nEw yEaR...

it's been a while since I last wrote... I've been quite busy with people who came over, so, that's a good reason to be offline...
Now I'm in Porto again, I came to bring Juran with Amelie (his dog) , to get a big tent that was offered to us and also to take care of some paper stuff of the car... I can't wait to come back already, there's so much stuff to do now at the land... we're buying around 250 trees to plant from a place that is going to shut down and they're selling all trees really cheap... it's also time to trim some other trees and prepare the fields for the Spring... Finally the rain came and that's perfect for the trees we'll plant soon :-)...

But let me share the latest news anyway... This huge bus you see on the picture was one of the Christmas presents for the land....

"it came from Heaven" Willi says... he just doesn't want me to say that he was the one who brought it all the way from Germany... He got it fixed a while ago and wanted to give to a friend, but she said it was too big for her to move around, then he offered it to the Jesus Freak Community in Cologne, but they also said the same thing... "so I offered it to Jesus" , Willi said, "I'm gonna take it to the land in Portugal"... That's Willi... an amazing guy with an amazing heart... on the way to the land 120 Km from it, the big bus broke , in Spain... so, it didn't came for Christmas and New Year, but Willi never gives up, and for him, a broken car is in itself a present :-)...he loves fixing things, and he's simply a genious (have you heard about Macgiver? He´s just the same), even though doctors say he is not able to tie his own shoes anymore, so "Mercedes Benz" fired him after 30 years of work... Tsss, right!!!
he doesn't get bodered much about it anyway, he makes jokes about it all the time...they pay him a good pension and that is enough to support himself and to help others ... anyway, going back to the big bus...so he ordered a piece that was broken... Jo brought it when he came down from Cologne, and they went to Spain... it only took them 2 days to be back with the bus fixed...
So, in a way, yes "it came from Heaven"... a real blessing from God to the land... now we have a "land hotel" :-)... but God used an amazing guy to bring it down to us...


Another amazing present which actually came inside of the big bus, it was something I was longing for for long time...
a motor excavator (I hope that's the proper name)...whatever, it means that we'll be able to work the land much easier and make a bigger vegetable garden this year...
I also got a volunteer to take care and work with it :-), Lukas (in the picture lighting a cigarette)...
Lukas is another amazing guy that came to the land... He's a young punk rocker kid, maybe 17 years old, nephew of Jonathan and Anne... they asked me a month ago if he could come to the land as he was already disapproved in his school...I was excited about it...of course he could come!!! so Jonathan wrote his school and presented the project of the "Mount of Oaks" community and ask them if Lukas could finish his year here, as a volunteer in a social project... they accepted !!!
And it has been so nice to have Lukas around... the school disappoves him as a good student, but the truth is that he's so willing to learn...and he's enjoying so much to be on the land... he's always with Willi and wants to learn all about mechanics... and he loved the "motor excavator", that's why I made him responsible for it...I thought he needed a specific responsibility of his own...and I'm glad he's excited about it...
It's interesting to see how our society labels people and simply discards them as they please, according to their patterns and demandings...
Willi is considered as mental invalid, but in reality he´s a genious...
Lukas is considered a loser and not approved to fit in the system, but he has such an amazing heart, he really wants to learn things and he's good in what he does... for me he has all to be a winner, not a loser...
How many people in this world live thinking they are losers, or end up becoming criminals, addicts or homeless, just because our society doesn't know how to affirm them in their real identity... society is so limited in the options of life it presents... if we don't fit, if we are a bit different, if we just don't understand it, don't agree with it or don't believe in it, we are stamped as losers, crazy, lunatics, dangerous ,etc... Tssss...what an ilusion !!!

On the same picture, on the other side of the table is Ton, a Dutch man who was living for 10 years in Delhi, India (here is his new home at the land).
He started and he was running the Sewa Ashram, a community of the poor and destitute... But now he came back to Europe and he needs some time to get addapted to our ocidental culture, process all that he learnt in India, write down his thoughts (and he has good ones), rest... well, simply BEING... and I guess he found a place for that at the land...he loved Portugal and our people as soon as he came... I'm glad with that...I've been hearing about him and his work for almost three years, and now he's here...so cool !!!

But many others came together with the 2 buses convoy from Germany: Lyna and David who are about to have their child, Maren and Edy who were already here last year...As I said Jo also came after new year and will go back with Willi this coming week...
We also had a guy coming from Sweden, Emmanuel, who heard from the land from different Jesus Freaks and from Emma in UK... It was really nice to get to know him as well, and I'm looking forward to see the pictures he took here...
There was also 2 german girls, Gloria and Marielouise, who are travelling and volunteering in different organic farms through the wwoof program...
Emma also came, of course, and she brought an old friend of hers, Cathy, a very cool girl as well...
For the New Year I also got special friends coming from Lisbon, Denny, Maureen,
Alana and Isaac Hurst, Ben and his girlfriend Martyna, Ruben and Marcia...
Marcia is a special one as well... We've been friends for some years already and the last years we've been getting more and more closer... I love Marcia, and I love her desire to get closer to God...she just decided to quit her job, sell her house and give her time to be with God...well, it was not "just like that", she wisely took the steps she needed to take...some were surprised, some thought she was crazy, but some also encouraged her... I'm really happy that she's staying in the land for a while, and hope to get even closer to her... And I'm sure God will do great things in her life, cuz He always does when we separate ourselves to Him...

So, here are some pictures of the New Year party...

David, Lyna and Chimere(Lyna's dog)...Emmanuel taking a picture...

Nuno, our friend from a neighbour village...

Isaac, Maureen, Martyna, Marcia, Ruben and Alana...
Martyna, Ben (hiding), Maureen (runing away), Marcia (with her beautiful smile), Ruben and Alana...
Edy celebrating the coming of the New Year...opening a beer bottle with the chain saw... everyone got surprised and amazed...the highlight of the night for sure !!!
Even Willi came to take a close look !!!
Gloria, Marielouise, Emma, Nuno, Jared, Wili, Lyna, Cathy and Lukas...

And we also got a new look in our Kitchen...we moved the hang out place for the kitchen place, and we got a new wooden Hoven from my aunt... it's much cosier now :-)


And this is our future "swet lodge", or sauna if you prefer, that Juran and Lukas so carefully built...unfortunatelly it was always too rainy to try it out...but soon we'll make it...