21 December 2005

ThE FirE iS hErE!!!

I was this Monday at a prayer meeting of young people in Porto (in the north). Some time ago they had 200 young people together praying for Portugal …I was really encouraged by what they´re doing…I shared with them about the 24-7 prayer rooms and about the Prayer Campaign in April…I challenged them to set an experiment room of 2 or 3 days before April and they seam to be interested…they are from different denominations and not only from Porto but also other districts around…and they are praying that God will join more denominations and more people from other districts…it´s so cool…they call themselves “Aliança” (Alliance)… they are having wisdom with the pastors as well, they are not in a rebel attitude, but they recognize the changes that need to take place …besides the Monday meetings, they also have every once in a while a meeting called “The fire is here” and that´s where they had 200 young people…they try to invite different people to preach and last time they had a pastor from a gipsy church with prophetic gift and it was powerful… of course some pastors didn´t like and even said some things were heretic… from all the 4 big gathering they had, there´s always some pastors saying they don´t agree with this or that, but then they just accept their opinion and thank them for telling them, but still, they allow God to be the judge in their hearts…I felt a lot of potential there…the only thing was that most of them were Brazilians and Peruvians, not so many Portuguese, but on the bigger gatherings there´s more Portuguese I think…
Wow, I´m happy and hopeful …
I believe the youth will break a lot of the things that divide the Body of Christ in Portugal…Pray for that !!!
Oh well, if this is God´s, who will stop it :-)

16 December 2005

MORE ON THE PRAYER CAMPAIGN

O.K guys, I think we need to change strategy here…
I`ve been travelling with Paulo Pascoal to share the vision of the prayer rooms for April, but I feel we´ll get no where through pastors…I mean about the Prayer Campaign, ´coz Paulo is sharing about the vision of reaching every county still unreached in Portugal…But for the Prayer Campaign I feel we need to reach the youth…
We´ll have a prayer room set in a Mission Congress for youth between the 29th of December till the 1st of January…And we´re still struggling to convince them to project some power points we have to challenge all the youth there (around 300)…
So, what came yesterday to my heart, and I already started to challenge some people about it, is to connect with key young people in different districts and organize prayer rooms of 24 hours for 2 or 3 days…just for them to get the taste and desire for more :-)
We want to challenge the youth at the Mission Congress to participate in the organization of one of those, so they can get the vision and spread it to other districts…
So, I need your prayers for this…
First of all, for openness of hearts to receive the challenge…and key people in each district who will have connections with other young people from “different churches”
( I know it´s weird to say that knowing that we´re suppose to be One church, but you know what I mean, right? A major problem in Portugal is division among the Body...needs to change!!! )
Then, if I need to carry things to all these different districts to set up prayer rooms, I will need someone to lend me a car, and money for petrol… And if the churches have no financial conditions, I will also need some money to buy some things for the rooms, as paints, tape, candles, etc…
I would also need a lap top to present the power points we have and the web site for people to have a better idea how things will work on April…I might have one I could use, but I´m not sure yet if it will be available or if it will work because is an old one…
O.K, I think that´s it
Thanks
Shalom

Barbara

“LET THE FIRE BURN,
BURN IT IN MY HEART
TO SEE THE DREAMS OF GOD COME TRUE”

14 December 2005

I started my tatoo...


well, it has been long time since I wanted to make this tatoo, and finally I got the right thing to do...My brother in law, Paulo, is a wonderful tatoo designer, so I could trust him...I just told him the idea and he draw it...just like that !!!
So,let me explain...the black bracelet is the same as my best friend had,Jorge, a wonderful person and amazing artist (he died in 1997)...he has made it many years ago, it was also designed by Paulo specificly for him...I didn´t know Paulo then...only when he started to date my sister some years ago...the world is small
:-)!!!
So, underneath the bracelet I will put a Bible verse where it´s writen "Greater is the spirit in me" (I john 4:4)...I will leave that for christmas time when I visit my sister again...
From those letters, the fire will come, representing the Holly Spirit,who brings true revelation of The Word, Jesus!!!
From the fire comes a Tree, which seed God created... the tree of my life,which bears fruit in it´s season (Psalm 1)...and you can see the 4 seasons in it :-)...
It still misses some colour, but it looks great already!!!
So, I´ll send you more pictures after december :-)

05 December 2005

A Whole month of 24hour Prayer in Portugal


Me and Jasmin started to share the vision of the prayer month with the leaders of each district of Portugal…We are going with Paulo Pascoal, a portuguese visionary who God put in the Evangelical Alliance to mobilize the Body of Christ to be and act as one…The vision God put in his heart, inspired and supported by Dawn Ministries, is to reach till 2015 all unreached areas in Portugal (still 46 counties), making the Gospel accessible and relevant to all Portuguese till then…
There are 3 basic areas, Prayer, research and strategic vision, which he would like every district to have a leader for…So, he has been travelling already throughout the country, to every district, to pass on the vision and raise up those 3 leaders in each district…
Me and Jasmin come here with the National Prayer Campaign in April, which we are coordinating , mobilizing the Body to get involved through prayer rooms…
We´re making a web site, which is almost done, we also have a power point to present of “The Vision” (by Pete Graig, translated in Portuguese) and we made another one to challenge the Church for the prayer rooms in April…
We are presenting this in every district (when it´s possible, because we don´t have our own computer…pray for this please, we really need a computer to work), and we will present it also at a Youth Congress that is going to take place in December, with approximately 400 young people from all over the country…

The reason I´m writing this is because we need as much prayer as possible…
We all know how hard it is when we deal with PRAYER and UNITY…
This last 2 weekends we went to 3 of the districts, Setúbal, where 50 pastors were invited…only 3 churches were represented there…nobody even bother to say they couldn´t come…and those who did, simply said they wouldn´t come because so and so would come…there´s a lot of divisions among “denominations”…they are even taking issues to the Court…what a shame to God´s name…
this last weekend happen the same in other 2 districts...
So, please pray for this…Pray for open and humble hearts…I believe this is a Key time for Portugal and God is already aligning everything…all these visions, the one to reach all Portuguese counties, the Youth Congress and the Prayer Campaign in April, came into different people´s hearts, and God simply crossed us to work together…because these are visions of the Kingdom, these are visions for a Nation, and hopefully they will bless other Nations as well…

I suggested Paulo that he would not only invite pastors, but also youth…because they are noticing the youth is actually gathering to pray, without any problems of “denominations”… He agreed, so hopefully, the youth will come and bring unity…

Thanks for your time to read and pray.
God bless You with His presence

PEACE
Barbara