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 there were people participating in what is now God's land, as it was supposed to be from the beginning... we learned that nothing depends on us and God is sovereign when we choose to listen and follow God in our choices... we can participate in what God wishes to do or not, and that´s such a privilege... obviously when people choose to live their own way, they may risk hurting themselves or others, because our knowledge of what is best is so limited...

When we now say that this land belongs to God, we really mean it... "The Earth and everything in it belongs to God", so how come humans decided to privatize lands and create boundaries to build nations?

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... also from the local people who have been supporting us in so many ways... We are all simply carers and guardians of what belongs to God, and each of us plays our role in it...

We're really thankful for Mike and Ed who generously lent 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...

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 9.000e more until 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 only got 30 liters this year, which is not even enough for our regular use...
As I was delighting myself a few days ago with the beauty and the amazing smell of the little Almond tree we planted, 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 for this land... 

it doesn't need to be much as 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 in this land for God's purposes to be accomplished...


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...

These last 2 weeks were busy planting the trees we bought...more than 200 new trees for the Mount of Oaks...here in this picture is Lukas, Jared and Nuno planting Silver Birch... they were all excited about it !!! we all were...


I was not expecting we'd get such tall trees already, so when we plant them they were immediately visible...
Maybe in 20 or 30 years this will be an amazingly beautiful place... it is already, but it was left so barren... I´m not sure how many of these will survive but when they will reach their full size it's going to be amazing !
This is not about us anyway ( I speak for myself), I have no idea where I am going to be in 20 years from now, but I'm glad to picture how this place could become one day...

This is about planting hope... This is about believing that it is worth caring 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 or guardians... As God intended us to be...

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

here's Gloria burning grass where we would plant the new trees...me and Marcia were helping her...
in the picture before, Marie (before she ate the plant), Gloria and Marcia, were planting Silver Birch in front of the prayer forest...

here Lukas is preparing a compacted field for Cherry trees... he was having a hard time with the rotavator, it´s not easy to make it work...but look at his hair style ...

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

Joel has been a great help here as well... it's really nice to have him around... he's thinking about staying longer... 
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...


...here's Pula...

here with Lukas ...

Marie Luise is out of the hospital...

To finish this chapter, and for those who have been following this story, Marie Louise is back on the land...
she still needs to rest but the level of enzymes has decreased considerably... I believe it 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 it comes your way somewhere... It´s really tricky because all parts of the plant look like they could be another edible plant...
ANYWAY... DO NEVER TRY ANYTHING WILD UNLESS YOU ARE TOTALLY SURE IT'S EDIBLE !!!

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 it does NOT have tiny hairs like carrots ) , and the flower grows to 2 meters high... 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 Louise ...her bed number was also 22...
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 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...

Thank you to all those who are praying all over the world... Please continue to pray that she is not left with any major problems in any internal organs.

 
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 some cake, juice and lots of balloons ... 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 even some comedy moments provided by Ton - he made this with a hemlock root...

dark humour I know, but very funny!!!...she laughed as well... yes, now we are all able to laugh about the silliness of the whole situation... hard way to learn a lesson...



Lukas and Ton being silly ...

Trish, Gloria and Lukas... Trish is a friend of Ton who just came saturday from New Zealand... Marie was looking at her very seriously and asked "do I know you?", and we said "what?! You don't remember Trish?" ... of course we were teasing and we all burst into laughter again, because she really didn't know her... 

Some more dark humour from our part because after she took the root she wouldn't remember any of us except Gloria, her cousin... yes, now we can all laugh about it, but it was not funny at all to go through this experience ...

we laughed a lot playing with balloons too... I laughed so much that my stomach was aching. it's so good to laugh...

and of course, Marie, Gloria and Lukas had to play a game of their favorite card game...

they were always playing 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 nice ... she said she asked God why S/He didn't let her go yet... she heard that God still has things to do through her here in this life... 

" I'm so excited" she said, "God must have really nice things 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 that 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 of...

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

"I love the LORD, for God heard my voice;
S/he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on God 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 lost 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 mAdE a MiRacLe...

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

How often do we perceive God's miracles?
How often are we spared without noticing? How often do we simply say "Wow, that was lucky !!!"?
How often "luck" takes the honour which belongs to God?!!

I cannot stop thanking God after seeing this deliverance and healing right in front of my eyes...
Marie-Luise took a reasonable amount of "Water Hemlock" ("Cicuta" in portuguese) 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 wild 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´s effects with a simple research on the internet, but I'll try to describe what happened...
Less than one hour after she ate the roots, she started to feel bad and went to rest in the van she was staying in... 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 worse 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 where they were sleeping, under the eucalyptus before our entry, our car was already there 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 paralyzed 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 nearest hospital in Fundão 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 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 in Covilhã...

At that stage we didn't know exactly 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 we 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 was poisoned with it... it was my only association...

After checking more information on the internet at night, I found out how bad it really was... one of the most deadly plants in Europe.3.3mg of it can kill a cow in less than 2 hours...

I shared with all my mail list and asked for prayer... In the land we 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 the next day to visit her and get some more news (even though a nurse on the phone already said she was much better)...

As soon as we came into her room,  she smiled and she was totally peaceful ... even the doctors were surprised and amazed...
"She was very lucky!" they said...
I would say God just made a miracle ! No luck could have saved her, I´m sure God did intervene on this one...
I´m simply in awe, in wonder, in praise and gratitude 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 a hand on the situation... Even Nuno, Lukas and Joel couldn't help but recognise that this was a miracle...
But how many other times God 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...
God 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 until 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 God put in our hearts this day...