Me Gusta España

I had my first ¨I am really going to miss Spain when I leave¨ moment yesterday. This whole week I have had moments where I pause and think about the situation I have been placed in and how I have adjusted. I walk to different bars and get coffee daily, I meet with people in the city, I walk everywhere and use the bus when I need to, I know my way around, and I am beginning to understand people more and more. Also, since my 2nd week here I have never had a time where I have walked into town without seeing someone I know, and stopping to stay hi.
Thursdays are my busy days with 3, 4,5, and 1st grade classes, a meeting after school, and two private lessons at night. And tonight was also the night that many of the teachers invited me to go out with them for tapas (and in Spain when people go out they never go home before 2am). This week I have been very tired, trying to finish all of the school for UCF I have so that I don’t have to worry about it anymore. And I had felt the need for some alone time (not working.) It just so happened that Thursdays meeting was cancelled and one of my private tutoring session was also cancelled because the girl has chicken pox. So I had 3 whole hours to lay down and relax!!! Ahhh…. :) After my 6 o clock lesson I went for a night run (I feel completely safe running since old ladies and children are all walking around at night) and then returned how to get ready for the night out with my teachers!
As I left home and went into the city to meet people I KNOW, I felt this feeling of comfort…and as I was walking I saw one of my students helping his grandmother walk across the street. He looked back and saw me and said ¨HELLLLOOO Jesi (yesi).¨ This isn’t even a student I have in class but just a student I see everyday..it really is amazing the difference a teacher has in the lives of children just by showing up!
Then I met with the teachers and we went to different bars and got tapas and I ended up spending the night with three other teachers at there apartment right across from school. This morning we all woke up, had breakfast together, and went to school!
Me gusta España!!

Being Challenged and Becoming Content

It has now been over a month since I left Florida to begin the journey that God called me to. Before I left I was nervous about going from Orlando where I had a strong Christian family surrounding me. People who I could be held accountable to and challenged by and I thought what not having that would do for my relationship with God when I came to Spain. I also wondered how I would show the love of God to others and serve my community. Now that I have been here I have realized so many things! I’ve realized that even though I don’t have a strong church family surrounding me physically I do have them with me spiritually by their prayers, and no matter where I go God’s presence is always JUST as strong as long as I am keeping my eyes on Him! I feel like I am held just as accountable and am being challenged just as much by myself by what God has been teaching me. God has really challenged me to believe that His ways really are better then my ways. If I could have it my way in the beginning I would have preferred to live alone and now I am realizing all of the relationships I am making with people because I was placed with a family. It has also given me an opportunity to show my faith through my actions and my words by talking with my family about my faith! He has shown me that it is not about finding “works of service” to do. But it is about acknowledging what he has put right in front of me and focus on building relationships with the people around me!
God has also shown me that I don’t need a cup of coffee in the morning to wake me up but instead all I need is a cup of His word and time with Him. It is not hard to wake up every morning at 7:15am. I wake up and read from my devotional “My Upmost for His Highest” what always challenges my mind before the day. Then I enjoy His word and finally walk to school. It usually takes about 25minutes to walk to school where I am able to spend silence with the Lord! I am not rushed…I don’t wake up grab something to eat, get in my car, drive to work….and go go go! Being here has taught me the importance of relaxing through out the day. There is no fast food here, you can’t get coffee to go, people sit and enjoy their coffee with conversation with others or a good book!

Psalm 32:8

Psalm 32: 8 “ I will instruct you and teach you in the way your should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”

Courtney and I went hiking this past weekend and went on top of a mountain and just sat and spent time with the Lord. As I sat I thought about this verse. It is so reassuring that God doesn’t just tell us where to go but that he “instructs” us and “teaches” us in the way we should go. He builds us up and using different circumstances to teach us to be the person he wants us to be when He calls us to what he has for our future. It is also reassuring that he councils us with a loving eye. Incase I start to disobey me teacher or walk  against His plan for me that will bring Him glory…he will be there to bring me back!! 

Better then the date of my dreams!!!

Friday I was walking into town to wait for the bus to that goes to where Courtney lives to visit her for the weekend.  As I walked I was able to take off my gloves and hat and by the end of my walk I could even take off my jacket (it has been freezing everyday since I got here). It was a beautiful day! The sun was out and everyone was walking around. As I walked I experienced one thing that gives me great joy, seeing students outside of school. I walked by one little girl who said “hello”, I said “hello how are you,” it took all she had in her to say “I am fine and you” which is the typical response (like how we say muy bien gracias.) I walked further and passed by five boys playing futbol (soccer) and I heard “HELLO” and saw them waving as I walked by. I waved them on and yelled “hello” back. Next, I was walking and heard the cutest voice of a small girl and I looked across the street to one of the 1^st grade girls waving with a big smile on her face saying “Hello Jesi.” I walked the rest of the way with a HUGE smile on my face like the smile of girl who was just taken out on the date of her dreams! It makes me so happy to see relationships being built with my students, even though it is EXTREMLY hard to communicate with them most of the time J, It shows how important ACTION really are. They know I care about them because of the interest I show in their lives…that important!!!

Side note: I went to have a pastry at the bakery as I waited for by bus and a little boy kept running up to my table and talking spanish for a couple minutes and then going back to his parents, then he would run up to me again speak spanish and run back...I had NO IDEA what he was saying...so I just nodded with a smile! 

Financial Update:

So it turns out that both trips cost more then expected, which means that I still need to raise $3500 in less then 3 months living thousands of miles away…good thing God is on my side ;). It has been amazing to see how God has put it on the hearts of many of you to give and be apart of this journey with me. Because of that I have raised over $1000! Praise the Lord! I also know many of you are praying for me and the path God is leading me down! Now I hope that you would keep me in your prayers when it comes to gaining financial support. Pray if this is something God wants you to do, pray that God would put it on the hearts of others, tell people you think would want to help about what I am doing and give them my email jesi.shearhod@gmail.com so that I can be in contact with them, and I would love to get ideas on how to fundraise living miles away!

I know God is going to show up in remarkable ways! Thanks for everything you all are doing!!

Ways to give

(Ways for you to share with others who might be interested about my trip how they can get involved!)

By mail:

Send check or money to my addressee at:

Jesica Shearhod

612 Lakescape Ct.

Orlando Fl. 32828

For Sierra Leone: THIS IS TAX DEDUCTABLE!! J

If you are sending a check make it out to Children of the Nations and include the team code (SL_TJS411) on the memo line.

I send the money I receive to Children of the Nation every other week

By Computer:

Donate online at http://www.cotni.org/opportunities/7

In the subject line put my name (Jesica Shearhod) and my team number (SL_TJS411)

Children of the Nations will then notify me of funds received.

For India (Our trip to India is not through a 501C3 organization and so it is NOT tax-deductable):

Make checks out in my name or go to my blog http://lightinthedarkness-jesi.blogspot.com/ at there is a button that says “Donate Now” where you can give support online.

More information:

For more information on Children of the Nations go to cotni.org

Pease feel free to contact me about more information!!

You can email me at jesi.shearhod@gmail.com

In Awe of God

The more I stay the more my eyes are opened and I see more aspects of

the culture and God´s place within it. I no longer see it as people

who go to church on Sunday and do nothing with it. Now it is more that

people DO NOT go to church except very few. The church is diminishing

here and Courtney and I are seeing a GREAT need for missionaries in

Europe (though we hope it wont be us, we don’t know what would be

harder being a missionary in Europe or in America.) We have also had

the opportunity to sit in a Spanish church service (30min long,,,yes

all of it) and sit in one of the most breathtaking churches. This church gives a whole new meaning to how we walk into and sit in church. Courtney and I stood outside and just looked at it…in my head I was thinking “this is too intimidating for someone seeking God and his forgiveness to feel worthy to walk into” when I said this Courtney responded in a way that I would not have expected. She said “isn’t that good?” At first I didn’t understand but then we started to talk about it. We talked about how we “people in America” don’t have fear for the Lord, he is was and will always be their “best friend” so there is an aspect of the relationship missing. However, we also have to be careful not to scare people into reading their bible, and praying, and committing their life to God (without the relationship) because that is when you create a church and people without the love of Christ and the WANT to know him!!! …then we walked into the church…

 

Each of us separated and walked around…then we both just sat down…silent…in awe….mind racing with questions. We sat infront of a statue of Jesus being crucified (in most churches) and it is one thing to visualize it in your head but when He is before you it takes it to another level. We left the church with our minds hurting from all of the concepts we were wrestling with and thinking about…it was awesome!!!

 

 These are the thoughts that have been running through my head:

·      12 disciples started ¨the church¨ in like one or two languages. Now

millions of people are disciples worshiping in many different

languages, and in many different parts of the world…God used …ONLY 12

PEOPLE!!!!

·      If this started with 12 people then think about what millions of

disciples can accomplish NOW for Gods kingdom

·      Disciples spent time going into cultures, learning the language of

the culture so that they could tell them about Jesus. They built

relationships with people instead of having translators constantly

there to translate their words and the bible, they learned the

language and they translated the bible.

Home is never far from you…Home is Where God has you RIGHT NOW!

I finally started to put up pictures of family and friends around my room. I have been feeling less then optimistic with thinking about my time here in Spain. I am counting the days until a get to leave…and ultimately when I get to go home. But I realized that God wants me to realize that where I am right now is home, and once I realize that it makes this experience MUCH different.

            I have gotten many emails from people and I didn’t realize why I never wanted to say “how are things back home” instead I have been saying “how is Orlando” and I didn’t realize why until now. Right now Orlando is home to people living in Orlando. But if every time we go on mission we look at home as a distant place we cant build roots and value relationships where we are at. Because when we are looking at home as another place we don’t give ourselves a chance to build lasting relationships because in our minds it is only temporary. This is finally realized is how Paul did it! Paul went from place to place dealing with the hardest of conditions and yet he persevered and went on. He never complained about missing home because he made his HOME in every place he went to visit.