Always a few challenges on the road regarding charging devices and good internet access and now we discovered that our phone contract does not give us roaming in Portugal. A little difficult as we are due to meet a Brazilian couple who relocated to Lagos, people I met many years ago… So now almost sorted!!! But we had a great day yesterday, a great day for us, so here goes (and one image today that I managed to find on the internet – we do have some great images so use your imagination!!)
Way back when we were living in Cádiz we went on a trip up through Spain connected to the expulsion of Jews from Cádiz and with the promise we would find angels at a key point. It was in a season when we encountered swifts at key moments, including one that flew in our window, flew round the room and out again, then repeated this twice more before flying off. In Niebla we found an openness in the Spirit, felt that was the place, prayed and swifts showed up. That was probably 2012/13.
Yesterday we visited there but this time connected to the ReConquista (it is very interesting to note the parallel aspects to the Jew and Muslim story in Spain). Niebla, now a smallish town was once the centre for a sizeable kingdom that went right across the south of Portugal (the Algarve). In the centre of town there is statue of ‘the last king of the Algarve’. Mûsâ Ibn Muhammad Ibn Nassir Ibn Mahfûz (the last king / emir) was defeated by Alfonso X in 1262 who had sided with a rival Muslim leader then when he had his objectives met took control. Our prayer time there was strong, I pushed into the history and (of course somewhat subjective) there was a deep sense of touching the history. I also – and will continue to do so – prayed into what we now believe was a specific curse left across Spain through the expulsions of there being no rest in the land. Gayle has picked up on the descendants of those who went before and prayed for them including those in Morocco.
We then left to go back to our van, back through the gate of ‘socorro’ (help but more of rescue) – the gate that Alfonso entered the city. There was one person sitting near our van, and only one person in that area. I asked him a question about one of the Spanish words on a plaque. He instantly opened his phone and searched it for us. We began to talk. ‘Are you from here?’ ‘I am from Morocco but am Spanish.’ He was born in Niebla but to Moroccan parents. We talked a little about what we are doing and then he opened up about his own faith (Islam) and issues of racism and suspicion which of course have increased since the Barcelona attack. He said that now walking into a cafe he senses he is looked at differently with people wondering if he too might be a potential terrorist. We then did a small prophetic act with him – put some money in his hands as a sign for his future and for the future of Spain. Could he even have been a descendant of the former emir?
At this point two photos that are on a phone we cannot access would have been sweet!! Although neither of us are of the ‘selfie’ kind of photo taking people (I hear the shock at that revelation) we took two photos yesterday. The first was of us with the statue of the emir. The next one – and we only realised later – was of us with Samir, the young Spanish Moroccan we met. Past and present, with a seed for the future. We now pray for him to find Jesus amidst dreams and to be a young man of peace for the future, for a renewed deep convivencia. If the wolf will lie with the lamb… then we must have convivencia as a kingdom sign.
Huelva: Christopher Columbus
In 2014 we made a little attempt at praying into Columbus Day while in Madrid. It seems that there has been more objection to it since that prayer. There is of course a tie to the ReConquista and Columbus (1492, he sails; Jews are exiled and Granada falls). He is sent out to conquer for Spain and for God – same theme as in the ReConquista and in the Civil War.
We believe we are at a time in history when we have to go much deeper. Each generation has to be obedient to God in their generation, and what was permitted in one generation is not necessarily permitted in the next. God has been in and through Christendom, not because he approved of it, but he goes where we go. We see the same principle in the life of Israel – he is in and with the priests, the king and the temple, but none of those three elements did he call for! It is time to undo the Christendom agenda and pattern, so it was awesome to stand before the statue in Huelva and declare a shift. For us a connection with our prayers in 2014. We will head south next week toward Gibraltar to meet up with others there, and en route we will pass near to where Columbus first sailed from, Puerta Santa Maria. We had wondered if we had to go there en route, but as soon as we stepped out of the van in Huelva we both knew that this was the power source and the place to push for the shift. The statue says it all – Columbus travelling to conquer supported by the cross!!
Today we head West and head for Lagos, then to Albufeira so that tomorrow we can be set ready for two places up through Portugal: Ourique and Evora sleeping in Elvas at the end of tomorrow – right across from the place we will seek not to forget, Badajoz.