gOiNg tO tHe LaNd ...

tomorrow I will be moving definitely to the land in the country side of Portugal... so I'll not post so often again :-/ ... sorry, but I'm not an "every day" blogger... I already shared about it in my blog but let me give you the background of it all coz you’ll realize how God is in all this from the beginning☺ ...well, it's more how God got us all involved in this :-) ...

Yves and Regina are a couple from Belgium who came to Portugal for few times visiting her brother who married with a Portuguese woman. Yves always thought he could never live in Portugal. But one day they went to visit her sister in law’s family in the country side and they saw this piece of land to sell… While there, Yves heard from God he was going to buy the land… And so he did, totally out of obedience… Of course they got excited about it and started already to dream of what God might wanted to do in that land… They went back to Belgium, sold they business and went to Portugal with all their luggage to buy the land… Wow, how about that as a background story !!! 

Yves and Regina were "city people", they knew nothing about working in the land, but they were willing to learn and they started to clean the land that was abandoned for years… Yves knows about horses coz his father does that in Belgium, so he also wanted to focus on that (they started with one, now there are 4 already☺)…They also picked up the olives (main product of the land) and got some nice olive oil ☺ 

 This was last summer (2005), and as they moved, they were looking for Christians who were more into an organic and simple way of being… so somehow they found my blog and got in touch with me☺. We set up a meeting at my house in Lisbon and I liked them and the whole story and vision of the land… Yves and Regina started to share about the land so they could have people coming over to join and help, and also to have some donations coming in coz they had no longer their business to support themselves and the land… 

They rented a house in the nearby village (the land has no house to live in yet) and had an upper flat for guests and volunteers to come… About 6 months later they were starting to feel discouraged coz there was no one coming to help and no finances coming in as well… they even started to doubt if it was God’s idea at all… But deep inside they knew God still had a plan for that land… 

I went there in May and we dedicated the land to God with Olive oil and wine… something they were already feeling to do since they got it… At the same time I was also in a turning point in my life… I was feeling my time to live in Lisbon was over and I was considering the idea of moving into the land… 

I have had this dream since my first contact with the "rainbow family" back in 1996  ... to live in a community in the country side and grow together in faith with other spiritual and like minded people…an open place where others could come in and also find the Love of God, in themselves, in others and all of Creation…

 I never thought it could be that early and I thought God wanted me in the city for longer time…but... as Mike Scott sings in one of his amazing songs "If you want to give God a laugh, tell God your plans" :-)

  I shared with them about my common dream and also about other “Jesus Freaks”(Christian movement of alternative and anarchic groups all over Germany) I met on my trip last year who would also love to live in community like that… 

At that time Yves said “well, it seams that you guys have vision but don’t have land, and we have the land but somehow we feel without vision now”… we were starting to put 1 + 1 ☺… And I believe they didn’t loose the vision, they were just discouraged at that time with all the struggles and doubts… 

 In June I went there again with Juran (Jesus Freaks Austria) who is in Portugal already since last January, and we were already excited with what God might want to do in this land… I also took all my things from Lisbon and I was definitely moving in… Both Yves and Regina’s parents were in the land as well and got so excited that they want to buy another land themselves as they will retire in a couple of years… This one has a house, a toilet :-), electricity, water in pipes, a stable for the horses and grass for them to eat… So it didn’t need much to get people excited about coming… 

A mobile community of “Jesus Freaks”  decided to live in buses and be On The Way,  and were looking for a warmer place to spend the winter…Dominique,Frauke, Monique and Timmy, 2 couples, and also Simone, Julian and Peter, who will come in mid October… Dominique and Frauke, are going to have a baby around November ☺, so, one more member to join the Family ☺ There are also 3 carpenters coming, Jo, Edi and Miri (not sure yet) who will come to help with the constructions we’ll need ☺ … There are few others who might come later but we are not sure yet … 

To start, we are already 14…we’ll have 4 buses and a caravan which will be helpful in the beginning as we don’t have any house yet… We might work in both lands at the same time… Dominike and Frauke need a more cozy place to stay with the baby, so they might stay in the second land where the house with electricity is…it’s close by the other too, so we’ll not be apart ☺ 

 THE VISION ...  TO BE A SPIRITUAL FAMILY, sharing our resources and skills, learning with each other, supporting each other, praying and be available for The Spirit to use us in the community around us… We want to seek God first and listen about the bigger vision, for we know this is definitely not about us… 

Maybe we’ll not have a clear vision from the beginning, and maybe we’ll never have a clear vision, but we want to be praying, listening and obeying step by step… 

 I Personally feel that the land is going to be a RESTING PLACE for many who will come in and out… a Home for the nomads to come back and forth and be refreshed and restored… A place of Love and Grace for people to come as they are and feel accepted… A place where “iron sharpens iron”, where we will all grow in ways we cant even imagine yet… 

 As for the management of land, I dont have much experience, but we want to practice PERMACULTURE organic farming, which is about designing a sustainable future for this and next generations... it is about people helping the land and the land helping people☺…

 it’s about planting many diverse cultures in a way that it doesn’t take much effort to take care of them in the future… We might learn a lot from that, on how to be an Organic Community of people as well ☺, playing our own roles, exercising our personal gifts and let God work the best out of us ☺ 

OUR  NEEDS:

 • PRAYER will always be welcomed… Above all, we want to be a spiritual community... 

• We’ll need some FINANCES to start, for construction materials, pipes for water, food for all, communication expenses and transportation (I have no idea about numbers)… We need to pray about ways to make some money to support the community, maybe a small business idea…

we need to pray about and speak together…We’d need some money to start that as well… 

As I said, we want to have all things in common, so we’ll have a communal account if you’d like to contribute and invest in this community…and don’t think what you have is little☺... get in touch if you want to send any donation !!! 

• VOLUNTEERS will be always welcome… anyone who have skills in construction or farming are needed 

• We’ll also be glad with all sorts of MATERIAL DONATIONS, like wood, water pipes, blankets, carpets, kitchen stuff, tents (tipis or other kinds) and whatever you think it could be useful and practical to send to us… 

 BE IN TOUCH IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT US… SHARE WITH OTHERS !!! BE BLESSED…