Challenging Lessons, Spiritual Growth, and “See ya laters”

Youth Ministry Training
For any number of reasons, very few youth signed up for the camp that we were going to plan for the last week of summer. But that was totally a part of God’s plan because we were able to have our own youth ministry training camp with about 20 different people representing 10 different churches. This is a huge praise! As a result of the training that the missionaries led, (God willing) 10 churches’ youth ministries will improve. We were able to deeply discuss spiritual growth topics in the mornings, (such as prayer, being filled with the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, evangelism, etc.) and various topics on youth ministry in the evenings (philosophy of youth ministry, how to avoid burnout, disciplining without ruining relationships). This change of plans also left Bethany and I with extra ministry money that we had fundraised, which was used to buy everyone in the training a Spanish Study Bible. It was a blessing to see how excited they were to receive them and how they began using them immediately.

God taught me a lot of things that I didn’t expect to learn through the youth ministry training. This includes, but is not limited to, being convicted on my pride and how that balances with self esteem, how to have a youth group with a purpose, how important it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that victory can be had over the battle that many women fight with comparing one’s self to others in any number of ways which often results in discouragement. I was also blessed to be able to further build relationships with the Spaniards who also participated in the training and I really hope to stay in contact with them.

Goodbye for now
On August 5th, shortly after the youth ministry training ended, my summer of service in Spain came to an end. My last full day in Spain was filled with “see ya laters” (as it’s never really goodbye among Christians, and I really hope to go back some day in some capacity to see them all again). It was difficult. Seven weeks is just long enough to build friendships and make it hurt to say goodbye.

Home Again
Now I’m back in the States at SEND International’s office in Farmington, MI debriefing my experience. It’s a lot of question answering to help me process what it is that I learned, how to apply it, and how to deal with reentry struggles. Even though I have a God-given peace about leaving Spain, it is difficult to know that all the people I’ve built relationships with this summer are about 5000 miles away.

Prayer Requests:
· My future - This coming semester (beginning August 17th) I’ll be student teaching and second semester I’ll be studying abroad in Guatemala. At this point, I don’t really know what I’ll be doing after I graduate, whether it will be missions, teaching, or something completely different. Please pray that God will use this coming school year and this past summer in Spain to make it really clear to me what he has planned for me.
· Readjusting back to American culture and yet that I’ll never forget all that God taught me this summer.
· That I’d be able to keep in touch with at least some of the friends I’ve made this summer.
· For my other Summer of Service teammates that are returning from their own mission fields and readjusting.

Praises:
· This summer was an overall incredible experience where I learned a lot!
· I arrived home safely
· God is moving in Spain!

Thank you so incredibly much for your prayers throughout this summer. Feel free to ask me any further questions you might have about my experience. :)

(PS: this pic shows is how we make S'mores in Spain... gotta love it!)

Finding Joy in the Small Steps

Thank you so much for your prayers for the campaign. It is incredible to see how God answered them. Here’s a little summary of how each day went:

Wednesday:
Twister in the park, weaving bracelets, and a photo scavenger hunt. It was a little slow going at first, but when it came time for the photo scavenger hunt we had about 25 youth from the park playing with us. We had to get pictures with everyone in a fountain, standing in front of a mail logo, with a waiter, etc. Afterwards everyone came back to the church to eat pizza, see everyone’s pictures and find out which group won. It was so great to see about 25 non-believing youth from the park having fun inside the church. That’s a huge step here in Spain. The general public thinks evangelical Christians are a part of a cult and are very leery of them. Before they will be willing to hear what we believe, they need to see that Christians can be nice and do actually have fun, and that there are no monsters in the church buildings.

Thursday:
Water-balloon volleyball, more bracelet weaving, and watching Bruce Almighty in the church with the intention of having discussion questions at the end. This was the least attended day. Many people watched us play volleyball, but didn’t join us. Some did bracelet weaving with us. As we were watching the movie, some youth from the park came, enjoyed some popcorn and left after a while. Praise God that people felt comfortable enough to come into the church. Honestly, it was after this night that I felt most discouraged, as I hadn’t realized how long of a process building relationships in Spain can really be. I was focusing on the relatively low numbers of people we’d been able to talk to until I learned to focus on the little things like people coming into the church building.

Friday:
Making shrinky-dinks in the park and playing disk golf was a huge hit. (Shrinky-Dinks are pieces of plastic you draw on and then it shrinks as you bake it. They can be made into cell phone charms, key chains, jewelry, etc.) We just stayed in the park instead of going back to the church which in itself is a praise because we were open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and changed our original plans. We had a lot of contact with people and good conversations, encouraging people to come back for the concert the “Where’s Wally?” game and the rap concert. It was a very enjoyable evening just continuing to build friendships with the people we’d met the days prior.

Saturday:
Played “Where’s Wally?” and had the Uno de Tantos rap concert. Everyone had a blast searching for the 10 people who were disguised in the park, (see picure). Then everyone came to the concert. Many of the same people we’d met the days prior came and heard them rap clearly about the gospel and also enjoyed playing ping pong, foosball, and cards in the basement. They were invited to come to youth group the next night to find out what the Bible really says and what it is that we believe.

Sunday evening youth group:
Praise the Lord! 3 people from the park heard the entire gospel message and 7 more came in towards the end and heard about why God loves them. Though I can’t say that anyone accepted Christ as their savior that night, or at anytime during the week, many friendships were built, and the best part about it is that everyone we talked to knows that that we’ll still be here. (“We” as in the youth group will be here, not me. I’ll be returning to the States in a couple weeks.) These friendships will continue. It’s not like the a short term team came in, put on a campaign, and left without giving the people anywhere to turn. Another thing I really appreciate about this style of campaign is that we didn’t preach to anyone who didn’t want to hear it. Everyone who was in the church for youth group heard the message on their own accord.

Praises:
· Relationships were built this week.
· 10 people heard about God’s love on Sunday night and many more entered the church building throughout the week and saw that evangelical Christians are not completely crazy; they’re even nice.
· The neighbor never complained about the noise the whole week.

Prayers:
· The relationships that were started this week would continue to grow.
· The friends we made this week might continue coming to youth group on Sunday nights.
· This coming week the training for youth ministry begins. Pray that God will speak to all of us through the teachings of Giles, Debbie, and Karin.

Prayers NEEDED!

This week Wednesday through Saturday is the campaign in the park across the street from the church. The youth group has lots of fun activities prepared including a photo scavenger hunt, crafts, and a rap group called “Uno de Tantos.” The goal is to build relationships through the week and invite them to youth group on Sunday night where the Gospel will be clearly presented. (There is more information about the campaign in the previous post.)

Please pray:
· God will work in mighty ways through this campaign.
· That we will be able to build relationships with the people in the park.
· That God would give us the words to say and the wisdom to know when to say them.
· That people will come to the Sunday night youth group to find out just what it is we believe.
· That the members of the youth group will take ownership of campaign and bring their friends.
· That the church would not get a ticket for making too much noise late at night.
· God would protect us as we are entering the Spiritual battlefield. Satan has made it really clear that he does not want evangelism in Spain.

We will begin our activities in the park every evening at 7:00 PM, which is 12:00 PM Central Standard Time where most of you are. So, if you think of it around lunch time, please pray for the campaign. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Purely Praises and Prayers

Praise the Lord the baptism went super well! The games were a huge hit. First we he had about an hour of stations including things like crafts, bobbing for apples, and water games. Then we had some large group games that I was in charge of organizing. We had about 50 people playing a sponge/transferring water relay, egg on a spoon relay, and dodge ball with sponge balls. Everyone had a blast and they were more than satisfied with the prizes which were large stacks of candy. About a dozen people were baptized in the most beautiful river with mountains in the background. The people who would be baptized made something similar to a confession of faith, were baptized by immersion, and as they walked out of the water everyone sang a chorus of a common praise song.

The baptism was also cool because there were so many people from other countries including Bolivia, Honduras, Ecuador, Romania, Venezuela, nearly every other Latin American country, and even a few people from Spain. It was truly an example of the diversity of the body of Christ and for me it was a very real example of how many people from so many different countries that I can talk to using Spanish.

Karin, Giles and the youth of the San Fernando church are planning a campaign in the park across the street from the church July 15-18, 2009, which definitely needs prayer. A campaign is not something super evangelistic, nor political. Ours consists of activities such as a giant twister game, bracelet making, volleyball, disc golf, crafts, henna tattoos, and a scavenger hunt. Later in the evenings at 9:00 PM we are having a “cineforum” one night (showing Bruce Almighty and then discussing it), “tapas y temas” the next night (eating tapas and discussing given topics), and the last night there will be a rap concert by an artist called “Uno de tantos” (One of many). Everyone who comes will be invited to youth group on Sunday night where the gospel will be clearly presented.

There are so many reasons the campaign needs prayer: that God will bring those who need to be showed a little love, that everything will go smoothly, that many people will come and participate, and for the issue about sound levels. There is a law in Spain (that no one really obeys) saying that sound levels must be kept low after 10 PM. You see, the man who lives above the church has complained about the noise in the past and we want to hold the “tapas y temas” in the church which will surely go after 10 PM. This law is completely ridiculous because there are just a ton of bars that break this law every night, but there have been protestant churches forced to shut down due to noise violations. This is pretty serious. Please pray that God will work miracles through this campaign.

Yet another prayer request is the camp that we are having during the last week of July. The issue is that we have had very few people sign up saying that they are interested and very very few who have actually paid. Since the majority of the people who are signed up are members of the “Formación y Crecimiento Espiritual” (Learning and Spiritual Growth) group. As a group of Spaniards and Americans, we are having sessions led by Giles, a youth pastor, on how to run an effective youth ministry. Also as a group, part of our training would be planning this camp. However, since we are down on numbers for any number of reasons, we are now leaning towards changing the purpose of the camp to training for leadership and spiritual development. So I would ask for your prayers for God’s guidance in how we should form the camp.

Summary of Praises and Prayers:
-Praise the Lord that the baptism celebration games went very smoothly and that God was clearly seen there.
-Pray that the Campaign would be exactly what God wants it to be- whether that is deeper conversations with a small group of people or that many people will come and participate.
-Pray that the campaign won’t be affected by the 10:00 PM low noise level law.
-Pray for God’s guidance as we are planning the camp for the end of July.
-Continued prayers for all of my friends who are also on Summer of Service trips.

Thank you all so much for your prayers! I can’t tell you how much it means to me that I can know for sure that I am prayed for by name everyday.

PS: Its so hot here that to avoid having the heat from the oven, we cook cakes outside during the day! :)

Family picture

These are the wonderful people I am working with. Karin is in the pink and next to her is Deb and Giles and their family. Micah is the oldest, followed by Nate, then there's Bekah and Jacob. Next to Micah is Bethany, my teammate for the summer. This picture was taken at the Pinos Reales, the camp where we served as camp counselors for the MKs.

A Lesson on God's Love

For four days, this past week was the SEND Spain Annual conference where Bethany, her boyfriend Evan, Henry, another short term missionary in a different program, and I served essentially as camp counselors for 12 missionary teenagers. We stayed at an absolutely beautiful camp with mountains in the background, lots of rocks, and pine trees called Pinos Reales. Before going, Deb told us that missionary kids (MKs) will talk our ears off if we are willing to listen. She was right. Praise God we were able to build friendships with them and pray that we will be able to continue encouraging them. I think what struck me the most as I was spending time with the MKs is how they would encourage us to follow God’s leading, and serve us in small ways like asking us how we like Spain. It was one of those situations where I came to serve, but walked away feeling like I had received more than I gave out.

Of the 4 days we spent at the camp with the MKs, my favorite part was our last day’s devotional. Prior to this, we had been reading and discussing verses on who God says he is and who God says we are. (For example, God is love and we are loved, forgiven, chosen, called and adopted.) The last day we spent our devotional time in worship, sharing our favorite verses, and praying as we sat on some giant rocks facing the mountains. It was so amazing! In prayer, nearly all of the MKs thanked God for his creation, for their missions, and for choosing to place them in Spain as MKs. The Holy Spirit was there in a big way. I can’t really describe it, but I trust you know what I mean.

As we were saying goodbye to all the MKs, I realized that I’ll see all of them again sometime this summer, except one who is going on home service. That is so refreshing because I very much dislike saying goodbye to people and all other short term mission trips I’ve been on I end up saying goodbye to people way before I’d like to. It is a blessing to be here for more than a couple weeks.

As I reflect on my first couple weeks in Spain, I’ve come to the conclusion that God is showing me how much he loves me by making this experience everything I love. So far he has just showered me with blessings. He has perfectly equipped me through my past experiences at Camp Manitoqua and my Spanish language abilities, knowing the whole time that I would eventually be here in Spain. He has proven to me that I don’t have to suffer to serve him. I have a feeling that sometime in the future, God is going to call me to something that I may not feel ready for, but then he’ll remind me of Spain and how he cared for me then, and I’ll follow his call trusting his sovereignty and love.

Praises:
· Working with the teen MKs at the camp was a blast and that God revealed himself there.
· We were able to build friendships with the MKs and encourage them in their walks with Christ.

Prayers:
· In two days, Bethany, Karin, Deb, Giles and I are in charge of leading games at a regional baptism celebration. It is also an opportunity to show FIEDE (federación de Iglesias evangélicas de España/ Federation of Evangelical Churches of Spain) that SEND is ready work with them. Pray that God works through the baptism and that all goes well.
· We also are continuing to plan for evangelistic campaign in a park in a couple weeks. Basically we’ll be having a bunch of activities such as bracelet making, giant twister, and scavenger hunts and towards the end a Christian rapper will be sharing the gospel and inviting people to the church. Please pray that God will bring many non-believers to the park to participate and that we would be able to share the love of Christ with them.

Week 1 Update

The Wii is a cure for jetlag. Seriously, I played Wii Samba Amigo, a maracas-shaking dance video game, for hours to keep awake until 9:00 PM in order to adjust to the Spanish sleeping schedule. It worked! After sleeping for about 9 hours, the next day I felt fine-normal even.

Well, I made it safe and sound to Spain about a week ago. I met Bethany, my teammate for the summer in Chicago. We have so much in common and I’m sure we will get along great this summer. Once arriving in Madrid, we met Karin and Debbie, 2 of the missionaries we’ll be working with this summer. We are alternating between the missionaries’ houses in Alcala de Henares, a suburb of Madrid with a population of about 250,000. It is beautiful! (I am typing this in Karin’s apartment, right next store to where Miguel Servantes’ home! How sweet is that?!)

“The best part of this family is love,” said 7 year old Rebekah as she was sitting on her father’s lap and it’s so true. This is one of the most loving families I’ve ever been around. The Davis family, whom Bethany and I are stayed with the first week, is absolutely wonderful. Deb and Giles Davis have 4 kids: Micah (13 years old), Nate (10), Rebekah (7), and Jacob (5). They are a blessing to be sure!

My first exposure Spanish youth ministry was this past weekend!! It was so cool! We attended a youth group retreat put on by Karin, Giles, and Debbie. There were about 20 youth there. We stayed at an American missionary school, played some cool games, and studied Ephesians 1-3. It was such a blessing to get to know some of the youth through spending a weekend with them. God is doing such great things through this youth group. Their patience with my less than perfect Spanish skills was very encouraging. More importantly, it was a great way to bring my summer into focus by spending some quality time with the Lord, reading his Word and discussing how God spoke to us through the passage. If you haven’t read the book of Ephesians lately, I highly encourage you to do so. J

On our day off, Bethany and I caught the train into Madrid where we saw Pablo Picasso’s La Guernica at the Museo de la Riena Sofia, toured the Palacio Real, rode one of those two story tour buses around the city, and spent the evening with my brother who has been in Madrid since May 26th on a summer study abroad. (He’ll be heading back to the States June 28th.) All of it was incredible! Another huge blessing!

A God story and a prayer request: The Davis family is really close friends with Jose and Loli and their two sons, Samuel and David. They are the most wonderful people you could ever meet, but presently they do not know the Lord as their personal Savior. However, recently they have been asking more questions about what Giles does as a youth pastor, and why they are in Spain in the first place. They have openly told Deb and Giles that they know their two families have been brought together for a reason but they just don’t know what it is yet. Then, this past weekend they came to the retreat to make paella for all the youth. (It was fantastic!) They sat in on our praise and worship and devotions, and were absolutely blown away by the fact that we had a purpose in life. Loli also did the whole devotion booklet before coming. God is working in their lives through the Davises big time and it is so cool to see! Please pray for Jose, Loli, Samuel and David- that they might continue asking spiritual questions and ultimately trust in Christ as their savior.

Correction from first post: I made a mistake in my first post when I said that it was illegal to be an Evangelical Christian until about 10 years ago. That is incorrect. However, it is illegal to proselytize to anyone younger than 18 because that would be influencing their thoughts.

Praises: It is so evident that God is working through the Davis family and Karin!
God worked through the youth group retreat very evidently and that it was a great time of fellowship.
Prayer: God continues clarifies what my role is here.
Bethany and I would be able to build strong relationships here.
This coming weekend Bethany and I will serve basically as camp counselors for Missionary Kids as their parents are at a conference. Please pray that God will use us as we are leading their devotions and activities.

Spain Spanish words/expressions:
Vale – ok, I understand (This is used very very commonly.)
¡Que fuerte! – an expression similar to “Oh man!” or “Holy Cow!”
Guay/Chulo – cool or sweet
Fresco/frescito- cool in temperature
Una pesada – a great time/a blast