Hola a todos! Hemos
llegado! Y estoy muy emocionada por que
Dios va a hacer aqui con nosotros :]
If you are confused about why I am writing in Spanish, then
you probably haven’t heard much about my life recently, which is actually
probably my fault. I have done a
horrific job of keeping up this blog like I said I would, and now I am off on a
new adventure and haven’t posted a single thing about it so far. So now I will fill you in. I’M IN SPAIN!!
Yup. Spain. Turns out that God is a very creative guy and
He worked out my life to bring me back to the REACH program to lead the Spain
team. Through many twists and turns, He
has brought me here with three amazing young women alongside me. These ladies go by the names of Briana,
Latasha, and Nicole, who I like to affectionately call Bri, Latte, and Nicky,
respectively.
Obviously since we are in Spain already, we have completed
DTS. I really regret not blogging at all
during that time because it was truly incredible. If you are reading this, then you probably
know about my previous round with REACH.
It was great, and I am SO glad I did it, and it’s crazy to see the ways
that God has used that to bring me to where I am today, but I am amazed by just
how different this time through has been for me. I can’t say that either DTS was better; they
were both so good for different reasons.
This time through has been such a blessing for me. To look back and see where I have come from
the last time I was living at the RIC is so encouraging…..and motivating. I am just so thankful to have been able to go
through this program again. It really is
such a blessing, and I highly recommend it.
The things learned and the relationships formed are invaluable; I
wouldn’t trade them for anything.
But now, we are in Spain.
As I type this I am sitting in our lovely flat. Seriously, we have been so blessed with God’s
provisions in just the short time we’ve been here. Our first full day here, which would have
been on the 5th, we had so many God encounters in meeting our
coordinator’s friends randomly. (Also, I
will be referring to our coordinators as P and J.) Not only that, but the story of how P and J
got this flat for us also screams of God’s cool plan. I am just in awe of His perfect timing and
provision. We have it very nice
here. Our flat is extremely well
furnished and in a good spot in the city.
We’ve actually begun to get around fairly easy already, which is so
good. When we got here, we just drew
names to see who would be in which room.
Nicky is in a cute little room to herself, just down the hall (5 steps)
from the rest of us. Bri and I share a
room, which we quickly made our own by moving the furniture, and then Latte’s
room connects to ours. We have two
bathrooms, a laundryish type room, a big living room which doubles as a dining
room, and a well-stocked kitchen. Heating
homes is a bit different here in Spain (as in it doesn’t really happen :]), but
God has blessed us with beautiful warm weather these first few days of being
here. So good!
I love how everyone walks here. It’s really hard to find a person who is
overweight. It’s such a healthy culture. People go hiking and exercising together for
fun. And everyone walks everywhere; I
LOVE IT. Sure, I realize I am in the
honeymoon stage of being here, and someday I will hate the fact that I need to
walk to the grocery store in the cold rain, but right now I love it, so I am
going to soak up the gushiness. There
are little shops and restaurants and bars all around. Our flat is a 10 minute walk from P and J’s,
and I just really enjoy our neighborhood so far. It’s a nice place to go grocery shopping and
isn’t very far from the church we will be attending while we are here.
The first full day we were here, P and J showed us around
the city to see the sights and told us a lot about Granada’s history. We also got to eat our first churros con
chocolate and shwarmas. I decided then
and there that I would be just fine living here for 6 months. DELICIOUS.
The next day P took us on a 5 hour hike to a little quaint town and then
to a little mountain which we climbed to view some of Granada. I realized just how out of shape I really am
from that experience. It was
ridiculously hard to breathe as I struggled to trudge up this mountain. Talk about motivation to get in shape. But we made it, and it was beautiful. We will definitely be going back there. And just today, P and J took us on another
hike up behind the Ahlambra. From there,
we could see some familiar buildings as the whole city was spread out before
our eyes. It was truly awesome. We took bocadillos (sandwiches) and some
fruit up with us to eat and then had a time of prayer for the city and what we
will be doing there. Just a really great
experience.
One cool experience that I want to make sure to put in here
is our first grocery buying experience.
Now, I hate grocery shopping anyways and being in a different country
with a different language on a budget and not really knowing what a good price
for things is just adds to all the stress of it, so I really wasn’t looking
forward to it. So we walk inside the one
store that we had been told to shop at for probably the cheapest stuff, and there
were people EVERYWHERE. You see, it was
a holiday weekend, as Friday and Monday are special days for something…..I
kinda forget what. But going shopping on
this Saturday was a crazy idea on my part.
Just so many people and we had no idea what we were doing. It started off that we left our house and
when we got outside I remembered that I forgot the list upstairs. Then when we made it to the store, which is
really just 2 minutes down the street, we realized we had forgotten our big
plastic bags to carry all the groceries back home in. And we didn’t know where anything was in the
store so we got in SO many people’s way as we tried to find what we had come
for. But FINALLY, we got most of what we
needed there…..that is all but the fruits and vegetables. Here, you take a number to be helped to get
your produce from behind the counter. It
is that way for things like bread and meat too.
I was ABSOLUTELY DREADING this process of asking for what we needed and
trying to figure out just how much we wanted of each thing, especially since
the mass of people waiting was so long.
But it had to be done. So Nicky
and I walked up to the machine and took a number…..71. They were serving number 51 at the moment. I was like…..O great. We stood there for maybe 15 seconds when an
older gentleman out of the blue just came up and handed me his ticket. He said he didn’t need it anymore. It was number 53!! Talk about a radical God
that we serve! So about 15 more seconds
went by after I thanked the man and our number was called. I started off by apologizing for my bad
Spanish, and the girl quickly realized that I didn’t really know how this all
worked. I figured she would be annoyed
since there were so many people around me waiting and everyone else was yelling
there orders very quickly to whoever was helping them, but she was so
helpful! She was very patient with me as
I tried to figure out what I wanted and then how much, and she helped finish my
sentences while I asked for something. I
was seriously just blown away by her kindness.
And pretty soon everything we needed was accounted for and we were out
of there. I made sure to thank her again
right before we left and she just smiled.
I know that God placed her there to help me out, and I am so
grateful. When we got home, I looked at
the receipt and I realized that her name was on the bottom as the attendant who
had helped me. It was Cristina, and that
is the name that I am going by here, as my real name is too hard to pronounce
for most Spanish speaking people. Just
another cool fact to add to all the others.
I really hope that Cristina works there often so that I can go back and
maybe build a small relationship with her as I buy fruit and veggies for us :]
Yup. God is so good.
And I can’t wait to see what all He has in store for us here. We will be starting language classes on
Wednesday (2 days). We are working out
the details of what it is gonna look like and how long classes will be
tomorrow, so I can fill you all in on that more later. That is going to be a lot of what we do in
December. Most of the activities that we
would like to try and get involved with will reconvene after the holidays (the
second week in January). As we begin
getting involved with more things, I will explain them so that you guys kind of
get a feel for what we are going to be doing.
That is a big oversight of our week so far. It has been so cool to see the ways that God
is already orchestrating everything over here.
Continued prayers for wisdom would be greatly appreciated. We desire to follow where the Spirit is
leading. Pray for open doors and a heart
of love on our part. And thank you so
much for reading this and following along with my journey here. It means a lot, and I hope you all have a
blessed day. Love Jesus.
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