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!

A Day Traversing the Countryside

Yesterday we set out on a short day trip to visit the city of Obidos. One member pictured above that you may not recognize is Kathy, next whom I am standing. Kathy is from Terence's home in California and is here for 2 1/2 weeks to serve the team and missionaries how ever she can. Currently her project is organizing Ron Landers office.

Obidos is a small walled city, pretty famous here in Portugal. Throughout its history many members of Portuguese royalty have resided within its walls from time to time.

We started our time in Obidos walking along the wall. It was a beautiful day for our time there and from the wall we could get great views of the homes and churches within the city walls as well as the countryside that surrounded us.

Inside the walls was a nice little town with shops, cafes, Bed & Breakfasts, and private residences. Like most of Portugal, the buildings are very close if not connected to one another and the streets are all cobblestone.

While you may think these streets are made for walkin' we actually encountered a surprising amount of cars while walking around town.

The castle now houses a Bed & Breakfast and much of it is not open to the general public.

Me and Bri (the better half of Bobb & Bri - no offense Bobb) - the wall behind us surrounds the entire city of Obidos.

This is my favorite picture of the day. The weather in Portugal has been beautiful of late and with the flowers blooming it is definitely springtime. I had fun taking different pictures of all the various flowers (mostly for my mom) and this one is simply my favorite because of how it turned out.

Thanks for sharing with me in the beautiful day I spent with my team yesterday!

Crowning of Drama King & Queen

Another of my responsibilities is a 1 hour drama class at the Learning Center. I am still a little unsure of how exactly I took on this responsibility. Last night as I sat pondering this very question it was driven deeply home when I acknowledged to my roommate that I have absolutely NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING!!!

I mean come on, I have never been in a drama class, I have never been in a "real" production nor have I ever really been interested in drama. My only experiences, and small as they are, have come through skits at camp or church. For those that know me, drama and Heidi are things that would rarely be found in the same sentence. Nonetheless, it seems that the Lord has seen fit to place me in this role.

So while I feel quite ill-equipped and at a loss for what a class like this should look like, I will trust that each week we'll have fun, there will be new ideas and the Lord will use me in spite of me.

Sharing My Story

Today was a Learning Center day. Bri and I have had the opportunity to lead the Bible hour with the female students for several weeks now. A couple of weeks ago Bri shared a bit of the journey we call life that God has taken her on, this week it was my turn. I had been praying that the Lord would help me to choose significant events and details which would be relevant and minister to the girls, I think He answered that prayer today.

There was nothing miraculous, no fireworks or sirens were heard but I truly feel like the Lord used both Bri's story and my own to help us to connect more deeply with these girls. I pray that through our remaining time here in Portugal the Lord might use us to encourage and challenge these girls to a deeper walk with the Lord.

I am EXHAUSTED

Well Thursday night was the usual routine, head out to Oeiras for a little Ultimate Frisbee action. Usually there has been quite a few people and we have had good games as well as good conversations after. However, last night Lisa and I walked up to the beach and there were only 4 people there. We were our usual 30 minutes late, only because they NEVER start playing until then anyway, and still there were only 4 people there.

I was definitely beginning to wonder if we would play that night however, much to my dismay they started organizing the teams for 3 on 3. Now for those of you who have never played Ultimate, you cannot possibly understand the fullness of my despair. Those of you who have played Ultimate but never in sand, you cannot possibly understand the vastness of my desire to leave the premises at that very moment. I know that I am out of shape but when I play Ultimate I am acutely aware of how much, now they want me to play 3 on 3 with no subs?!?!?!

Fortunately another girl showed up and played part of the game. The resident "captains" lovingly put her on my team and we were able to sub in and out. What is funny in all this is - I really did NOT want to play that night, but it turned into a great night, great Frisbee, and good times with some of those we are getting to know, but man was I tired!

Playin' with the Boys

Saturday afternoon Lisa, Bobb, Bri, and I headed to the Fairbanks. Lisa and I were to babysit the 2 boys for the weekend and we invited Bobb and Bri to join us. Joel kept telling us how lucky he was because he had 4 babysitters!

We had a wonderful time with the boys and even took them on Lisbon's Subway and Train systems to spend time at the beach on Sunday. Between them getting wet and sandy at the beach or playing chess and connect4 we had a great time and it was such a joy to help enable Ron and Dalia to get away for the weekend.

CaRniVaL

Carnival is like a Portuguese Mardi Gra or Holloween. Most people get off work for a couple of days or out of school. You see kids dressed up in costums and the Learning Center was no different so we had a party on Friday. We all took the opportunity to dress up and even had a fashin show to model the costums.

I have to be honest and say that Charlie was pretty much my favorite as soon as I walked into school on Friday. Many of the students came up with good costumes but Christopher had the walk and the costum - you just can't beat that!

So um, yeah that's me. What exactly am I you might ask yourself, well the jury is still out on that one. I just know that I forgot to pack my costum when I filled my suitcases last July. As a result I decided to color and punkout my hair for the party. Do you like? Alright so its a wig, but it was still fun.

We all had a lot of fun together and obviously a lot of fun dressing up!

Thursday

Thursday evening Lisa and I did meet up with a man that I play tennis with and his daughter. We had a wonderful time and good conversation. Lisa had just started her language class in which she had met a European girl who had lived in Vienna for several months. Lisa was able to set up lunch to introduce these girls and I think really help Sarah out with her preparations for Vienna.

Fruits of Fun Labor

Some of you may recall reading about my "Tennis Adventure"; well it did not deter me from continuing to play each Saturday that followed. It has been a blessing for me to be able to participate in something that I love as well as get to know new people. In fact, this last Saturday I was talking with a man about his family. He has a daughter soon leaving to go to Vienna for 5 months. I got very excited having already been there at Christmas time and loved it, I told him that I was sure she would love it too and shared that I had gone with my roommate to visit her family for Christmas.

He explained that his daughter is actually nervous about this experience and asked if my roommate would be willing to meet for dinner or a drink to talk with his daughter. I took his phone number and that night talked with Lisa - without any reservation she said yes. So this Thursday night we will be getting together with him and his daughter to talk about Vienna.

I love this God we serve, you see He takes our interests, passions, and hearts desires and uses them to not only bless us but to create opportunities to step out and serve others in His name. Lisa has cousins that live and work in Vienna as well as we know some GEM workers there, my hope is that we will be able to encourage her and also possibly put her in contact with these people. Please pray for our time together tomorrow evening!

Where's Waldo?

Where's Waldo? An excellent question. Terence left Portugal Thursday to head for Germany. He will be gone entire month of February and will be helping with various ministries during his stay in Germany.

It was exciting to see the Lord open these doors for Terence and watch as his enthusiasm grew. We will miss him while he is gone but look forward to Waldo's return to Portugal come March.

Please keep Terence in your prayers as he will be doing a lot of construction and other "hands on" ministries while in Germany.

Thank you!

Who Are you?

Yesterday was a team building day. We had decided that each month two people would plan a time for the team where we would do things that totally represent those two people, things that they would enjoy. The rest of the team would participate and it would be a great way to get to know each individual on the team more deeply.

Well this month was Linda and Lisa. They planned a day for us to see a palace and have a worship night. Due to some unexpected costs we saw only part of the palace however there was also a small orchastra concert taking place there and we all decided to take it in. I thoroughly enjoyed both the music and the venue. We were seated in one of the rooms of the palace and it was nice to listen to the classical melodies while taking in the decor of my environment.

After the concert we headed back to the Landers for Cheese Fondu, games and a worship night. Lisa had planned the worship night and it focused around the theme of God's Incredible Grace. One of the most powerful parts of the evening was a video that she shared where a man by the name of Louie Giglio shared photos and information about the universe God has created. The two images above really stood out for me and made me think. The one on the upper left is called the "Whirlpool Galaxy" (NGC 5194 and NGC 5195) and is categorized as an "interacting grand-design" galaxy and is 23-million light years away from earth and is twice the mass of our Milky Way galaxy. What is even more amazing is the second picture on the upper right, it is what astrologers call the "X" although it looks much like a cross to me and is located in the black hole of the Whirlpool Galaxy.

Last night I was struck but the vastness of this universe, and the smallness of me. The order, design and perfection of the universe that took so little time for our great God to create. In all of that He has placed little nuggets that declare His glory and point to Him. As I sit here today reflecting on my own smallness I am again humbled by the power and gift of the cross. His greatest nugget, it holds both life and death. Life for those who embrace its power and gift of forgiveness of sins that He offers through his death there. Death for all who refuse to see and accept the sacrifice that He gave to us as He died in our sted.

So which one are you? The universe and all creation display His glory and speak to His greatness. Will you refuse to listen and instead choose death? Or will you hear and see His love and sacrifice and respond by chosing life forever with Him? I know who I am, who are you?

A TeNnIS ADvEntUre

Now I know what you all may be thinking, "is tennis really that adventurous?" Instead of answering your question I will ask you a favor. All I ask is that you listen to my tale and decide for yourself. You see...

...it was a chilly Saturday morning in Portugal. I was asleep in my warm bed when suddenly I realized that it was 7:55am, I was supposed to catch a bus at 8:00am. Yikes! I jumped out of bed, dressed quickly and was out the door. It was chilly outside and just as I was shutting the front door I looked up to see the bus I need driving by and up the hill. Oops! I opened the door and went back inside to evaluate my options. You see here in Freixial if you miss your bus there are few options other than waiting another hour (or more) for the next one.

Once inside I looked at the schedule and realized that no other bus would get me to where I needed to be ontime, unless I could make it to the next town - Bucelas. So I went to plan B, I got some food ready to take with me, realized that I had forgotten to bring my tennis raquet before (maybe its a good thing I missed that bus) so I grabbed it and was out the door. I looked around for Senhor Silva (my landlord), he is often outside working and I knew would be more than willing to drive me to Bucelas. However, this morning Senhor Silva was no where to be seen. Now what I thought. Well I guess I will have to Plan C it.

That's right I decided to walk. What normally takes me 7 minutes by bus took me 40 minutes to walk. I just kept telling myself, hey this is a good warmup, you don't want to pull any muscles today. As I arrived in Bucelas about 9am, I made my way to the bus stop and saw there was a bus there readying to leave. I hurried toward it and realized that it was a 331 - No worries, this bus takes 45 minutes to get where I want to be I wanted the 344 which only take 15-20 minutes and would be around shortly. So, I let the 331 leave and took a seat at the bus stop. 15 minutes later, no 344. 20 minutes later no 344. Now realizing that the next 331 will come at 9:30am and the next 344 at 9:45am I continue to sit and wait, wondering how in the world I was going to arrive on time. Just about 9:30 another bus pulls up in front of me, on the front it reads 335. I find that odd because that bus does not normally stop here but let it pass. As the back of the bus passes me I see the number 331 and instantly mumble to myself, "stupid bus driver" for it was his fault of course that I had not realized this was in fact my bus, though mismarked.

At this time I have two options before me, I can turn around and go home, having accomplished absolutely nothing - we'll call that plan F. Or I can catch the 344 in 15 minutes and resolve myself that I will be quite late - let's call that plan G. Having never been one that was too keen on failure and really wanting to check out this tennis thing I opted for plan G and headed into Lisbon. On my ride in I began to calculate the other legs of my trip and realized that at very best I would be 25-35 minutes late. That would only be if EVERYTHING else worked out - I certainly was NOT banking on that!

I arrived in Lisbon around 10am and caught the subway which would take be to the train station. Arriving at the train station about 10:30am I hurried to the trains and saw one with some workmen inside, I opened the door and asked if this train went to Carcavelos. They told me no but the one on the next track over was. I thanked them and raced to the other track, with the morning I had experienced already I was having visions of the train leaving just as I got to the doors. I hurried around the corner and hopped on the first car I came to. I had made it, I was safely on the train, ticket in hand. I looked out the window, it was 10:34am and the train was to depart at 10:40am - I was just in time! Finally, at 11:15am (30 minutes late) plan G had reached its completion and I met up with Ron Landers to check out a drop-in tennis club near Carcavelos. So maybe tennis is not the adventurous part, maybe it's the getting to tennis that is the adventure!

All I can say is I am glad I plan G'd it! The weather warmed up, I played four sets of tennis (3 hrs) and met some great people. Not only did I have a great time but it was a great intro to what I hope will be the beginning of some interesting friendships and hopefully some neat ministry opportunities. Please be praying for myself and the people I will meet through tennis. Be praying that I can show them that there is something different in me and that there may be open doors to share that the difference is Jesus Christ. There are three times a week that I can play, Wednesday night, Saturday and Sundays. I have also already connected with a woman that also plays elsewhere on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is amazing how many walls are down when participating in sports with others. I pray that this and other opportunities will be used by the Lord as I seek to serve Him by living life with people here in Portugal.

Friday...Shakespeare's Got Nothing on Us

Fridays are my days at the Learning Center. I get to help Liz & Patty (who run the school) and spend some time with some great students. Currently I am doing a one-hour drama class with them and then also assisting with teaching tennis. Last week I got the idea to have the kids learn to write and act/direct their own skits. We had enough students to have two groups and I ran back and forth checking on them while they tried to iron out their ideas. By the end of the class we decided we could continue this project the following week - at this time I was still a little aprehensive about the success of this idea.

Friday morning I was still pondering if the students would really get into this and enjoy the process, I decided I would give it this week and see how they were doing - if it did not seem to be going over well we would have to plan B it. I arrived at school and almost immediately a student came up to me and told me their team had a PRINTED script ready to go! I stood there shocked. Had this group actually done work outside of class that was NOT required of them? When drama class time came the group with a script wanted most of the class time to practice. Again I was shocked and had to subdue my excitement as I thought to myself - THEY GET IT! THEY'RE EXCITED ABOUT THIS! Thank you LORD!

I spent much of the class working with the other group helping them to stay focused and dropping in a idea here and there as they wrote their script. It was neat to see them get excited as they saw their ideas come together. Periodically I would visit the other groups practice and quickly be told (nicely) to leave because I couldn't see their skit yet.

What an amazing turnaround! I had thought for sure I would need to plan B it, but each of the students got involved in the project and I think that we will have a some great fun and learn lots from this expierence. Please pray for me, I feel completely inadequate to be teaching a drama class. I know that there will need to be both structure and freedom for this idea to reach completion. So please pray for wisdom as I try to guide these students into a new territory where I have never been.

Ultimate Anyone?

Well Thursday night I joined some of my friends here (including my avid Ultimate Frisbee roomate Lisa who was on cloud9 when she found out there was Ultimate in Portugal) and we met up with some people here in Portugal who love to play. I had only played a few times before and in the states we usually play on grass - well that is apparently NOT the Portuguese way. A long time ago when they started, it was decided that since "running late" is also the Portuguese way it was more fun to wait for people on the beach than on grass - so Portuguese play Ultimate on the beach. Sand, not my friend - hard to breath, extremely tired, GREAT FUN!

Thursday night we, keeping with the customs, were running late and met up with eveyone around 10PM for a little Ultimate matchup. It was a blast and the regulars were so nice and welcoming to us all. They play every Thursday night and Sunday afternoon and just want to go out and have fun. So when we finished up around 1130, after I had caught my breath and my feet had thawed, I decided that this was fun and began to really look forward to the next time and the possibility of getting to know the players.