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!
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