Let the post-thesis Madrid experience begin! :)

I successfully finished and submitted my thesis yesterday.  And guess what we just happened to do with the family today?  We went to Avila!  Teresa's hometown.  The parents of all the kids in Javier's class decided to have a picnic for the kids and their families at a park in Avila, which is about an hour away from Madrid.  So Bree and I went with them.  The park was nice.  It surrounded a sanctuary/convent.  I think it was called Sonsoles.  We played with the kids the whole time, mainly just Mariana because the boys were playing with their friends.  We had lunch there (an amazing burger with bacon, goat cheese, and a fried egg on it!) and left around 5.  Before everyone left, all the kids and parents in the class went into the sanctuary (which was full of images of Saint Teresa) and prayed together.  I think they were saying the rosary and all the kids were taking turns doing the readings.  It was really neat.

Then after we left, Ines and Javier (the mom and dad) let us stop at the convent of St. Teresa so I could see it.  It was so nice of them.  I know they did it just for me, especially because the kids REALLY didn't want to.  I didn't go through the Teresa museum because that would have taken too long.  But we all went in the Church and saw the first convent she founded, which is still in use today.  I also went in the souvenir shop and i bought a little St. Teresa emblem for 2 euros.  It was so cool getting to go there the day after I finished my thesis about her.

Just to share a little about her: She was a nun in 16th century Spain.  She is known for her "mystical experiences" which means she had supernatural visions and encounters with the Lord, angles and demons.  She founded a new order within the Catholic church (the Discalced Carmelites) and founded quite a few convents during her life.  Her reformatory ideals were very dangerous in the political/religious climate of the 16th century Spain, with the Counter-Reformation and the Inquisition. She is considered one of the most significant writers of the Spanish Golden Age and was the first female Doctor of the Church.  She was an amazing person and I learned a lot about prayer, humility, and God from studying her autobiography.  I am really blessed to have been able to write my thesis about her.


As far as filling you guys in on the past few weeks....  Not much new has been going on.  I have pretty much spent all of my free time working on my thesis, but I think I can find a few things that happened that are worth writing about.

Well, Bree and I went to Puerta del Sol yesterday before class to go to the most famous "Chocolateria" in Madrid to get chocolate con churros in celebration of finishing my thesis.  And Bree treated me as a reward for finishing my thesis.  I LOVE the chocolate they serve with the churros.  It's like hot chocolate but a million times better.  It's like a cup full of melted dark chocolate.  So delicious.

After getting the churros we had some extra time before class so we explored further down Calle Mayor and stumbled upon a cool market place.  Everything was pretty expensive, but I think you could buy any kind of Spanish food there.  Each corner had a different type of food like fruit, cheese, bread, meat, fish, nuts, olives, wine, croquetas, patatas, pastel...  I think I took a picture of each corner.

Oh, something really interesting.  Spain's regional elections are tomorrow, and with the economic crisis going on here, things are pretty tense.  There have been thousands of Spaniards, mostly youth, who have been gathering in Puerta del Sol protesting for the past week.  Very non-violent protests, don't worry.  Bree and I walked through Sol yesterday on our way to get chocolate con churros, and it seemed more like a gathering than a protest.  It seemed like people were just hanging out, but there were political signs hung everywhere.  But many of the protesters have even been spending the night there.

My professors have been talking to us about the protests in class this week.  Apparently this is (or could be) a historic event.  Spain has had a pretty rough recent past since the Civil War (1936-1939) and the dictatorship that was set up afterward under Franco.  Franco's regime was extremely oppressive.  After Franco's death in 1970, the monarchs were allowed back into the country and Spain set up a constitutional monarchy with democratic elections.  But the recent past has left a big impact on the ideology of the Spanish people.  I wish I had paid attention better in my classes about Spain's recent history so I understood this better.  But one of my professors described the Spanish people as very calm and patient, accustomed to putting up with a lot, but that they are like volcanoes and when they are pushed past a certain limit they will explode.  This is how she described the situation with the youth.

I think Spain's social security system is completely regulated by the government (health care and retirement and things like that), but since the economy is failing (due to bad bankers, according to one of my professors) the people are worried that the government won't be able to support this generation of youth when they get older.  I see so many fliers and so much graffitti at the university when I go to school about "Jovenes sin futuro" (youth without a future) and calling the youth to political action.

According to another professor, the youth are rebelling against the corrupt politicians.  Many are refusing to vote and encouraging others not to vote, as they don't support any party because they are all so corrupt.  This professor of mine emphasized how historic this was because Spaniards are used to corruption and usually don't care too much about corruption in politics.

According to Ines (the mom of the family we live with) the youth are protesting just for the thrill of rebelling.  And that the current political party is behind the rallies and protests, trying to encourage people not to vote because they know they are going to lose power, but they don't want the other party to get a complete majority.  This is the opinion of a very upper-class Spaniard though.

It's just been interesting to see all of this going on.  Just like I said I wish I understood Spain's history better, I also wish I understood politics better so I'd have a more educated perspective on things.

Anyway, tomorrow is Sunday (my favorite day!).  I am looking forward to church!!  :)  There is also a concert/worship service tomorrow night put on collectively by all the protestant churches in Madrid that I would LOVE to go to.  Bree and I are unsure about asking for the evening off  though because the family already gives us all day off on Sundays (until about 7:30 when they come home).  So we would feel bad asking for even more time off after having all day off.  I'm going to pray about it and see what their plans are and decide if we should ask if we can go to the service.

I'm not 100% sure what it's going to be like, but I know I really want to be there.  Lol.  It's a worship group or ministry or collaboration of ministries called En Espiritu y En Verdad (In Spirit and Truth - name taken from John 4:24 where Jesus says "God is Spirit and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth").  This details about the ministry are what I am unsure about.  The website says they work with a collaboration of hundreds of Hispanic worship leaders.  They translate all the popular contemporary worship songs into Spanish and put out CDs and travel around all the Spanish-speakings countries doing "Noches de Adoracion" Nights of Worship.  They are coming to Madrid tomorrow night.  I want to go so bad.  Hopefully it'll work out.  God knows how much I want to be there.  I bet He'll work it out so I can be there.  :)

Well, I'm going to go to bed now.
Love you all!

Sunday, May 8

This is going to be a short entry because I need to work on my thesis.  It's due May 20 and I have 3.5 of 40-50 pages done... Enough said.

But I want to write about church today.  So Bree and I left the house about 10:55 this morning and made it to church about 11:45 (it starts at 11:30).  During worship I spotted my friend Molly!

Molly is my friend from class. She's German and she's working as an au pair here in Madrid and taking classes at Complutense too.  Molly and I have hit it off well and we usually hang out after class for a little bit, get lunch or something.  Anyway, I asked her last week if she went to church anywhere and she said she does at home in Germany, and she went a couple times with the family she works for, but she didn't really like the Catholic way of doing things, so she stopped going.  She was pretty interested when I told her about Amistad Cristiana and I told her she should come with us some time.  When Bree and I were at the metro station I remembered about Molly and I told Bree I was sad I had forgotten to call her.  So I was so surprised and happy when I spotted her during worship!  We also rode the metro home together (until we had to go different directions).  She absolutely loved the service.  :)  Praise God!  So that was my exciting story about Molly.

Now about church.  Have I already described the worship?  It's amazing.  I love love love love love it.  ;)  They play a lot of my favorite worship songs, but translated to Spanish.  And they really play them led by the Spirit, lingering on chords between songs, to give people time to focus on God and let them hear Him speak.  I just love it.

Then the sermon.  They are doing a series about the cross.  First of all.  Woah, that is awesome.  I guess I missed the first two messages of the series while we were in Sotogrande and last week was just worship.  But the first two messages were What did the cross mean for God?  and What did the cross mean for Jesus?  Today was What did the cross mean for Satan?  Haha!  It was so awesome!  Everything she said was exactly what God has been teaching me lately.  The victory that Jesus won on the cross.  Over sin, over Satan, over death, over Hell.  And that that victory also belongs to those to believe in Jesus!  AMEN!!

This is the general outline of the message.  The verses she used and a short description of them.

1 John 3:8 - "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work."


>>>The main reason Jesus came was to destroy the devil's work.  That was His sole purpose.  (Other good things came as a result, but that was His purpose)


Hebrews 2:14 - "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil"


>>>He had to become flesh just like us because that was the only way He could save us.  By being subject to the temptations and struggles of being a human, and yet not giving into sin, but rather living a perfect life, He would have the authority to defeat Satan.

Romans 5:12 - "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned"


>>We all sinned, therefore we all earned and deserve death.


John 11:26 - "and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”


>>>But we will never die if we believe in Jesus because through Him we have power over sin!  And we need to really believe it!


Colossians 2:15 - "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."


>>>This was my favorite point of the message.  Satan and his demons have NO POWER because Jesus disarmed them.  Then He made a public spectacle of them, mocking them in front of all the hosts of heaven.  He triumphed over them by the cross.  Satan has no power because of what Jesus did.  The only way he can hurt us is if we let him.  By sinning, we give him permission.  So Satan's only power is deception, tricking us into sinning.


John 12:31 - "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out"


Revelation 20:10 - "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."


>>>But these verses show Satan's future.  God knows Satan's future.  And Satan knows it too.  He's just trying to take as many down with him as he can.  The only way he can hurt God is by hurting those whom God loves--us.  But in the end God will have complete victory because of the work Jesus did on the cross!


Ephesians 6:10-18 - "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."


>>>The pastor ended with these verses, encouraging us to stand firm against the devil's schemes.  We are in a war, so we need to put on the armor that God gives us to be protected from the Devil.




Ok, so that was a little longer than I expected.  But it was such a good message and it encouraged me so much, I had to share it.  :)


Now back to working on my thesis!