Me Escuela en Miranda de Ebro, Spain

The way students are placed in school is on a point system. If students are poor they get a point, if a student has a sibling in the school they get another point. Then parents pick the top three schools they want their children to go to and students are put in the schools of their choice based on the number of points they have. Therefore, many of the parents who are well off get mad that because they work hard they are not able to pick what school their children go to. This also means that sometimes siblings do not get placed in the same school. In most schools there is only one class per grade, a headmaster (principle) who also teaches in the school, and many of the teachers move around to different classes to teach.
My school is not like many of the other schools where girls are teaching, and it is very controversial in the city. My school is located in the city of Miranda. In Miranda there are nice areas and then there are very poor areas. Many of these areas have a large immigrant population. There are gypsies (like in the Hunchback of Notre Dame), Portuguese, Moroccan, and other cultures that come to our school. Therefore, parents do not want to send their students to the school because they think these students make the school less effective in teaching students.
It does make for a diverse classroom, almost like America. There are even students in my class who don’t speak Spanish, and here I am trying to teach them English!
One thing I have noticed is the lack of classroom management. Students are yelled at when they are being loud and they quiet down for a couple minutes, the teacher yells again and the cycle repeats. Teachers will also have conversations with you in front of the class while the students go crazy and then yell at the students for being yelled at. This makes it very difficult to teach a class. Teachers also put students with disabilities and students who do not speak Spanish in the back of the classroom with out a notebook or work to do☹. Many of these things have been hard to see but it has also been great to see the opportunity I have to make a difference in the way of teaching. I am going to try a move these students to the front when I teach and introduce grouping into the classroom.

Drinking in Spain

When I first got to Spain I had the perception that drinking does not have a negative connotation with it. There are bars on every corner. In America teachers make sure that students and parents do not see them drink. But today at the school I am teaching at the headmaster took me to the market in the middle of the day to get supplies for the fiesta at the end of the day. After we purchased everything we walked right into the school holding campaign as parents walked by, and the refrigerator at the school has wine in it everyday! The drinking age is 18 however, anyone can walk into a bar (for the most part) and order alcohol without being carded. If not then one person who is 18 can buy a round for everyone under age and nothing is done. I have a friend here who goes to the high school and she said that her and her friends can walk into a store together, and the person who is 18 buys all the alcohol (with everyone next to him/her) and walk past the security guard without anything being done...But then I asked her "but kids here don't drink to get drunk, they just drink to drink don't they" she said "no they get wasted"...I always thought that maybe if kids in America could grow up seeing drinking in moderation then they would be less likely to get drunk...not so. 

However, after talking with people they said that underage drinking is a problem that needs stricter law enforcement. 

Using What We Have to Bring Him Glory

God is so great! Today Courtney and I were able to worship with Northland church for the 9am service (3pm our time.) This enabled us to worship at the same time with people back at home! We have also had people pray with us through skype and through phones! It is amazing the things that God has given us to use to being glorified to Him. Anything can be used to glorify Him if we use it the way he intended us to use it. But we can also use it for bad, which we are in the habit of doing. For example we use the computer to procrastinate or a big problem currently is pornography. I was using google at the school the other day and I was looking for pictures of young girls or little girls and every time I typed in the word “girl” some type of pornographic picture came up. But it can also be good when we can use the computer to stay connected with people far away. 

Our Parramore

I was walking home from school after my first day of teaching, and I was praying how God could use me while I am in Spain. I was crossing over a beautiful bridge when I looked over the river and saw the poor part of the city I am staying in. It is like the Spain version of Parramore*, without the dangers. This is where most of the kids from my school live. Some of these students don’t come to school for days or months at a time because their parents don’t value education and need their help in home and this is reflected in their school work and how well they do in the classroom. I talked to the headmaster and starting in February I am going to tutor some of these children who need extra help but can not afford it after school on Monday and Wednesdays. Please be praying that I can help to make a difference in the lives of the children and their parents as well! I hope to build relationships with them as much as I can, with the language barrier.

*Parramore is the poorest and most dangerous part of Orlando where Courtney and I tutor every other Saturday in Orlando. 

Does Evangelism Change with Culture?

We landed on Saturday and did many things as soon as we landed. That night we all went out for a tradition Spanish Saturday night. We went out around 10:30 and there were babies in strollers, little kids running around, teenagers, adults, and people in their 80’s walking around! We stopped at a place for sangria (very popular and delicious in Spain) and Courtney and I watched the scenery. There were teenagers (young life age) smoking, drinking, going into clubs…in public! It made me wonder about how Young Life would be different in Spain compared to America. And how evangelism is different in different places would be. The drinking age is 18 here but it is not enforced.  Not many things are enforced… How do you show the love of Christ and talk about it to people who have never heard about a relationship with Jesus. Courtney and I went out with some teachers last night and they asked us how we could afford to go to Africa and India (they thought we were rich) and I said “Jesus” …they did not understand so I said “Jesus, God, pointed up, said iglesia (church)”…they were even more confused then before.  But I am hoping that by the little conversations we do have about God and the actions I do take they will see something different…a light that they are drawn to and will want to know more about. God works in amazing ways and I cant wait to see how he works in the surroundings he has placed me in! 

Evangelism tool # 345: Watch Church Services in Bars

This weekend I visited Courtney in here city. On Sunday’s we are trying to watch Northland services online so we can worship at the same time with our church family back home. She does not have Internet in her apartment and we found out that the library is closed on Sunday. Therefore, we went to the only place with Internet…a bar! I am sitting here right now amazed how God works. Courtney and I are praying together and worshipping the Lord in the same place some of the teachers took us out to on Friday night! 

Out of my Comfort Zone

My experience in Spain has been eye opening to my faith in many ways. It is defiantly out of my comfort zone. It is a new culture, a new language, a new house to live in, new people surrounding me, new surroundings, and a new school to get use to all at the same time! I went for a run the other day and was wrestling with God and just asking Him why he put me in the surroundings, and thanking Him that “my ways are not His ways” Isaiah 55:8 and I came back to my house and God gave me an answer in my devotional that said “How many of us are set upon Jesus Christ slaking our thirst when we ought to be satisfying Him? We should be pouring out now, spending to the last limit, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. “Ye shall be witnesses unto me”- that means a life unsullied, uncompromising and unbribed devotion to the Lord Jesus, a satisfaction to Him wherever He places us.” (My Upmost for His Highest.) I live to bring glory to God and I should be focusing on how I can satisfy Him where he has placed me rather then relying on Him to give me comfort in my surroundings. Now, will I rely on Him and pray for comfort? Of course! But that shouldn’t be my main focus.