So finally we are home. (Actually we returned just over two weeks ago, but I flew to Hungry right away so I feel like I just returned home, after two months.)

The weather here in Portugal is warmand sunny. I wish I could just kick back and enjoy it, but there are about 5000 things we have to do.

Here are the top 10 things we have on our plate.

10. Pay bills

9. Go to the market and get food.

8. Fix the leaky faucet in the kitchen.

7. Clean the car out and check all the fluids.

6. Get the house ready for the team from the states that will be staying here Sunday night.

5. Wrapping up all the details for Serve the City.

4 . Work on all the details for our new school, Corner Stone Academy.

3. Write Thank You notes to everyone who helped us out or hosted us while in the states.

2. Blog (I get to check this one off)

1. Not freak out!

I want to blog about this last week at out Christian Associates conference, CONNECT, but I think I will just have you check out the Christian Associates website. I know we are going to have reports from bloggers there in the very near future. (I happen to be one of the bloggers that got to give their view point) So as soon as it there I will let you know. Ok, I have to go grab a couch for the new school right now, and put some minutes on our phones, so I have to run. Pray for us, please. I can feel the stress level eating me all ready. Be Blessed and Enjoy Life

Home Assignment is...

Life on home assignment is all about connecting, and reconnecting.
It's about hope.
It is about people you love and people your going to know.
It is about time and the lack of it.
It's about eating and eating some more.
It's about gaining weight.
It's about saying hello.
It's about meetings and more meetings.
It's about say good-bye.
It's about older parents and their health.
It's about the two years that have gone by and how big every one's kids will be in two more.
It's about emotions that swing from extreme to extreme.
It's about not getting to sleep.
It's about being wiped out.
It's about getting fired up.
It's about fear of what you haven't done, or what opportunity you might have missed.
It's about getting over it.
It's about surprises that you didn't expect. (Both good and bad ones)
It's about the kids being done with it all.
It's about you being over it.
It's about God being faithful when your done with it.
It's about prayer.
It's about vision.
It's about listening.
It's about a fresh wind and a fresh fire.
It's about getting excited again about what God has you doing.
It's about 'Starbucks'. (Oh don't roll your eye's. So I like 'Starbucks')
It's about trying to finding some time with God.
It's about the power of a believing community.
It's about changing your expectations and getting new ones.
It's about living in need.
It's about living in suitcases.
It's about living now.
It's about have more than you need.
It's about missing the dog back home.
It's about calling your host country your home.
It's about asking people to give.
It's about being humble as you receive.
It's about...

As I Sit in the Denver Ramada Inn

I am getting ready to go to bed after having visited with my buddy Joel this evening. Joel and his family took us to The Cheese Cake Factory. We had a awesome visit. What a beautiful family. It was so great to see him. We've been friends for about 20 years. (No way!) We love you Kneedlers. Thanks for letting us living in your house for the last few days.

This morning we were introduced and shared briefly about Portugal with Foot Hills Community Church, one of our supporting churches. Very cool church. Very cool people. We really felt at home with them.

Ok you want to know about the picture. Well first let me say thanks Beth and Nathan. We had a blast. This picture was taken yesterday on the Royal Gorge River. We were treated to a wonderful white water rafting trip. If I could share with you the joy we felt doing this I would, but I can't put it in words.

It was an hour of bumpy, splashing, stick your head down into the on coming wave and paddle, whoa are we going under, WHOAAAAA YEAHHH!!!, kind of fun.

Before they let you go, there is all this scary "you could get hurt doing this" paper work to fill out and an unsettling "here's what to do if you end up under the boat" speech, plus there was the flipped over boat that we saw come rolling down the river before we launched. But none of that would deter the fearless crew.

We bounced down the river for an hour and in the end arrived safe, wet and happy at our destination. Memories never to be forgotten. Tomorrow we get up at the crack of dawn and head to California. And to think were all ready 1/3 of the way done with our trip. WHAT?

Be Blessed

As We Journey

As we journey through our native home land I am struck by the feeling of being a stranger in a very familiar place. Nothing is really strange, but it all feels so unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. Things like driving feel a little awkward. I have to remember to stop at the stop signs. Stop signs in Portugal are a mere suggestion. And who ever thought that toilet paper could feel so soft? Or how about all the air conditioning; do I even like air conditioning? Not to mention 'Starbucks', one of the primary stops in every city we have visited. Oh the joys of a society that is geared around the desires and convenience of the consumer.

Our first 10 days were spent in Texas where the temperature was hoovering around 95 to a 100 each day, (That around 34 c for your Europeans),with heavy humidity. We visited many people from Paula's past (family and friends) and enjoyed the great hospitality of the South. The last day we were privileged to hang out with Nathan, Beth and Jack. We meet some great people there and were blessed to pray with Beth before her surgery the next day. Nathan shared the story of his journey to Jesus. It one of those wow stories. Nathan is Jewish and is a great story teller. (I think Beth should blog about it. Hint, hint.) We love you Nathan, Beth and Jack. Thanks for blessing us.

From there we headed out to Colorado. One of my best friend in the world, Joel, picked us up and brought us out to his house in Colorado Springs. Paula says this is the cleanest house she has ever been in in her life. (There is no way for us to leave this place as clean as when we showed up.) Joel and I would have liked to have spent some time together but, bummer, his whole family was heading out to take a family vacation the next day, so Joel and I didn't really get a lot of opportunity to hang out except for a few hours. But I am standing here in his kitchen blogging and house sitting while they are gone. It was nice to get to visit 'Garden of the Gods' today, which is just around the corner from their house. We do come from a beautiful country don't we. Sunday we will be speaking at "Foothills Community Church' in Arvada Colorado and then Monday morning we jet off to California. We will be there for the last leg of our journey.

Well that's a little up date on our trip. Looking forward to seeing you soon. No matter what ocean you live near. Be Blessed and leave a light on for us.

The Eye of the Storm

Thank you friend for coming and reading this. If you are here reading this blog then you must be a friend indeed because I have had no margin this last month the blog. I didn't even get our story up for Ms. Wittney. (Sorry Wit)

Check out those people in the picture to the right. We took that picture not so long after arriving here in Portugal 2 years ago. (Sept of 2006) Wow have we changed. The kids are bigger. Our vision of church planting is bigger. The world seems smaller. And time seems to be flying by. Two years is a long time and no time at all. Who were we two years ago? Who are we now? Noah keeps wondering what his friends will say when they see him. I am wondering the same.

Four days from now we will be flying to the States for a 6 week home assignment; 10 days in Texas, 5 days in Colorado and about 4 weeks in California. I feel like there is no way to get everything done here that needs to get done, but I suppose we'll do it some how. Our summer intern, who was going to stay in our house and watch Bingo (our dog), is not going to be able to come. That has put a kink in things. What do you do with a big black Lab for 6 weeks? (Prayer request) We have people visiting Lisbon right now and we have school finishing. We are trying to get the place cleaned-up for some families that are going to stay in the house for a week. We have all the normal get ready to go way for 6 weeks things to do. Plus birthday party's, regular life stuff, emergency pay the car tax stuff because they changed the law and the tax was due in February but who knew that? Blah, blah, blah...This is the whirl wind we are in.

"Mom when I grow-up I want to be a church planter!" Have you ever heard that country western song, "Mama don't let your babies grow-up to be cowboys" ? There is a line in that song that goes, "They're never at home and they're always alone, even with some one they love" I'm not sure the original idea behind those lyrics is what I'm talking about, but as we journey through this missional church planting life, there is an aspect of never at home and always alone...even with those we love.

So USA here we come. Were leaving home for 6 weeks to go home for 6 weeks. We will not be the people who flew to Europe 2 years ago and yet we are still the Farmers. (Will you know us now?)We will be with those we love and far from those we love, knowing that in 6 weeks we will be leaving those we love to return to those we love. Following Jesus has all this contrast; die to live, be the last to be first, to lead you must serve, the least is the greatest, and so on. Lead on Jesus.

If you want to hear about the last two weekends and our prayer retreats, just read the next blog. We can't wait to see you all in the states. See you in a few day, more or less.

Blessings upon Blessings to you

Prayer Retreat x2

For the month of May our community, The Lisboa Matrix, focused on prayer and fasting. We had it on our hearts as we went into May to see spiritual break through for The Matrix, Lisbon, Portugal and the World. If I could share all the stories from this month I would. Let me try to give a brief over view.

We started with the National day of Prayer in the USA. We prayed for the states and the church there. Then we continued day to day with specific prayer for each day of the week, praying for our community. We prayed for things like the Gregg family and what had happened with them at the International school. We prayed for Morocco and the people there. We prayed for our children and their future. We prayed for the International Christian School of Cascias. We prayed for the prayer retreats coming at the end of the month. Every day there was something to pray for. There was also the Global Day of Prayer in there on the 11th of May.

From our prayers, we recieved many answers. For example; The Gregg's were offered many teaching opportunity's, even though it was very late to be job hunting for schools. (Check out their blog Gypsy Jesus on my blog links for more about this) We saw some Junior High students, kids P and I have had opportunity to work with, receive Jesus at the Christian School. (You can read about that on the Gregg's blog also) And we were blessed by God at both our prayer retreats. I can't really put into world how this month of prayer/fasting moved here, but it moved things.

Then there were the two prayer retreats at the end of the month. Before this becomes a book, let me share some about the prayer retreat at Casa de Uhler. (Up at our team mates house. Thank you sooooo much for those of you who covered us in prayer.) There were 20 people or so at the retreat. We ate, sang, cooked, cleaned, prayed, learned and lived together for the weekend. The weather was supposed to be rainy, but we ended up with tons of sun and a little light rain. There was a mixed bag of followers of the Way and seekers of the Truth. It was great. Community was built with the Lisbon people and the Porto people. Sunday morning we entered into a time of prayer for each other. We had walked through the weekend together, so if was natural for us to go to prayer together. Even those who were seeking entered in. If I were to say that the Spirit of God showed up in a powerful way, I think I would be understating it. For two and a half hours we prayed. We prayed for individuals one after the other. It was mind blowing. At one point during the prayer time, I was drained and thought, "I don't know if I can pray any more." But then refreshing came and I entered again. Someone else said we needed to get some water in us, because we were dehydrating from all the weeping and tears. At the end I think we all walked away from the weekend having encountered God in one of the most powerful times of our life. I am not over stating this either. Myself, Marty, Vitor (from Porto), we all felt it was one of the most powerful prayer times we had ever had. And I know that he is still working on the people who were there.

Ok long blog, but I wanted to share. If you want to look of picture of the Uhler weekend or of our prayer retreat in Tomar, (that I didn't even share about), you can click on the LisboaMatrix link to the right and go to gallery.The picture at the top is from the Tomar weekend, which was wild and crazy. I'll have to share about that too soon. Thanks for supporting us through prayer and giving.

Be Blessed; Life's Short-Pray Hard!

How Did I Get This Busy

I have been wanting to blog about all of the stuff that is going on here right now, but something had to give, and it was the blog. Forgive me for the long silence. I think the best way for me to catch you up is to do a speed list. Maybe i'll throw a story in, we'll see. So hang on here it comes...

April brought the rain, and it wants to stay. On the 12th we gathered as a community to huddle and get a vision for our mission as a church. At the same time we were trying to figure out what our choices were going to be for school for the kids next year. (I'll talk more about that later) Teaching kept us busy with a lot of heart ache about some of the kids from ICSC in the upper grades not passing. On the 25th of April our house church gathered as a small group and worked out our vision for our group. It was amazing!
May came roaring in and we kicked off our Month of Prayer. We prayed for the states on the 1st and also kicked off our first Thursday fast of the month. (we are fasting on Thursdays for spiritual breakthrough here) Friday the 2nd Paula and I had a lock-in with the high school class at ICSC. We stayed up all night, ate ice cream, watched movies and had a great time. (We were tired) Saturday was Marty's birthday so we went to the beach and played volleyball. Then house church at our place on Saturday. Also Friday Peter from Germany came for a visit. He headed to Porto on Monday. Monday we went to a teachers meeting for ICSC to support our friend Jason Gregg because the school...i'm not going to go into it, but we may not send our kids to the school, or teach there next year because of the way they have been treating people. Please pray with us about this. It is major. I have no idea what we did for the rest of the week, but my head was spinning. And then Sunday was house church again and the Global Day of Prayer. (We had a prayer meeting for our city at the cross in Cascais) Today we taught and sent out e-mails, prayer retreat flyer's, school prep and more. Now I have to finish this so I can head over to another prayer meeting and share with them tonight. Pray with us that we would see freedom and open doors here in Portugal.
OK, that's a mess and a whole lot of info. Hope you can follow it.
Blessings
PS We will head for the states June 9th. Texas, to Colorado, to San Diego and back to Lisbon on July 18th, I think.