Retiro

I already mentioned a few things about the retreat our church took last weekend up to the Northwestern province of Galicia, but I wanted to introduce you to someone we got to know there as well as provide a few pictures.

Meet Margarita. She is an older woman who almost couldn't come to the retreat due to finances. Another generous church member gave her the chance to go on the retreat. I was able to spend some time with Margarita mostly over the game, Phase 10. Let me tell you, this game was a huge hit! As we were playing the game, I noticed a beautiful open gold locket with an aging picture of a young couple. I asked her about it, and she replied that it was a photo of her and her husband. I thought it was so sweet. Then she began to tell me a bit of her story. That same husband passed away after they had only been married for several years. He left her with 3 (I believe) small boys to raise and care for alone. I now see why this old photo is so proudly worn everyday. She had to work to raise her sons and passed through some very difficult times. She then went on to tell me that in August of this past year, she lost one of her sons. The grief in her eyes said it all. She told me, "You can get over a lot of things, but losing a son...you'll never recover from that." I pray that God will bring her through this as well, as the grief is still fresh. In picking up the pieces from her son's death, she is also dealing with other family issues with her other sons. Please pray for this dear woman! She shared with us at the end of the retreat that she was grateful to have been able to come on the retreat and that she felt so loved during the weekend. She said that she needed that. I am so grateful that we could be a part of blessing this dear woman's heart. She is a believer in Christ.

Margarita coming up from the beach to show us her shells that she found, with her precious locket around her neck.

Also, please be praying for me as I am pursuing meeting with the daughter of a beloved woman from our church. Her and her husband are the most servant hearted people I have ever met. Jose and Teresa had been hurt by "church" before. They hadn't been fellowshipping anywhere when they heard about our church in Camarma. They have found a home here and are integral parts of the family here. We love them. Teresa's daughter is my age and is disenchanted with the church as well. I've never met her, but Teresa is excited about the possibility of my meeting with her for a possible language exchange...or maybe even just to hang out! Please pray that I would be able to show her the love of Christ and renew her faith that His Church is a family who loves.

This is Jose and Teresa

Here are a few pictures from the retreat! If you want to see more pictures from the retreat, you can click here and here.

This was the view from the 101 year old church we stayed in! This church survived the Spanish Civil War, which was less than friendly to evangelicals (to put it nicely)

This is the view of the bay from an overlook point

An old building along the beach we spent some time on

The water was gorgeous!

Us at one of the gorgeous lookout points

Also, here are other albums from our trip down South.

This album is of the city of Sevilla.

This album is of the huge Cathedral.

This and this album are of the fortress that mixes Moorish and Spanish architecture.

This album is of the Plaza de España.

Home

I write this with great happiness from my beloved apartment in our town of Alcalá de Henares. I'm so content to be home after traveling around most of this month. I also write with great apology for not being able to write about our travels until now! Nevertheless, I hope I can get you all caught up on the multitude of things we have been up to this month.

The first few days of April, we participated in an English Camp that took place over a weekend for anyone who wanted to better their English. It was put on by some other TEAM missionaries as well as a short-term team that came from one of their supporting churches. This program was FANTASTIC! It went over so well, and I feel like I learned a whole lot about how much of a tool teaching English is here in Spain. We are seriously considering getting certified to teach English as a second language when we return to the States. I also was able to get to know a few Spaniards from the weekend and hope to get together with them soon.

Micah with one of the English camp attendee's who also goes to our church--Sergio

Then the next day we traveled down by bus to the Sevilla area to meet with different missionaries and national pastors to see what God is doing down South. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and somewhat of a vacation as well, as we were able to do some site-seeing as well. The meetings with all the missionaries went great, and we got to know some wonderful people! We also were able to talk and learn a lot from the national pastors we talked with. God is really working in so many places, and there are needs just about everywhere here in this country! There are still over 7,000 towns in Spain that have no gospel witness in their towns. Please pray that God may show us clearly what the next step is for us!

This is a panoramic shot of the town we stayed in for our time down South. It's called Utrera, and there is no church there.

The "High Altar" in the cathedral in Sevilla...so many images

The beautiful Moorish architecture in the Alcázar, the Citadel/Royal Palace

Gorgeous Spanish tile artistry!

We then were able to spend about a week back at home, which mostly consisted of doing laundry and getting caught up on other duties we had neglected during travel. But it was a good rest, because this past Wednesday, we traveled for 8 hours up to the Northwest community of Galicia, in a small inlet town called Aguiño. We traveled there for our church's Easter retreat. Our church is still small enough to take a retreat with the whole church, and I loved that everyone went! We had about 45 people who came, and it was wonderful. We really felt like this brought us in as part of the church family this weekend. Not only for us, but also for several new families who have recently started attending the church. I think that real unity happened this weekend, and I am so grateful. I also was able to celebrate my birthday this weekend, alongside the beach! It was wonderful. Micah and I have yet to have our own celebration so that we could celebrate on our own schedule, but the church ladies really spoiled me while we were there! I think it's hard for them to understand how we would be able to leave our families like we have, so they really take it on themselves to make sure that on important days like birthdays, Christmas, etc. that we feel like part of the family. And I sure did! I felt truly loved by my brothers and sisters there, and I'm really starting to love some of these people! What a wonderful opportunity we had to spend the weekend with them! I'll put pictures up of the weekend once I load them onto the computer.

We arrived home, and we're trying to get back into some sort of schedule. We have a whole new phase of our internship ahead of us, as we don't have language school and will now be home for a more extended period of time, so we're trying to figure out how to get more involved in the community while at the same time getting more involved at the church. Will you pray that God will guide us as we figure out the balance of learning language and culture, our involvement in church, and involvement in the community? We truly want to make decisions that will have an impact on our future ministry here in Spain, learning as much as we can, and also helping where we can. Thank you so much for all your support!!