Happy Valentine's Day!

Cooking Spanish tortillas in the piso :)

Hola everyone!

It’s hard to believe that today marks two weeks that I have been in Spain!  Time is flying.  Everything is going really well!  Pastor Dom was in the States last week and flew back on Sunday so it was great meeting with him on Monday and figuring out a weekly schedule.  We toured La Roca and the place looks amazing!!  I can’t wait to open the doors.  There was an issue with the opening permit, but Pastor Dom reapplied yesterday so hopefully, Lord willing, we will have the permit soon!

In honor of Valentine’s Day, the theme of this week for English Club and Bible Study is “Love”.  On Tuesday, we had a great night at English Club!  There was a group of 10 students split between Beginners and Advanced.  We played a Word Search game using the words that describe what love is in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and then went through each word, described the meaning, gave an example and provided an antonym.  We also read through Ephesians 5:21-33 and Titus 2:1-5 and talked about characteristics of men and women that lead to healthy and faithful relationships.  It led to some great conversations and was a lot of fun!

I’m really excited about what we have planned tonight!  On Thursday nights, we have a Bible Study on campus.  Tonight, Pastor Dom’s father-in-law, Pastor Felix, is coming to share about his marriage to his wife of over 60 years!!!  To get the word out, Pastor Dom and I spent time on campus this afternoon passing out ‘God’s Love Letter’ to students and invited them to the event.  If you have never read ‘God’s Love Letter’ before, take a look at the link below.  It’s a beautiful summary of how much God loves us.  http://www.fathersloveletter.com/text.html

We planned out the next three months and we have a lot coming up!!  Next week, we’re starting an English Club series on Business – vocabulary, types of business, American culture and case studies.  It will be great to use my background and experiences to prepare the materials!  We started advertising for the week-long English Club coming up at the beginning of March. The University of Florida is bringing a team of 8-10 people.  Christine Kunkel from the University of Florida is flying in tomorrow and she will be serving with Pastor Dom’s ministry for two months.  Once she gets here, we’ll have a full team!

Next week, I am starting to meet with girls on campus for intercambio sessions.  Intercambio sessions are meetings where you talk for the first half in English and the other half in Spanish.  It’s a great way to improve your language skills, plus it’s a wonderful opportunity to connect with women on campus!  I contacted the girls Marisa (intern from this past winter) met with and all three would like to start meeting with me!  There is another girl I will also start meeting with this weekend!

I love living in Pamplona!!  The city is beautiful and I enjoy being able to walk everywhere.  The family I am living with is amazing!  It is such a blessing.  One thing I love about Spanish culture is that lunch is the main meal of the day and at 2 PM, most people go home to have lunch with their families.  A lot of stores and schools shut down so families will have a relaxed meal and then go back to work at 4 PM.  I love that!!  Where I am living, Monica’s uncle comes over for lunch every afternoon.  I have had a few lunches with them and it’s a blast!!  Between my broken Spanish and their broken English we can usually have a decent conversation and it’s just a joy to be a part of the culture here.

I might be starting a Spanish class at the university next week!!  We’re waiting to hear when the class ends, but I would love to take it.  I used the Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish and it works okay, but doesn’t teach you grammar rules.  It would be wonderful to have a better base of Spanish so hopefully the class works out!

What God is teaching me..

“One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord to inquire in his temple.”

Psalm 27:4

One of my favorite parts of mission trips is that it takes you out of your comfort zone to a place where it’s just you and the Lord.  God has been so wonderfully good and faithful to me!!  Over and over again, he shows me how he truly is all we need.  In the moments when I worry about what’s after these three months or am worried about not being effective because I don’t know enough Spanish, I have nowhere else to go but the Lord and every time he proves faithful.  I trust in his protection, provision and love.  I can live in peace knowing this is his city, his people and I am thankful to be used to serve the kingdom in this way. 

Thank you for reading!!  Please feel free to send comments or questions.  I would love to hear from you!  J

Hola from Pamplona!!

First night out in Pamplona :)

I made it to Spain!!  I flew in last Thursday and everything is going really well.  Thank you again for all of the love and support I received before I left Minnesota. J

God is faithful!!  On the first day, God answered a prayer.  I was very excited to come to Pamplona, but two things I prayed about were companionship and help speaking Spanish.  In Minnesota, I have three amazing roommates and am surrounded by many loving people.  I knew it would be a tough transition to go from that to a city where I only know a handful of people.  As for speaking Spanish, I started learning three months ago and wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to get around the city without translators.  Well..on the first day, I was brought to the apartment where I was supposed to live.  The woman who owns the apartment is Maria and is a member of the church in San Juan.  She was very welcoming and had a beautiful place.  The one problem was that she owns a cat and I recently found out that I am very allergic to cats.  I called Pastor Dom’s wife Damaris to see if I could possibly stay with a different woman named Sangra and found out she has cats as well.  For a few hours, I didn’t know what would happen, but it’s beautiful how God works everything out! 

Damaris called me back and said I could stay with Monica – another woman from church who has a 15-year old daughter and another girl staying with her (Maria) who is my age!!  Praise God!  Living with them is such a blessing.  Monica is a wonderful woman and I really enjoy talking with her.  She is also an amazing cook so I hope to learn a few recipes while I am here. J Maria and I know each other from both short-term trips I took to Pamplona and she picked me up from the airport when I arrived last week!  She speaks fluent English and we have a lot in common.  God is GOOD.  J

The first few days flew by.  We met friends for dinner on Friday and then spent Saturday and Sunday at church.  For those who don’t know, the pastor I am working with (Pastor Dom) is married to a woman who is the daughter of a pastor in Pamplona/Spain (Pastor Felix).  One church he started is located in San Juan and Pastor Dom is a member.  They have a Young Persons Group (Grupo de Jovenes) and I enjoyed meeting new people this weekend.  Everyone is so friendly and welcoming!

Tonight we have English Club and I was thankful to learn that there are currently two people helping!  One is Hannah – a student from England who I met in October.  The other is Ellis – a student from South Carolina.  God provides.  I’ll let you know how it goes in my next update!

What God is teaching me..

The song that has been on my heart this entire trip is ‘Be Thou My Vision’.  It’s a beautiful hymn and a continued prayer of mine is to grow closer to God and become more reliant on his strength.

Transitioning to life here has been more difficult than I expected.  Speaking Spanish all day is a challenge.  It is one thing to use the Rosetta Stone or have a 3-hour dinner, but to be completely immersed in a Spanish speaking city is very different.  I was surprised at how quickly I became discouraged.  I started praying, ‘Lord, why did you bring me here?  How much good can I do when I struggle with having basic conversations let alone talking about you?’.

Thankfully, God is faithful!  I love how He gives us exactly what we need when we need it.  I’m currently going through a year-long message series by David Platt called, ‘A Chronicle of Redemption’.  The series walks through the entire Bible and shows how the Bible is one large story all pointing to Christ.  It’s really good!  If you’re interested, you can find it for free at www.radical.net.  (Resources à Sermons à Series à Start with ‘Prologue: Creation’)

Two messages I listened to before coming to Spain talked about the Fearful vs. the Faithful.  The examples were Joshua versus the giants in the Promised Land and David versus Goliath.  In both stories, the fearful made the giants look bigger than they really were. They were too afraid to move forward even though God promised victory.  The faithful (Joshua and David) knew that God is more powerful than anything on Earth and walked forward in faith. 

In a similar story, I’m finishing a book called ‘The Heart and the Fist’ by Eric Greitens.  It’s a story of a Rhodes Scholar who becomes a Navy Seal and Humanitarian.  One chapter is about Navy Seal training and Hell Week.  The first night (Monday) is the most brutal and before they get started, all of the men stand on the beach and watch the sun go down.  They don’t have to do anything else, just watch the sunset.  It’s at that moment that many men quit.  They had already been through a day of intense physical challenges and trained for months to be a Navy Seal.  Why do they quit?

“They quit, I believe, because they allowed their fear to overwhelm them.  As the sun went down, and the thoughts of what was to come grew stronger and stronger, they focused on all of the pain that they thought they might have to endure and how difficult it might be.” (Eric Greitens, P. 186)

It’s easy to become fearful and make the giant (Spanish) larger than it is.  The temptation is to quit, but thankfully, God is much bigger than our fears and we can trust him. 

The greatest lesson God has taught me so far is that He is all we need.  He is God.  He LOVES us.  He created everything and holds the world in His hands.  The battle is already won and if we trust Him and walk in faithful obedience, He will surely provide and we will see HIS glory.  It’s not about my strength or how well I speak Spanish.  God is in control and all we need to do is walk forward in faith.