Monday, December 24, 2007

A Spanish Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!! I love this time of year. I've been soaking it all in. The lights, the energy, the freshness in the air, the trees. Thinking about our tiny baby Savior born with angels singing over him and shepherds giving honor, I get a thrill in my bones. We sang O Come All Ye Faithful and Silent Night yesterday in church, in Spanish. That was great!! O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord...Venid adoremos al Cristo Jesus. Then we enjoyed a fellowship time of hot chocolate and cookies. Hot chocolate is a very common drink to share at Christmas here in Spain.

I woke up late this morning, took my time getting ready, took the scissors to my hair then went out to the Monday morning market. A street length market full of vendors selling everything from underwear to potatoes. The sun is shining bright in a sky so crisp and blue I thought I was in New Mexico! It's a remarkable 13 degrees C (55F). The warmth feels good after several days of drizzling rain and clouds.

The Prestons have invited the team (those who are in town for holidays) over to their house for Christmas dinner. Karen and I are going tonight and are planning on watching movies and playing games. We'll get up tomorrow and oooh and aaah over our gifts and then start cooking. Coralie is planning roast chicken and vegetables with a lemon curd cheesecake for dessert.

Christmas thoughts: God never fails in giving us what we need. I haven't felt homesick this season like I expected and I believe it's due to the fact that God has surrounded me here with people that take care of each other and have welcomed me as part of their family for the time I will be here. Also, the overwhelming outpouring of gifts and encouragement from people in the States has warmed my heart. Also, I've been readjusting my attitude a bit. In a situation where everything is hard and I'm challenged every day in just daily living (the language, community living, multiple responsibilities warring with my desire to withdraw) God is faithful in reminding me that part of that "suffering" we endure for his name's sake is what helps us see him more clearly. Jesus left the comfort and glory of heaven to come live in this dreadful place called Earth. Praise God he did.

Be filled with His peace and joy this season! Enjoy these photos from around Madrid and Alcala.






















Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Secret Magic Gift Elephant Exchange

At our weekly Madrid team open house last night, we had a good old fashioned White Elephant gift exchange. We had tons of fun, laughed until we ached, ate good food, came away with fun gifts (although Margaret stole what I really wanted to keep, a package of holiday cards from Ikea!!!) My gift I added to the pile was a UNM Lobos wrist watch dad had sent in a package. Esther wasn't too pleased with it, but Coralie wanted one also so she could start running and have a stop watch. =) I'm spreading the Lobo spirit. Go Lobos!

It took many many attempts to set timers on cameras and get a photo with everyone in place! That's why we're laughing.



Birthday Blessings

My birthday was this past Saturday, the 15th. Everyone here was so super sweet and kind and made me feel very special and loved. It was a good few days! Thursday I went and worked in the WEC office with Steve and Coralie finishing up a bulletin board (fun fun fun!) and then we went shopping at a small local mall. Coralie was sweet enough to let me choose something for myself at a jewelry boutique. On Friday I had a couple girls (Maria and Beatriz) over for a movie night and I ordered real authentic Spanish take out pizza (Telepizza...not bad. The locals like Pizza Hut better). We watched the movie with Drew Barrymore "Never Been Kissed", except we watched in Apanish "Nunca Me Han Besado". =) Then on Saturday I met Esther and Margaret at the bus stop and we went to another mall and had a nice lunch at an American style restaurant called Vips (The hamburger was pretty good...) then I accompanied them to their kid's club ministry that they ran at a local church Saturday evening. 5 hours of complete chaos. I was exhausted. There was another lady at the club that had her birthday also, so they shared her birthday cake with me and we got to blow the candles out together. That was nice! Then Margaret made a really wonderful birthday cake Monday night...so I shared that one with Eun Suk and we blew out the candles together because her birthday is on Thursday!! Pay it forward, right? =)

In general I've never been a huge birthday person, I usually just let it pass with a nice dinner with the family y ya esta, but this year in a new environment with a new set of people it was quite different to be showered with so much attention. I got so many wonderful gifts that I never would have imagined or expected! It was nice. Thank you everyone!! I got a really great package from the parents on Friday that had some drawings the family had made at Thanksgiving! I hung them up in my room. I also got a surprise package from my friend Melissa in Boston! I like surprises!

Showing off some of my presents and the pictures on the wall:


Me and Margaret at lunch at Vips:


Making clementine Christmas tree ornaments with the little pequenitas!



Year #27 is pretty good so far.

Fellowship Days

Sorry for not posting in a long time! I've been busy and now there's tons of stuff to share!

December 7th and 8th WEC Spain had their annual Fellowship Days. It was two days where the whole Spain team gathered together to update each other on how they are doing, pray for each other, discuss some urgent business, eat, laugh, and make repairs around the WEC office.

Our job as short-termers to help prepare was to do all the shopping to get paper plates and cups and such, coffee, snacks, and snack lunch stuff for the kids. It was a good job that Esther and I did well, but we both were feeling very sick the few days before Fellowship Days so you should have seen us sniffling and dragging our tired selves through the aisles at the store wondering how many packs of coffee to get and what to pack for the kids' lunches. It was quite comical. Three stores and two shopping carts full, we walked back home and collapsed onto the couches. We also ran the children's program the second day for 4 hours (the same kids we had at Prayer Day in Burgos in September).

I got to see more of how a country-wide team of missionaries works together and supports each other and makes decisions. It was very enlightening. Afterward, Coralie called it a miracle that there could be 20 people with different views and backgrounds and thoughts come to a consensus on an urgent matter and have 100% support in agreement.

Also, while talking with the team that works in the northern Basque region, we decided to make plans for me to visit them and help out doing research for an upcoming event they are planning. They are new to their region, are just getting started learning the people and the language, and they want to host a weekend of Prayer for the people in the area. The research will involve assessing the needs of the population and the challenges that they will face in their church planting. I think the tentative plan will be for me to go mid January (after I get back from Germany and before my parents come to visit the 25th). Yay!

Here's some photos!

Lisa, Gloria (ministry in Almeria to Muslim children), Linette (beginning a ministry in the basque region), and Coralie at lunch at a Chinese restaurant.


Doing an activity in Juan Carlos park in the center of Madrid. This is a huge jungle gym web thingy that we were challenged to climb. No problema!


Playing blind folded follow-the-leader in the park with the kids. We're mean, I know.


Gladys (english teacher/associate WEC missionary in Alcala) y Maripei (ministry in Talavera) sorting out the WEC library:


Eun Suk (new worker studying Spanish in Alcala) sorting out the linen closet:

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Immaculada Concepcion

Today is also a public holiday in Spain. Spaniards take their holidays and their vacations and their parties very seriously. The cities and the people know how to stop work and take to the streets to celebrate. I definitely think this is a fascinating part of their culture.

My Spanish professor Antonio said that Spain no longer has an official government religion as it once had the Roman Catholic church, therefore it's a bit of hypocrisy to still publicly celebrate religious celebrations in the form of government holidays.

Today they celebrate the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. I always thought that this holiday celebrated the immaculate conception of Jesus within Mary, but no. The Roman Catholic church believes that Mary herself was also immaculately conceived and was also born without original sin. "In 1854, Pius IX made the infallible statement Ineffabilis Deus: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin."

Either way, just like on December 6th Constitution Day, the general population really has no clue why the day is a holiday, only that they get the day off work.

Also, not believing in the deity of the virgin Mary, this particular holiday is troublesome and heart-breaking to me. While visiting one of the many large ornate and beautifully architectured cathedrals around Madrid, the worst thing I've seen so far was a crown on the head of Mary. Jesus alone is the King of Kings and deserves such honor. He alone was without sin and He alone was born of the Holy Spirit, and He alone died to set men free. None other deserves the glory due Him. En punto.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Constitution Day


Today is a National Holiday in Spain, Constitution Day. I've now been awake for nearly 30 minutes and I haven't heard one sound on the street. There aren't the normal people out for their morning paseo, nobody running to get to work or class on time. It's quiet! However, I did hear the faint ringing of the church bells summoning people to 10am mass.

On December 6th, 1978, 67% of the Spanish people turned out to vote on the referendum approving the newly drafted Constitution. The result was 88% in favor! They were ready to make a turn into the future and leave the years of the Franco era behind them. After Francisco Franco's death in 1975, the leaders of the government made swift changes to ensure the future of Spain would be one of prosperity and liberty and democracy.

The Preamble to the Constitution was written by Enrique Tierno Galvan and reads like this:

The Spanish Nation, wishing to establish justice, liberty and security, and to promote the welfare of all who make part of it, in use of her sovereignty, proclaims its will to:

Guarantee democratic life within the Constitution and the laws according to a just economic and social order.
Consolidate a State ensuring the rule of law as an expression of the will of the people.
Protect all Spaniards and all the peoples of Spain in the exercise of human rights, their cultures and traditions, languages and institutions.
Promote the progress of culture and the economy to ensure a dignified quality of life for all
Establish an advanced democratic society, and
Collaborate in the strengthening of peaceful and efficient cooperation among all the peoples of the Earth.

Consequently, the Cortes approve and the Spanish people ratify the following Constitution.


This turning point was an exciting time in Spain. The bitterness from the dictatorship of Franco still lasts today, though, so they have more healing to endure.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Ministry Part 2

I wrote previously about how this ministry I'm helping with has three parts. 1. The immigrant residences. 2. The church! and 3. The missions aid to Mauritania, Africa. Here's about part two.

As the history goes, when they first started ministering to immigrants, they made gospel tracts in several different languages and had people that showed interest who spoke Chinese and Romanian and Portuguese. And then once you start introducing people to the gospel of Christ and they all are involved in this immigrant ministry together…the natural outcome is a church!! So they started meeting and it started off with 5 people at the first meeting in the back room of a store Alex and Maribel used to operate. Now it’s over a year later and they’re up to about 25-30 and the basement is almost too small to have a church service in. Every Sunday morning I look forward to the people coming! Who’s going to come this Sunday? What songs are we going to sing? Singing praise to Jesus Christ in another language is the neatest experience. Hearing them pray in other languages. Seeing all the hands raised up in praise. My favorite thing in the world. The WORLD! Not everyone living in the residences comes to the church, but that’s okay. They are invited consistently and they know the door is open if they feel so moved. They also get the constant living example of people like Alex and Maribel who show them Jesus every day.

Alex preaching and Maribel translating.

They have a rotation of about 5 preachers. Alex, Steve Preston (WEC field leader), Hector (Argentinean man who is in seminary and wants to be a pastor), Diego (Hector’s brother in law who actually might be moving away soon), and Maria (Spaniard woman who’s heart to follow God has taught me so much). They preach in Spanish and someone will translate into English because of the high population of English speaking Nigerian folks who attend. Those people are also on the rotation to lead the worship along with Maria’s husband Steve. He is from England and usually incorporates a lot of the popular worship songs that we use at FCC! The service goes something like this: Worship, welcome to visitors where we greet them in their own language (Welcome! Bienvenidos! Bem Vindo!), then more Worship, then the sermon, then we’re done! But mixed in there is spontaneous prayer time. Just like at home, the room stays full for a good 30 minutes after the service while people talk and catch up and pray for each other if someone needs personal prayer and laughing and passing around the babies, etc.



I get to help out during the week with administrative things to help out. They have flags up in the basement representing the different nationalities that have been present in this church. Just last month I had to go to the copy place to print out a new flag for Bolivia and South Korea! We made a telephone and address directory so they can contact each other when they need. One of my favorite jobs so far has been taking all the worship songs from word documents and putting them in PowerPoint so they can be projected during the service. It’s been awesome to read through the text of worship and hear the way the Spanish language expresses its love for God.

When I arrived, Alex also wanted to begin Bible studies in different languages because they feel strongly that people should be able to hear the Word of God in their own language, their heart language. So for about 7 weeks I’ve been leading a small informal Bible study right before the service in English. We have between 5 and 8 people each Sunday. We’re working through a Foundations of Christianity study. Teaching is not my gift and each week I feel that anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach that says I am inadequate and don’t want to do this, but in true God style, once we start talking and looking at scripture I remember my joy. The same thing happens every other week when I have to share a 3 minute little something in front of the church in Spanish. I’ve talked about my favorite Bible verses, things I’m learning, why I’m here. It’s a challenge to do this in Spanish and usually I get Niurka or Noelia to proofread it for me so I don’t embarrass myself by using a wrong word or something. =) In the last couple of weeks, more people have started sharing the same way. So we’ll get to hear testimonies and favorite verses of a lot of people in the church! I love it when people can use what they’ve experienced and learned from God and use it to help others. That’s part of what the church is teaching the people; that they have a purpose from God here in Spain whether they know it or not.



In general the church is doing quite fine. It’s new and young and full of a mixture of people who have been in the faith for a long time to people who are brand new believers to people seeking to people who have grown up with only a belief in God and the scriptures without truly understanding the daily living application of said faith. I think they have a long way to go but they have a great start in making disciples. The problem with a missionary run church reaching out to immigrants is a certain level of instability. The missionary leadership is strong and they are taking active steps in training up local leadership (but if that local leadership consists of immigrants, how stable is that?) They bathe everything in prayer and have a genuine desire to reach this town for Jesus, and in that respect I believe it will be blessed.

I personally struggle with the idea of reaching out to immigrants in a society that has proven that the Spanish people need Jesus too! There are other churches doing this, however, and that’s how God arranges his chess pieces. Maribel said they were led to help the immigrants in baby steps by baby steps; seeing needs and grasping hold of opportunities God placed in front of them. There’s another ministry in Barcelona that does something similar but focuses more on refugees, psychological help, counseling, and offering a 3 month residence for people having just arrived in Spain. They are looking into collaboration between the two ministries which is providing an exciting assortment of possibilities!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Recreational Reading

Here's an excerpt from Howard Snyder's The Community of the King.

"What then is the Kingdom of God? It is Jesus Christ and, through the Church, the uniting of all things to him. For the present it is the growth in the world of the grace, joy, health, peace, and love seen in Jesus. The Kingdom is both present and future, both earthly and heavenly, both hidden and becoming manifest. It is as concrete and this-worldly as the dust on Jesus' feet or the Galilean wind in his hair; it is as costly as the crucifixion, it is as heavenly as the risen Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father. 'It is expanding in society like the grain of mustard seed...; working toward the pervasion of society like the leaven in the lump.' Its truths and values are those taught and lived by Jesus Christ and delivered to the body of his followers. But this Kingdom can become fully manifest only when Jesus Christ returns to earth."

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

One Crazy Week

A week in the life of the short-term missions worker

Tuesday - Wednesday: A week ago I was stuck in bed for two days with a sinus pressure headache that I thought would never go away. I chose against medication or doctor and instead relied on good old vitamin C to cure me. It worked just fine, and I was all better and energetic for Thanksgiving!

Thursday: Thanksgiving was great. See the previous post. I am enjoying each opportunity to be the American. I love the USA. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Friday: I met Karen and Mija to go into Madrid to work at the WEC office. I spent a few hours organizing financial files and shredding records older than 10 years. They had phone bills from 1991! With a pile of empty file folders and empty space on the shelf, I felt like we made good progress.




Saturday:
I slept late and then all day we prepared for a surprise 15th birthday party for Beatriz. Her sister has been planning this party in secret for weeks and it's been hard to keep it a surprise! We blew up and hung up about 300 balloons, set the table, put up a ton of other decorations, they prepared the food, etc. The party was a great success. Tons of people came and she was totally surprised!!




Sunday:
Church! Got up early, made coffee, helped the praise team put together their powerpoint slides for the songs, started a new study in our Sunday School class about God. God is real. Can we really see God working in our lives personally? Maria preached about Caleb. When you act righteously but are met with injustice and you have to live with the consequences of others disobedience. Caleb waited 45 years to receive the reward promised by God. After church I went to McDonald's for lunch. I know what you're thinking. I didn't come all the way to Spain to eat McDonald's. I have no excuse. But for the curious, it all tastes the same as in America.

Monday: I woke up early and met the WEC team. I was hired for the day as chef. I cooked a full New Mexican meal for them while they had their field meeting. They talked business for 5 hours and I cooked Spanish rice, quesadillas, green beans and then did the dishes and cleaned up and went for a walk. I enjoyed this alot. It was a very practical thing that I could do to help them out so they didn't have to take time out from meeting in order to cook or prepare food. It also was a challenge because I had never been in charge of preparing a meal for 8 people! I was nervous it would taste bad or not come out right or not be enough or be way too much! My heart pounded all morning. But alas, the food was met with high praise and there was just enough for everyone. God is good.

Tuesday:
I went to Spanish class where we talked about Cuba. Random, I know. Then I went to the Rainbows of Hope office to help build a cement floor in the basement. We mixed concrete Casas por Cristo style!! When I offered to help and told them I had experience in that exact process, they were quite impressed! I know I will be terribly sore tomorrow!!!

And that's it. One week. It went by fast! One thing I've been thinking about is how God leads us into situations where we can use our giftedness but at the same time be challenged in new ways. And the joy that brings! I highly recommend it.

I look forward to a new week. I wonder how many times in the next 5 months I will hear, "Now that sounds like a job for a short-termer!!"

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Spanish Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoyed a sunny day with family and friends and remembering the most wonderful blessings we have. Life is really a wonderful thing to be enjoyed and lived and not just struggled through. Take time to enjoy it!

I just got home from the greatest Thanksgiving I could have asked for while away from Albuquerque! Even though it's 1:00am, I wanted to write it all down while it was fresh. It all started a week ago when I received an e-vite for "It's Turkey Day!" at Margaret's house. Margaret is an amazing missionary from California who has been in Spain a few years. She has a great knowledge of Spain culture and history and I've learned a lot from her servant heart and smiling face! She's also my fellow American, so I was very grateful that she hosted a traditional American Thanksgiving meal and invited the whole WEC team to enjoy it together.

I didn't know much about what Margaret was planning, but when I arrived I was given the job of setting the table. Which is great, because that's my job at home too! We made the napkins pretty and I had to be told (again) which side of the plate the fork goes on. Then we decided to make place cards for people...and we made tent cards that had really beautiful Thanksgiving prayers on them that Margaret found online.

The guest list included: Karen (WEC, Canada), Ruben and Debbie (short term WEC from Belgium), Sjaak and Mija (WEC, Holland), Esther (short term WEC, Germany), Margaret (WEC, USA), Steve and Coralie (WEC, Australia), Tiny (WEC, South Africa), and Lisa (short term WEC, USA). YAY! As you can imagine, a wealth of diversity!! I loved it. We started off playing a game as we waited for Karen to get back from praise team practice. Then we sat down to eat and Margaret spent a few moments to share a bit of Thanksgiving history and why we celebrate. The great Abraham Lincoln said it was a special day to give thanks to our Great God for His innumerable blessings. Then we read aloud the prayers we had printed up. Prayers about the great meadows that yell of God's greatness and the freedoms we have and the breath in our lungs and how we want to spread his Word to the nations and serve those less fortunate. It was a beautiful thing to read these prayers aloud with so many of those nations present and know that everyone was praying these things in agreement with the same Spirit.

In true Trujillo home style, Margaret even asked that we go around the table and each share something they are grateful for from the last year. At a table full of missionaries, you hear stuff like the blessing of full funding and support and new workers to share the load and safe travels. =)

Then we ate! Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and bread and salad. It was great!! Not quite the gluttonous gorge like in America, but perfect nonetheless. Dessert was a delicious English trifle made by Tiny. (I half expected there to be beef in it...) Also, we had a taste of Turkish Delight (authentic and from Turkey!) Margaret didn't make pumpkin pie because neither of us really like it. =) But the great thing is that if I had said I loved pumpkin pie and would miss it...then they would have done everything in their power to have pumpkin pie there today. Now that's love.

The predominate conversation at the table? The diverse English language and different expressions we each use in our own countries that can either elicit a laugh or a scowl from people from other countries. Don't say "I'm rooting for you!" to an Australian because it doesn't mean the same thing to them as it does in the USA. And they get a kick out of my Texan accent. I love it when a table full of people can all talk together and laugh and joke and laugh and learn. It was wonderful to laugh. Laugh so hard I cried and then laugh some more.

God is continually teaching me and proving his faithfulness. That a person can travel half way around the world and have family and belonging all because of the bond of Christ. For this, I'm thankful.

Me and Margaret at the beautifully set table:


Carving the Turkey!


Steve and Coralie:


Esther and Margaret:


Ruben and Debbie (She is grateful that they are going to have a baby!!!):


Sjaak and Mija:


Tiny, Lisa, Esther, Karen:

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Food Adventures

I know that Calamari is very common in the states, but considering it's squid, I've always avoided it. However, today I decided I should try it. Here's a photo and a little blurb I found to explain.
"Fried squid or in Spanish calamares fritos is a very popular appetizer or tapa in Spain and here in the USA. You might know this dish by the name Calamares a la Romana. Wherever and however you buy the squid, they need to be cleaned before cooking. The spines, ink sacks and heads should be discarded. If you are cleaning the squid yourself, don’t throw away the tentacles because those are good to eat, too! Cleaned, frozen squid bodies may also be available and are good to make large calamar rings." Hm.

For the record, the taste was a little bit boring and I had to concentrate really hard on NOT concentrating too hard on what I was eating. The texture was hard and rubbery and once I started thinking about how it was the tough flesh of some animal that used to be wandering around the open ocean, I thought I wasn't going to be able to finish. Next time I'll stick to the always wonderful Patatas Bravas.

On a happier note in food adventures, Ester and I got together last night to try our hand at making another real Spanish Tortilla. This one came out perfectly and beautifully and we decided it was better than any Spaniard could make! Hooray for us!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Look what I found!!

This made me happy inside.




Heavily guarded. Armored cars out front. I wanted to take a picture, but sometimes it's illegal to take photos of certain government facilities. I asked the guard standing outside if I could take a photo and he said it was okay! Yay! It might sound strange, but knowing that on the other side of that tall fence was American soil, it made me want to hop the fence and risk getting tackled to the ground or shot down by a sniper, just to stand in America. Now that's serious business!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Ministry part 1

I’m slowly but surely learning about the ministry that’s done here in Alcala. Alex and Maribel are getting ready to go on furlough to the United States, so in helping Maribel put together her PowerPoint presentation for her supporting churches and people she will meet with I learned a bit more. They have such a unique ministry that feeds a very specific need in Spain! I asked her if there were other Christian ministries in Spain that serve the immigrants in this way and she was pretty sure there weren’t. Que cosa!!

Through conversations with long term missionaries I am learning that society in Spain is very dark and difficult. It’s a world where Catholicism is dying. It’s a religion of the older generation only observed at baptism, weddings, funerals, and holidays. The younger generation rejects it and fills their lives with drugs and alcohol, materialism, sexual immorality, and gambling instead. To top it all off, they are a very closed people (xenophobic, if you prefer). They treat the immigrants very poorly. Don’t like them, take advantage of them, mistreat them in regard to charging rent, work wages, etc. However, this means that Spain is a very strategic place to present the gospel. They desperately need the message of Jesus and are a gateway into northern Africa, the rest of Europe, and Latin America.

So this ministry is in the heart of Spain and ministers to a very critical need: The immigrant population that has grown from around 500,000 in 1996 to almost 4 million in 2006. It’s a three part ministry so I’ll post about them separately.

First are the immigrant residences; two homes that can house up to 20 people. I’m currently one of 25 people housed here (notice the discrepancy in capacity…). One house has 11 people (an older couple from Brazil, Juan and Lina, a young single Cuban woman who arrived just a couple of months ago Yamile, a mother and daughter from Cuba, Niurka and Massiel, a young Argentinean couple Hector and Noelia, and a young Brazilian couple Ademir and Miriam with her sister Beatriz also.) I know these are just names to you all, but these are the people that I live with! Share the kitchen with. Greet at the door when the come home from long hard work days. Do chores with. It’s great! They’ve had one house for only a year and the turnover has been quite extensive, but it’s a starting out place for some people as they first arrive in Spain from their home countries. Niurka, Hector, and Noelia are in Seminary here in Spain. Miriam is a college educated woman who left Brazil because she couldn’t get a job and could pay off her school loans a lot faster if she works cleaning houses in Spain for euros. (I am learning but I still don’t understand international economy…) Yamile…I’m not quite sure why she came to Spain but from another Cuban gentleman I learned that it’s just better to be anywhere than Cuba.

Because of the growth of the ministry and the help of the landlord, they acquired another house just this past summer. It’s right across the street and now has a whopping 14 people. Two extended families from Brazil and a colorful assortment of Cuban men. (Valdeir and Celiamar, their son Valcimar, her brother Leudimar and his wife Rosana, Agnaldo, his children Edna and Alessandro, a masters student from the Dominican Republic Norberto, and Guillermo, Juan Enrique, Victor, Marcos, and Fidel) Several of these men are married with children…have left their homes and families to come and try to make money to support their families because it’s next to impossible in Cuba. It’s difficult for me to understand how this could be so because I’ve grown up in America, the place where no one wants to leave and everyone wants to come!

So Alex and Maribel act as the landlords. They collect rent, take care of household repairs, spend hours making sure our internet works, and decide who moves in. There’s cleaning schedules and we each have a dedicated day we can use the washer (la lavadora). It’s my week to clean the kitchen but because Noelia is my kitchen cleaning partner and I did it alone last time, she’s doing it this week. Alex and Maribel also help the new immigrants get settled. Encourage them in finding good (legal) jobs and/or getting into a class to learn Spanish as much as possible (Most of the Brazilians only speak Portuguese). Help them get bank accounts and anything else they need to set up. When immigrants first arrive, it’s a good idea to get registered with the local government. Once you register, it starts counting your three years. After being here three years they can get papers as legal residents, and then that opens up much more opportunities for employment and such. So the ministry helps keep track of them while being good honest people the immigrants can trust. For three years they struggle immensely because they can’t legally work and make very low wage at the places that will hire them. Typically women can only find jobs in domestic work or care-giving.

I love hearing their stories and talking to all of them and I’ve had small triumphs in being accepted by them. I’m learning about the different cultures. If you hang out with the Argentineans, you’d better be prepared to not have dinner until midnight and if they say let’s go!! (Vamos!!)…that really means you’re not going to leave for another 20 minutes or so! The Brazilians are a warm people who smile often and love to have fun and party and their cooking always smells amazing! Cuban Spanish is very difficult for me to understand. One thing they all seem to have in common is they want to learn English!! Some of them love Spain and are grateful to be here; others don’t like it here at all and only see it as doing time until they can return to their true homes.

I’m learning a lot about how I respond to them. I’m definitely more grateful than ever to be an American. I’m learning that I can live on a lot less than I’ve been blessed with in America because most of these men and women arrived here with nothing and they are happy and grateful. I struggle with the motivation to clean the bathroom after 10 people have been using it all week. I really want to go into a rant about how beautiful it is when all these people gather together on Sunday morning to worship God, but I’ll save that for another post.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

SEGOVIA

Segovia, Spain is about an hour and a half north/northwest of Madrid. It's home to one of the most well known castles in Spain (la Alcazar) and it's also the home of a 2000 year old Roman Aqueduct. A town of rich history and interesting sights. I went on November 1st with Karen and Esther (both WEC workers with Rainbows of Hope). We had a great time! My first Spanish Castle.

About to ascend a staircase to arrive at the base of the 16th Century Cathedral you can see in the background.


The Cathedral was gorgeously intricate in its design.



Then we walked down the pretty brick street lined with souvenir shops to the Alcazar (the Castle). They say Walt Disney used this castle as his inspiration for Cinderella's castle.


Me and Karen and Esther on top where the people would guard with canons and bows and arrows against all foes! There was even a moat around the front of the castle!


We had to go up this really narrow spiral staircase of stone to arrive at the top. 152 steps!




Me and Esther: Princesses for sure!


From the windows of the castle you can see the Vera Cruz Templar Church (built by the Roman Catholic Knight's Templar in 1208 (one of the armies of the Crusades). Interesante, no?


Walking from a really great lunch toward the Aqueduct. We passed by art galleries, sculptures, churches. All historical and significant. Gorgeous entryways and arches and steeples.


Then we arrived at the Aqueduct. Roman aqueduct dated to the late first century (between 60 and 100AD) I love thinking about how this was being built at the same time that people were walking around who had witnessed Jesus Christ's life and death and life again. And here we are touching it and seeing it. It still supplied water to Segovia until just recently!





I want to see as much of Spain as I can while I'm here!