gOod bYe & bApTiSm iN tHe lAnD...

we had to say good-bye to Jo and Kathrin... Jo has been 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 on my trip in Germany and being one week in Taize with her...she's really special as well... I love them both !!!

Sven, our dear brother from Switzerland asked if he could be baptized here... well, why not?! he already made his choice in this life to follow Christ/Love and not the world/Capitalism, but he still felt he wanted to be baptized and specifically in the land here in Portugal... It was a really special moment for him and all of us ...
It was cold in our neighbour´s spring, but it was worth it 



It seems just like a religious ritual that one has to do to be a christian, but it´s so much more than that...

I remember my time in Angola when I was suggested to be baptized by my mentor...I was living and giving my first steps as a follower of Jesus in an ecumenical christian organization,in 1998 when the civil war was still devastating the country and the people... it took me a while to decide... I was quite suspicious of everything as I didn't want to do things just because I was told or because that´s what one does... I needed to meditate about it...me and God... so I did... in the end I got it... at least it made sense to me...

John the Baptist went to the river Jordan to baptize, away from Jerusalem, away from the man made Temple, not in religious purification baths, but in a River... a natural river, outside in the wilderness... the call was to "Repent from our sins" ... Two words that usually create a bad reaction in most people... me included... until I understood what they really meant for those people John and Jesus were speaking to... The greek word used for "repent" is "Metanoia", which is more like a complete change of mind, or consciousness, a complete change of lifestyle ... and "sin" is simply "missing the goal"... 

The preaching of John the Baptist was not necessarily to point out personal failures for people to be "washed off"... for that the jewish had lots of other purification baths and washing of hands and whatever else... John the Baptist would confront mainly the political and religious authorities and would speak mainly of collective or systemic sins... the sin of injustice, of not looking after the poor, of charging more debts than what was agreed, of not being welcoming to the stranger, of not looking after the orphans and widows... not much to do with "morality" as many christians preach today...

people were living under the Roman empire for quite a long time and most were already finding their ways to live within the currupt system and, in a direct or indirect way, to participate in it... This was the call to repentance, "Turn away from this evil imperial system, and don´t participate in its sins" ...

The baptism was a public declaration that they no longer served or supported the roman empire, and it was also, as I understood from my meditations, a declaration into the spiritual realms that we belong to the God of Light and Love, so we can remember when doubt and temptations come as it happened to Jesus after his own baptism...

I asked my mentor Romana, a Brazilian woman, an Angolan friend from our community and an Angolan local pastor to baptize me in the sea, and so they did.