were billboards for and against legalized abortion.

We put out over 7000 pieces of literature the first day even though we had just arrived and had no one to help give us direction.  Pedestrian traffic is huge in Portugal unlike America.  We broke our group into three teams. At first we went out on the streets and passed them out best we could.  We soon learned however that the best place to go in Lisbon was at the metro stations where people came and went on the subway system.  This allowed us to stand in one spot rather than chase people down.  Everywhere we went we put out literature (as the pictures below demonstrate).

The first day we ran into several pro-abortion people passing literature out on the streets.  We ran into no pro-lifers.  Clearly the Lord had brought us here to raise a standard. 

By the end of the day, due to the interaction with the people as we passed out literature out on the streets, our entire team had come to the same conclusion – Lisbon had murder in its heart.

DAY 2

We once again went out in three teams and continued to hammer in Lisbon.

This day we put out over 10,000 pieces of literature.  Everywhere you looked people were reading our literature (as the pictures below demonstrate).

Even the police continue to read our literature after Clara and Caytie leave from petting the horses!

Some people were profoundly impacted by the photograph of the murdered Preborn child in our literature.  Some stood and read our literature very thoroughly clearly impacted by its message.  But far too many in Lisbon were totally indifferent.  Why is this so?  Why this coldness? 

We have noticed that with wealth and leisure comes the desire to have legal abortion.  Such is the case with many in Lisbon where many are doing well.  The poor much more readily see the evil of abortion for what it is.  They love children and tend to see their value much more than the rich.  The rich tend to want to limit the number of children they have so they can further enrich themselves.  Then they try to convince the poor to embrace their selfish designs, and even use the poor to try and justify making legalized baby-murder public policy.

On this the second day, one team made a concerted effort to go to the poor areas to pass out our literature and were successful in doing so.  They also spent a considerable amount of time at the university.  One young man from the university told us, “I was going to vote yes, but after seeing this (referring to the photo in our literature of the murdered preborn child) no way.”

Another team ran into a crowd of 20 pro-abortion enthusiasts doing a photo-op for a phalanx of press.  Though they were there speaking against abortion and passing out our literature, they were ignored and censored by the press.

THE PRESS 

The press in Portugal was clearly pro-abortion.  As in all nations where it is legal, once again, we see the press’s hands in bloodied complicity with the pro-abortion lobby.  They never covered our efforts (the only press to do so was French and German press – none from Portugal).  One pro-lifer we met told us that only one media outlet in the nation was giving the pro-lifers a fair shake.  The bias towards the pro-abortion side was clear in the coverage we watched. 

On one occasion, we handed news people one of our flyers.  The man looked at it and handed it back stating “I don’t want this; I’m voting yes.”  On another occasion someone in our group handed a female reporter with cameraman in tow one of our flyers.  She read it and watched everyone taking it from us, but after she was done reading it, she crumpled it up, threw it in the garbage, and walked away.  Some how we could not help but think how readily they would have sought us out if we had been seven pro-abortion activists from America?

It is important to note that everywhere that abortion is illegal, the press tries to paint the picture that all Americans just love abortion and therefore ‘our country needs to catch up with the times and legalize it too.’  This is why wherever we have done pro-life efforts in other countries where it is illegal, people are always amazed to meet Americans (like us) who are opposed to abortion.

DAY 3

We broke the group into two teams and left Lisbon by train.  The two single guys, Jim and Mark, went to do three lightning strikes in the small cities of Sintra, Estoril and Cascais.  The rest of us went to the large city of Setubal.

DAY 4 

On the fourth day we broke our group into northern and southern teams.  Dan, Donna and Jim went south to Breja and Faro.  Pastor Matt, Clara, Mark and Caytie went north to Coimbra, Braga and Porto.  The teams left in the morning by train.  We spent the next three days traveling by train in order to cover the breadth of the nation.

The southern team went to Breja.  They encountered a large pro-abortion rally while out distributing literature.  They were able to debate with the crowd and many were silenced by the arguments presented to them by our team.

The northern team stopped in Coimbra.  There are so many personal stories of encounters throughout our mission with individuals or small groups.  We share a few here from Coimbra.

Pastor Matt encountered a woman yelling at him because she was going to vote yes.  She refused Pastor Matt’s literature which said vote no.  But her teen-age son standing next to her quickly took the literature and read it, frequently returning to the photograph of the murdered preborn baby, all the while the mother kept yelling at Pastor Matt.  Finally when Pastor Matt went to leave, the son looked at him and gave him the thumbs up sign.  May the next generation think better!

Mark Gabriel had a young girl take him to her apartment building so he could put literature in all 40 of the tenants boxes.  The apartment buildings were all locked so this was a great blessing!  She wanted her neighbors to see the truth!

The girl and a friend who wanted her neighbors to see the truth.

Pastor Matt was walking down a hill through a neighborhood when he saw a young couple with their baby in a stroller coming towards him.  The man was intently reading a mangled piece of literature he must have found somewhere.  Pastor Matt offered him a good piece.  When the man saw Pastor Matt and the literature in his hand, he got a big smile in his face and held his up saying “I’ve got one!”  He was glad for what we were doing and grateful for the piece he already had.

This was the first day both teams felt there wasn’t a clear pro-abortion majority with those they encountered.  These towns were about 50-50.

DAY 5 

The southern team went to Faro.  The northern team went to Braga.  These were the two farthest points south and north that the teams went away from Lisbon.  Both cities were clearly pro-life.

Both teams went to churches in the morning to pass out literature there.  One man who reluctantly took our literature, turned to us after reading it and said, “You came all the way over here just for this?”  We said yes.  He said “Wow!”  You could tell he was impacted by it.  We had many say this to us along the way.

Church that the northern team went to distribute literature.

Afterwards they went to the marketplaces to get it out.  Everywhere you looked people were once again reading the literature.  Once again you would see groups of people discussing the literature and debating about it.  This was very rewarding all along the mission trip – to see something you’ve written and brought to another nation and see the impact it is having on thousands of lives.  Everywhere we went the place was turned upside down.  There was no small stir!

We called Clara the ‘Queen of the shops’ as she would stop into them and give out literature (there were thousands of small shops everywhere we went). Often the shop owners would ask for extra pieces to give to their customers. Here Clara talks with a lady selling roasted chestnuts out on the street.

Pastor Matt and Clara also talked to two young men from Romania who spoke English.  They soon learned that one of them was the grandson of Pastor Lazlo Tokes.  Pastor Tokes is the pastor of the church where the Romanian Revolution started 1989 which brought down the dictator Ceausescu.  His church members surrounded the church in an act of interposition in order to keep the secret police from arresting him.  (You can read the whole story in the book – The Fall of Tyrants.)

An interesting note about our literature.  The border of our literature had the same design and color of the tile on many houses we saw in Portugal.  We didn’t even know Portugal had such designs before going there.  It made out literature seem even more designed for the people of Portugal!  One of those little things you see the Lord do when on trips like these.

Clara demonstrates how the border on our literature resembled the tiling on many houses.

DAY 6 

On this day, the southern team traveled seven hours by train to join the northern team so all could lit-drop the city of Porto, Portugal’s second largest city.  We poured thousands of pieces of literature into this city and found it to be more pro-life than pro-abortion.

Caytie Davis gets the lit out in Porto.

At one location where Pastor Matt and Clara were handing out literature, a group of Marxists arrived and threatened them with bodily harm.  They left and returned with pro-abortion literature.  A group quickly grew which was very violent and hostile.  In the Lord’s providence, Pastor Matt and Clara had just run out of literature, so they had to leave to return to the hotel to get more lit.

The man second from the right threatened to kill Pastor Matt.  The size and mood of the pro-abortion crowd quickly grew to dangerous proportions moments later.

THE POLICE

A quick word about the police.  We had absolutely no problems with the police.  They were kind and respectful to us everywhere we went throughout Portugal.  We were free to speak, demonstrate, and distribute literature without hindrance everywhere we went.

A police officer takes a piece of literature from Donna Holman.

We walked many miles on this trip.

We often felt like mountain goats going up and down the many steep hills in Portugal.

At the end of the sixth day, we all took a train back to Lisbon to prepare for the final day. 

THE FINAL DAY

The final day we regathered in Lisbon.  We had almost all of our literature distributed so we set an itinerary to demonstrate throughout the day.  First we went to a busy square where thousands of pedestrians passed by us and talked with us.  This was the first time we saw the pro-lifers encouraged in Lisbon.  Many came up to thank us.  Others took extra lit from us to give to others.  Everywhere you looked people were silently walking past us with all heads turned our way.  We wish you could have seen their eyes.

Preparing for the final day.

 
Mark Gabriel and Pastor Matt in the busy square.  Pastor Matt’s sign reads “Don’t do what our country has done.” 

Jim, Clara and Caytie put out literature while we were at the busy square.

After the busy square, we went to demonstrate outside the largest newspaper in Portugal which had shown a clear pro-abortion bias.  Many workers and reporters came out to look at us, but not one word of it was written in the paper.

Demonstrating outside the newspaper.

Mark Gabriel calls upon the paper to show the truth.

Finally, in God’s providence we ended up at the busiest traffic roundabout in the whole city of Lisbon.  Dan, Caytie, Pastor Matt, & Jim set up for the thousands of cars passing by on their way home.  Mark passed out lit to the cars and Clara and Donna passed out literature to the people coming and going on the nearby subway.

Dan Holman at the busy roundabout.

Pastor Matt & Mark at the busy roundabout.

Caytie at the busy roundabout.

Clara & Donna putting out lit at the busy roundabout.

THE VOTE AND ANALYSIS

Even though that means that only 26% of the electorate voted for abortion on demand to be made legal, the government will attempt to legalize it anyway.  They have enough legislators in their Parliament to do so.  The members of Parliament from the Communist Party had opposed the referendum to begin with because they knew the votes were already there to do it through the legislature, so, they argued, 'why bother asking the people.'  The other legislators wanted the referendum so they could test the political waters and see where the electorate stood on this matter (lest they push it through and lose their jobs during the next election).  However, after seeing the outcome, even though only 44% voted, they will now push it through.

They realize what we saw while there in Portugal, namely, the pro-abortion side is loud and proud & the pro-life side is ambivalent and cowering, plus a large number of people, after having been neutralized by the press through their one-sided presentation of the matter of abortion, have taken a position of indifference.  Therefore, the political will is there to legalize abortion on demand.

At this point, we need to pray that the Lord will bring confusion and strife into the camp of the wicked.  That somehow their attempts to make this baby-murder legal will fail. That the slaughter of Portugal's sons and daughters will not come to their shores.

The pro-lifers in Portugal have made the same mistake as the pro-lifers in South Dakota (and America as a whole for that matter) which is twofold.  The first mistake is that they took the focus off the baby and the cruel murder that they are subjected to in an abortion.  They decided that the woman should be the focus.  In fact, just two weeks before the referendum took place, pro-lifers in Portugal gathered and declared (in agreement with the pro-abortion forces) that penalties for women having abortion should be removed.  They refused to display photographs of babies murdered by abortion while the other side displayed photographs of women behind jail bars.  They allowed the other side to frame the debate and fought on their terms, worried lest they be portrayed as fanatical zealots by the opposition.

The second mistake is that they did not do the necessary trench work to win people to their side.  We repeatedly ran into people supporting legalized abortion out on the streets.  We ran into pro-lifers once.  Grass-roots, out-on-the-streets work is an absolute must, especially when you have a lying, biased press against you.  Billboards and commercials can only do so much and can never replace one-on-one and small group interaction out on the streets, out in the marketplace.

All the nations in Europe where abortion is still illegal would be wise to consider the tactics of Youth Defense in Ireland.  It is because of their grass-roots, out-on-the-streets approach that abortion remains solidly illegal in Ireland. http://www.truthtv.org

We hope you are burdened in heart as we are to pray and beseech the Lord for intervention, and to, regardless of the outcome, use what happens for His purposes in the earth.

May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering!

Pastor Matt Trewhella

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