bUyiNg tHe LaNd bAcK 2 GoD...

As most of you know, we had to buy the land last year around this time ...with 5 weeks to raise 30.000 Euros, God was faithful, and with it He got many people to participate in what is now God's land, as it was supposed to be from the beginning... we learned that nothing depends on us, nothing depends on men's will, but God is sovereign above our individual choices of participating in what He desires to do or not...(obviously when men choose to live their own way, they always end up harming themselves or others)
So when we say now that this land belongs to God, we really mean it, and we can tell a nice amazing story of God's miracle and provision...

And also , being God's land, it became many people's land... from all those who have been passing by (I never counted, but more than a hundred for sure), from all those who have been praying, from all those who have been generously putting money into it, donating books, buying trees, bringing buses, giving tents,etc... Even the Mayor of the nearby village and our neighbours who have been supporting us in so many ways...As I said in a previous post, we are all simply carers of what belongs to God, and each of us plays our special role in it...

We're really thankful for Mike and Ed who generously lend us 8000BP (+/-10.000 Euros) to be able to pay back to Yves and Regina the total amount of 30.000 Euros by April last year...
But we're almost in April again and we need to be faithful to our word and pay them back the money...
We must have around 1000 Euros that some people have been giving throughout the year, so we still need to raise 9.000 E more till April to cover up the total amount...

We thought we could sell our olive oil to help, but this was not a good year for the trees, so we cannot count on it...we just got 30 liters this year, which is not even enough for our regular use...

As I was delighting myself few days ago with the beauty and the amazing smell of the little Almond tree we planted last year, I was reminded by God of His promise last year as you could read in this post ...
“The word of the LORD came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?"
"I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied.
The LORD said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled." (Jer1:11,12)


As it happened last year, we'd like to offer you again the opportunity to participate in all that God is doing among us and donate some money to this land... it doesn't need to be much cuz we've been also learning that "little is much" in the Kingdom of God... consider it as a seed that God will multiply... consider it like planting a tree, proclaiming hope to this land and to God's purposes...


we have the official papers as well (after almost a year of paperwork) and the land is now in the name of an Association we formed 4 years ago in Lisbon called "White Stone", that anyone is welcome to be part of...
So here are White Stone's bank details...
--
White Stone – Associação Recreativa e Cultural
Banco Millennium BCP (Portugal)
NIB- 0033-0000-45315758012-05

International transfers:
IBAN- PT50-0033-0000-45315758012-05

SWIFT- BCOMPTPL

Address: Rua da Santa Rita, 78;Almoinhas Velhas;2755-199 Alcabideche - Portugal


Share with your friends as well... you can also make different initiatives, like the "Jesus Freaks Community" in Cologne who are setting up a big party with concerts and making t-shirts to sell to raise money for the land :-) Thank you guys... this community as been a blessing to the land in many ways !!! They are beautiful people !!!

This is already a miracle land... and I'm not only speaking about raising money, but mostly about people's lives being transformed, people finding the peace and rest they were longing for, people being literally delivered from death, people being affirmed in their identity and a barren land being transformed into a beautiful and peaceful garden :-)

Thanks to you all ...
And thanks to God
who make impossible things come true !!!
Above all , pray :-) that's the most powerful gift...

PEACE

pLaNtInG tReEs...

Last 2 weeks we've been busy with planting the trees we bought...almost 300 new trees in the Mount of Oaks...here in this picture is Lukas, Jared and Nuno planting little forest of Birches... they were all excited about it !!! we all were...


I was not expecting we'd get so tall trees already, so when we plant them we can already see little forests :-)
Maybe in 20 or 30 years this will be an amazing beautiful place... it is already, but when all this trees will get to their full size it's gonna be amazing !!!
This is not about us anyway ( I speak for myself), I have no idea where am I going to be in 20 years from now, but I'm glad to picture how this place can become one day...

This is about planting hope... This is about believing that it is worth to care for what we have today... even if the world ends tomorrow...It is about realising that we're just stewards of what belongs to God... land should have no owners, but carers...
it is not about the future either, but maybe about the past... long time ago God told us to work and take care of a beautiful garden He made... a garden where God would walk in the cool of the day :-)...

Anyway, I love to take care of this little piece of land, and help to turn it into a pleasant , restful and peaceful place for all those who are already here and for all those who will still come...

here's Glorie clearing another field to plant one more "little forest"...me and Marcia were helping her...
in the picture before, Marie (before she ate the plant), Glorie and Marcia, were planting Birches in front of the prayer forest...

here Lukas is ploughing the field for the Cherry trees... he was having a hard time with the old tractor...but look at his hair style :-) ...

Joel came yesterday with a better tractor to plough the land... it's from his grandfather and we can use it till next week... so cool !!! They were both all excited , they didn't even want to have siesta...

Joel has been a great help here as well... it's really nice to have him around... he's thinking about staying longer... Cool !!!
Soon we can start with the vegetable garden :-) A lot of work this season... It's nice to have a lot of people as well :-)
Step by step.. everything in its timing...

Just some nice pictures now :-)
...here's Pula, he's wildest since he got "fixed"...

but he's still the sweet little Pula :-) ...here with Lukas ...

Marie Luise is out of the hospital...

Ok, just to finish this chapter, and for those who have been following this story, Marie Luise is back on the land... Hiiippyyyy!!!
she still needs to rest but the level of enzymes had decreased considerably... I believe is one more miracle :-)... she also needs to drink lots of water and on tuesday we go back to the hospital to check if everything is back to normal...
Praise God once again!!!
I just wanted to add here the pictures of the plant she ate, Water Hemlock or Cicuta,
just in case you cross with it somewhere...
ANYWAY... DO NEVER TRY ANYTHING WILD UNLESS YOU ARE TOTALLY SURE IT'S EATABLE !!!

This one is easily mistaken with a wild white carrot, it's leaves look like parsley (even though Cicuta gets a bit red near the ground) , and the flour grows till 2 meters high and it also looks like anise ... every part of it is EXTREMELY poisonous and deadly...Often poisonous plants have similarities with other normal plants ... BE AWARE PLEASE !!!

a rEaLLy hApPy BiRtH dAy tO mAriE LuiSe...

We all went to the hospital for the 22nd birthday of Marie Luise (her bed number is also 22...funny!!!)...
After all she went through we have even more reasons to celebrate her life ... She's now in a room just waiting to get better and get out... her blood enzyme's level is still too high, around 30.000 , when the normal should be 200 (when she came in she had 57000)... so she needs lots of rest...
And prayers are still welcome as well... thank you for all those who are praying all over the world...
But of course this day was special and we went to celebrate with her and bring some joy to the hospital...

the doctors gave us the waiting room to be with her...we took cake, juice and lots of baloons :-) ... yes, this was in the hospital!!!

We got her presents...lots of chocolate (which she loves), a new pair of shoes that she really needed...

 and this funny joke from Ton :-)

yes, a sarcastic joke, but very funny!!!... a root, nicely disguised (not the one she took, don't worry) !!! she laughed as well... yes, she was able to laugh about the silliness of the whole situation now...
Actually, Ton is a goofy guy !!! Look at him...




Trish (I'm almost sure I spelled her name wrong), Glorie and Lukas... Trish is a friend of Ton who just came saturday from New Zelland... Marie was loking at her very seriously and asked "do I know you?", and we said "what?! You don't remember Trish?!!" ... of course we all started to laugh again, cuz she really didn't know her... we were laughing cuz she couldn't remember any of us except Glorie after she took the root ... yah, now we can laugh about it ...

we laughed a lot playing with baloons too... I laughed so much that my stomach was aching :-) it's good to be a child :-)


and of course, Marie, Gloria and Lukas had to play a game of their favourit card game...they 're always playing this in the land !!!

She also said she learned a new word in portuguese that people are always saying: "Pronto" (which means "ok")



Marie and Gloria, her cousin and best friend !!! So sweet !!!

we asked Marie if she experienced God in a special way and she said something really cool ... she said she asked God why He didn't want her with Him yet...and He told her that He still has things to do through her here in this life :-)...
" I'm so excited" she said, "God must have really cool stuff for me" ... so cool to hear these words... I believe the same !!! and we're all glad she's still with us... her family is also grateful that she is with other Christians and we're taking care of her... but really, God is the one who is taking care of her, wherever she will go, no matter with whom she will be, we're sure she will always be taken care...

We surely had great fun...and Marie was very happy that we went there...
In the end the others left and it was just me , Glorie and Marcia... We prayed for her and Marcia also had this passage from the Bible God shared with her while praying for Marie Luise Psalm 116, and it's like it could have been written by herself in this situation :-)

"I love the LORD, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came over me;
I was overcome by distress and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the LORD:
"LORD, save me!"

The LORD is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.

The LORD protects the unwary;
when I was brought low, he saved me.

Return to your rest, my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.

For you, LORD, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.

I trusted in the LORD when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted";

in my alarm I said,
"Everyone is a liar."

What shall I return to the LORD
for all his goodness to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD.

I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of those faithful to him.

Truly I am your servant, LORD;
I am your servant, as was my mother before me;
you have loosed my bonds of affliction.

I will sacrifice a thank offering to you
and call on the name of the LORD.

I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people..."

GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD !!!

GoD mAdE a MiRacLe...

We are still in awe and thankful to God for the amazing miracle He made few days ago...Marie-Luise, the one (on the right) who is travelling with her cousin Gloria (on the left), who are staying with us since Christmas, got her life spared on wednesday by A MIRACLE...

How often we don't perceive God's miracles?!!
How often we are spared without noticng, or simply say "Wow, that was lucky !!!"
How often "luck" take the honour which belongs to God?!!
I cannot stop thanking God after seeing His deliverance and healing right in front of my eyes...
Marie-Luise took a reasonable amount of "Water Hemlock" (or "Cicuta") nicely grated into some rice in the morning...
she found the roots the day before and she thought they looked nice to eat, it looked like a carrot (it's actually from the same family) and smelled nice... a lot of us told her not to try anything without knowing what it was, but still she decided to try it next morning...
you can have a slight idea of this plant effects here and many other sites you can find on the internet, but I'll try to describe what happened...
After less than one hour after she ate the roots, she started to feel bad and went to rest in the van she was staying... After a while Gloria came to pick some milk and said Marie-Luise was not feeling good... she didn't sound so alarming, so I just told her if she would get worst we should go to the hospital...
After a while I heard Miri screaming for help...I ran down the hill as fast as I could I knew we needed to go to the hospital...
When I got to the van, our car was there already and the girls couldn't take her out of the van... she was vomiting everything, even blood, they said... her body was not functioning and her muscles would get paralized and her eyes were like she was having hallucinations ... she was also having violent reactions and one time in the car while I was driving like crazy to the hospital, Miri and Gloria told me they couldn't sense her pulse...
We ran to the emergencies of the nearest hospital as fast as possible...
After more than one hour waiting for news while Miri would go in and out to translate to Marie what was going on... Miri said she was hallucinating and it needed at least 3 or 4 people to hold her in the bed...she was really violent and thought people wanted to hurt her... she was afraid and kept bleeding everywhere... They couldn't do much more there, so she was taken by an ambulance to a bigger hospital...

So far we didn't know what plant it was, and how bad it was, and how much she really needed a miracle...
Of course we didn't stop praying since the moment we stepped in the car...
while the Ambulance took her to another hospital we went back to the land to get a sample of the plant so that could help the doctors... when we got there with the plant, they immediately identified it ... it was "Cicuta" ("Water Hemlock) ... when I heard it I could only think that Socrates died with it...
After checking more informations on the internet at night, I found out how bad it was... one of the most deadly plants in Europe and Usa...
3.3mg of it can kill a cow in less than 2 hours...

I shared with all my mail list and asked for prayer... we also in the land spent the night praying in shifts of 2 hours, but I guess none of us really slept... my spirit couldn't sleep... and all the others said the same...
We went back to the hospital next day to visit her and get some more news (even though a nurse on the phone already said she was much better)...
And so she was... as soon as we came in she smiled and she was totally peaceful ... even the doctors were surprised...
"She was very lucky!" they said...
I would say God just made a miracle !!! No luck could have saved her, no one else but God have the full control of the breath of Life He Himself put in each one of every living being...
I can simply stay in awe, in wonder, in praise and thanksgiving to our amazing God...
I'm also grateful for all those who immediately responded to the e.mail I sent... I got more than 60 replies, and many were forwarding the message to different prayer groups...

This time it was obvious that God put His hand on the situation... Even Nuno, Lukas and Joel couldn't help but recognise that this was a miracle...
But how many other times He spares our lives without us even noticing ?!!!
How many times we may think "wow, that was lucky!!!" , when in fact we should say, "Wow, that was God !!! "

Our God is great beyond what we can ever grasp or imagine...
He is the giver of Life, the source of all blessings or "lucks", as we may call it...

In all this euphoric experience PEACE was always there... we didn't panic... and I even think it was a blessing that we didn't know how bad it was till she was in the hospital...
Jesus was always there, we knew it ... we felt it !!!
Only songs of praise were coming out of my mouth while driving her to the hospital...
I thank God, not only for the miracle, but also for the faith and trust He put in our hearts this day...