So things have been going well here in Spain. We are still working in most of the same ministries with the churches. They are going well. We have all been taking turns teaching etc. So that has been rather streching, but a good experience. :) Good becuase I learn a lot myself from preparing the lessons. So that has been really great. We just had a worship seminar on Saturday with one of the churches. So we were all able to teach about different aspects of worship. That went really well. It is good to be able to share some of the things that we have learned so much about in the last few months. :) We have continued to feed the homeless and are looking for other ways to provide for them as well. It has been so cool having conversations with and just loving on these people. We are hoping to get involved with an urban mission here in the city hopefully this week. They also provide other services for people in trouble or in need. They provide clothes and showers and help finding jobs etc. So it will be exciting to work with them too. We are looking forward next weekend to our weekend off. We are traveling to Madrid from Sat-Mon and are so excited for a break and to see more of Spain as well! I'll have to put in a new blog after that!
We have less than 3 weeks left here now. The time has been going by so fast!! It has been so good. I am looking forward to going home though. I miss everyone so much!! Can't wait to see everyone again! (ps. I have been adding more pictures to facebook if you can get on there). :)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Spain!!
Wow. So I see I have not updated this in a month. Sorry!!! Internet has been kind of crazy here and I have just this week found my new free wireless location!! Praise God!
So things have been going very very well here in Spain. The time is flying!! Our group of 6 has been involved in so many different things! We are working with 2 different churches here in Valencia. One is a Spanish church comprising mainly of one family, and a couple of young people/friends. They are such beautiful people. They have really taken us in and been such a blessing. A couple of them speak decent English, but otherwise they do everything in Spanish. So we have all gotten to test out our limited knowledge of the other language. It is great. We are working with them helping out there worship team, teaching English classes, teaching there youth group (so, the church minus the parents), and fellowshiping with them on Sundays. We are also working with another church which is a church plant from England. There are like 6 of them or something that came from there and now the church is like 9 or so. :) But it is just starting. So we are helping them with worship, and will be helping out with Alpha program, as well as teaching Sunday school. They have also made us do many random things such as hand out leaflets in the street for hours on end and do a prayer walk around the old city walls of Valencia. They are great to work with too. And everything is in English!
We have also been doing stuff just as a group. We have been spending a lot of time in prayer for the city and the country and for the ministries we are involved in. We have also taken a few prayer walks of our own. We are also going out a few times a week to bring food to homeless people in the city. That has opened up some really interesting conversations, we've been able to pray for people, and give out a Bible!! It has been really good to see that side of the city too. God also led us a few days ago to help clean out the bull ring where they do all the bull fighting. Weird I know. Everyone thought so. But that is what God told us to do, so we went there, not really expecting them to let us in, but they did! So that was cool.
It has been really really good so far. Spain is beautiful. There is a lot of spiritual hardness here though. The older generation is stuck under a heavy and harsh form of Catholicism and the younger generation has totally rejected Christianity to the point of being very anti-Christian and paganish themselves. It is difficult, dealing with the hardness of a post-christian country where people live for the next distraction and take pride in their secularism. It is a very difficult mission field. It is very interesting to look at the spiritual side of the country, coming here as missionaries, rather than the splendor and color that is very evident to the tourist. There is so much potential here for great things. But so many walls to break through too. Please pray for openings, especially among the Spanish people themselves. (the immigrants are much much more open) Pray for them to begin to question how they are living. Like Ecclesiastes says, it is only when Qoheleth took time to "step back and survey" all his hands had done that he realized it was meaningless. What the Spanish first need is that big picture look of stepping back and considering.
I miss you all at home so much. Only a month and a half now!! I am so excited to see everyone again. Please keep me updated through email. I will try to get back to all of you. I miss you lots and am in prayer for all you people at home as well.
Blessings, Katie
So things have been going very very well here in Spain. The time is flying!! Our group of 6 has been involved in so many different things! We are working with 2 different churches here in Valencia. One is a Spanish church comprising mainly of one family, and a couple of young people/friends. They are such beautiful people. They have really taken us in and been such a blessing. A couple of them speak decent English, but otherwise they do everything in Spanish. So we have all gotten to test out our limited knowledge of the other language. It is great. We are working with them helping out there worship team, teaching English classes, teaching there youth group (so, the church minus the parents), and fellowshiping with them on Sundays. We are also working with another church which is a church plant from England. There are like 6 of them or something that came from there and now the church is like 9 or so. :) But it is just starting. So we are helping them with worship, and will be helping out with Alpha program, as well as teaching Sunday school. They have also made us do many random things such as hand out leaflets in the street for hours on end and do a prayer walk around the old city walls of Valencia. They are great to work with too. And everything is in English!
We have also been doing stuff just as a group. We have been spending a lot of time in prayer for the city and the country and for the ministries we are involved in. We have also taken a few prayer walks of our own. We are also going out a few times a week to bring food to homeless people in the city. That has opened up some really interesting conversations, we've been able to pray for people, and give out a Bible!! It has been really good to see that side of the city too. God also led us a few days ago to help clean out the bull ring where they do all the bull fighting. Weird I know. Everyone thought so. But that is what God told us to do, so we went there, not really expecting them to let us in, but they did! So that was cool.
It has been really really good so far. Spain is beautiful. There is a lot of spiritual hardness here though. The older generation is stuck under a heavy and harsh form of Catholicism and the younger generation has totally rejected Christianity to the point of being very anti-Christian and paganish themselves. It is difficult, dealing with the hardness of a post-christian country where people live for the next distraction and take pride in their secularism. It is a very difficult mission field. It is very interesting to look at the spiritual side of the country, coming here as missionaries, rather than the splendor and color that is very evident to the tourist. There is so much potential here for great things. But so many walls to break through too. Please pray for openings, especially among the Spanish people themselves. (the immigrants are much much more open) Pray for them to begin to question how they are living. Like Ecclesiastes says, it is only when Qoheleth took time to "step back and survey" all his hands had done that he realized it was meaningless. What the Spanish first need is that big picture look of stepping back and considering.
I miss you all at home so much. Only a month and a half now!! I am so excited to see everyone again. Please keep me updated through email. I will try to get back to all of you. I miss you lots and am in prayer for all you people at home as well.
Blessings, Katie
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