The sardine feast in the plaza by my house
Dinner with friends at the youth camp
Las montañas
The Carnival
Where's the bear? In Madrid of course.
With Paco and Vicente by the Puerta del Sol
Street performer (mainly non-performer!)
Monday, 18 February 2008
February 18th
Thank you all for your prayers. Poco a poco (little by little) I'm learning the language. Some days I feel I've come a long way and other times - like this weekend - I wonder if I've learnt anything.
I gather the weather in England has been very fine. Well, the grey skies here make me wonder where I am. It's been raining incessantly these last three days and I managed to forget my umbrella (it had been sunny the last five weeks). Today I got very wet and hot and almost very bothered. The Ministry of Interior wouldn't let me in to collect my certificate because I didn't have an appointment. I nearly gave up but - thanks God - I managed to clarify my situation and now I'm officially a resident of España!!
Back to the topic of climate and you'd be surprised just how cold it can be here. The majority of people don't have or don't use heating, so I wear a coat in most houses I visit. Thankfully, the house in Navalmoral is nice and warm. One cold house I went to was in a village outside Badajoz. A number of folk from my church went to a housechurch with a handful of believers from the village. It was encouraging to hear some powerful testimonies of healing and salvation and to worship together.
Ramón Bellew the former pastor of Comunidad Cristiana has a real heart for these places. In the majority of villages there are no Christians and even the towns have little knowledge of the Gospel. Ramón's passion is to support and strengthen the believers and encourage them to be more active in evangelism as well as hosting meetings in the various places. Please pray that there would be abundant fruit in this work and that this region would hear the Gospel (probably for the first time) and welcome it.
I gather the weather in England has been very fine. Well, the grey skies here make me wonder where I am. It's been raining incessantly these last three days and I managed to forget my umbrella (it had been sunny the last five weeks). Today I got very wet and hot and almost very bothered. The Ministry of Interior wouldn't let me in to collect my certificate because I didn't have an appointment. I nearly gave up but - thanks God - I managed to clarify my situation and now I'm officially a resident of España!!
Back to the topic of climate and you'd be surprised just how cold it can be here. The majority of people don't have or don't use heating, so I wear a coat in most houses I visit. Thankfully, the house in Navalmoral is nice and warm. One cold house I went to was in a village outside Badajoz. A number of folk from my church went to a housechurch with a handful of believers from the village. It was encouraging to hear some powerful testimonies of healing and salvation and to worship together.
Ramón Bellew the former pastor of Comunidad Cristiana has a real heart for these places. In the majority of villages there are no Christians and even the towns have little knowledge of the Gospel. Ramón's passion is to support and strengthen the believers and encourage them to be more active in evangelism as well as hosting meetings in the various places. Please pray that there would be abundant fruit in this work and that this region would hear the Gospel (probably for the first time) and welcome it.
Monday, 11 February 2008
Who made man's mouth?
I can't believe it's been over a month now. The language is coming slowly for me but I've really known the grace of God to cope with limited communication. It reminds me of when God said to Moses – 'Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.' Lord teach us what to speak, be with our mouths!
Last weekend I went on a Christian retreat with 70 young people from Extremadura (the region). An evangelist from Madrid presented several powerful messages which clearly impacted many of the youth. One message was 'Crucified with Christ' and at the end many young people took a nail and symbolically hammered it to a cross to represent their old self. God was doing many things in their lives.
As time goes by, I'm getting more opportunities to speak into the lives of young Christians. I know I'm very 'slow of speech and tongue', but God made my mouth and He is able to fill it with words!
This week there was a carnival here for four days culminating in the 'Burial of the Sardine'. They paraded a papier-mache fish round the town before cremating it. Slightly strange! They also gave out 'comida gratis' to anyone who wanted. Practically the whole town turned up and queued for hours just for a ham and cheese roll followed by a sardine.
Free food is good but the truth about this festival is it is pagan and the Catholic attempt at 'redeeming' it has failed miserable. There wasn't a good atmosphere in the town and so I went to play pool with the youth of the church instead. Many of them would rather join in with the fiesta and Paco has told me how much they are torn between the world and the church. He believes God has and will use me to help them see that living in the light is the most liberating experience they can have.
Finally an anecdote. On the coach to Badajoz, my orange came out of the bag as the coach stopped suddenly, and rolled all the way to the front through several passengers legs. First I tried to look completely oblivious but eventually faced up to the embarrassment of asking them if they'd seen an orange. Yes they had but only in transit! Finally a lady bent down and came up holding the orange above her head. There are guaranteed ways of drawing attention to oneself!
Points for prayer:
1.Thank God for showing me more clearly my purpose here – to be a support, encouragement and example to the youth.
2.Pray for the grace necessary for this.
3.Pray that I'd know whether to continue traveling to Badajoz each weekend and where I should stay in the future
Last weekend I went on a Christian retreat with 70 young people from Extremadura (the region). An evangelist from Madrid presented several powerful messages which clearly impacted many of the youth. One message was 'Crucified with Christ' and at the end many young people took a nail and symbolically hammered it to a cross to represent their old self. God was doing many things in their lives.
As time goes by, I'm getting more opportunities to speak into the lives of young Christians. I know I'm very 'slow of speech and tongue', but God made my mouth and He is able to fill it with words!
This week there was a carnival here for four days culminating in the 'Burial of the Sardine'. They paraded a papier-mache fish round the town before cremating it. Slightly strange! They also gave out 'comida gratis' to anyone who wanted. Practically the whole town turned up and queued for hours just for a ham and cheese roll followed by a sardine.
Free food is good but the truth about this festival is it is pagan and the Catholic attempt at 'redeeming' it has failed miserable. There wasn't a good atmosphere in the town and so I went to play pool with the youth of the church instead. Many of them would rather join in with the fiesta and Paco has told me how much they are torn between the world and the church. He believes God has and will use me to help them see that living in the light is the most liberating experience they can have.
Finally an anecdote. On the coach to Badajoz, my orange came out of the bag as the coach stopped suddenly, and rolled all the way to the front through several passengers legs. First I tried to look completely oblivious but eventually faced up to the embarrassment of asking them if they'd seen an orange. Yes they had but only in transit! Finally a lady bent down and came up holding the orange above her head. There are guaranteed ways of drawing attention to oneself!
Points for prayer:
1.Thank God for showing me more clearly my purpose here – to be a support, encouragement and example to the youth.
2.Pray for the grace necessary for this.
3.Pray that I'd know whether to continue traveling to Badajoz each weekend and where I should stay in the future
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)