Hey all. So last post
was pretty intense and very deep, and while that is all well and good and I
enjoy being open and honest, I think this post is going to be a lot more fun
and light. I want to talk about a few of
the things that we have gotten to do since the last time I posted and just
inform you of life in Spain things. Here
we go….
So, the last week has been so encouraging for us as a
team! We have actually started really
doing things and getting involved here more, and for the first time, it feels
like our relationships with people have just really progressed. I am typing this and just thinking back over
some fun memories from the past week and just smiling. Lots of good stuff going on. The only down side is that Nicky is not back
yet to be enjoying these things with us.
We miss you, girl. Can’t wait to
get you back. Praying for great times
with family and friends though and lots of healing and rest to happen.
Sidenote: I am not going to give you a whole rundown of the
week. I am going to just write about
stuff in no particular order. And I’ll
throw in random memories and facts and its going to be a jumbled mess of
goodness for me to remember. Sorry if
you are a very particular person who likes things to be just right and very
orderly. I prefer random, so random is
what you will get :]
English classes through our church
have started! YAY for more things to
do! Jamie, who had us over for dinner
the day before the chaos here happened, is in charge. She and her husband Eddie have been great to
us, and we have loved getting to know them better. So on Tuesdays, Tasha and Briana are
assistants to the beginner class, and I, while Nicky is gone, help the kids of
one of the ladies in the class with their homework during that time. (I really love doing this, although I would
MUCH rather just play with the boy rather than force him to sit and study…..he
kind of hates it :]) Then on Wednesdays I help out with the bit more advanced
English speakers. It’s nice to be able
to feel like we are actually providing for a great need here. Everyone wants to learn English because of
the crisis here and the inability to find jobs.
So it’s been neat to get involved in this.
We also have been given the
opportunity to help out with an intercambio in Ogijares, a small town just
outside of Granada. That is on Wednesday
nights, so I can’t make it in time from my English class. Bri and Latte have been going though, and
they seem to really enjoy it. They drink
tea and play games with people while speaking English. Just a fun way of interacting with people and
getting to know them better. So while
those two are there, I head over to our normal intercambio with Totes after my
English class. I never minded going to
intercambio before, but the past two weeks I have really enjoyed being
there. And this week I am looking
forward to going again! I have just been
able to have some really good conversations with people. It’s nice to be able to practice my Spanish
very intentionally and have natives help me with the structure and words, and
then in turn I can help them with their English sentences. And lately, the conversations have become easier
to keep going and just feel a lot more natural.
It’s been a big blessing to make small acquaintances, and hopefully in
the future, friends through this opportunity.
Cristina has also been over more
to talk and hang out with us! That’s
been really fun. She took us to a café
last week, and this week we met her boyfriend, Edu. Continued prayers for that relationship would
be great. We all feel very strongly that
God has put us in this flat with the purpose of pursuing a deeper relationship
with her. She is such a sweet girl, and
we have a lot of fun with her. Last
night we went over to their house for dinner at 930 and didn’t get back home
until 1 because we stayed and talked to them so long. It was a very cultural, interesting, funny,
and very filling night. (The potatoes
here are HUGE. And when they say
loaded…..they mean LOADED.) We are
excited to be deepening relationships here and making great memories with
them.
We had our first guests over this
past week as well! Our friends Omar and
Patry joined us for merienda on Monday for cinnamon rolls that we made. And the best part is that they didn’t burn or
anything! They were the best we have
made so far, so that was a huge happy in our lives :] Mom, Patry even said that she thinks you
would be proud of me. You should have
seen us tho. When they rang the doorbell
we were all giddy, so excited to have our first guests over. And I was also kinda nervous. But it went so good! So glad that our relationships here are
progressing and that we have met such nice people here.
Also, probably my favorite new
installment into our schedule is the “intercambio ish” thing we are doing with
some of the Fe y Vida kids. Ok, so they
aren’t kids…..they are youth like our age and a little older. But we have started meeting with them on
Monday nights at their locale, and it has helped our relationships with them
TREMENDOUSLY. We finally feel like we are
actually friends with them! It’s so
great. The kids are very cool, and we laugh
A LOT together. From talking with them
more thru this intercambio, we have hung out with them some after on Friday
nights, just talking and teaching each other more about our different cultures. It’s nice to feel like we have people our age
that actually like hanging out with us now.
This past Monday, I came up with a bunch of words to play Sherades with
them. It was HILARIOUS, and they had fun
too! The tricky part was we made them
play in English, so if they didn’t know the English word, they had to run and
look it up in the dictionary. Turns out
that hedgehog is a much more popular animal here than porcupine, and watching
people act out a wedding is a very humorous sight :] Lots of good times.
Another thing that happened last
week was that……KEVIN AND BRIAN CAME TO VISIT US! Ok, so they didn’t come for us, but it was SO
awesome to have them here. We actually
ended up being able to see Kevin a lot more than I had originally thought since
he has so many friends here that he really needed to connect with. I am blown away by God’s creativity and the
fact that He knows and works out each situation so perfectly. Seriously, a visit from Kevin could not have
come at a better time. With Nicky being
gone and just so much to process and work through, it was such a blessing to be
able to talk with him about that and just life here in general. He knows the small frustrations with the
culture here…..he’s lived it for a lot longer than we will. And he showed us around some more of the
city…..I feel like I can get around a whole lot better now. And, his help with restaurants was
awesome. Also, our team had a little
milestone event when Latte admitted to liking shwarmas! Thanks so much, Kevin! We owe you big time! :] And
on Sunday we got to spend the whole morning and afternoon with him. We talked and then went on a little hike up
behind the Alhambra to this gorgeous overlook of the city. Seriously, God is so awesome. We took a few pictures there and such before
heading down to a Moroccan restaurant where I had pastela, a little puff of
satisfaction. Who knew that meat and
honey and cinnamon could take so good together?! And to top off that day, Bri, Latte and I
went up onto our roof and had our own little church service together in the
light and warmth of the setting sun.
Yup. While all you folks back
home had church cancelled and emergency warnings, my cheeks got a hint of red
on them from being in the beautiful weather all day :D Ok, I’ll stop.
Also, I have a few shout outs to
make to some very sweet people in my life.
First, my family is the coolest and they spoil me to pieces. Thanks so much for what you did for us this
weekend and for the ranch packets. We
will definitely be putting those to use :]
Mike, you are SO COOL. And your snickers
and letter surprised me greatly. Loved
them, and I love you :] And my dear
Kristyn, AHHHHHH. Oreos?! You know me too well, chica. Thanks so much. I felt so loved this weekend….more than the
normal amount. Basically, I was spoiled
rotten this weekend. Thank you all so
much. I also received some very
refreshing emails from very special people in my life. So “PK n J” thanks so much for thinking of
me. And Mags, I don’t know if you will
ever read this, but your email blew me away.
So proud of you, girl, and can’t wait to tackle you with a hug sometime
soon :]
Some fun facts:
-
Living in an apartment is interesting. Sometimes, meaning almost every morning, at 8
am, which here is pretty early since you stay up a lot later, your upstairs
neighbor finds that it is a good time to be drilling and sawing and pounding in
his house. It actually has brought lots
of laughs to us as we jokingly grumble against him. Also, another neighbor directly above us has
a very lively child who Nicky named Fernando, although recent information has
led us to believe that “he” is actually a “she”. So we might have to switch it to
Fernanda. Basically she runs all over
the place and we hear pitter pattering and then some yelling follows, which
spurs on more yelling from the mother and in turn crying from Fernanda. Such a nice little cycle that we hear almost
daily. Let’s just say that I am glad
that my family never lived in an apartment :]
-
As this week has been colder than most, I have
found that napping seems to be the cheapest and most enticing way to fight
it. It’s a struggle. Fortunately I have only fallen into
temptation a few times.
-
And for those of you who don’t know, Miss Nicky
returns to us on February 13th.
I find this very ironic since we will be getting back our love the day
before the day of love :] Although it
seems like a very long ways away still, we know that God has a plan for it all
and that He is going to make something beautiful out of it. He has proven Himself to be SO faithful. The way that He has worked in building our relationship
with each other and bonding us together through this is just one way that I
have seen Him use this situation for our good.
There are many more. As we wait
on His timing, we continue to have lots of “If Nicky were here….” moments and
laughs from memories. Miss you, chica.
-
The playgrounds are quite divertido. They have some swings and normal things, but
there are also lots of fun exerciseyish contraptions to use as well. Tasha and I had a lot of laughing as we tried
them out on our 1-on-1 yesterday, and from that, we also had our fair share of
staring from others. Just getting fit
and having fun while doing it! (I’m totally joking)
-
When washing windows, be very careful to make
sure that all the cleaning supplies are securely stationed INSIDE the
window. If not, you may have to quickly
descend from the apartment you live in and acquire the bottle of cleaning
solution (and all of it’s pieces) from the ground, 4 stories below. Briana can tell you all about that if you are
still curious :D
-
Another thing that Bri would be happy to warn
you of is that the space heaters here can be very hot. Let me rephrase. The space heaters here are EXTREMELY hot and
have no problem with making your clothes actually smoke if you aren’t careful
with how close you get to them. Thank
goodness she didn’t actually catch on fire, because I wouldn’t have even been
there to see it. But seriously. I am very glad that no spark actually
started, although her skirt has a nice patch of brown spots from the near
accident. Whew. Then we would be down to just the two of
us. Team Spain is falling apart!
-
Joy has increased on our team in the past few
weeks. We have all seen it and feel
it. There is a lot of laughter and
silliness that goes on. And I know that
people have been praying specifically for that for us. So we thank you so much and ask for
more! People here have actually
commented on a noticed change in us.
That is AWESOME and that is God at work.
Thank you so much!
Ok. So that is a very short and sweet rundown of
our week in a nutshell. Next week we are
going to begin meeting with a nun.
Yup…..a nun. I am SO pumped for
it. We talked with her for a little over
an hour this week with Mrs. J about what exactly she wants our help with and
how often etc. She is such a joyful,
vibrant lady. I would NEVER guess she is
70! She actually reminds me a whole lot
of my wonderful aunt Mildred :] Miss you
lots, auntie. But anyway, we are going
to help her out on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for like 3 hours. She wants to start a thrift store basically,
but doesn’t have the locale to make that happen yet. So we are doing some behind the scenes work
of fixing clothes, sorting them, ironing, making little hair clips and random
other things. I am pretty excited to
talk to her more. She just encapsulates
the word joy! She promised us that if we
come help she would tell us jokes, so needless to say, I’m pretty amped for
interacting with her. Also, maybe I will
learn some good Spanish jokes that I can share with you to add to your English
ones, Miss Beth :]
Also, tomorrow we get the
opportunity to provide child care for a marriage conference thing for some
couples at the church which I am very excited about. I love kids, and I am excited to finally be
able to be crazy and silly with a lot of little ones. If you know me, ya know I love me some
kiddos. We get to do that two weeks in a
row, so that will be a lot of fun.
I love life
here, and I feel so blessed. I am just
so satisfied in life right now. I might
have shared this before, but I have been overwhelmed with His blessings in the
past two weeks especially. I am honestly
just so happy to be here with these girls and Jesus. He has my heart. That’s how I want it to be forever. I wanna go deeper. We had devotions over Luke 3 today and
something John said just really hit me hard today……verses 10 and 11.
“What
should we do then?” the
crowd asked.
11 John answered, “Anyone
who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has
food should do the same.”
I
know that Jesus preached this, but for some reason just hearing it this morning
from a little bit of a different perspective hit me harder. We talk to a lot of homeless people and
beggars on the street in passing. Does
my life share Life with them? How many
shirts do I really need? When I stand in
front of Jesus, the King of the universe, what is He going to say to me? Have I really done all that I can to love my
neighbor like I love myself? Just very
convicted with that thought and just want to do more. Here on a limited budget it’s a little
harder, but I am pumped to get back home and make some changes in the way that
I live. I wanna be intentional in all
that I do. Culture can make it hard, but
I’ve been called to be in this world, but not of it. I’ve been called to be different, and that’s
what I intend to be.
My
future plans are exciting. I love how
God is just opening doors for me to follow and live my dreams. It makes me sad to hear that some people here
have given up on their dreams because of the crisis. They can’t do what they really want to do and
have succumbed to the fact that they just need to work to survive. I have been so blessed with the opportunity to
be able to do what I love! And I pray
that I continue to use this blessing to bless others as well. This life ain’t about me. It’s about Him. Til all the nations have heard. I have been really inspired and encouraged by
some awesome family members that I have.
God has called them to some very cool things, and while it is going to
be hard and sacrificing along the way, I am excited to see them follow His
leading wholeheartedly. Something my
Uncle B said really struck me. He said
he will finally be working from his heart and not just his head. Wow. I
thank God for the desires He has placed on my heart and pray that I can have
the courage to follow this Love wherever it leads me. And I pray that you too do the same.
Thanks
so much for your support and prayers.
True to form, this got very long.
Thanks for reading. Hope this
gave you a little bit of a jumbled insight into some of our life here. Can’t wait to share more about what the Jman
is doing here with you all. Until next
time, pursue your dreams. Let’s change
this world. Keep your eyes up!
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