More often and shorter? Don't think so...

O.k., I think I shouldn´t even have a blog…sorry guys, my last post I said I would write more often and shorter, but here I am, 2 months later, trying to update you about my life in Lisbon…
I love writing and I love communicating, but I don´t have a computer I can access internet and I don´t have connection in my house…so, you have to excuse me :-)…
I was trying to make this less boring, but now I have a bunch of things to share again…O.K, I will try to make everything short…but as I know myself :-) I´ll not promise anything :-)…
About that computer I got offered, I still didn´t get the chance and transport to get it here, maybe tomorrow…
Oh well, but Life is good anyway…I love it !!! God loves me :-) !!!

A HOUSE OF GUESTS

A lot of things have been happening actually…I´ve been having a lot of guests coming over and I´ve been pleased to hang out with them, get to know them, showing them the city, sharing hearts, visions, etc…
Simone from Jesus Freaks (Berlin) was the first one to visit me…she´s half Portuguese, half german and she would like to come to Lisbon one day…we´ll see…

she´ll come for another visit in March…I only spent one day with her and her friend ´cause she went to the beach in the south…I don't blame her :-)
There was a girl named Hanna, also from Berlin, friends with some Jesus Freaks, who also stayed for a week… I didn´t even met her actually…how silly is that!!! In the exact same week, I was at the Borden ´s taking care of the kids while they were out for the 24-7 leadership gathering…I had to take the kids to school, soccer practice, cooking, etc…play the mom…well, the big sister I would say!!!…it was fun…and they are all easy kids, they helped me a lot as well…
But Hanna enjoyed my room and my house mate anyway…she was coming to rest and chill and I guess she did that…I live right in the centre of Lisbon, so it´s nice also to go anywhere… I´m glad my house can host whoever needs a place to stay and rest…
After that week I finally “arrived” at my place…it was hard to settle down again… I just love to have a house so I can receive people or throw parties, otherwise, I would rather live in a van or something :-)
On that week I got a phone call from a Polish couple, Martin and Ola, friends of friends I met in Germany…they are involved on that great festival SlotArt Fest …they were at the end of their Honey-Moon, they were in Lisbon on their last day, and they would have their flight that night at 1a.m … I said “they would”, and this is not my bad English, I mean, they didn´t fly that night…They made a mistake with the date, thinking that 1a.m. would be of the night of that day, when it was actually the early morning… Ups!!! I wouldn´t like to make such mistake…
They called me from the airport and I was not even at my place…I was at a friend´s birthday, and my house mates were not there as well…luckily my landlord lives on the 1st floor and has the keys of the flat, I just told them to go there and ask…Thank God he got convinced that they were telling the truth (Whatever language they may have spoken) and he opened the door for them…


So, after stressing about it and realizing they had nothing to do except enjoying the extra holydays, they end up getting a new flight for a week after that…they got their Honey-Moon extended :-)…It was really good to get to know them better, they are awesome… we end up learning different things from each other´s experiences, having a lot of conversations about “simple church”, because they are in the same process as we are here… In interesting ways, God is still making connections everywhere…
After they left (the day after I think), I got another call from a German young guy, Leon, who got my contact through another person…he was coming from Germany with his van, surfing along the cost and heading Lisbon, where he would work for 6 months with a German Church…but he didn´t reach Lisbon, well, not the way he thought he would…someone crushed his van and there was no way to repair it…so he called me and told me he needed a place to stay… “- Come on, of course you can come to my place”…This time I laughed, this was too funny…one after another…”-O.K. God, if that´s what you want me to do, I love it, simply welcoming and hosting people.”
As we got to hear each other we realize we have friends in common from Jesus Freaks.
Some days after, a friend of mine arrived from Germany as well, Judith, one of the Jesus Freaks from the “rainbow family”…

this one I was already expecting and looking forward to see…a little sister God connected me with during my trip…
It´s interesting how I can already see the purpose of those 5 months travelling around in Europe…I met such nice people who are becoming such true and lasting friends…
so I had 2 guests at a time. Don´t think my house is huge, but it´s always enough
:-).
Judith stayed for 10 days and it was so nice, we had really nice times speaking with each other, praying, having fun and we even went for a swim in the ocean one time…it was really hot and the water was good…it´s not so normal for late October, but it can happen :-)…
Leon stayed till the end of the month, but he moved in November to a room I got for him through friends…he might move back here in December, ´cause one of the girls who live here is moving out… we´ll see…
It´s a blessing to be able to offer a shelter and a home to others… I love that !!!
And during my trips I felt also so blessed to have so many shelters and so many homes…some with people I just got to know…

So, that´s mainly what I´ve been doing…I´ve been giving my time to people…and offering them a place of rest and peace…as much as I could… I´ve been hanging out , sharing lives, cooking and showing around… it´s a real pleasure to be that for others and bless them somehow…
I´m already looking forward for the next one in December, Yuri, from the rainbow family, also from Jesus Freaks (Austria).

Oh, this was my birthday, on the 1st of November...
you get older, you get sillier :-)



LISBOA MATRIX

That´s my spiritual family, my community, my church, whatever you wanna call it…they are the ones with whom I grow together towards Jesus likeness…mostly they are the Borden´s (Byron, Lisa, Trevor, Colin, Heather and Jesse, even though he´s studying now in the Usa), Jasmin, my dear sister, Ben, my lovely brother, Nelly, another dear sister and the Uhler´s (Marty, Carey, Christian, Dane and Carlie, even though she´s also studying in Usa now)…These are the closest ones, then there are others with whom we also meet around Jesus…I hang out with a group of Portuguese young people who meets at my place every 2 weeks or so…we´re still trying to get the best time for all of us, but meanwhile we just spread the word and get together…here is Ben and Jasmin as well, then Ruben, Pedro, Ivo, João, Mena, Tehur, Bruno, Marcia and Nuno&Paula (couple)…It´s a nice family too, we´re still getting to know each other better…Ben, Jas, Ivo, Ruben and Pedro have a band, “Triplet”(www.tripletrock.com ) which Tehur and João hang out pretty much with…We met Mena through João, and me and Ben introduce them to Marcia, Nuno and Paula…We all have a desire to grow together as friends and also in our faith as a real spiritual family, getting to know more of Jesus through each other, letting The Spirit flow among us as we meet around Jesus…
We call the big community “The Matrix”, because we just see it as a web of relationships, connected through Jesus, which spreads as we get to know more people and they get to know us, and through us, God…We are from different ages, styles, nationalities and we have also different passions, like music, surf, skate, arts, nature, etc…and we have in common the passion for prayer, for the poor, to see God´s Kingdom come, to see lives transformed, etc…(you can check in www.lisboamatrix.com but we´re still working on a real web site and changing some things)
We´re still trying to figure out the meaning of “The Matrix” (without freaking much about it), but what we really want is TO SIMPLY BE a Christ centred community who Love God above all and Love our neighbours as ourselves, making disciples of every nation, tribe, people and language…

HEART IN PORTUGAL

I´ve been also involved in what God is doing in my country, Portugal…I´ve been spending most of my time alone with God…listening, speaking, relaxing, resting, learning and acting…And as I do that, He puts more and more hunger in my heart to see this Nation transformed…Not that I will do it…But I know He can and He will…
I feel it´s a critical time for Portugal…He´s aligning things and people…He´s building up and connecting His Body…
Perhaps because I was out for 6 months, but when I came back, I felt a bit like Neemiah felt when he was walking through Jerusalem and saw how destroyed it was…
Portugal is facing one of the worst crises ever…financially, politically, socially and ecclesiastically …
WE NEED A TRUE REFORMATION … AN HOLISTIC ONE…
AND I BELIEVE IT´S COMING…
REVIVAL IS COMING… AND HOPEFULLY REFORMATION WILL COME ALSO TO CHANGE THE OLD WINESKINS, SO THAT THEY WILL BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN THE NEW WINE GOD WILL POUR OUT …
We had our second Connect Portugal (see www.connecteurope.org ) in the end of September and it was really good…we moved out of Lisbon and went to Faro (south) as we want to connect with young people from other districts of Portugal…

It was much different from the last one…Heidi from Connect Europe was suppose to come but in the last week God closed the doors…Not only for her, but also for others who wanted to come from Lisbon…we end up being only 12…but it was so powerful…we spent most of the time praying for the Nation and for each other, encouraging and supporting eachother…It was cool on Sunday morning ,

when we took all the teenagers from a local church to pray for them …They got really encouraged and thankful for all that…
And that´s what we feel God wants us to do… To go throughout Portugal, to every district, encouraging teenagers and young people, simply speaking God´s destiny over their lives… encouraging them to be instruments in God´s hands to change their friends, theirs schools, their nation, their genaration…


With this in our hearts, we are also organizing a NATIONAL PRAYER CAMPAIGN which is going to mobilize the whole Body of Christ in April 2006 , specially the young people, to pray for the nation, setting up 24 hour prayer rooms
(see www.24-7prayer.com )…
We are making already a web site where anyone can take all the information needed, and we will also be travelling to share this among the Body of Christ…
But this I will leave for the next posting as this one is getting way too long, as usual…
Sorry guys, and thanks for your patience…those who read !!! :-)
LOVE GOD…
LOVE ONE ANOTHER…
KEEP THE PEACE…
SEEK FOR JUSTICE…
AND MAKE ALL THIS WITH JOY IN YOUR HEARTS,
KNOWING THAT GOD LOVES YOU AND CARES FOR YOU,
NO MATTER WHAT :-)