tHe eArTh iS tHe LoRd'S... a cOmMuNiTy vIsIoN eMeRgInG...

Today I asked God to give me a sign as I heard the words of Abraham during Mass saying : "Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it (the promised land)?"
...and this word came to me after that :
“ "What do you see, Jeremiah?"
"I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied.
The LORD said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled." (Jer1:11,12)

And what do I see right in front of the house? this blossom... it´s a peach and not an almond, but it says the same... 

I eventually got clarity, and now I say with all my conviction "WE ARE BUYING THE LAND"... After many days confused and without clear direction from God, I now got the clarity through many signs and a very strong dream I had on my 3rd day fasting... We are not just buying land, we are buying SOIL, and Soil is Sacred...

This is more money than I ever had in my entire life, and you know I don´t live with much, but we need to raise 33.000 Euros to secure this land back to it´s original vision... 30.000 to pay Ives and Regina and 3000 as a donation "slice" to sow seeds in other project. I feel to give it to Miri to buy a van to travel with and keep on spreading hope throughout the different communities of "Jesus Freaks" in Germany... It´s her dream, but she has no money to buy a bus...

If you remember in a previous post, Ives wanted to sell it for 45.000 to some business people who wanted to develop tourism. That´s when we found out he was selling the land he "dedicated to God"... a woman came to visit, without any notice, to see the land when I was in town and Miri was on her own. I wrote to Ives, and he told me they were in need of money and really had to sell it. He said if the business people would quit, he would sell it to us for 30.000, 5000 more than what he paid Sr. Rodrigues one year before, so he could "cover the expenses he had "cleaning" the land", he said... "Ok", I said, "If you are selling it, can we buy it?", not really sure how would things develop or how would I manage to get all that money...

I thought of a symbolic way in which people could buy each meter square for 0.66e so we can reach the 33.000E...Does that make any sense? It´s just an idea to help people engage... in the end I think people will just send whatever  donations they can afford and it all goes into the "big pot"...

The official "owner" of the land will be "WHITE STONE”, an Association me and some friends from the “Matrix” created in Lisbon especially to develop different social activities and to have a legal number to start projects like this, both in the city and in the countryside.
You can also become a member of this Association and take part in the development of this land... For those who want, we can also provide receipts for the donations for tax deductions... I will have to find out better how that works...

WE HAVE A DEAD LINE THOUGH, THE 15TH OF MARCH!!!! 

YES, 10 DAYS FROM NOW !!!! 
I can send the bank details from White Stone for those of you who are interested...


Now, for those who have no idea what I am talking about, I will try to summarize the vision and the process so far... be free to ask more questions...

ABOUT THE LAND :

The land is in Povoa de Atalaia, in “Castelo Branco” district, central Portugal next to Spain and between Porto and Lisbon with beautiful mountains surrounding it, the Gardunha...
It has roughly 5 hectares, on a hill facing East with many terraces and with lots of sun, with drinking water spring and a small stream. There are about 50 Olive trees with good olives to eat and make lots of olive oil (we can harvest more than a ton of olives each year), 2 small forests with oaks, mimosas, few eucalyptus and few pines, there are also a couple of cork oaks and a few old cherries. Yves and Regina planted a lemon and a peach tree and there are many different citrus trees...

There is a big pond on the top terrace and a smaller one at the level of the stone ruin, still big enough for a lot of water, for washing and plants... There’s also a tank that we can fill in the hot summer for swimming, but needs fixing.. We need a lot of water pipes everywhere though... Yes, there’s still a lot of work to be done... 

There is a small stone ruin which was repaired by Edi, Jo and Miri, the roof patched, a floor was made with pallets and a chimney made from salvaged drums we got from the forest.We use it as our common kitchen and dinning room and they also built another wooden cabin, started by Sven, which is our store room for tools (now working as shower place) and our first guest room for 2 beds...

THE VISION FOR THE COMMUNITY (very raw so far) :

The idea is to first build the essential facilities for people to come and stay, like small accommodations, compost toilets and shower places...
But even without all that we’ve been staying here for almost 4 months, living in tents, vans, having a shit pit as our toilet and a fire bath for bathing under the stars... We had already different seasons with different amounts of people who come and go...we are now 3 (with some more about to come), but we were mostly around 12 and for New Year we had around 20 people or more...

This could become a place for people to come and go in different seasons, but also for those who want to commit for longer time to stay and live as a family of guardians... We’re all following the path of Christ and try to get to the roots of how the primitive communities lived and dared to defy the Imperial domination of Rome in their time...

We are open for people with all different spiritual paths, as long as we are all aware we are serving the Bigger Spirit of Peace and Love...and Justice for all ...

"A house of prayer for all nations!"

 I see this also as a place where many people will get a different idea of what christianity is about, and breakdown the many prejudices they have against christians (understandably so) ... I feel Europe is missing out important teachings that came through Jesus and those early communities on how to live within the dominating Empire without being part of it... Some were persecuted, killed and eventually  institutionalised and colonised by Rome, to become the following colonizers... we are entering a different time in human history, but at the same time similar, and we need to learn from those who came before us...

I would like to simply live in a spiritual community as a family of God with our Earth...

I picture it being more like an organic and natural kind of community... More like an inclusive family home, an not an exclusive community, inwardly focused and  with specific dogmas and institutionalised rituals and rules to follow... 

If we seek The Holy Spirit daily we will know where to go next... I believe that, it is living together in community (which is not easy at all) that we can best practice the principles Jesus passed on to us, as well as discovering more about ourselves and growing together in a safe place where we can all admit our failures and weaknesses ...and this can already be such a great witness for the times we are living in...a big challenge for all of us... 

this can be a place for those who want to experience it...

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being set free ." ( description of the community of Jesus' first disciples)

that would be my desired picture as a community... in an ideal world anyway... I will see what reality brings...

But we don’t want to be just inner focused, this place will be a place for people to come and find REST, for those who are tired of their daily routines, those who need a break from the city stressed life, for those who need to have a personal retreat, for the nomads who often need a place like home to come back to, etc... we will not ask money for people to stay, whoever wants to give will give, if they don’t, we’ll be glad to have them as well and serve them the same way as the others...we are living with common money for the basic needs of the community, and so far it works well...we will also not ask anyone to help in the land unless they want... It has to be out of each one s conscious, serving from the heart.

 Above all, we want to seek the Spirit of God, serve this land, the people who will care for it and those who come as guests...
There are also those who want a place where they can serve and help for a while, so we’re glad to receive those as well...

A learning centre, a school for an alternative life.

I would also like this land to be a more sustainable farm land in the future, developing a system called Permaculture, and for those who never heard about it is a kind of agriculture and community building where people help the land and the land helps people ...it’s about having a lot of diverse cultures on the right places and best combinations so that each element helps each other...it´s also about taking the best advantage of the natural resources without exploiting them, it´s about producing more than consuming...It takes a while to plan it, and a lot of work to do it, but in the long run it will create balance and abundance...

There are many things and ideas we can do in the future, but those are other steps...

We also want to help the villages around us... There’s a lot of hopeless young people who are bored with life, and there’s a lot of old sweet people who feel lonely and useless in this little villages... We find already a lot of favour before people here, and some young people even said that we came to bring them Joy...everyone knows us, even people we don’t know, everyone speaks about us and they show their love in many ways...the old people admire us because we are young and still want to work in the land, and young people like us because we are “different” and we join them in their parties...they are also puzzled that we are christians, and we’ve been having cool conversations about that... The Mayor of the Village of Povoa de Atalaia always wants to help and support us, and he is always asking us if we could do anything for the village...he respects us a lot and he considers us people of good will who just want to share God’s love... We often attend the mass on Sunday’s and old people really appreciate us for that... So, we are pretty much involved with the people around as well... That s what I felt The Spirit guiding me to do from the start.

But it can´t be just me though... For now I´m committed to stay and I´m mobilizing and hosting those who are interested to come and have a try, but this vision will require a small group of equally committed people...

Be free to share this with others who might be interested and ask more questions if you have any...

Be blessed, and feel a part of all this already

"The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it"( Psalm 24:1)

PEACE

Barbara