pArtTy iN tHe viLlaGe...

I'm not so inspired to write as I got so overwhelmed to answer so many e.mails...from 11.30 and it's now 5.30pm... it's exhausting to be so long at the computer...Fiiuuu!!!
So, I'm just gonna do as last times as I upload pictures, I will put a comment...

I don't remember anymore when was it, but it was somewhere in the mid January, when we went to celebrate the party of the village, Povoa de Atalaia... Everyone was inviting us and of course we couldn't miss it...

The legend of the village says that once there was such a big plague of grasshoppers, maybe like the one in Egypt before the Israelites came out with Moses...
but here they didn't asked God to stop it, but to some saint... I never understand why the portuguese people, having so much faith, turn to dead martyrs in prayer, instead of turning to God himself...
Well, the plague stopped anyway and they build a little chappel in the place all the grasshoppers came to die... Then they make this kind of corn cake and some other fried things and everyone is welcome to share it and eat it... it's nice...
But the priest who kind of directed the mass in front of the chappel was very good... he reminded the saint (I forgot his name), but led people to follow his example and not worship him or pray to him...
The scriptures were read also, the part when Esdras reads the Word for the people and they get so touched and repent from their sins... The priest also encouraged the people to get to know and above all practice the word that God gives us

the priest blessed the baskets of the corn cake... and he also blessed the people, which are more important, he said :-)...
I like this guy, he's always encouraging people to live the faith and not just play a religiosity...





The guys didn't really like much the cakes... I didn't mind :-)




Well, it was also one more opportunity to fellowship with the village and we had nice conversations with some people...
I feel it's important to participate in the village community life, even if it doesn't mean so much to us, but it does to people...and specially the old people, they like to see young people around :-)

tReE cAmPaIgN...

so my friends, we're launching a TREE CAMPAIGN in the land here in Portugal...
As you can see from the pictures below, we have a lot of layers in the land which need a lot of trees...
I always remember the words of Amal in Palestine : " everytime I plant a tree, I'm declaring HOPE for this land ", and that's actually the meaning of her name in Arabic... Planting a tree is an act of Hope and faith because it takes a while till it grows enough to give shade and till it bears fruits...


I Hope many things for this land, and that's the main reason why I want to plant trees...
I Hope this place will bear much fruits in the future... many kinds of fruits...
I Hope this place will be a resting place for many in the future...
I Hope many will find rest in the nice shade of the trees of this land...
I Hope many will enjoy eating its fruits...

And I also hope many will take part of this...
I don't have much money to buy all the trees I'd like to plant, so this idea came in my mind...

I'm sharing this with you so you can participate if you'd like to...


Here's the deal :
I'm listing here the kinds of trees that we can grow and its prices by unit...
YOU CAN GIVE FROM 1.75EUROS (Vine) OR MORE :-), AS MUCH AS YOU WANT :-)
Then you just need to e.mail me or post a comment and say which tree or trees you'd like to see planted in the land...
I'll send you then my bank details for you to transfer your offer...

As I get responses I'll say how many trees we already have and which kinds we need to buy more ...just in case everyone wants the same kind of trees and we still have no trees of other kinds :-)
We already have one Olive Tree by the way...
So, here's the list :


OLIVE TREE - 7.50 E
CHESTNUT TREE - 10 E
WALNUT TREE - 17 E
ALMOND TREE - 3.25 E
HAZELNUT TREE - 4 E
PLUM TREE - 3.25 E
APPLE TREE - 3.25 E
PEACH TREE - 3.25 E
"NESPERA" TREE (no translation) - 4 E
CHERRY TREE - 4 E
LEMON TREE - 5 E
VINE TREE - 1.75 E
AVOCADO TREE - 11 E
MANGO TREE - 11 E
"GOIABA" TREE - 11 E

O.K, I'll wait for your feed back... feel free to share the idea with your friends... :-)
I'm excited about all this... this is fun!!!!

gOod bYe & bApTiSm iN tHe lAnD...

Sad news first... we had to say good-bye from Jo and Kathrin... Jo was here since November and he gave so much to this place and to all of us... He's an amazing person...a real servant !!! Kathrin, His girlfriend also came to spend Christmas and New Year with us and rest a bit from her studies... It was so nice to see her again after meeting her in my trip in Germany and being one week in Taize with her...she's really special as well... I love them both !!!
The good news was Sven's baptism...he was already a follower of Christ, but out of obedience he wanted to get baptized and specificaly in the land here in POrtugal... It was a really special moment for him and all of us ...
It was cold, but it was worth it :-)




The tatoo in his back says "Crucified for our sins"... and it's not done yet, he has a picture for his whole back to finish...
There's no greater miracle then a transformed heart :-)
Thanks Jesus !!!

& nEw yEaR...

we had several visitors at the land during this season...mostly from Germany of course, and Emma came from Irland as well...
I stayed in Porto till Emma arrived and we still spent one day in Porto to update our chats... I love Emma and we really have a cool relationship...she's one of those persons I could share anything and know that she would still love me :-)... We had nice times praying for each other as well... she's such an encouragement for me...
Then we went back to the land... there was a lot of new people...some I met before in Germany, others where friends of friends...

It was nice to get to meet them better, even though I was not in such a sociable mood and they were most of the times speaking in German...
Miri had organized a party with the young people from the village in a farm from one of the girls...I was expecting Ima and Thor, some rainbow friends and also my cousin Paulo from Castelo Branco and his friends... they all came on saturday which was cool to get to know each other better... It was quite a mix I tell you... punk-rockers, rainbows, "normals", younger and older... but I like that !!!

On sunday morning most of us went to the mass (now I don't make the mistake anymore...that's how we learn.eh, eh..)... It's beautiful to see the mix as well... The "Freaks" and the black dressed old women from the village :-)...



Our habitual fellowship time in the cafe...

Emma and Anna playing "Fussball" (whatever you call it )


We spend the day together...well, it basically gave us time to cook and eat together... In the night we gathered around the fire...It was a cool mix of people already,
maybe around 30, and we were all waiting for Bruno from the village who would pick us all up in his tractor :-) Yes, it's not a joke... It was definitely the high-light of the night... we took more then one hour to get to the farm... we sang all the way ... we had to cross the village as well... everything was kinda surreal and really funny...
Here are some pictures from the tractor trip... Beautiful Julia...

And Anna , her pretty daughter...here a bit sleepy...

My cousin's friends...

Tabea and Emma...Beautiful smiles :-)

A toast with the girls...it was slow enough to able us to drink...well, whenit was not too bumpy :-)

Ari always smiling...

And Maren also came straight from the airport to the party...we got her at the train station with the tractor :-)

Kathrin in the tractor after we arrived :-)


The party was fun... there was fire outside...

a table full of food inside...
a room with fun music (not really our style, but fun)...


And we kept the tradition as they do every year...at 3am they bring coffe&milk with croissants... a funny combination after so many beers :-)

Monike, Emma and Marcia (who came from Lisbon...I loved having her with us...

The stylish Tim and his pipe...and Simone in the back...

The day after... nice sunny day !!!

One more time Anna...oh, I miss her...It was nice to have a kid around...Ich liebe dich Anna

bAcK 2 XrIsTmas...

O.K, I missed some things in my posts... and the main reason is that I haven't been able to get on line so frequently and this was a busy season for me to be inspired enough to write...
so, I went out from the land for a while around Christmas... First I went to Lisbon to paint my flat and finish the contract for good :-)...
Then I went to Porto to spend Christmas with Edna, my sister, my brother-in-law,Paulo, and his family... Nico too of course, he is part of the family, and Simone and Peter, 2 of the Germans who are at the land also joined us...Look how beautiful my sister is pregnant...she has twins, 2 boys maybe :-)
It was fun and nice to know Paulo's family better... we ate a lot as well :-)...
here's Nico...

Edna opening the baby presents... she was all excited as this is something new for her :-)

Simone and Peter...

LiTtLe mIsTakE …

just to correct my little mistake on my last post...
We don't go to the "mess" but to the "mass" on sundays :-)...
but it does sound the same to me :-)...
sorry guys..and thank you Lisa... I always like when you correct my english, even though you say you like the way I speak things wrong...

"tHeY cAmE 2 bRiNg uS jOy"

"They came to bring us Joy" , these were the words the young people from the "Club" of Povoa da Atalaia wrote about us... They made a board with different pictures from the Year with funny, subtittles, but when it came to our picture that's what they wrote... We felt really honoured ...

Mostly Miri, Edi and Juran have been going to the "Club", the village's Young people's Place, to hang out with them, build friendships and drink some beers :-) ... When we had our visitors during Christmas and New Year, everybody wanted to go to the Club... well, there's not much going on for young people besides that anyway :-)...
It's not a big surprise for us that we are the lattest attraction in this area :-), and everybody has their own rumour about who we are supposed to be...Who are these "different" young people who came to this "middle of nowhere place", who live in the mount without electricity in tents and caravans, and go to the mess on sunday morning?!!


So, this last friday we (mainly Miri) organized a party for our friends in the Club... the girls made really cool decoration out of recycled stuff, some practiced some songs to present, we would have a fire show with Poe-Poe and then we'd dance all night with Dominike mixing some music...
I arrived at the party right on time coz I went out for the day and came on the last train... Miri asked me to bring the Dvd of "The Vision" (Pete Graig's 24-7 text) in portuguese so we could presented in the beginning...

As I came in the Club I got really amazed... It was packed with people, not only from Povoa da Atalaia, but also from other villages around...people we never saw before, but who already heard about us... they were all waiting in expectancy for the "presentation"... we were all amazed and didn't know what to think... there were young people, old people, families and people who never put their feet on the "Club" before...


So we started to present ourselves...we said we are Christians and that the Dvd would show what we are about...
It was powerful, even though "the vision" is such a big text to grasp it all at the first time...
After that we presented few songs with guitars and drum and then we took everyone outside to see the fire show... they all liked it...
The night went on and on with dance and all sorts of music... there was a little girl who didn't want to stop dancing, and also a cute old man, maybe around his 60's, who started to observe how we were dancing and then joyned us... he was the show of the night... he didn't stop till 3am, and he was not drinking anything... he was just full of Joy and having fun and those "different" young people... he was even jumping to punk/ska music... simply amazing !!! No words to describe !!!


Where the Spirit of God is , there is FREEDOM ... and JOY !!!
So, here's the high-light of the night :-), Mr. Infante...
He also lives in the mount... he was fired from his job in a glass factory and he was given 2 months of life because of a lung infection... well, this was 20 years ago... who says he's not alive ?!!! More than all those who were at the party :-)





I still have to write about new year party ... but, next time :-) maybe wednesday... C U