As the World Turns

So about this time last year we were trying to get settled. Noah hated everything that we ate. Living near the ocean was novel. I was constantly telling the kids to be quiet because of Berta who lives down stairs. And things in general were incredibly hard. Such as grocery shopping. It is so nice to feel like we can function now.

This last week was busy and rewarding. Arron from England was with us until Thursday. It was nice to get to know him. We shared some good times and just plain life for the last couple of weeks.

P was busy this week getting ServetheCity park day ready for Casa Sol. She and Jordan did a great job. There were 21 kids and almost as many volunteers.We played lots of games, ate lots of food and enjoyed service and community. My favorite memory was Ananis, an 11 year old girl who is very handicapped and confined to a wheel chair, playing the bowling game. The other kids were kicking a soccer ball at water bottles set up like pins. As she watched the kids playing she caught my eye and flailed her arm out at the game. Then she slapped her chest. I was sure she wanted to try. We rolled her right over to the bottles and rolled the ball down her stomach and legs. As the ball hit the bottles and the bottles fell over she shrieked with joy and smiled so big I thought her face would explode. It really is the little things that mean a lot.

And in family news...

The kids are doing great at their new school, ICSC. They love their teachers and their friends. Both of them are really doing well in their studies. Noah had been nailing history and Eden is cranking in math. It is so good to see them thrive.

The Hurst family arrived last night tired from two days on the road from Italy. It is exciting to have them moving here. They said they packed in the rain and when they got here they unloaded in the rain.They must have brought the rain with them, because it's been raining for two days. Winter is coming. What happened to Summer?

Also yesterday night a cute little stray Jack Russel followed P home. So we let him stay the night with us, out of the rain. Now he likes to come and stand at the down stairs front door. We are a shelter from the storm for strays and wanderers.

Well I'm going to go enjoy the rest my Sunday and visit with the Hursts. Enjoy your Sunday and Be Blessed.

Fearless Word Association

Word was the first thing that I found on this screen. And some how I feel like I have to create some profound thought that opens the world up to you. Something that speaks of Jesus and isn't edited. Something that is raw and beautiful and makes you smile and laugh. Something that doesn't worry about what you think, but I can't. I can't do it. I can't even type fast enough to get my thoughts out in a flow. But I try and I hate what I write. It's like a crude JaCK KerOuAK nOVEL. WITH A LOT OF TYPE O'S. So,... (deep breath)... and forget that you might be reading this. Just let the words come, as the ipod plays music in my ears. (Music) "Like the wind you go." Distracted by my thoughts and the music. I think about the day and all of the busyness from teaching and trying. Why do I feel like I have to be anything? Isn't it enough to just be in the midst of who Jesus sees me as. And my ...Oh I don't know. What is that loud noise that I can hear over the music. Take out my ear piece. Look around. It's just the trash guy. Oh yes the music. (Music) "It's ALL ABOUT JESUS. IT'S all about JESUS. And their preoccupied with always doing it right." And that music speaks to me right where I'm at. I'm right here. Trying to find my purity. Trying to live and be open and honest with you. It is all about Jesus. (Music) " It is well, it is well with my soul!"

Jenelle thanks for the inspiration. Be blessed

PS Little baby Leticia is back home with her mommy. Be blessed little one.

How can I be mad?

Last night P went to visit our Angolan friend Visoo. Visoo was part of our second ServetheCity that partnered with Start to Share. It was supposed to be a little Sunday afternoon coffee and chatting. Oh what a laugh. To think that anything will ever go the way we expect.

I expected that she would be gone a couple of hours. Instead, as you can see from the picture to the right, we ended up with a baby. Now my friend the Greggs had that happen. They ended up getting a baby when they didn't expect it. But theirs is still in womb. It's taking awhile. Ours came in one day. Technically she's not ours. See her mama is in Spain. She took a bus there to abort her 13 week old twins. I guess she didn't have any other options as to what she could do with her kids, because she left her 7 yr old, 4 yr old and 9 month old, Leticia, with her 15 year old nephew, who is in the 4th grade and feeding her Chorizo soup. WHAT?!?

So P call's and says she's bringing home baby Leticia. I, being so Christ like, responded WHAT!? She being very Jesus like said "We were just talking about what an amazing man you are and how well you would take this." I, in my Christ like fashion, responded "MMMMMM!!! Fine bring her home."

Which brings me to the car, which is in Lisbon, and not at my apartment...but maybe I'll share that part later. Right now Leticia is safe, not eating Chorizo soup and getting a lot of love from Tia (Aunt) P. Pray for Leticia's mama. Be Blessed and remember the widows and orphans.

Church Plant

This poor little guy has had a hard time as of late. When he came to live with us. He was in bad shape. In the process of being moved he was placed in a garbage bag to protect him. As it was summer the short hour he sat in the car before being transported to our house did some major damage to him. You can see that the whole center section has had the dead part trimmed off. He looks a little funky, but who am I to talk. I wake up to my self every morning.

So why am I rambling on about our plant you ask? Well he just got the dead parts trimmed off yesterday and after I had finished I was looking at him and I thought, "I can't believe he survived." (I like calling it a he. It gives him personality.) I wanted him to survive, but we received him right before our trip to Hungry and we were going to be gone so I figured, he might not make it. Such is life. So I stuck him in the plant bed out side and left him til later.

Later came and I kind of just left him with the other plants. He got a little water, but he looked bad. His pot was leaning over side ways in the other flower bush and he had all these brown parts that made him look almost dead.So i decided yesterday to get him out of there and see if there was any hope.

I got him out of the planter, cut off the dead stuff and took a look at him. What do you know, he was a little beat-up, but alive and had even put off new growth.

That's when I remembered something Gerard Kelly had said at CONNECT, (our yearly conference). He had said that some people think the church in Europe is dead, but that it will not die unless God gives up on it and God has not given up on the church in Europe.

So I was looking at this poor plant and I thought "Yes, maybe this old plant looked dead, and I had to cut a bunch of dead parts off, but it is alive and new growth is happening."

Yes maybe the church in Europe needs to have some dead trimmed off. Yes, maybe some people figure it's dying or dead. Yes, maybe it's had some damage done and now it looks a little funky. That's okay. God's not finished with it yet. He is the master gardener. After He's trimmed it up, it will thrive.

So, now I have my own little church plant, to remind me that God will finish what He started. I think I'll name him Luther. The plant, not God. Be Blessed and let's all work on trimming off the dead parts.

Last Week

The cool of Fall in the air. The smell of the sea and moisture in the air. Looking around I wonder where the weeks has gone. Sunday is always so busy, but this was a lovely restful Sunday. Over the last week we have had a number of people living with us. Four different German girls and a fellow for the UK. Beautiful people. Three of them had been out at Baba's land. What a blessing to have these people be a part of our life for awhile. Especially the lives of our kids.
So anyhow yesterday was a wonderful Sunday. After meeting at Scott and Terri's house with our Grace community, I came home to my sick little family. Eden had been running a fever, Noah had one of those frog coughs and P had this crazy rash that covered her whole body. So they stayed home. After a busy week of school, teaching, team meetings, basic life, visitor, and sickness, I was ready for a down day. And I got it. A lovely time of visiting with Arron and listening to great music. Time to laugh, bar-b-que sausages and make pizza. A time to eat together and fellowship together. A time to sit and read Nancy Drew. A time to play with Lego's and read animal joke books. A time to prepare for the week ahead. A time to hear each others stories and live in the midst of His love.
I hope you will find a place of rest sometime this week. A place to laugh, and eat and love in the presence of God. Be Blessed

From Here to Eternity

A year ago we could hardly function. A day might go something like, what are we going to do today? Do we have food? Better go to Jumbo. You want to go? Let's all go. The kids reply, we don't want to go. Ok let's go. No let's just get frango. (Roasted chicken) No we need toilet paper, let's just go to Jumbo and get it over with. OK let's go.
After three hours of wandering around Jumbo dazed and confused we finally check out and head home with our two little bags of groceries. After walking in the door we realize we have no toilet paper and didn't purchase anything that we can make a full meal out of. So I go and buy chicken.
One year later. Today we...
*Took the kids to school.
*Took care of the rental contract.
*Worked with the AIDS orphanage.
*Helped George with his painting job.
*Went to Aki and bought supplies for Casa Sol.
*Call the consulate in Spain.
*Went grocery shopping.
*Made dinner for our German friends.
*Taught theatre to 5th and 6th graders.
*Put mins. on our cell phone.
*Went to the post office.
*Did home work with the kids.
*Did laundry. Wash, line dried and folded.
*Cleaned the kitchen.
*Wrote the blog.
So as you can see, a year can really make a difference. wish we were always this productive.
Be blessed.

Stories of Life

So awhile ago I promised you I would try and put the Monkey story on my blog. I'm sorry it took so long but here it is. This dates back to our service day in Vienna, on August the 12th. I will try to capture the essence of the story as told to me by my wife, daughter and one Mr. Troy Cady.
It was a warm, muggy summers day in the city of Vienna and About 300 people from Christian Associates were heading out in my different direction to do service project for ServetheCity, Vienna. My son and I were part of the street performance team which I was heading up while my wife and daughter had been slotted to help clean up and animal shelter.
Their trip started off with a nice long walk to the shelter, a nice long walk in which they proceeded to get really lost. It was a good thing that Eric Folbrect, who was our CAI point man, had set up ways to contact people if we ended up lost or needing advice on any situation. They were finally able to get to the shelter and proceed with the animal shelter clean up.
Now I don't know about y0u, but for some reason, when I hear that someone is working at the animal shelter I figure they will be working with animals. Wrong. With kids in tow they were shown the road around the shelter and were put to work preparing it for re-paving. Hot, hard, dirty, physical work. But being the spiritual giants they are, they just jumped right in and started cleaning with out a word of complaint. (I have no idea if that true. I just thought it sounded good.) Anyhow they did the work that was needed and then were shown around the shelter. What pops into your mind when I say animal shelter? Puppies or kitties? What about tigers or giant chimpanzies? Well if you said dogs and cats you'd be wrong.
So here comes the monkey part. They see the tiger that is only kept from them by chain link fence, then are shown the giant chimpanze. This chimp stands about five feet tall and was once a lab chimp. He looks like a giant monkey on steroids. Not only that but he is very aggressive. As they watch him in his cage he starts swaying back and forth, then suddenly he picks up this boot that is in the enclosure and throws it at the plexiglass. Big scream from the crowd. AAAAHHHH! Then he leaps at the glass but misses and falls into the pit in front of the glass. No one could believe it and they all watched as he scrambled back out of the pit to go watch them from the little hill in the enclosure.
My daughter was really glad there was glass there because he didn't look like a friendly monkey. But now he was acting weird again. Standing at the back of the enclosure he starts hopping up and down getting higher and higher, banging the steel door of his enclosure as he does. Screaming Tarzan like monkey screams. Higher and higher. Then suddenly he launches him self from the back of the enclosure, across the pit right into the glass in front of them. BAM! Just like one of those George of the Jungle, hitting the tree moments and slides down into the pit. Everyone screamed like a girl;)
Now even though chimpzilla was poorly behaved, you have to understand he had not had such a great life, being a scientific experiment chimp and all. So in the end they really felt sad for the poor fellow. And anyhow they had a great story to share with the rest of us that night at the b-b-q. If any of you know Terri Last you should ask her to tell you her pig in the subway story.
All right that's about it. Hope I did the monkey story justice. Be Blessed and watch out for monkeys on steroids.

Back to School

Top three things I like about the kids going back to school...

1. The kids are happy.

2. I am happy.

3. P is happy.

The kids are loving school so much. I wish I had some pictures to show you, but alas no luck. Eden is making lots of friends and Noah seems to be enjoying school as well. Even though Noah never seems to be hot on "boring" studies, he's ready for his spelling test tomorrow and doesn't seem to really mind getting up at 7:00 am. He was getting up at around 10:30 over the summer. It's a new school year and we are starting a new season of life. Were just glad that we were graded on a curve this last year. Be Blessed and I'll meet you at the monkey bars at lunch.

Night and Day

For the past week we have been up to our necks painting and repairing Casa Sol. Start to Share a volunteer organization from Holland came down to fix up the inside of the place while the kids were away for holiday. The pictures to the right show the before and after work that was done.
Once again we built amazing relationships with some amazing people. This was Start to Shares first event and Serve the City, Lisboa was privledged to get to partner with them. Our community here in Lisbon really poured themselves out to get this thing done. There was more work than people and yet somehow it got done. The pay off was seeing the faces of these kids when they walked into their home and saw it all fixed up. so yes I am tired and sore but who am I to complain. I live in a nice home,with my little family and don't have AIDS. Now to find ways to connect with these kids in relational ways. More than stuff and fixing up their home, what they need is love. One on one love from people who are part of their lives. People who know them.
In other news...The kids start school on Monday. They are very excited and so are we. Also I will be starting to teach drama to the k-4th graders once a week and the 7-8th graders once a week. God rocks! Not only do I get to do something I love and use my gifting, but it will help bring down the cost of school tuition for the kids.
So that's a brief up date and idea of life here. P is busy with ServetheCity and our community is continuing to grow. Be Blessed and remember, no matter where you go, there you are.