We're on the News!

200,000 people passed our apartment block yesterday!!

They were trade unionists and it was part of Portugal's largest labour demonstration in recent years, and timed to coincide with the EU summit taking place just down the road in the Atlantic Pavilion in the Park of the Nations. As we watched the parade go by, it seemed like a grand day out for a lot of people, grandmothers with babies, construction workers marching alongside secretaries in their high heels. For some, a chance to visit the big city, as the banners indicated people from Porto, from Braga, from Evora and all over. There's a car showroom at the bottom of our building, and we couldn't help noticing how many turned to stare, almost with amazement, at the Mercedes and BMW's lined up. Reminds us of the huge divide that exists in this country. Here we are living among Lisbon's "upper crust", and you don't have to go many miles outside of the city to find yourself in a world of small farms and villages. We read a headline in a local paper that announced, according to a recent EU analysis, Portugal's 2 million "poor" has pushed her into the "Top Ten" poorest nations in Europe!!

Hard to believe as we look out from our apartment window over the skyline of the Park of Nations and as we listen to the sorts of rental figures that are being quoted us each day as we continue to look for a place to stay.

Every morning, as dawn breaks over the River Tejo and the lights atop the Sao Rafael Tower, and the Vasco da Gama blink out in the half light, I remind myself that God's presence is hovering over this skyline, and that he has already selected for us to "put up our tent". Maybe you glimpsed the Park during yesterday evenings news bulletins with Gordon Brown and others posing aroud during the discussions to approve the new EU reforms Treaty. We hope you took time to pray that this place might become as much a centre for God's glory as it is for European debate.

Another language blooper, this time from Anna!!


The word for fish is "peixe", pronounced "peysh", and the word for parents is "pais", prounced "paiysh", so when Anna said in class today that she enjoyed eating "paiysh", the teacher looked worried!!