10 May 2006

"pEaCe" oF LaNd iN pOrTuGuEsE mOuNtAiNs...

" Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." (Mark 6:31)... I felt to respond to this invitation of Jesus after the Month of Prayer and specially the last week when I hosted a 24 hour prayer room...me and some of the Matrix family ended up the month with prayer for revival and reformation in this nation followed by a nice party barbecue at the Bordens's yard :-) ...



So, after that I really felt I needed some rest and quietness...not only because of the prayer campaign, but also because I needed some time off to think and process some stuff with God...I feel it's time to seek directions and make decisions ...time to be quiet, wait and listen...
So I went to this friends' farm that I wanted to go for sooooo long...
Yves and Regina are a Belgium couple who wrote me last september after I came from my trip in Europe... somehow they found my blog and wanted to meet me because they wanted to connect with the Body of Christ here in Portugal...so they came to Lisbon and told me their story... you can read more in their blog which is linked to this title or you can find them in my "relationships" links... I got impressed as I heard how they end up being here, somewhere in the country side of Portugal... Regina has her brother here and they used to come for holidays, Yves used to say that he could never come and live in this country... well, till God spoke :-)... they went once to the country side to see Regina's brother parents' in law and there was a farm to sell... They went there and God started to speak into their hearts... so they sold their business in Belgium and came here with all their things... Wow, that's faith !!! That's obedience !!! They didn't even had a clear vision for the place, and they feel they still don't, but they know God has :-) I was amazed and excited !!! I could feel God had a plan with this guys and with this land !!!

This was 6 or 7 months ago, and meanwhile they were out for few months from December to February... Now they are there, trying to work the land and learning all about it...yes, because they were not even familiar with farming before... they rented
a farm house nearby, because there's still no house with living conditions in the land...the top floor of the house is a flat with 2 rooms for guests, a living room, bathroom and kitchen... THEY ARE WILLING TO HAVE PEOPLE OVER TO HELP THEM IN THE LAND ... (in this moment they are in need to have some time alone to just pray and seek God, but is just a matter to get in touch with them)
They already have a horse and a sheep and they also sheltered one dog, Lassie, and one cat, Mia who became part of the "family"... they already had Twister who is a funny hyper dog who barks to plains and the moon :-)

They also got a tractor, a generator, a water pump, and some essencial tools to work and clean the land... I was working for 3 days, helping them just cutting the weeds... and there's still a lot to be done... we just cleaned 3 of terraces...
they have a nice vegetable garden already, and the olive oil they took from last year is amazingly tasty...they took 1300 Kilo of olives last year :-)... there's also cherry trees, oranges and tangerines, figs, oaks, few cork oaks, and small pieces of forest with pine trees and few eucalyptus... It also has a spring and 3 sources of water... It's just beautiful !!!

It's 50.000 square meters of Land, where it can be built 5.000 sm... it's a bit isolated from the next small village (which I consider a privilege)... we still see people coming from the fields in their donkey chariots :-) ... it is also surrounded by beautiful mountains and there are some lakes nearby which I only saw from the train as I was going back to Lisbon...
I just took some pictures with Yves' camera on the last day because mine is broken, but you can already have an idea !!!
IT NEEDS A LOT OF THE BASIC STRUCTURES ON THE LAND SO PEOPLE CAN LIVE...AND THEY ALSO NEED SOME FINANCIAL INPUT BECAUSE THEY SOLD THEIR BUSINESS TO INVEST IN THIS LAND...



Some impression they already got from the land is that is gonna be a SAFE place and a HEALING place... and I also felt is gonna be a RESTING place...
The last day I was there we had communion together, me, Yves, Regina and Marcel ( a Dutch guy who is there to help for a while) ... Then we dedicated the land to Jesus' Lordship, we symbolical poured wine along the borders of the land and anointed it with the Olive Oil from last year's harvest... Something Yves felt God wanted to be done ...
They don't want to develop any vision of their own, but they want God to show His vision !!! BE PRAYING FOR THAT !!!
They do want to be part of a community there which will reflect Jesus and they want to be used to lead others closer to God...

2 comments:

Tracy Howe said...

Hello dear sister,

I have been following your blog for quite sometime, hoping to write, hoping to visit Portugal...I am finally initiating at least a little conversation though. My name is Tracy. I live in Colorado in the United States, very much in the mountains. (It snowed last night and summer is almost here) My house back national forest and you are welcome anytime!

I would love to have long conversations with you and meet all of your friends, but here I'll just introduce myself. I am a Blue Renaissance artist (Enter the Worship Circle). I have been touring/traveling full time for the past six years and so have intersected a lot of friends that I see listed on your blog. We (my band) is part of the ONE campaign, I am friends with the 24-7 crew and staff in Kansas City, I am part of the Enter the Worship Circle crew and have translated a lot of the EWC stuff for Spanish speaking churches. I lead worship in Spanish and English and started learning Portuguese a year and a half ago. I'll be tested this August when I go to Brazil. I think I speak pretty good espanu-guese at least :)

I want to backpack through Spain and Portugal very soon. That's it for now. Know you have another friend in Colorado.

Much Blessing, Tracy

www.therestorationproject.com
www.restorationvillage.com
www.worshipexplore.com
www.bluerenaissance.com

hajo said...

That sounds exciting! We hope that you will find the direction and that God will not only restore you but ressurect you.. You are in our hearts and prayers! Lots of love from the 2 of us in Turkey!