Semana Santa in Sotogrande, April 15-25 and the following week back in Madrid, April 26-29

Wow.  I feel like I could write so much about the ten days we spent in Sotogrande for Semana Santa.  Where to start…

Well we packed up and left on Friday morning and drove the 7 hour trip from Madrid to Sotogrande.  Before going, all I knew was that we were going on vacation to a beach on the southern coast of Spain.  So Bree and I loaded up the car with Ines (the mom) and the three oldest kids.  Javier and Mariana took the train.  The drive was nice.  We drove straight down the middle of the bottom half of Spain, so I got to see a lot of the different landscapes that Spain has to offer.  Bree sat in the back with the kids and watched movies with them while I sat in the front with Ines and got a lot of reading for my thesis done.  (But unfortunately I still have so much to do…let’s not talk about that…)

So we arrived at Sotogrande around 7pm on Friday.  Every day at Sotogrande was pretty similar.  Bree and I woke up when we heard the first of the kids stirring around the house, which was usually Mariana around 9:00.  We kept her entertained and quiet until the other kids and the parents got up and we had breakfast around 10.  Then we usually took the kids outside to play until lunch around 2:30.  Sometimes the older kids would go play golf or go for a bike ride with their friends, but we were always at least with Mariana.  After lunch we would go out and play with the kids again until about 7:30, when it was time for them to shower, put on their pjs, and then we had dinner around 8:30.  (I think Bree and I are finally starting to get used to the Spanish eating schedule. Maybe.)  Then we would either watch a movie, play Apples to Apples, or play wii until bedtime (usually around 11).

The family’s vacation house in Sotogrande is very similar to their house in Madrid, just a little smaller.  But they have a guest room with bunk beds and that is where Bree and I stayed.  The neighborhood where they live there is full of families with very similar lifestyles.  All the families who live around them in Sotogrande are also their friends who live in the same community in Madrid.  Most of families have numerous kids, many of which go to school with the kids of our family.  So there were always lots of friends to play with.  And Ines’s parents also have a vacation house down the street, where Ines’s sister also stays with her husband and two sons (Alvaro and Juan) and their Nanny (Anka).  So they have family right down the street.  Alvaro is Javier’s age, so they played together  every day.  Those two boys play soccer for hours upon hours every day.  They also play a lot of wii.  Juan is about 2 and is so cute.  Anka, their nanny is from Romania and has been working for their family for 3 years.  She’s 22 and so Bree and I had a good time playing with the kids with her.  We all played soccer, handball, wii, played on the playground, went for walks, things like that.

 

Not every day was exactly the same.  We did some different things a few days.  We went to mass on Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.  We also went to the beach for a couple hours two days (the only two days it was nice enough outside, but definitely still too cold to swim). One day Mariana had some friends come over, so we went to the store with Ines and bought painting supplies for them.  This ended up attracting the whole neighborhood and every kid around ended up in our yard with a paint brush.  Also, the day before Easter Mariana and Javier had an Easter party, which was so much fun. It was PACKED with tiny children and Easter egg hunts, games, food, and lots of chocolate.  I took a ton of pictures at the party.

 

Easter Sunday was pretty similar to every other day there too.  We went to mass in the morning, but other than that nothing was different.  This was pretty weird for me because I also do a lot with my family on Easter.  Easter is my favorite holiday.

Now that I’ve summarized what we did with the family on the trip, I’ll share a little about what God was teaching me personally.  First of all, He has been revealing to me a lot of sin in my life and convicting me to work at getting rid of it.  Well, reading St. Teresa’s autobiography at such a time in my life is very timely because she is EXTREMELY humble.  I have been learning so much from her about humility and the way the Kingdom of God works.  Every few sentences she remarks that she has done nothing and there is no good in her at all, save the good God has been pleased to put in her for the purpose of bringing Him glory; so therefore all the credit and praise is due Him.  Her humility is the very reason God could trust her with such great spiritual experiences as He did—because she wouldn’t become prideful about them and think that she did anything to deserve them.  One of the things God has been convicting me of is how I’ve been the opposite of this.  I’ve been so prideful to think that I can do anything good on my own.

 

Anyway, He has just been calling a lot of sin in my life to attention and telling me it needs to go if I want to go deeper in my relationship with Him.  So by the time Saturday rolled around (just over a week of being there) I was starting to feel discouraged.  I kept seeing all these things in my life that are contrary to how Jesus lived, things that produce bad things rather than the things of God.  Although I was trying to stop doing the bad things, I kept failing.  Then when I was going to bed on Saturday night God told me that tomorrow I was going to see a breakthrough—on Easter!

 

For this reason, Easter was not just another normal day in Sotogrande for me.  Whenever I thought about Jesus raising from the death—defeating sin, death, Satan, and all of Hell once and for all—I could hardly contain my excitement.  As I had realized the few days leading up to Easter, I am powerless to stop sinning on my own.  As a human, I am a slave to sin.  However, as a Christian, I am free to live in righteousness!  I have victory over sin and death because of what Jesus did on the cross!  He, being sinless and absolutely perfect—the only human being to ever live through the world’s temptations without sinning, took my sin, guilt, shame, and punishment upon Himself and died and took my place in Hell.  But because He is God and because He never gave into sin, Satan had no power over Him and He defeated him when He rose from the dead.  And just because He loves us, not because we have done anything to earn or deserve it, we can share in that same victory over sin and Hell.  That is the Gospel.  That is the power of God. That is love.

God was speaking so many Scripture verses to me about this over the next few days. They were absolutely blowing my mind. 

1 Corinthians 15:55 – “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

Romans 5:10 – “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

Colossians 2:9-15 – “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”


Ephesians 2:4-6 – “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

Galations 5 (the whole chapter!) especially the end where Paul contrasts the fruit that the flesh produces verses the fruit of the Spirit.  SOO MUCH BETTER!

So that was my Semana Santa in Spain.  Not what I was expecting, but so much better because God revealed the power of the cross to me a little more.  There is still infinitely more power in the cross than I will ever be able to understand while I am on earth, but this experience I lived through brought me a new level of revelation of the cross.  Thank you Jesus!  Thank you Father! Thank you Holy Spirit!

Oh, and God was also been showing me a few things about the Catholic Church.  So far during my life I have seen a lot more people on whom the Catholic Church has had a negative impact than positive, but these past few weeks God was showing me more of the good.  Reading St. Teresa’s life and going to mass with the family, I’ve been seeing a lot of things that I really like and am impressed with.

We got back from Sotogrande on Monday evening.  Since I don’t have class on Tuesdays, Bree and I spent the morning using the internet and finishing up homework for our classes.  I worked on my thesis a little bit too.  We walked down the street to find some lunch.  We bought a loaf of fresh-baked bread and a package of lunchmeat and sat on a bench in front of a Residencia de Mayores (a senior citizen home).  We ended up sharing our sandwich with one of the residents and made conversation with a couple others while feeding the pigeons.  Then we spent the evening with the kids when they got home from school.  Wednesday and Thursday I had class all day and spent the evening with the kids.

At the request of my big brother, I’m going to write a little bit about my classes. I love them.  I’m taking 3 literature classes and a grammar class.  All of my classes are completely in Spanish, but my classmates are all other foreigners, not Spaniards.  A few are from Latin American countries, but most of them aren’t native Spanish speakers.  I have classmates from Japan, China, Russia, France, Germany and other places. I love communicating with people in Spanish who have different native languages.  It’s fascinating.  My literature classes are from 10-2:30 on Wednesdays and Thursdays and my grammar class is from 3-5 on Thursdays and Fridays.  My literature classes are Nuevas Tendencias en Literatura Española, Comentario de Textos, and Literatura Española.  The classes cover essentially the same topics as my graduate classes at UC, but require less work.  Like, we just read parts of novels and our professor summarizes them for us, rather than reading the whole novel and we’ll just read a few key poems from a poet, rather than his complete collection of poems. Needless to say, I like this way much better.  J  But my professors are all fantastic.  They are very enthusiastic about what they are teaching and make things very interesting.  I really like their style of teaching.  They make it very easy to participate in class discussions, which I used to hate doing.  My grammar class is a review of subjunctive, which I thought I had a pretty good handle on, but am finding out that I really don’t, so it’s good that I am re-learning and practicing it.  I am very content with my classes.  Now if I could just get this thesis done…  I appreciate prayers for it please!

 

Friday morning Bree and I went for a run and did some abs and chin-ups in the park by the house.  That was my first time working out since I’ve been here—a whole month!  Then we took the bus to the station in Moncloa where we tried to buy our monthly pass (abono) for the bus and metro for May, but they were out.  So we went to Puerta del Sol and ate at our favorite restaurant Pitas and Company, where we got pitas for a euro.  So good and cheap.  It brought us back to our hostel-living days, where we stayed in 4 different hostels all very close to Puerta del Sol.  I kind of felt like we were back at home.  Then we went to another station there to buy our abonos.  Bree couldn’t buy hers because she didn’t have a copy of her passport.  I just happened to have one.  I’m not sure why we need our passports to buy a transportation pass.  Anyway, now I can take the bus and metro as much as I want and make as many transfers as I want without worrying about the price.  That way it should be easier to find a more effective route to school – one that doesn’t take as long and one where we don’t have to walk as far.  Then we went to Corte Ingles, the only super market chain in Madrid, so the only place that sells cheap groceries (one of our favorite places) and bought a liter of tiramisu flavored ice cream that we split and ate on the metro.  Everyone was judging us for eating that huge container of ice cream on the metro!  Then we felt sick after eating it all.  Looking back, that was probably a mistake, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Then we went to class from 3-5 and went home to spend the evening with the family.  Friday night was a pretty normal evening with the family.  We walked with the kids to the candy shop, at dinner, and watched a movie.

This morning Bree and I took the kids swimming at an indoor public pool down the street from the house.  It was pretty fun swimming with them.  I also did a few laps.  I wasn’t able to do much because Bree and the kids were waiting and the pool was pretty crowded.  I only did about a 200 and it made me tired!  Oh my goodness, I am so out of shape!  But it definitely felt good to swim again.  It’s been a month since I’ve swam too.  It’s so weird to go so long without swimming.  Then we came home and had lunch and played soccer with the boys in the yard, had dinner, watched a movie with the kids while the parents went to have dinner with some friends.  Now I am here typing this at 1am, and am going to go to bed.

Love and miss you all!

First few days with the family

Hey friends!

Sorry I haven't written in so long...  We have been very busy with class and the family.

Things are going so well!  I really, really like the family a whole lot!

There is a father, mother, and 4 kids.  The youngest is Mariana, who is so precious.  She is 4 years old and she hardly ever stops talking.  The only time she stops is when her dad tells her she has to speak in English!  Then after about a minutes she's jabbering away in Spanish again!  She's so much fun.  Bree and I played "three princesses" with her last night and tonight when I was giving her a bath she asked me to sing her some songs, so I taught her some Bible school songs.

The next youngest is Javier, who is named after his father.  He is 7 and he's a little on the shy side, but if we get him talking about something he is really interested in, he will talk quite a bit.  His older brother is Tomas.  Tomas is ten and he loves to pick on Javier.  Both of the boys love soccer.  Javier has soccer practice after school on Mondays and Wednesdays and Tomas has soccer practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The oldest is Ines, who is 12 and is named after her mom.  Ines seems pretty shy too, but she is so sweet.  She's a really good older sister.  She's really smart too.  She spends a lot of time studying after school while we play with the other kids.  But there are some times, usually after the other kids are in bed, where Bree and I have gotten to hang out with just us and Ines.  She talks more to us then.  We watched Drake and Josh with her last night.  :)

The family really spends a lot of time all together.  We all sit down together for breakfast every morning and dinner every night and we've all been watching soccer games on tv after dinner when they are on.  Tonight Bree and I watched Sister Act with Ines and the kids.  That is such a great movie.  :)

The grandparents (Javier's mom and dad) also came to visit to say goodbye before vacation.  Bree and I played soccer in the back yard with the boys.  Some other fun things we've done with the kids... we've walked to the park and played on the playground and we've walked to the candy shop to buy "chuches" (candies).  :)

We've been eating pretty well with the family here.  They are all about eating healthy.  The only bad thing they have served is french fries tonight, and there was only a little bit of them.  Lol.  We eat breakfast and dinner with them, but no one is here during the day, so we get lunch elsewhere--usually at the school cafeteria.  I had paella for the first time today.  It was full of fish, and it actually wasn't too bad.  I am trying really hard to make myself get used to sea food.  But this dish was serious.  It had muscles (shells and all), shrimp, and calamaris and I ate it all.  :)

We're going on vacation with the family tomorrow to Sotogrande.  I think they have a condo there, not exactly sure.  I just found out where we were going tonight.  Apparently it's a beach on the southern coast of Spain and it's a 7 hour drive from Madrid.  I'm pretty excited.  :)  Hopefully I'll have internet so I can get some work done on my thesis!

That's all for now.... I need to get to bed!

Love you all!

Thursday-Sunday, April 7-10

So I haven’t written since Wednesday night… There is a lot to catch up on.

Since we found out about the Au pair job (which I think we will be starting tomorrow) we booked a continuous four nights in the same hostel and it has been awesome not having to move our suitcases every day!  And it is the cheapest hostel we’ve found yet.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it is the cheapest hostel in Madrid.  It’s the same hostel we stayed at on Tuesday night (we’ll call it hostel #3), but they didn’t have vacancies for Wednesday night, so we booked hostel #4.  Then on Wednesday night, after hearing the news that we got the job, we returned to hostel #3’s website and they all of a sudden had a lot of openings.  We should have known something was up. 

So we had to check out of hostel #4 on Thursday morning by 9, then we walked over to hostel #3 again, paid, left our bags there (in the kitchen because check in isn’t until 2) and went to class.  When we returned to the hostel after class to check into our room a little surprise awaited us.  They told us one of the employees was going to walk us to the other building of the hostel.  So we dragged our suitcases on about a 15 minutes walk with the hostel employee (who was very nice, a sweet girl from Hungry who was on her first day on the job).  Then we arrived to an apartment building and she led us to an unfinished apartment converted into a “hostel”.  It was the first night this part of the hostel was open, and there were still men doing construction work (including putting the front door on!)  Bree and I thought to ourselves, “Oh well, just 4 nights and then we’ll be living with the family.  We can handle this.” 

So the first night we were a little annoyed with the situation, but the other people staying in the hostel with us are really awesome.  We have made good friends with them, and they have made our stay at this hostel our favorite one yet.  The first night we stayed here we met two American girls, a British guy, and a guy from Georgia (the country, not the state in the US).  We bonded by complaining about the hostel situation.  Thursday night Bree and I walked back over to the real hostel and used the internet (because our building doesn’t have internet yet either…) and then had dinner and went to bed.

Friday we woke up and bought breakfast (bananas and croissants) from Corte Ingles (our favorite grocery store) and then went to school.  We used the internet in the computer lab, and I actually started doing some research on my thesis!  Then we had class from 3-5.

After class we went to Kilometro Cero to spend some time in the prayer room and to go out for the evangelism in Puerta del Sol.  It was so good.  Oh!  And when I walked into the prayer room there was a young guy with his guitar leading worship and he was playing “Jesus, You’re Beautiful” by Jon Thurlow!!  He was playing it mostly translated to Spanish, but would also throw in a chorus in English now and then.  The time in the prayer room was really good.  God led me to read Romans 8 and a few minutes later the prayer director read from Romans 8 and we sang verses from it!  I love when God leads His people together like that.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?!”  is the chorus we were singing.  We went out to the streets so encouraged and with power.

Friday after the evangelism Bree and I hit up our favorite cheap restaurant Pita and Company and got pitas with feta cheese, pita burgers, and croquetas all for one euro each!  Then we got back to the hostel and our friends invited us to go to a discoteca with them.  Bree and I weren’t sure about going, because you know we aren’t really into partying… But I prayed about it, and continued praying about it while getting ready and I felt ok about going.  So we went with all our friends (Tom, the British guy; Chelsea, from California and studying in Switzerland; Kathryn, from New York and studying in Spain, and Shako from Georgia plus two other friends of Shakos, a girl from Japan and Maria from Colombia).

This place was not what I was expecting.  It was a club in the sense that almost everyone was drunk and there was lots of music and dancing, but it was SO different than places in the U.S.  I wouldn’t go back, but I am glad I experienced it.  Apparently it is a really famous discoteca, Bree had heard of it in movies.  It’s called Kapital.  I was a huge international party!  I think probably half the people there weren’t even Spanish.  It was 7 floors and there were 3 different dance rooms, each with a different style of music.  The other floors were bars where people were just hanging out and drinking.  The first floor was the main dance floor where they were rocking techo all night.  Of the other two dance floors, one was American style music and one was Spanish style music.  But apparently techno is the music of Europe because the first floor was really intense.  At random times in the middle of songs they would blast the whole dance floor with a huge gust of wind and mist so that I couldn’t see anything.  It felt like I was in a 15 second long hurricane.  This place was crazy.

We got there about 12:30 and the party didn’t really get started until about 2.  Bree and I stayed until about 4:30 and then walked back to our hostel.  Man, the way of life here is so different.  There were just as many people out strolling the streets at 5am as there are at 2pm.  Bree and I were shocked.  Madrid should be the city that never sleeps--New York has nothing on Madrid.  Friday night was definitely a cultural experience.  Like  I said, I wouldn’t go back, but I’m glad to have experienced it.

Then Saturday we woke up at 10 because we have to leave the hostel from 11-2 while they clean.  Bree and I got breakfast at Corte Ingles (strawberry yogurt and chocolate Napolitanitas) and then walked around (sight-seeing Bree and Melody style).  We walked down Calle Princesa where we think the current King of Spain lives, maybe the president too.  We may or may not have found it. 

Then we were tired so we sat down on a bench on the street and we ended up sitting there for a couple hours.  This time was so precious.  The Holy Spirit just came down and sat right there with us.  We started out taking turns reading some of my Spanish Bible to each other and then we just talked about our experiences and how faithful God has been and how much we LOVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.  We also listened to some IHOP worship music.  Some Misty, some Cory, some He Is Like… J

We also planned out our dream place—Espirituteca: Holy Spirit Discoteca.  It’s going to be amazing.  The only entrance requirement is accepting Jesus as Lord and repenting of sins.  We’re going to have a salvation room right by the door with staff who will pray people through the salvation process, then an infilling room right next to that.  The main floor with play music such as Holy Ghost Party and Shekinah Glory… you get the idea.  Bree will be the main DJ.  It’ll just be a party celebrating God’s goodness!  The other floors will have different styles of worship, like chill, soaking type music, just adoring Jesus and hip-hop, Lecrae-style music, and other types.  There will be an intercession room, and fellowship rooms complete with bars of non-alcoholic drinks (they only kind of drunk people will be is drunk on the Spirit!)  There will also be a nursery where kids will have VBS all day long and an Evangelism center for training and sending people to preach the Gospel.  There are more details (such as Holy Spirit providing interpretation of tongues so that everyone will understand in their native language so it can be international!).  Ask us if you feel led to undertake the adventure.  Thanks Kapital for providing the model!

Haha.  Good stuff.  After our time on the bench.  We went to Amistad Cristiana (our church) because the missionary from Argentina that spoke at Ignition on Tuesday was leading an all-day seminar about how to incorporate God into every area of life (I think there is a model like 7 hills of influence or something like that…business, arts, education, family…not exactly sure what they all are).  So we went for one of the sessions from 4-6.  It was really good, pretty philosophical; calling individuals in the church to use the unique gifts God has given them to glorify Him in the world.  I think this session was focusing on the arts: he also talked about education.  After church we came back to the hostel and I read some of Saint Teresa’s works for my thesis.  We went to bed pretty early.

This morning I woke up and when I stepping out of my room on my way to the shower, there were three boys in the hallway reading their Bibles.  J  I invited them to come to church with us, one of them accepted (the other two didn’t because they don’t really speak Spanish).  The guy that came with us is named John.  John told us that he and his two friends are from Arkansas and are studying abroad in Scotland.  They’re on spring break now and are travelling around Europe.  He was pretty excited to get to come to church here in Madrid and he was not disappointed.  The church service was AMAZING. Again.  J

My friend Luci that I know from Kilometro Cero came over to us to say hi before the service and she told us that a group from Hillsong Australia was visiting today.  Hillsong is a mega church—there’s one in the UK and one in Australia.  A significant portion of the most popular contemporary Christian songs today are written by Hillsong.  The pastor of the Hispanic congregation of Hillsong in Australia gave the message.  I think his name was Chris or something.  His parents are from Argentina but he said his native language was English, so I guess he grew up in Australia.

His message was SO GOOD.  He spoke from 2 Timothy 1:6-9.  And he spoke about how God not only saved us, but called us.  He talked about how grateful he is for his salvation and how important it is, but many Christians in the Church are just living “saved” and they need to start living “called.”  Because at the moment God gives us salvation, He also gives us a calling.  He didn’t just save us for our own benefit, but so that we can extend His kingdom and help others receive salvation.  Each of our callings are different, so we need to ask God to reveal to us what ours is and walk in it.  He spent the first part of his message explaining this and the importance of living called.  The second part of his message was structured around 3 callings that are common to all Christians, #1 – to reconcile the world to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) #2 – to preach the Good News of the Gospel to the lost (Luke 4:18) #3 – to spread the flavor/aroma of the Kingdom of God (the flavors of peace, forgiveness, love, hope, joy, ect)(Mat 5:13, 2 Corinthians 2:15).  It was awesome and he preached with such passion and authority.  He also urged anyone who didn’t have a relationship with Jesus to act now and start one.  He was so anointed.

After church we took the metro back to the hostel and where John rejoined his friends and then Bree and I set out to find El Rastro.  El Rastro is Spain’s biggest flea market, and they only set up on Sundays between 9am-3pm.  By the time we found El Rastro, which is down the street from Puerta del Sol, right down Calle Mayor, it was almost over, but we ended up buying a few scarves for 1 euro each.  We were pretty pleased with that.  We decided we’ll have to go back again another Sunday, either before church or taking the metro there right from church. 

When we got back from El Rastro, we just hung out at our internet-less hostel.  We met two new friends from Canada who have been working as Au pairs for the past 3 months.  They absolutely loved it.  We went to dinner with them at El tigre, the only restaurant in Madrid that actually has free tapas.  It has been recommended to us by numerous different people.  This place was crazy too.  It was just a little hole in the wall place, but it was PACKED full of people.  I felt like I was at a concert.  There were no tables or chairs, everyone just stood while they ate and drank.  When you walk in, one of the very busy servers asks you what you want to drink (even soda comes with a free tapa) and then they bring you your drink and whatever kind of tapa they want to bring you.  You pay the server when he brings the food and drinks.  The food was all really good.  Then we all five went to find some chocolate con churros, but when the place we went didn’t have them, we went to get ice cream instead.  Then we hung out with our friends at thehostel and went to bed.  Now we’re going to check out and take a bus to Aravaca to move in with the family!  Yay!

Tuesday-Wednesday, April 5-6

On Tuesday Bree and I woke up and hung out at Puerta del Sol for a little while and then went to school to check our Spanish levels according to our test scores.  Then Bree had class right after that and I hung out at school on my computer while she was in class.  Then after class we ate at our cafeteria.

Then we went to Amistad Cristiana (our church) for Ignition, the Bible study for college age kids.  The meeting was SO GOOD.  The worship was very Spirit led and sincere.  Just a guy with his guitar singing choruses and a guy sitting next to him with his Bible, reading verses as he was led.  Very IHOP style.  :)  There were probably around 30 kids there and everyone seems so sincere in their relationship with the Lord.  I love being around them.  We met a couple girls from Wisconsin who are studying at Universidad Complutense too!

A missionary from Argentina gave the message at the meeting.  His message was so good.  He opened with a prayer and had us repeat after him a prayer for God to open our ears and speak to our hearts beyond the words he preached.  He was so led by the Spirit.  The message was about how to change nations.  Woah.  The answer to this question is faith and prayer.  He said that Christians must start praying for real--and that means praying until we get an answer--until we hear God speak.  "Ora hasta que Dios hable."  He talked a lot about hearing God speak and shared specific times where he had prayed for hours until he hears the words "Esta hecho--It's done."  Then after we hear the voice of the Lord, we have to believe for the results.  That is real faith.  Hearing God's word and then believing it.  Romans 10:17--"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  Amen!  He talked about the parable where Jesus says  "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can tell the mountain to move and it will fall into the sea."  He said that if you hear the voice of the Lord telling you to move a mountain, and you believe it can be done, then that mountain will move!

I love it.  God is really using this trip to teach me how to live life as a missionary.  Oh, the missionary also talked about faith being a process, you don't just all of a sudden have a ton of it.  The example he gave was David, before fighting Goliath, he had fought lions and bears when defending his sheep.  So because he had seen God's faithfulness in the past, he had faith to believe God would be faithful in a fight a step larger--battling Goliath.  So true.  I feel like I am experiencing one step closer to learning how to live a life of faith.  I feel like this trip is a little more secure than what I will experience in my future as a missionary, but it is still requiring faith in God to provide because Bree and I made all these plans before the financial aspects were sorted out.  We felt like God was drawing us here, so we were trusting Him to provide.

AND GUESS WHAT!

WE GOT THE AU PAIR JOB!!!  PRAISE GOD!!!  JEHOVAH JIREH!  MY PROVIDER!

Man, how could I ever think I can do anything without God.  When we were planning our trip, the idea of being an Au pair never occurred to us.  I didn't even know what that was!  But now we will have free housing, free food, and tons of fun playing with 4 really sweet children!  Not to mention a great opportunity to share the love of Jesus with this family!  Praise God!  He always makes things work out when our will is to do His will.  He is SO FAITHFUL!  When we step out in faith He will always prove Himself Faithful.  He is so great.  I love Him.  :)

Monday, April 4

OH MY GOODNESS!!!  SOOOO MUCH JESUS!!!!  HOLY SPIRIT!!!!

Haha.  Holy Ghost high. Tonight was amazing, but I’ll start this blog entry at this morning.

This morning Bree and I woke up and called our department’s office at the school to find out what time we were supposed to take our placement tests and Bree called and spoke to the guy in Spanish and he said something about “A partir de las 9:00…”  So we thought that meant we could take the test anytime after 9, so we got ready and headed to school.  When we got there we found out we don’t take the test until 3.  Fail.  I guess the guy on the phone said the office opened after 9. 

So we went to check out a cheaper hostel that we found online last night.  Only 9.99 euros a night.  We found out they had open rooms and we could check in after 2, so we happily went back to our hostel near Plaza del Sol (#2) to pack our suitcases and check out.  Then we waited in the lobby on the internet for an hour and headed out to drag our suitcases to hostel #3, which is right by Plaza España.

We checked into our hostel and went back to school for the test.  We had a short orientation and then took the placement test, which I apparently am still an extremely slow test taker and I didn’t finish it…  We’ll see what level they put me in and I might switch.  Anyway… after the test we ate in the cafeteria (can’t beat the prices!)  and then headed to Plaza del Sol to check out La Sala de Oración (the prayer room). 

On the way over I was feeling super down.  I was feeling super convicted of sin in my life and Satan was trying to weigh me down with so much condemnation.  Conviction is good, condemnation is not.  So I was looking forward to spending time soaking in God’s presence in the prayer room SO MUCH.  I told Bree how much I needed it (and how I hoped it was like IHOP!)  and she told me she hoped I wasn’t getting my hopes up too much because she didn’t want me to be disappointed if it wasn’t what I was expecting.  I told her I didn’t care what it was like—I just needed some refreshing from the Lord. 

Needless to say, I was NOT disappointed.  I received even more than I was expecting!

As soon as we entered the prayer room I felt the immense peace of the presence of the Lord.  It felt like a sweet breeze gently lifting the heavy burden that was on me.  It was EXACTLY like IHOP, except in Spanish (which may even be better! Haha!)  There was a young lady leading worship on the keyboard and singing, just adoring Jesus simply yet profoundly. 

I’m not sure what scripture the prayer leader was reading from, but it was just what I needed to hear, about Jesus cleansing us from our sins and giving us peace with God.  Oh man, I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so appreciative of what Jesus did for us on the cross.  I went from feeling heavily burdened and convicted of my sin, to hearing the Word of the Lord speaking about how Jesus died so that our sin would no longer separate us from God.  How many times have I heard this?!  It’s the Gospel.  But it hit me hard today.  I’m sure I will continually get deeper revelations of the significance of what Jesus did throughout my life, which is awesome because it’ll keep me from taking the gift of salvation for granted.  Thank you for your grace and mercy Lord!

The worship leader was singing “Nos hiciste, nos lavaste” (You’ve made us, you’ve washed us).  Then sang Angus Dei “Alleluia, for the Lord God Almighty reigns.  Holy, Holy are You Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb. Amen.” But in Spanish of course. Awesome worship. 

Then there was a time of intercession for a few groups they sent to Czech Republic, and for a group that is going to go to Portugal soon.  Then they prayed for the street evangelism that was about to take place right outside in the Plaza del Sol.  Evangelism powered by intercession first!  

A few people introduced themselves to me and Bree and invited us to go evangelize with them.  Every single person I met there tonight is FULL TO THE TOP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!  I asked if they were affiliated with IHOP and they said they are inspired by IHOP and follow their model, but not affiliated, which is just as good to me!

Bree was feeling sick so she went back to the hostel.  L  She’s sleeping now.  I hope she feels better tomorrow. I can’t wait to tell her all of this tomorrow morning!

So we went out to do the street evangelism.  What they do is so effective.  And they do it almost every night!  It’s all explained on the Ontheredbox website I posted in my last entry.  They take a red box that they use as a platform for whoever is speaking.  They open with a man (I think named Dan, maybe Dave…) who announced for all to come and listen to the message they’re about to present and announced numerous times that it is free and they’re not asking for money (normal street performers are very persistent in asking for money).  Then a sweet lady (I think her name is Martisana) brings out her guitar and sings two songs full of the Gospel message.  WOW.  This lady is anointed!  The words of her songs are full of truth and she sings them with POWER.  Then the guy who announced introduces the guy that will be giving his testimony (in 2 minutes).  His name was Jesus.  Then there was an introduction for the guy giving the message.  His name was Claudio and he was from Romania, but his Spanish was very good, and the announcer translated every sentence into English (for the tourists to understand the message).  He shared the Gospel (including the whole truth about how we are sinners and we will go to Hell unless we give our hearts to Jesus).  He did it through an illustration about his wallet and how we can’t buy certain things, like joy, peace, entrance into Heaven...  It was so powerful.  Then the announcer invites everyone to talk to us about their relationship with God and everyone from Kilometro Cero (who have been listening intently feigning to be normal audience members) breaks out their tracts and engages in personal evangelism.

I met a girl named Brittney from North Dakota who just arrived in Spain Saturday and is interning with Kilometro Cero.  I hung around her (both of us being first timers, the others at Kilometro Cero told us to just watch and observe how things work) and we got to know each other while the others did the personal evangelism.  Brittney and I shared our testimonies with each other and she is SO MUCH LIKE ME!  It’s funny.  She is a missionary and grew up in a Baptist church and her relationship with God got real when she was in mentored by her youth pastor in high school and grew immensely when she discovered the real power of the Holy Spirit.  She also loves IHOP  J  She had been to Madrid five years ago and worked with Kilometro Cero.  Since then, she has been working as a worship leader at her church and finally got the opportunity to spend two years here interning with Kilometro Cero.  I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing all this with you all.  If she’s as much like me as I think, I don’t think she will mind.

After a time of evangelism, we regrouped and began round two, which was the same format, except all women did the ministering.  Martisana did worship for both rounds, but this time there was a new person introducing, giving the testimony, giving the message, and translating and this time they were all women.  They preached the message equally powerfully as the men.  The girl who introduced was full of POWER.  I noticed this earlier in the prayer room when she prayed.  When she called people to listen, I know she got their attention.  I met her later and her name is Luci.  She’s 21 and from France.  The girl who shared her testimony’s name is Andrea and she’s 20.  When I spoke with her before evangelizing she seemed very timid, but when she preached her testimony is was bold!  Then Glenda gave the message and shared the Gospel with all the important points and she preached with sincerity and authority.  It blew me away. 

Can you all tell that I am very impressed with this ministry?!  Lol.

After the evangelism, we all went back to the prayer room café for coffee.  There I got to meet more people and talk more.  Julia is the woman who was translating for the female ministers and she and her husband are the ones who started Kilometro Cero 23 years ago.  I talked to her a lot and asked about how it started and things like that.  She is an amazing woman of God.  We all helped clean up and Julia and Brittney walked me back to my hostel and we got to talk more on the way home. 

I feel SO EXTREMELY BLESSED to have met all these people.  I am going to learn so much.  I talked to Julia about how I am going to be a missionary and God has been teaching me and preparing me and drawing me closer to Himself over the years, but I have never had any training or much experience with evangelism.  She assured me that this is the place to get it!  Woo!  God has certainly led me to the right place!  This is the greatest gift I could have asked for God to give me while I am here in Spain, and I hadn’t even thought to ask Him.  He knows what I need so much better than I do!  As always, He is Faithful!

Well, I’m going to try to go to bed now.  Maybe the Holy Spirit high and the coffee have worn off enough so I can fall asleep! 

Love you all!

Entry 5

I can't keep up with the days, (I think I titled the last 2 entries "Day 4") so I'll start numbering my entries instead of days.

This weekend has been pretty chill.  Bree and I have just been hanging out in our hostel and making small visits to Plaza del Sol.  We're pretty much just waiting to hear back from the family.  The father sent us an email last night saying he still hasn't met with the other girl he is going to interview, but that he'd try to do it today and get back to us soon...Still no email yet.

Yesterday Bree and I woke up and hung out in the hostel lobby using the internet.  Then we went to Pita & Company for lunch (the place with the 1 euro menu) then we tried to go check out the prayer room (Kilometro Cero) but it was closed.  :(  So we went back to the hostel and I worked on my thesis a little while Bree read and used her computer.  Then we went to El Corte Ingles, which is a big shopping mall in Plaza del Sol and we explored a little and bought groceries for dinner and breakfast.  Our selection is limited by not having a kitchen, but groceries are definitely cheaper than eating out.  So we ate in the room and went to bed fairly early.  It's kind of hard to get a good night sleep with a window facing the streets because all of Madrid comes to Plaza del Sol to party on Fridays and Saturdays, it's SO LOUD.

Today is Sunday and Bree and I woke up and got ready for church!  One of the friends we met while he was out evangelizing on Friday night had given us the address of his church and we google-mapped it to get directions.  We have the metro system figured out, but the problem is when we come back to street level there are no street signs!  The church is only a couple blocks from the metro station, but since there were no street signs, we headed in the wrong direction.  We ended up finding the church and getting there only 15 minutes late.

The church service was AMAZING.  Here's the church's website: http://www.amistadcristianamadrid.org/index.php
They were finishing up worship when we got there and they played a few familiar songs translated to Spanish. I could feel God's presence very strongly!  Then they took offering and we had communion.  Then they had the sermon, which was given by a guest speaker.  I'm not sure what his last name is, but I plan on figuring it out.  He is from Bolivia, was saved during a nation-wide revival in 1972 and pastors a mega church in Washington DC.  His testimony is amazing and he is extremely anointed, with healings and miracles to prove it!  He spoke on why God allows Christians to suffer.  He spoke about the loss of his daughter and what God taught him about suffering through the book of Job.  To summarize it, he said God allows us to suffer because He is proud of us and He knows our love for Him is genuine and goes beyond His blessing.  He knows we will be proven faithful through testing because we love Him for who He is, and not just for the blessings He gives us.  It was so good.  Then we went to the main church building (they hold services at a bar down the street on Sundays--I think because it's bigger) because they gave us a coupon for a free Bible from their bookstore in the welcome packet.  So we got a Bible in Spanish and I bought a book about the Holy Spirit.  :)  We got to talk to a few people who invited us to the college-age Bible study on Tuesday nights.  I hope we can go.

After church we got on the metro again and returned to our hostel.  And here we have been since.  I think we're about to go out and find some dinner now.
Hasta luego!

Day 4

GOD IS SOOO GOOD!!!  


We met missionary friends last night that meet every night in Plaza del Sol and go out in groups evangelizing!  We also got information on a good church and a prayer house!  Score!  :)  I'll describe in more detail below.


Since we are waiting to hear back from the family we interviewed with for the Au Pair job, Bree and I are just taking it one day at a time, living night to night.  So first Bree and I woke up yesterday (Friday, April 1) and packed up our stuff and moved it downstairs to the hostel lobby. We were going to decide whether to switch rooms or switch hostels. We decided to move to a new hostel because ours was double the price for the weekend nights.  So we called a hostel in the next neighborhood, and then lugged our suitcases over there.  This hostel is nicer and there is more room and less people, the only downside is there in no kitchen, so we have to eat out.  But here we have a private room (one that doesn't smell like paint) so we don't have to lock our valuables in a locker.  It even has a balcony over the street.  We're staying here tonight too, but hopefully it won't be too long before we hear back from the family.


So after we got settled in the new hostel we went exploring.  We walked to Plaza del Sol which is like a block away.  Then we walked down Calle Acala which goes past a lot of government buildings, the national bank, and a civic center.  That street lead us to Parque del Buen Retiro.  It was cool seeing the images that we had seen on google maps so many times in person.  While in Retiro I got ripped off buying a croissant for 2 euros and Bree got ripped off buying some caramel popcorn for 2 euros.  We are so cheap. Lol.


Then we figured out how to get out of the park and reoriented ourselves and walked back toward the hostel. We got lunch and went back to the hostel for a nap.  Then we set out to check out Plaza Mayor and find a chocolateria (chocolate shop).  We found a place that actually sold cheap food.... They had a 1 euro menu!  We got some pita sandwiches and fried cod, which were actually not too fishy.  :)  Then the pastry store we wanted to hit up for desert was closed and Bree was REALLY sad.  


Then things started getting exciting...


We saw a young guy sitting on the ground with a legless homeless man and he had a Bible on his lap.  Bree and I were VERY intrigued, but we kept walking.  She kept asking me if I wanted to go back, but I was unsure.  After a few minutes of praying in the next store we went into I asked her if we could go back and talk to the boy.  We sat across the street and waited for them to finish their conversation, but after about 10 minutes of waiting we just introduced ourselves and joined the conversation.  The young guy (probably about our age) is named William and he's from Kansas and has been living in Madrid with a family for 3 years.  Then another guy came up and starting talking to William, who stood up and the two of them talked in English with Bree while I stayed sitting and continued talking to the homeless man in Spanish.  We talked for at least an hour.  His name is Gigi and his life was fascinating.  He loves God so much and he knows a closeness to God that blew my mind.  He is from Bulgaria and he talked about how human love means absolutely nothing in comparison to God's love and how one day when he was depressed after his wife's death, he cried out to God and he saw a golden figure of a man (Jesus!) in the distance.  Then than man came to him and has been with him ever since.  He talked about conversing with God every daily, and laying his head down on Jesus's lap and God caressing his head as he talked to Him.  It was beautiful.  I love how close God draws to the poor in spirit.  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"  Matthew 5:3.  I learned so much from talking with Gigi.


After we left Bree and I got some chocolate con churros (a life-changing experience!) and she filled me in on what the two American guys are all about.  They are part of a group of Christians that meets in the Plaza del Sol (where we were last night) and goes out evangelizing in groups.  They also gave us the address of their church and a prayer house!  I just checked out the website, which is AMAZING.  http://www.ontheredbox.com/english/index.htm


Oh my goodness, I am so excited!!  It proves that we are exactly where we are supposed to be, even when we think we are just waiting to hear back from the Au Pair family, when we think we are just switching hostels to save money, and when we think we are just walking around exploring and looking for churros!  God is amazing and I love how he leads us.  As always, He is FAITHFUL!