Time Flies!

As I write this, I can hardly believe that our time here is coming to a close. We board a plane 5 weeks from today. We are still in full swing with activities here and probably will be until we get home, and we are trying to make the most of our time left here in Spain. A note for prayer--sometimes doing the things we want to fit in gets complicated by these awful pregnancy headaches I've been having. Please pray that they might lessen! We are planning a trip (maybe two) to other parts of the country. Micah has been teaching the adolescent Sunday school for the last 5 or 6 weeks or so and will continue through the end of this month. We have started a weekly youth group for the adolescents (instead of the monthly one we started out with). This group has now coincided with a "parents of adolescents" group that meets on Friday nights to hash out ideas and to encourage each other as they raise their adolescent age children. Something cool with that group is that, in the town of Camarma, there is negotiation as to whether the church can use the old town hall building (or maybe this youth center building currently not in use--still government owned) to be able to meet and open it up to the community as well! We look forward to how that unfolds. We also are involved in the praise team at church. There is a couple that both of us are doing a language exchange with for the remainder of our time here, and Micah is meeting with a college guy from our church as well for language exchange. There are also things around Madrid that we would like to do before leaving, like meeting with people from various churches around the city as well as see some of the historical/cultural sites we have yet to visit. Phew! Sounds like a lot, right? Well, we still have to plan some of it! Please pray that God would give us the clarity of mind to plan!

Transition is quite difficult we are finding. Somehow it is much more difficult on this end because we are still interacting on a daily basis in Spanish. I'm sure the pregnancy complicates things as well, trying to figure out what records I will need, insurance at home, setting up prenatal care all over again, etc. Things are quite hectic around the Yaun house! Speaking of which, our landlord graciously let us use our security deposit on the apartment for our last month's rent, meaning that we didn't have to move out until the end of this month. We will spend our last two weeks with friends who have offered their home to us. So these last five weeks will be crazy, I'm sure, but filled with good things. We dread saying goodbye to our church here, which we have really come to love. It is truly a wonderful group of people who have taught us so much about what a church should really be. I'm sure we'll be writing more about that later. But please do pray for us as we try to fit in the many activities still left for us to do. Also, we would appreciate prayer as we pack up our house to move in the next 2 1/2 weeks. We honestly don't have much, as the furniture is not ours, but we still will have to do some luggage workaround. Basically, we have a LOT of details to work out and not too much brain power left to do so.

Our growing church that we have come to love

In good news of time flying, I am now halfway through this pregnancy! It has truly flown by, and I can't wait to hold my little guy in my arms. (For those who haven't heard...it's a BOY!) Aside from these headaches, I really haven't had much trouble at all after those first few weeks of the first trimester. We are praising God that as far as the doctors can tell, our little guy is healthy and growing well. I'm enjoying feeling him kick and move around more inside me, and Micah has been able to feel quite a handful of kicks now! It has been a crazy time, but at the same time it has added so much joy to our lives. We are definitely looking forward to enjoying the last trimester of my pregnancy with family and friends as we prepare for this new addition to our family to make his appearance.

Getting bigger every week, here I am at 20 weeks...halfway!

Spain is gorgeous this time of year. It is so sunny and clear most of the time, and ranges between highs in the 70s and lower 80s. We're not sure if this is super normal or not, but we sure are enjoying it!! We can leave our windows open most of the time, soaking up the fresh air. We have also been able to enjoy one of our towns biggest fiesta times this weekend! Alcala prides itself in being the birthplace of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. There are all kinds of festivals in honor of him, but this week is the largest. From this past Friday until Wednesday (tomorrow) there has been a HUGE medieval market and fair spanning through dozens of streets--making it the biggest medieval market in all of Spain (and maybe even in Europe). There were tons of artisan booths, awesome food, a luthier exhibit showing old instruments, shows for children, a section of "wild" animals such as chickens, owls, ravens, vultures, etc. There was even a little parade featuring Don Quixote himself! There was music being played everywhere. It was a fun time! (admittedly it was a bit rough by the time we got home having walked this pregnant lady around for 3 1/2 hours...but worth it!) Spain certainly knows how to have a good time.

Some of the wild birds

Don Quixote's entrance!

Amazing food cooked over a cool grill!

My favorite, bringing up all kinds of Christmas feelings, chestnuts roasting on an open fire!

Thanks for joining us in this journey!!!!

Retreat and Concert

We have to share with you all about the weekend we just had with our church. We had the privilege of going on another church-wide retreat about an hour south of Alcalá, where we live, to a great rural location with a pool, soccer courts, meeting area, and lots of spots to sit and enjoy fellowship. Friday night, Micah was in charge of several of the young guys who slept in a tent because of lack of space. He introduced a couple of them to the joy of sleeping under the stars, outside the tent.

The pool, with a view of the surroundings

The tent that Micah and the boys slept in (or outside of!)

As we’ve written before, our church is growing tremendously, mostly from families who have been believers for some time and are weary of the religiosity and formality of the churches they have been a part of. Praise God that there have also been several new believers that have recently trusted him. The Saturday activities of the retreat facilitated a kind of assimilation of the new giftings and callings that God has brought to our church through these new people. In several 30 minute time slots throughout the day, we gathered into small groups according to certain ministry interests. We shot out ideas, burdens, needs, and solutions and prayed for God’s wisdom. The purpose was to simply see who in the church were feeling called the same way and to start the pot stirring in these different ministry areas. It served to create a wonderful starting place based on unity and love for our people and the community. Please pray as the different teams start moving forward, that God would direct and that we would listen. We ask specific prayer for the youth ministry. We could see a real burden on the heart of the church for the youth. Pray that the activities that we choose to implement would not be activities we simply like as adults but that they would truly reach the youth of our church and our community.

A few of the youth who came to the retreat

One of the workshops praying about the ministry

On Saturday while we were en route to the concert, some of the boys filled up water balloons to surprise a few people!

Saturday night we had one of the coolest experiences yet in Spain. The Australian worship group Hillsong United is currently touring Europe. We bought our tickets for the concert weeks ago along with 5 other people in our church. Ever since then, we’ve been sensing the excitement growing among the Spaniards. We couldn't really understand why there was so much excitement. After all, it was just another Christian concert. We’ve been to dozens of Christian concerts, and while, yes, some people may really love the music of Hillsong, they are not much different than any other Christian worship group out there, right? Wrong! They are very different. The difference? They came to Spain.

We stood outside the Palacio Vistalegre Theater for more than two hours, in a huge line winding around back streets, waiting for our turn to enter. It was not until we were inside and worshiping with 8,000 Spaniards, Latinos, and Europeans that we realized why it was so special. This was the very first time Hillsong had ever come to Spain. This was way more than just a concert. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, or at least a decade, to come together with thousands of other Christians and sing the same songs that everyone knew and loved. We’ve heard that 1 out of every 10 believers in Spain were there. There were even groups that had traveled from Portugal and France to be there.

Hillsong has translated lots of their songs into Spanish. At this concert most of the songs were sung in English, with the English and Spanish words on the screens. Sometimes they would sing a few simpler parts in Spanish to connect well with the crowd. A lot of times there was a mix of both languages being sung simultaneously. I’m going to guess that a lot of you know and love the song “Mighty to Save.” This Hillsong favorite is frequented in Spanish churches and is well known among the evangelical community. Imagine, the song starts softly in English with the verse, “Everyone needs compassion….” Soon the Spanish words from the crowd are equaling the volume of the singers on stage. They get to the interlude before the chorus, the band drops out leaving only a guitarist and the singers to lead the chorus. “Savior, he can move the mountains….” All of a sudden, the amplified, English voices of the singers on stage are literally drowned out by the sheer volume of the 8,000 plus voices singing with all their might in Spanish to the same tune, “SOLO DIOS PUEDE SALVAR, MI DIOS PUEDE SALVAR (My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save) POR SIEMPRE, AUTOR DE SALVACIÓN, JESÚS LA MUERTE VENCIÓ, ÉL LA MUERTE VENCIÓ (Forever, Author of Salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave). The band could do nothing but stand back from their microphones and listen to the worshiping voices of Spain, declaring their love for the Savior in their heart language. Later that night, the band members’ comments posted on the internet were that they had never experienced anything like this before in all their years of global music ministry.

A view from our seats at the Hillsong concert

God works in huge ways and in small ways. We went to the concert with another couple, two youth, and a doctor. The doctor was working at the concert as an emergency medic. He told us that before the concert started, his coworkers were very suspicious of how this huge evangelical gathering was going to be. Throughout the night God gave him opportunities to share the meaning of this event with them. Normally there is a high number of raging drunk and high fans that need medical treatment throughout an event this big. There were only 2 attendees that needed treatment at the Hillsong concert and only for overheating from a fever and from nausea. One of the ladies that was brought in was able to share with the medics why this concert meant so much to her.

After this incredible worship event, we returned late to camp and had a good night’s sleep, not in the tent this time. On Sunday, we had a great time celebrating what God had done over the weekend at the retreat. We heard scripture, shared, testimony, prayed, and sang worship.

The group on Sunday morning, preparing to take the Lord's Supper

I wanted to translate one of the songs we sang that morning for you. It’s called Amor Tan Grande (Such Great Love).

Amor tan grande, profundo y sublime,

Es el amor de mi Creador

No hay nada en el mundo

Que pueda igualarse

Al tierno amor de mi buen Jesús

(Such great love, deep and Amazing,

It’s the love of my creator

There is nothing in the world

That could equal itself

To the tender love of my great Jesus)

Él solo nos ama

Nos comprende y nos guarda

De todos los males que existen aquí

Por eso le adoro con toda mi alma

Porque me ha dado, mi Jesús, dulce calma

(Only he loves us

Understands us and keeps us,

From all evil that exists here

Because of this I praise him with all of my soul

Because my Jesus has given me sweet calmness)

Dios de amor, oh Dios de amor

Sólo eres Tú, el Dios de amor

No hay otro Dios, no lo hay

Fuera de Ti, no lo hay

Fuera de Ti para mí no hay amor

(God of love, oh God of love,

It’s you alone, the God of love

There’s no other God, no there’s not

Outside of you, no there’s not

Outside of you, for me there is no love.

Praise God for his incredible love and power.

Here are two videos from the Hillsong concert. One is of Mighty to Save.

Finally!!!!

Much apologies to any followers of this blog, as it has been MUCH neglected over the past few months. Summer was an unbelievably crazy time, and the blog was just the thing that had to go. Since we had other means of communicating with people back home, we decided that until things settled down, that the blog could hold off for a while. So now that things have returned to some sort of semblance of normal (ha, right!), the blog resumes!

So much has happened since I wrote last, so I'll try to give you the summary version of the highlights. Our visitor, Jesse, left after being here for about a month, and really enjoyed his time here. We enjoyed showing him around and teaching him about what ministry in Spain looks like. He plans to return sometime for help with different summer ministries around the country. One of the things that we were able to do with him was help out with Elementary Camp that was for the students of the missionary school near us, Evangelical Christian Academy. It is mostly missionary kids who attend, but there are a few Spaniards who attend as well. A small school, it was fun to spend time with the 19 elementary students who came!

Us with Jesse waiting for a train

A couple of weeks after Jesse left, we had visitors from England! My good friend, Rebecca, (who was also one of my roommates in college) came for a weekend with her fiance, Duncan. We had never met Duncan before, so it was great to spend time together! We toured around Madrid, took them to see our church on Sunday, and just spent time together, usually over food. :)

Us with Rebecca and Duncan, waiting for a train (a common occurrence, apparently!)

A week or two after they left, we got the great news that we are expecting a child! We are so excited to share that on February 24, 2012, we will be welcoming into our family a little baby! We don't know as of yet if it's a boy or a girl. We are expecting to find out at our scheduled ultrasound on September 30th. We can't wait! I then spent several weeks doing what I could, but also spending a lot of time growing this little baby while resting. A friend told me she read once that during the first trimester, you exert as much energy as if you were mountain climbing! Some women don't feel so tired, but I sure experienced it! My energy is definitely returning, for which I am very grateful! We will be returning to the States before my due date, so we will be close to family during that time.

Our little one, at around 13 weeks here.

In July, the main event was an English Camp put on by our church, the Christian Community of Camarma. It took place over the weekend of the 15th-17th. Around 60 people attended the camp! We taught them English over the weekend (usually by age group) through games, lessons, songs, and discussions. It was a blast, and many hope to repeat the camp next year. Several even joined us on Sunday morning for our church service, which was held entirely in English specifically for the camp. It was presented as optional, but almost the whole camp attended! The weekend ended with an evangelistic group who came to Camarma and put on a "Country Festival" in the town plaza. It was so fun to hear country music, see line dancing, and watch games, face painting, etc. It was a fun event!

English Camp

The beginning of August was spent in the lovely land of England celebrating the wedding of Rebecca and Duncan, who visited us in June. We were able to spend a whole week there, participating in the wedding festivities, dinners, decorating, and the rehearsal/dinner and wedding itself. I, Kimberly, was a bridesmaid in the wedding. We had a wonderful time being able to see friends again! The wedding was absolutely gorgeous, as was the lovely bride. It was also a nice respite from the heat in Madrid, as temperatures in England were quite chilly!

The happy Groom and Bride!

I left the wedding to return to Madrid by myself for a couple of days while Micah traveled to London to meet up with our college friend, Travis. He had plans to come visit us in Madrid this summer. His purpose was to visit us and also as a sort of vision trip for his church, who has supported us this year. He wanted to see what possibilities for future short-term ministry their church might be able to offer. We found cheaper tickets through London, so Micah went to meet him, and they spent a day and a half in London before coming to Madrid. The week he was here with us was the hottest week of the summer! Dry, desert-like heat mixed with no air-conditioning made for quite the week! It can drain it right out of you! But we still had a great time, and Travis was able to see quite a bit of Madrid and ministries around the city. It was especially good for Micah to have Travis here and he is one of his closest friends from college--they really enjoyed their time catching up!

Micah with Travis

The last few weeks have mostly been involved with church activities. We've been doing a lot with the youth ages 11-18, spending time with them weekly with youth group activities. We've had so much fun getting to know them. Pray with us that God would raise up people in the church who have a burden for discipling the youth of their church! We've also done some with worship at the church.

This past weekend, we went to a church vision retreat about an hour away from where we live. It was nice to get away with about 40 church members over the weekend. We also had the opportunity to go with a few people from the retreat to a Hillsong Live concert in Madrid. It was amazing. I'll write more about this past weekend in another post, since this one is so long! Thank you for bearing with us and not deserting us during these months of silence! :) We truly appreciate your care for us and our journey here!

Visits, Learning, Pink Eye, and Enchufe

The last few weeks have been a blur! It seems like we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off!! Almost two weeks ago, a good friend of ours came to visit us. Jesse is from our home church in South Carolina, and has been part of our lives for what seems like a lifetime! Micah has discipled Jesse on and off since he was about 13, and he and his family have grown to be dear friends. His dad is the pastor of our church in the States. So, Jesse was able to come to visit! Yay! We were so excited about him coming! He's been here for almost two weeks now, and we've really enjoyed his time here! We've been able to introduce him to some of the stuff that we've been doing while here in Spain, and also we've met with some other missionaries. We're hoping that we can get him in touch with other missionaries and maybe a couple national pastors during the remainder of his time here. We've been able to learn a bunch about our culture as we've tried to show him a little bit of it as well!

Buuuuuuuuut......Jesse also brought with him the dreaded pink eye. Ugh! Of course we still love you, Jesse! But Micah got really sick with a cold, then Jesse lovingly shared his pink eye with Micah, too. I have somehow avoided it so far, and I'm trying not to touch my face at all, cleaning up the house as much as I can. Jesse's case was pretty mild, and it didn't bother him too much. Micah, on the other hand, seemed to have infection oozing from him! He had terrible sinus pain, sore throat, bad cough, and pink eye. He had a rough few days. But, we finally made it to the doctor to get medicine for them. Man, let me tell you. That doctor's office was quite the cultural experience. We went to a private little clinic because we aren't included in their socialized medical system. We were told to go to door number 7...kind of cryptic, but we just went forth looking for door number 7. We found the door, but it was shut. Do we go in the door? Do we just sit and wait? How do we know when to go? A lady in door number 8 saw us and took pity on us and asked if we needed help. What we apparently needed to do is ask who the last person in line was, then just go after them. This is something that goes on in other places in Spain, like the post office and butcher shop, but we didn't know that it applied to the doctor's office, too! So, we waited our turn, then went into this tiny little room with a desk, two chairs, and a sheet-covered exam table. He asked what was wrong, then looked at each of them for about 30 seconds each! He then wrote a prescription for their pink eye and for Micah's cold. We went and got the bill, paid, and then were done! So interesting!

Another "crazy like a chicken with your head cut off" moment was trying to change over our bank account to the town where we live. We had to open a new account because our old one was under our passport. Now that we have our residency cards, we had to open up an account with them. We have been working on depositing our monthly check (in dollars) to our bank account here, which normally has a minimal fee and takes about 10 days to fully clear. But we were having trouble. At first, they didnt' know how to do it. Then, they were giving us extravagant fees, saying it may take up to a month before our money clears! I finally was able to escape the pink eye house for enough time to figure out what was going on. Then I realized the problem. There is this concept in Spain called "enchufe" (en-choo-fay). It basically means that it's who you know that matters. They ended up calling our old bank at my prompting, to ask how they normally do it, all to find out that they deal with a bunch of Americans at that bank and their reputation has been well upheld. Once he heard that they've never had a check bounce and that we were associated with that group of people, it was easy! They guy's countenance changed instantly, and he figured out to deposit the check the way our old branch did. What a lesson in how to approach business here!

We're all trying to stay/get better, and learning a bunch along the way! I'll try to post pictures later! Thanks for coming along with us on this journey!

Prayercast | Spain

Would you join us in praying for Spain?

Pictures!

Here are a few pictures from a couple trips downtown. How wonderful is it that part of learning Spanish culture is getting to see such amazing things?

This is a statue of Christopher Columbus [he's kind of a big deal here :)] Oh, and did I mention that in Seville, we got to see his remains? Also, we got to see the room where Magellan planned his circumnavigation of the globe! How cool is that?

This is called the Puerta de Alcalá (Alcalá Door), and it mirrors the Puerta de Madrid in Alcalá, where we live. They face each other and are at the end points of the road connecting the two cities.

In Parque del Retiro downtown there is a man-made pond that you can rent boats!

Also in Parque del Retiro there is also this Palacio de Cristal (Glass Palace). Gorgeous!

Catedral de la Almudena

Catedral de la Almudena

Catedral de la Almudena

The stained glass was reflecting on the walls, and it was so pretty!

For more pictures from this month so far, you can see them by clicking here.

We're also really excited because a youth from our church is visiting us, arriving here on Thursday. He'll be staying with us and another missionary couple for almost a month. We are so excited about him coming...he is like family to us. He is interesting in doing some sort of ministry for his life, and we want to best represent what it might look like for him to be a missionary, even in Spain! Also, pray for him as this is his first overseas travel alone. Thanks!!

Residency

It's something we've been working towards for almost a whole year now! We sent our first set of information to the officials in Spain to receive our letter of invitation saying that it was ok for us to apply for a visa last May. From there on it was a game of waiting, applying, calling, confusion, questions, appointments, waiting, waiting, and more waiting. And that was just to receive our entrance visa!

Once we arrived in Spain, we began the process of applying for residency. First came finding a place to live. In order to become a resident of Spain, you have to have a certified document from your town saying that you are registered to live at your current address. Once we found that place to live and got the document, we got an appointment to officially apply. This meant getting on the train at an inhuman hour of the morning to travel down with our barrage of paperwork...who knew that plane tickets would be kept so long and would be of such importance! Also complicating the situation is that we have no scanner/copier in our house. This means either risk public copy shops saving and stealing our private information on important documents or being creative about where we can copy stuff! Anyways, we went to the first appointment, accompanied by our supervisor, Mark, in case we needed help translating. Other than the Spanish Consulate in Miami being backwards and almost costing us our residency (thankfully, there was an older lady there who knew the troubles of the consulate in Miami), things went pretty well. We just had to return with a more sufficient insurance document within 10 days (they had just changed the rule and nobody knew about it). So...we then finally got our insurance document in Spanish that they would accept, and Micah and I went back the next week to turn in the rest of our paperwork. They accepted it!

We were then told to wait about 3 months to receive a letter in the mail telling us when our next appointment was. So on March 25th, we went to another office (well, it's actually an old prison that they use...kinda creepy!). After walking about a kilometer in the wrong direction (NEVER trust a Spanish website!), we finally made it to our appointment to turn in more paperwork, pay more fees, and get our fingerprints taken. Aside from almost not finding the office, all this went really well. We were in and out in about an hour! They said, "Come back in 40 days to pick up your card," gave us a slip of paper, and that was that!

So, in 40 days, we went back, which was Wednesday, May 4th. Thankfully, we knew exactly how to get there this time, so all went well! There was hardly a line, and we just showed them our slip of paper and passport, and they gave us our cards...and that was it! In and out in 30 minutes! Wow! We were so excited that it went so well! Our residency is only good for a year in Spain, so they expire in November. Ha! A year's worth of work for 7 months of residency. It's all worth it to me! We're trying to figure out if we should renew the residency at the end of our time here, risking having to return to Spain every 6 months (not including other residency appointments), which could turn out to be pretty pricey.... or to just start the process over again when we return long-term. Who knows? But for now, we're just happy to be legal right where we are. :) I think it's kind of cool to be a Spanish resident! Thanks to all who prayed for us and to all who helped us through this crazy process!!!

Here's a picture of Micah and I with our newly acquired (and VERY valuable to us) residency cards!