Cooperation

You are interested in an internship at Parque Discovery (Mafra, Portugal). That makes us happy! We are very grateful for good employees and want you to benefit as much as possible from this special time. To give you a better idea of what you can expect here, we have put together some more information.

Parque Discovery

covers an area of 4.5 hectares on a ridge in the Rio Cuco valley. The sea is four kilometers (as the crow flies) and a 12-minute drive away, while the capital Lisbon and the airport are around 40 minutes away. Originally set up as a campsite in the 1980s, the property was purchased thirty years ago by Charles and Esther Brabec with the aim of creating a leisure area that would primarily serve Portuguese communities.

Visitor groups come as day guests or participants in events lasting several days. They have access to the swimming pool, sunbathing lawn, adventure playground, volleyball court and circular paths and can cater for themselves in the service buildings (washrooms, showers, toilets, kitchen, barbecue areas, indoor and outdoor seating). There are 75 beds available for overnight guests. Some accommodation units are equipped with a bathroom and kitchen so that they can also be occupied separately by vacation guests.

The heart of the park is a Bible and Creation Museum. The Bible exhibition spans a wide panorama: from cuneiform writing on clay tablets to papyri and parchments that can be seen in the “Qumran Cave”, from the beginnings of book printing and the exciting story of João Ferreira de Almeida, who produced the first Portuguese translation of the Bible, to the Bible in modern media. Visitors can impressively understand that the form has completely changed several times, but the content, the message of Jesus, has remained the same across all cultures, languages, writing systems and technical formats.

In addition, the history of early humanity (“Stone Age” artifacts, ark, ice age), the history of Israel (temple, tabernacle) and world history up to the present are shown as a further line: God reveals himself not only through his word, but also through his actions in (salvation) history. There are lectures on special topics, discussions and film screenings in the auditorium. In the creation exhibition, many different artefacts are used to show why they point to the Creator and cannot be explained by a naturalistic view of evolution. The visit usually ends with a short hike through the jungle in the outdoor area, where you can meet Stone Age people and life-size dinosaurs.

Initially, only (evangelical) church groups came to visit. They experience a time here that strengthens community and faith. Many church leaders also appreciate the fact that topics are taught here that are often neglected in the preaching. For some years now, school classes and groups without a Christian background have also been coming to visit. They are often surprisingly open and unbiased, hear many things for the first time and gain a completely new interest in the Bible. As a result, the focus is now more on evangelism – the proclamation of the good news.

Goals and activities

It is about Jesus. Everyone should hear about him, get to know him and understand what he did. Starting with the history of the Bible and humanity helps to demonstrate the relevance and trustworthiness of this message. Dealing with questions of origins is important in order to overcome obstacles and to be able to classify contradictions to the prevailing world view. Good and deep fellowship, as can be experienced in camps and group events, leaves a deeper impression than any theoretical discussions.

Many church groups visit the park regularly to simply spend a day together in a beautiful and stimulating environment, others hold baptisms here and some plan a long weekend with a program. During the school holidays (a whole three months in summer), children’s camps are held, usually for a specific age group, sometimes with a special focus (such as the “Adonia” musical camp). These groups usually organize themselves and create their own programme.

[Karte]

We would like to further expand what we offer here. We have a lot of space, a lot of time outside the main season and, as long as the benefits and progress towards our goals are clear, financial support to realize new projects. The “ideas list” is long – we welcome anyone with special talents who can make a contribution here:

Outdoor activities: Climbing wall, high ropes course, free swing, slides, pump trail, fitness trail, beach volleyball court, archery range, sports equipment, performance measurement stations …

Indoor activities: Devotional room/library, escape room …

Science: Plant nature trail (possibly with a focus on the plants of the Bible), camera obscura, solar observatory, aquariums, terrariums, insectariums (we would also like to reactivate our beekeeping), repopulate bird aviaries, keep chickens, sheep, donkeys (we already had them two years ago) …

Museum: Walk-in cell, dioramas on biblical themes, history trail …

Installations: Photovoltaics, wind turbine, cistern… Media: new book projects (translation of German books, adaptation of Brazilian literature), video production, social media presence …

Events: New leisure formats and target groups …

Our requirements

You are at least 18 and no older than 26 years of age when you begin your service and have German citizenship, English language skills and a driver’s license. You are interested in other people hearing about Jesus. You are open to getting to know the country and its people, adaptable, outgoing, independent, helpful and show initiative. Then everything fits!

As we are a small team, we expect you to be willing to work in all areas. You can see from the table how the activities at the Parque are distributed throughout the year: Guests means cleaning accommodation, communal areas, pool and sanitary facilities and making beds; Kitchen means taking shopping trips, preparing meals, washing up; Garden means picking up leaves and branches, cutting back trees and bushes, removing weeds, watering flowers, keeping drainage channels clear; Craft means renovation, maintenance, creative projects.

We can fill one or two IJFD places. If we fill both places, then m/f or f/w with shared accommodation. Our volunteer apartment has its own bathroom and a fully equipped mini-kitchen. This means that self-catering is possible, although we will also have meals together.

On the financial and technical side (of the IJFD, for internships we make individual arrangements): 5-day week, 8-hour day, flexible duty schedule (most community camps take place on weekends), 24 vacation days in 12 months, Portuguese holidays (they have more!). You will receive pocket money of €150/month and cover the costs of travel to and from the camp and travel to the intermediate seminar (which has taken place in Switzerland for the last three years). There are no further costs. You are insured (international health, accident and liability insurance) and your parents are still entitled to child benefit.

We consider regular church attendance to be a matter of course if the Christian faith is lived out, and we would be delighted to have you actively involved (e.g. in youth work).

If you are genuinely interested in learning Portuguese, we will be happy to help you take a language course.

Your challenges

What we can’t offer is a large volunteer community. The permanent team consists only of the vom Stein family, our Portuguese employee Sara and 1-3 IJFD students and / or interns. However, most of the time we have had additional supporters here who have helped out for a few days, weeks or even months.

At the beginning of the volunteer year, the Parque is full, but after the fall vacations it gets quieter. It would be nice if you could build up a small circle of friends, e.g. through meetings in the community, language school, sports, choir, etc. However, this is not easy in Portugal, as people here have very few contacts outside of their family and only meet up with very close friends in private. You should therefore be sure that you can cope well with loneliness.

We are currently in a difficult situation in terms of planning permission. We started building a detached house two years ago, but have not yet been allowed to complete it. That’s why we’ve been living in a shared flat so far, sharing some rooms. We hope that this situation will change soon, but until then we need to be more considerate of each other.

Your chances

If you manage the challenges well, you have a good chance of having a great year in Portugal. The beach is close by, you can swim all year round and if you like surfing, you couldn’t wish for better spots. The coastline is spectacular and there are many hiking trails right by the sea. The climate is mild, with many sunny days and long dry periods. Lisbon is close by, the infrastructure and health system are well developed, the police and fire department work, mobile phone and internet coverage are excellent, the roads are safe, you can buy almost anything (it gets difficult with shoes from size 47 upwards) that you can buy in Germany. The people are calm and friendly. So you don’t have to cope with a big culture shock or go without much. In the Parque you have the opportunity to meet interesting people – not only Portuguese, in the last two years about 1/4 of our guests came from Germany. If you want to use the time to reflect on the past, plan your future career path or reposition yourself spiritually, you can find a lot of peace here in an inspiring environment.

Your application

You can send your application directly to team@parquediscovery.pt – the usual: a CV in tabular form, a photo and a “letter of motivation” (why Portugal? why mission?). If we accept your application, we will forward everything to netzwerk-m for further processing, where we will be very competently supported by Claudia Wetzel. There you will also find out the details of the timetable for the process. Here is just a rough overview:

The deadline by which all documents must be submitted is usually the beginning of July. First, a 2-week preparatory seminar takes place in Germany. Your IJFD in Portugal begins on the day you enter the country. Next spring there will be an intermediate seminar (1 week) in Switzerland and, after you have returned, a re-entry seminar (1 week). The duration of the service in Portugal should be 12 months (at least 6 months are required for the IJFD to be officially recognized).

You can make an informal request for an internship or work placement outside of a defined format. We will then look together to see what opportunities are available.

We

moved to Portugal as a family in August 2019 to take over Parque Discovery from the founders Charles and Esther Brabec, who continue to live on the property. Since then, we have experienced a lot of encouraging things, but also a lot of ups and downs during the pandemic alert phases.

Greetings from Alexander and Christiane from Portugal!