sO mAnY tHiNgS 2 sAy...ViSiTs, LaNd aLmOsT pAiD, GoD hEaRs SiLLy pRaYeRs tOo, eTc... rEaD oNLy iF u hAvE TimE :-)

Pfff... yes, I have lots to share since I last wrote...and I didn't have much time lately, so, I'm sorry if this will get too long...
I'm actually using my rest day to do what I wanted to do for so long...
there's a lot of work now on the land...every thursday and monday we water all the trees, more than 300, we planted...they are getting so beautiful, and that's so encouraging !!!
But we're also finishing our bathroom which is taking more than a month now, but has been made with so much love by so many people...we're also busy with our veggie garden, which is finally taking its shape... sooo beautiful and peaceful to contemplate it !!!

so, yah, many things to share...still wonder how I'll do it...maybe big tittles would help...Hummm...

LUKAS AND JOEL LEFT US FOR FEW WEEKS
yah, Lukas and Joel left us after their birth-days...24th and 25th of March... we made a nice barbecue party...Joel brought a generator to have some music on, but it didn't work quite well...anyway, we had fun !!!
Next day we were saying good-bye, as they were leaving to Germany to a punk-rock concert and also for Lukas to see his family and friends... they will hitch-hike back soon... we all miss them here :-)
next day we gave Lukas his presents... including a recipe book we all wrote in with which he was mostly pleased :-) ... and then we had our first "community meeting"... it was mostly a time to hear each other's expectations and motivations to be here at this time... it is now the first time after one and a half year that a small group of people consider to stay for long time periods... me and Ton feel to be committed to stay for 10 years, Lyna and David who will soon have their baby here, will stay at least one year, Marcia till the summer...Miri feels this is her home, but she wants to travel around as that is part of her nature (or her season now)... Maren will go to Germany now to take care of some stuff and she doesn't know yet if this is her place for the moment... Joel will decide when he comes back from Germany and Lukas also said he feels like this community became his family and he will consider coming back after going to Germany for the summer...
It was a cool time and it was good to make things more clear...
One thing I know...this is God's land...God's community (even though not all know God personally)... and as long as God's purposes are fulfilled here, He will be with us... that's what makes this place special for me... and I believe God will bring the right people on the right time...people who will stay for longer time...people who will come and go...but God will remain the same...and hopefully His vision for this place will remain forever (whatever "forever" means) ...

MOST PART OF THE LOAN IS ALREADY PAID...THANK GOD AND MANY WHO PARTICIPATED ONCE AGAIN
As most of you know, God is in the centre of the story of this land right from the beginning (and I wanted to make that clear on the meeting we had also)..
.God spoke to a couple first, who sold their business to buy this land for God... they eventually stepped back and we faced to challenge to buy the land back to God...or better saying, keep it as it was before... so we raised 30.000 E in 5 weeks, to pay back to this couple, 10.000 of which were loaned by 2 friends for a year...
Thanks to many of you who contributed to the "magic hat" this last weeks, we were able to gather 6.500 E which I already sent last friday, 28th March, to this friends...we have around 2000E more, so we just need 1.500 E to complete the full amount of the loan...
Once again, PRAISE GOD FOR HE IS FAITHFUL... AND THANKS TO HIS FAITHFUL AND GENEROUS PEOPLE AS WELL...

GOD ANSWERS SILLY PRAYERS TOO
But God
answers "silly" prayers too (sometimes I feel my prayers are silly, but I do it anyway)...so, this week I had a couple of those... first for one of our cats, Sambo...she and Duma got sterilized on friday, 28th, and I had to give them shots...I hate that part...so Sambo didn't really like it either, so one morning she just ran away and was gone for 2 days... on the 3rd day in the morning I went to my prayer time and was calling her on the way... I couldn't hold it any longer...I could only cry and asked God to bring her back safe and to not allow any infection in her body... I felt I couldn't just stay there and cry, so I took a bit of cheese from my breakfast and went around calling her... nothing...no "miau" anywhere :-( ... I went back to the prayer tent and worshipped God with the others who came (we know have prayer times together from 9-10 am )... As I went back to the kitchen, little Hanna came to me with excitement saying "Sambo is back"... wow, you can imagine my joy and thankfulness :-)... but then God also started to speak to me something... "Can you cry like that for my lost children?! can you go after them?!! I'm so looking forward to bring them back home "... Wow, that is still moving my heart... I want to be crying for the lost like that... I want to feel God's heart for those who are lost...still far from home...maybe in need of healing...maybe in need of affection...surelly in need to come back Home...


The other "silly" prayer was a bit more silly...ok, our water pump broke down...and we do need it specially now to water the garden...it takes us at least 2 hours now to water everything every evening...so, I had spent the whole day fixing the pipes and when I was ready to run the pump I noticed that the fuel was all gone and dripping somewhere... I was pulling the roap over and over, but nothing...F***...now what?!! we couldn't wait, so we just went back to good hold way of watering the garden...I picked as much buckets as I could get, Ton, Marcia and little Hanna came to help and we pulled bucket after bucket to water all the plants...
we need around, maybe more then 200 litters to water all the plants... but we made it :-) with Hanna in our command, she wouldn't stop saying "shneller, shneller" (I 'm sure is badly spelled, it's "faster, faster" in german)... but that made it really fast, and really fun !!!
next morning in our prayer time I dared to ask God to fix our pump as it was really tiring last day... my faith was not so daring, so I asked at least to get someone who could fix it... so after siesta, I was going to the village to find a man who could come and see the pump, but I decided to go check it first... the fuel was not dripping anymore, so I thought about the prayer, and even though I felt silly I decided to give it a try... :-) I didn't even have to try several times as usual, it run at first :-)... I couldn't help but laugh, and thank God...

SOME MORE VISITS


we had Juran back for a couple of days, together with Pedro, my cousin from Porto...he's like my brother, we grew up together as our parents were best friends...It was so nice to have him here, even if it was just for a couple of days...Edna, Paulo,

Pamy, Joshua and Nelson also came form Porto to spent a night and a day...it was so pleasant to have them all here...

here's Pamy planting some Cherry trees with me :-)
Christian also came from Lisbon... what a boy (sorry Chris to call you boy, hope you don't mind)... it was such a blessing for all of us to have him around...he just carries the presence of Jesus in such a sweet and tender way...he also delighted all of us with his amazing troubadour's romantic heart :-)... Thank you Chris... you are such a beautiful person... he also prepared for us together with Juran a good "sweat lodge" ...
it was so nice, even though not quite hot and sweaty yet...
yesterday we got it better, covering all the wholes around and making the stones very hot ...wow, so good!!! it's becoming a nice fellowship time as well, for those who go in the sweat lodge, and for the others who stay outside chatting and playing guitar till late in the night...
some of the privileges of living in the wild :-)


LIFE IN THE LAND

with all the busy times, storms, spectacular and normal things in the land, life goes on fine... Lyna and David are on their way to finish setting up their Yurt...
shantii, shantii... I guess the next storm will test it ...it's looking good though...
As I said the work in the garden is going fine, Marcia, Maren
and Julia often join me to help...
Miri is almost finished with last details of our bathroom...Ton is always busy with the trees and the upper forest. It's becoming so beautiful as well...
It's been very good to have the prayer time in the mornings, and once a week (we still didn't figure out which day would be better) we have the "Dance Floor", where we'll feel free to dance with the Spirit, being led as The Spirit wants...we'll never know how it will look like...


CRAZY WEATHER
We've been having some crazy weather as well, with really strong winds, rain, haze,

and now a very hot sunny week...
it makes me wonder with God's creation, and how fragile we are before it... we realize that much more when we live in the middle of woods which trees bounce around like crazy dancers, or in fragile tents in the middle of the meadow... Tssss, but God kept us all safe :-)...
storm is coming again soon by the way...I can hear the thunder already now...ay, ay, ay...Better go take refuge in my hut...
bless you all

PEACE