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| Cooking Spanish tortillas in the piso :) |
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
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