wHo WAnTs 2 bE a MoVIe StAr?

Saturday night was the execution of a bunch of planning. We put on a night called, "Who wants to be a Movie Star" for the youth. There were abou 15-18 people in attendance and as you can tell from the pictures everyone had a great time. I had the opportunity to share a devotional with the group with the help of Ron Fairbank's translation.

We sent 3 groups out into the city, armed with a video camera and a few props, to make short skits.


I was delightfully surprsed at the enthusiasm seen from everyone when we watched the videos later that night. Everyone was involved and was having fun playing their parts.

I think there the only mistake was when I announced the wrong winner - oops! It really was a great night of fun. Thank you for all of your prayers for this event. We are planning another event for May so please continue to be praying for the details to fall into place. Thank you!

Return Set

Well my ticket has been purchased, the date is set. It's offical, I will be returning home to Colorado on June 15th. This means I have 8 more weeks here in Portugal and to be involved in various committments and opportunities. Please pray that during this short time God will use me and that He will help me to finish my time here well.

I have learned a lot this year, grown in many ways (some painful) and met some wonderful people. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for the next phase of this journey.

Porto & Braga

Last week Bobb, Bri, Terence and I ventured north of Lisbon to the city of Porto for two days. Porto was previously the capital city of Portugal and is currently known for its production of Port Wine in the nearby Douro Valley. We all thoroughly enjoyed the visit, seeing many of the sights and just enjoying the "slower" pace of this smaller city. While Porto's architecture seems a bit more run down than Lisbon, I loved the city, its feel and my time there.

Located on the Douro river, Porto has six bridges giving access to and from the city. The above bridge is one of the older looking bridges and was my favorite giving cars and pedestrians access to the Gaia side of the river on the lower level and the metro and pedestrians access from above.

A view of Porto's river front from the Gaia side of the Douro

On our second day in Porto we climbed the over 200 steps of a church tower for this view of the city. Yes Grandma I did count them but I don't think their published number was correct. Then again, they didn't let us go up that last flight of stairs.

Inside the church I was really struck by all of the religious statues and how vivid and even gruesome some of the biblical characters are depicted. Mary above has blood running down her forehead because of some sort of spear hear. Next to her in the church was a statue of Judas with an axe.

On the third day of our trip Bobb, Bri and I headed to Braga. It is one of the cities most influenced by the Catholic Church. The church pictured above is from Bom Jesus, a large religious sight just outside of Braga. In addition to the many religious scenes and statues displayed throughout its grounds there are also several restaurants, hotels and gardens. This was one of my favorite sights both for its own uniqueness and it view of the city.

On the RoAd aGaiN

Tomorrow morning I will rise before the sun and hail a passing autocarro (bus) and thus begin a journey to Porto, a must see city north of Lisbon. I am excited to visit the city and experience the culture which I am told is a bit different from Lisbon.

Bobb, Bri, Terence and I will be making this journey and I hope to be able to share some great pictures and stories from this latest adventure soon.

Have a wonderful week!

Cristo Rei & Castelo de Palmela

Saturday was a great day spent with Lisa, Jurgen, and Susie. We went to visit the Cristo Rei. Its a large statue on a hill across the river overlooking the city of Lisbon. It is a statue of Jesus and is supposed to symbolize that He is watching over the city. The statue is a church(ish) room with a very contemporary painting covering the front wall and these three stainglass windows in the back. I was really struck by how colorful and contemporary looking it all was.

















Lisbon has two large bridges one called the Vasco de Gama after a Portuguese Explorer and the other, pictured above, is called the April 25th bridge (guess which one's my favorite). You must cross the April 25th bridge to visit the Cristo Rei.




I must admit, as I looked up at this statue and saw the sun shining down on it through the clouds I could not help but think of Jesus being baptized and the heavens opening up as God said, "this is my Son, with Him I am well pleased"










After our time at the Cristo Rei we made our way to a winery and waited for it to open and take a tour - It never did open!

Once we confirmed that the winery was not to open that day we decided to have our lunch at a nearby castle and see the sight. We drove to the Castelo de Palmela (which happened to be free- amazing!) and ate a wonderful lunch and saw the castle. This castle had an amazing view and was fun to explore.

Parque das Nacoes - Park of the Nations

I was feeling under the weather last week and by Friday I was ready to get out of the house. After failing to successfully solicit partners in crime to head out into the city of Lisbon I decided to go it alone. I hoped in my faithful Mercedes (aka - the BUS) and headed to Lisbon. I decided to go visit a section of the city I had only been to once before, Park of the Nations.

Park of the Nations is the area of Lisbon which hosted the '98 Expo (World's Fair) and has remained a pretty happening place. It was a beautiful day and just fun to be out, have some alone time, snap some pics, people watch and walk along the river. It was a very "good" Friday if you ask me.

Here are a few pics from my afternoon on the town.

Above: The Lisbon Oceanarium overlooks the river and is quite a unique building.

Above: This was an interesting little greenway, kids were running and jumping off the "humps"

Above: There was live music being played in the outside seating ares of this cafe

Above: A view from the "floating walkway"

Thanks for Family & Friends

I just have to say I am blessed and I thank God for my wonderful family and incredible friends! Through good and bad times it is those people that are there to love and support you and we often forget them. This year I have been reminded of what an awesome blessing I have in my family - always praying and supporting me. Thanks guys, you mean so much to me!

Often I know I take for granted the blessing of good friends whether here in Portugal, back in the states or around the world. You know who you are, and I just want to thank you for the roles that you play in my life and the blessing that you are to me - Thank you!!!

So I know this is random to those that might read this, but to me its just a reminder that we need to remember the small things and the people that do them, they bless our lives and we should thank them!