rEaDy 2 gO...nOrTh aNd mIdDlE eAsT...

yah, I'm ready to go...today I'll gather for the last time with my community family here in Lisbon...we'll also have a special guest, Brian and Pauline Houston, they are good friends with Byron and Lisa Borden and he's a nice Irish singer...and seams a nice guy as well :-) check him out at his link in my "music" list on your right...
We'll have a barbecue here at the Borden's house...it's been soooo hot these last days...finally the summer, as we know it, is here...

I will warn you already that this might get a bit long... I don't know when I'll have internet access after monday, so I'll just give you a bit of what might happen this next 3 months that I'll be on the road again...

I will go pick up Kerstin and Uli on monday from the airport and we go together to Porto...they're coming from Germany and will spend some days at my sister's in Porto... I'll fly from there on tuesday to Poland to start my trip...

In Poland I will go to SLOT ART FESTIVAL which goes from the 19th till the 24th of July... I heard a lot about it last year and I'm really looking forward to be there... Check the site in "my interests" list... I'm also excited to meet some friends there, like Uli, Agata and Natalia, Ola and Marcin, maybe Silvia, and probably some from the "Peace Convoy" who will head to Israel this week from Germany... I will join them later after "Freakstock" Festival...
That's my next destination after "Slot"... But I still wanna try to visit Rachel, Richard and Anna in their Farm in the country side of Czech Republic and maybe Jane and Martin in Prague... I met Rachel, Richard and their daughter Anna at the Rainbow gathering last year in Czech, and I've been in contact with Rachel through internet... She's a sweety and really longing to know more of God :-)... Jane was here in Portugal, also part of our family and went to Czech last year after getting married with Martin who is Czech :-)

In "FREAKSTOCK" many things will take place and I do hope it will not be too overwhelming like last year... I'll surely see a lot of friends :-)
I will also participate in a ROUNDTABLE with different UNDERGROUND MINISTRIES from all over the world, they named it "Die Gefaehrten"-The fellowship of the underground!", Check the link in "My relationships" to know more about it... I'm really looking forward for that coz I feel God will do something great out of this worldwide network of Underground ministries... It's already encouraging to know what God is doing around the world among underground people groups, like the punks in japan, the hippies in India, heavy metal in Lebanon, and many others... take the time, if you have, to check some of the profiles of those who will be part of this Roundtable...

By the way, please pray for Lebanon situation, 2 guys who are in the Metal scene there were willing to come to the Roundtable but after the recent bombing of the airport by Israeli forces, things are getting almost impossible for them to go...
LETS PRAY FOR PEACE FOR THOSE PEOPLE IN THAT PART OF THE WORLD...IT'S GETTING UGLY THERE!!!
I will also be heading Israel after Freakstock, so be praying for safety and for me to chose the best route to take... I'm almost sure I'll have to cross Syria, and visas can be complicated...


Another great thing is that TRIPLET, one of the bands from my family here in Lisbon, is gonna play there :-)... on friday, at 6.30pm, if you're there, DON'T MISS IT :-)... They Rock !!!! And not just because they're my friends :-)
They are going on a small tour actually, next week they are off to Italy to play at "Rock on The Rock" Festival , then they will go to "Freakstock"... They are part of what God is doing in Portugal in their Scene and also among young people who follow them...Check them out...you should know now...on my "music" list on the right :-), and "my interests for "Rock.o.t.Rock" Fest...

As I said, after Freakstock I will be heading to Israel, probably with 2 other friends from Jesus Freaks...
I don't know if I'll meet the Convoy on the way or if I will go straight to Israel... I really wanna join Emma who will be with a family helping in their project called "Tent of Nations"... They basically need workers for their land, to plant trees and pick up olives, because it's hard for them to reach their own land... how crazy is that!!! just because they are Palestinians and they have to go through Israeli settlements to reach their land...so, that's easier for foreigners...
After that I hope to join the convoy or wherever the Spirit of God leads me... I don't really have a plan...and I do wanna be sensitive to God's voice to see where He wants me to go and what He wants me to do...
I'm meditating in the book of the Acts of the Apostles lately, and I get really excited with Paul's travelings... He was so sure about where God wanted him to go and what God wanted him to do... or even when he was not really sure, God would just "block" his way and give him a vision about where to go...
I would like to experiment that more often... That's one of the things that excites me more when I think about traveling...
Going with The Wind :-) !!!!

wOrShIp iN hEaVeN...

There's a verse I particularly like in Revelation 7:9 when John was having a vision which he described like this :
"... I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands...."
Wow...it always puzzled me how could he identify all that diversity of people groups, tribes and languages when they were all dressed in white ...interesting isn't it?!! they should have looked REALLY different from one another :-)...
I was at this "AFRICA FESTIVAL" this last 4 days and I have to say it was the best Festival I 've ever been... It was in a beautiful place, a big garden with nice trees, next to the river Tagus and "Torre de Belem"... It was really well organized, all the musicians were amazing and it was for free, so anyone could enjoy the blessing...
There were musicians from different African countries, like Angola, Cape Verde, Mali, Senegal, Guine-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and Mozambique...
There were also some performances of nice local bands in a smaller stage, like Refillon and Ebano and also an african drums' performance... They also offered some workshops of African Dance, both for children and adults, drama for children, masks, dolls and instruments out of recycled materials and African dance also for kids...

The crowd couldn't stand still of course...some more professionally, some more naturally, some just the way they would feel the beats...it was beautiful !!! everyone was enjoying... Yesterday I was just trying to imagine how it would be in Heaven, with all the different peoples coming before God's throne and offering Him worship in all sorts of languages, rhythms, stiles, instruments, dances, etc... all the best of each culture in the whole world...wow..I guess it's too much for me to even picture...But It's gonna be awesome !!!
If you wanna check their sound try to find in Google... Bonga (Angola)...Cheikh Lo (Senegal)...Tcheka (Cabo-Verde)...Oumou Sangare (Mali)...Djumbai Jazz (Guine-Bissau)...Tiken Jah Fakoly (Ivory Cost)... Stella Chiweshe (Zimbabwe) and Eyuphuro (Mozambique)...
Stella Chiweshe, a sweet African mama, is the only woman in Zimbabwe to lead a band...she's the queen of Mbira, an instrument which was forbiden during the colonial regime because they feared its magical powers... well, I don't know about that, but it's definitely a beautiful instrument and she also play it beautifully... probably that was the "church" suggestion who like to label a lot of things as "sacred", "pagan", "demonic", "holy", "christian", etc...we've been losing so much with that kind of attitude and we've been also pulling so many people away from God because of our own human rules...on that time people could even go to prison if they would play it...so it was pretty revolutionary to dare to play it, and so I admire this woman for fighting for her culture...
we all know there are many bad and wrong things in every culture, but to point out instruments, dances and outfits it's silly... look at our "western culture"...and look at the church so influenced by it (and I'm not speaking about music instruments here...)





There were also a tribute to Ali Farka Toure who died on March 7, this year, from the bone cancer that he had been battling for years...they had a nice photograph exhibition with some biography... He played last year's "Africa Festival" and I recommend his music... I even appreciate his work more after knowing a bit more about him... He was not only a musician, but also a politician, a farmer, a wise man, a family man and a social activist... In 2004 he put his music aside to dedicate himself to his city in Mali, Niafunke. He was elected president and really made a change in the 53 villages he got in charged of...His first great work was to irrigate the dry fields, taking the water from the Niger River...among many other things, he improved the sanitary infrastructures, fixed the roads, planted trees everywhere, put traffic signals where was needed due to the immense accidents they had in the city, he made available one bus with 70 seats for the kids in school and also supported youth activities in the city, he also developed a sports area and in less than 2 years equipped all the City Hall services with phone lines, electricity and water. For the population to be aware of what's going on in the world he also made available more then 50 Tv channels from his own antena to those who had Tv at home. He started his own Foundation through which he donated more then 10.000 Euros in music material to help support other musicians from the area like Khaira Arby... He also used his international influence to mobilize authorities from other cities like Milan, Rome, Nice and Lisbon to help his village of Niakunfe... he also dedicated his life to assure that people of Niakunfe would have enough food coz he said "when we're hungry we cannot think about anything else"... so he made available 6.000 square meters for a garden and 25.000 to plant rice, corn, lettuce, collie-flower, potatoes, carrots,etc... he also planted 3000 Mango trees, oranges, lemons, gwaba and pine fruit. he also had cows, sheep, goats, camels and donkeys... For each village he made sure it had a school and a nursery hospital...he gave work and food to his city and because of that he was requested by the people to be their president...
Wow, definitely a man who was not living for himself... I would even say he was living by God's kingdom big rule - LOVE :-)
What an example and inspiration !!!
May you be blessed and inspired by that !!!

PEACE

nEw tHiNgS ...

MOVING OUT OF MY FLAT...

finally i got to put all my things in some boxes and leave the flat... it feels nice!!! I know it's God's time for NEW THINGS, and that always gets me excited...I know some people have really hard time with this, but I like it... I guess it has to do with me and the way God created me...since I was born that I'm moving :-)...it's true, I was born in the middle of the war in Angola and my parents had to escape to other town...then we had to move from that one to the capital so we could go back to Portugal...my mom said I slept in a closet on that time coz we were all (5 of us and one cousin) in one bedroom...so the closet was probably the most comffy place that they found :-)...then for the first year in Portugal I guess we were in different places, from an hotel to my grandma's house and finally getting to the flat in Porto where I grew up...so, I guess my traveling nature began early ... I love it now :-)... for the last 10 years I've been moving around between Northern Europe, India, Angola and ocasional trips to Cape Verde and Brazil...
it's even hard for me now to settle in one place for long time :-) ...
I feel good now with only my back pack !!! It's so relieving as well not to have much things...
Even my name, Barbara, means "foreign in the land", so I guess it makes sense :-)...
I went with Juran to the land (i mention it on a previous post, in May I guess) and dropped all my stuff there... and it's not because Yves and Regina have a big storing place, but because I'm moving there in October when I'm back from my trips :-)
Yes, I've been praying for a while (since April) about where God wanted me to go, coz I felt my time in Lisbon was coming to an end... This was also due to the move of the Borden's back to Africa... Not that I was in Lisbon because of them, but they were the ones giving me the most spiritual support, backing me up in all that I was doing here in the city... I don't wanna speak much about that now, but that was a big shake for me, and I realized NEW THINGS were about to come...

So, after some struggling, puzzled with what God might have for me, I finally felt it was time to leave Lisbon and move to the country side... this was actually a dream from long time ago :-)... but I never thought it would be so early :-)... I was speaking with God one of those days and I sounded like a child saying " Is this really true ? Can I go to the country side already? Is this the time?" I couldn't believe myself... I always thought I had to spend more time in the city, coz that's where people are, and then go to the country side... But it seams that God has a different point of view... And I even think I will have more opportunities to be with those God wants to reach in a country side setting than in a city one... people are too busy and stressed in the city, with little time to stop, listen and feel... Well, but we'll see...I'm trusting God knows what He does :-)
What else can we do?!! :-)
It was really nice to be at the farm and help a bit Yves and Regina...There's a lot to do now, speacially because they are most probably getting another land together with both of their parents and have horses :-)... But I'll speak about that later as well...another post so this one doesn't get too long...