Nut House

On the 29^th of June I was close to despair. I had been running around Braga for weeks tying up loose ends and now I faced the thorough cleaning of our house, which during those same weeks had become one giant dust dragon. I was already sleep-deprived and it looked like miles to go before I would sleep again. Up walked Saulo, a friend. Saulo is an unlikely hero. His is a complicated life. He is a Christian, but he refers to most of what goes on in church as “merda,” which is an impolite reference to something you hope not to find on the bottom of your shoes. He and I had been getting together for lunch about once a week for candid, enthusiastic theological discussion. He asked if I’d like him to help clean. We started at 4:30 p.m. Just having him there gave me courage and strength. We attacked the job. At 7:30 I had to go to a meeting. Saulo went home to eat, unbelievably asking me to pick him up on my way back. We resumed work at 9:30, cleaned until 2:30 the following morning, then collapsed on camping mats in the garage. On the 30^th I was close to despair again. I limped into Lisbon about 11 p.m. with a truck nearly full with the last of our household belongings. When Debbie saw I had met our extremely colorful, extremely talkative new neighbor Fernando Girão (www.fernandogirao.com) in the corridor, she gave up on me and went to bed. When Fernando and I finished getting acquainted I sat down in the dark and wondered how I was going to get all our junk inside. Up walked Hilário. “If you give me a little money I’ll help you.” He did. He attacked the job. Just having him there gave me courage and strength, but Hilário still ran circles around me. He lives on the street, he explained. He’s a drug addict. “Jesus Christ wants to give you the power you need to overcome your addiction,” I explained. We prayed together. I haven’t seen him since, though I’ve been looking. Thank God He sent me Saulo and Hilário to deliver me from my despair and that He loves to use weak and broken people, like us, to show Himself strong.

Our new apartment is near the Lisbon city center on Rua do Telhal, so we call our home Telhal. Literally, a telhal is a factory that makes telhas, those picturesque Portuguese terra cotta roof tiles. But in popular parlance a telha is a craze or mania and so, by extension, a Telhal is a nut house. And yet, sanity is being restored. The river of our lives has begun to carve its watercourse in our new home and community. Backwaters remain, rooms where debris accumulates, boxes of unseasonable items that will be dealt with in time. But our priorities are intact: the day after I arrived I realized a twenty-three-year-old domestic dream: I bolted a basketball hoop ten feet up the thirty-five foot concrete sheer wall that forms our south border and casts an alleviating shadow over our ample terrace.

Drex prepares for the 2016 Portuguese Olympic basketball team.

The thumping of the ball on the tile, the frisking of the palms in the sea breeze and the circling of the swallows in the sun overhead give the place a festive holiday feel.

We’re still praying about where we’ll go to church. As an outreach of whatever church becomes ours I’d like to organize a place where people would be confronted from the moment they arrive by the intimacy we have in Christ Jesus. Intimacy—with God and with one another—is the best thing we’ve got going. People, who live in an increasingly superficial world, crave it. It’s what leads people to Christ. And yet most of our church services are extremely superficial. I don’t think it needs to be so. Imagine a group of maybe ten to forty people who divide their time together between 1) simple music worship, 2) prayer and 3) public reading and discussion of the Bible. Afterwards, they share a simple meal. Rather than expecting a small number of people to contribute all content, everyone would be expected to share from their experience and giftedness.[1] Rather than what we have come to think of as preaching, different people would take turns facilitating discussion of Biblical texts.[2] When the group grows to where genuine intimacy is unsustainable, they divide. This creates a constant need for leaders and a culture of gift and leadership development. When a person arrives they are confronted by a group of people who are genuinely interested in them and in their spiritual well-being. “Who are you?” “What are your gifts?” “How can we pray for you?” “How can we serve you?” “What responsibilities are you prepared to assume?” People cannot resist this sort of attention, when it is animated by the Spirit of the Living God. What I’m imagining owes much to the New Testament, much to home or cell groups like our Seattle Soup Group and much to Alcoholic’s Anonymous, just to name a few sources. Quakerism, to name another. It’s nothing new. The group is constantly refreshed because it is constantly partaking of the Holy Spirit manifested through not a few but many brothers and sisters. I’d particularly like to target our neighborhood’s numerous drug addicts. Obviously, God will decide whether any of this comes to fruition. Please pray that His will would be done.

Sam Azevedo is a nine-year-old from Oregon who has spent most of his life in Portugal. Drex is a nine-year-old from Washington who has spent most of his life in Portugal, too. Both their lives have been pretty tumultuous lately. They’ve been ministering to one another. Sam spent a couple of days at our house this week amidst our unpacking and the boys’ happy chatter was music to all present. Also this week, Debbie and Drex visited the school we hope he’ll attend in the fall. They were told there is no room. Now we’ll pray that God makes room and that He indicates to us what we can do to facilitate the making of that room without being too obnoxious. Won’t you pray along with us?

God bless you for praying for us this week. Thank you very much.

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[1] “When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” 1 Corinthians 14:26.

[2] “Let two or three prophets announce the Word of God and the others give their opinion about what has been said.” 1 Corinthians 14:29. Who is a prophet? One who speaks the Word of God. How is the Word of God spoken nowadays? Predominately , it is read.