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!