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. 

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!