VISAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUR VISAS HAVE ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have purchased our tickets and are departing on the evening of November 29th. We are just having family see us off at the airport, but we will be attending church at Faith the next 2 Sundays and would love to greet any of you there. We will make it to Spain in time for TEAM Spain's All Ministry Area Conference in January, where we will get to meet all of TEAM's missionaries who are currently on the field in Spain. We are looking forward to this as a time of learning and valuable interaction with other missionaries.

Us with our treasured package!

Two weekends ago God provided for us to attend the MTW Global Missions conference in Chattanooga, TN. We participated in four sessions of worship with 2000 other missionaries, church members, and students. MTW's leader, Paul Kooistra as well as Atlanta pastor Joe Novensen delivered God's word to the large group. We had the opportunity to attend 6 different breakout sessions taught by missionaries and ministry leaders from around the world. One of the big things that we feel God taught us was that on the mission field it is absolutely vital to keep our family, which for now is just the two of us, as the first priority. It is not worth losing our marriage or our future children for the sake of the ministry. Please pray that even in this first year we would hold our marriage as the highest priority and that God would continue to shape me (Micah) into the leader of my family that he wants me to be.

One of the main sessions at the MTW conference

This past weekend we went with the high school youth group from Faith, our home church, to a retreat in Myrtle Beach. There are some particular challenges with youth ministry in general that are ever present. God is working in these students lives in some unique and sometimes confusing ways, and it is our privilege to have been with them the past few years seeing God working and shaping them, walking with them when they fail and hurt, and rejoicing with them in the power of the gospel. We will miss them so much this year.

Us with the Faith high school group at Myrtle Beach

Also, it looks like much of the stuff we've published before has out of date dates and such. So, here's a copy of our newsletter. And, like we said before, we're leaving on the 29th!

Please pray for us this next week-and-a-half as we say bitter-sweet goodbyes to family and friends. Pray for our transition out of American life and into Spanish life. The next time you hear from us, we will most likely be in Spain. Thank you all so much for your prayer, support, and encouragement thus far, and we know that it goes with us the rest of the way.

Be encouraged with God's word as we have been, "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the holy One of God.'" John 6:66-69 ESV

Alcalá de Henares

Here is a video about Alcalá de Henares, the town where we will be living (hopefully soon!). The titles are in Spanish, but the pictures are beautiful and give you an idea of the town! Also, if you didn't know, this is the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Also, the university in the video (where we will attend language classes) was founded in 1496! Enjoy!

The Times Between

Today marks the 3 month mark since the Spanish Consulate has had all of our paperwork. We're still waiting for our visas. I wish there was other news to report about the status of those certain government documents, but, alas, God has other plans. So, we're trying to live in the space between here and there. We struggle in what to invest our time. We try to prepare ourselves both mentally and spiritually for Spain. While we're here, we've been trying to gain some semblance of closure in our ministry here. And yet we wait. How much more can we dig deep into people's lives without being unfair to them. How can you ask people to be vulnerable and open up to you about things they have never dealt with in their lives, while knowing that at any moment you may have to leave? Will you pray with us that we may have wisdom in knowing how much to delve in and how much to stay back?

This past weekend we were able to attend a Missions Conference put on by the PCA mission board. While we're not with that particular mission, it was still so wonderful to attend the conference not only for the fantastic content, but also because we were able to attend with 8 other people from our home church! We learned so much this weekend, and we're still processing it all. Some of our favorite sessions were about post-Christian Europe and ministering to the upcoming generation and Third Culture Kids (like children of missionaries, for example). I would try to sum up all that we learned, but I'm not even sure I can do that yet! But God certainly used this past weekend to teach us a whole lot about Him, about missions, and about ourselves. And for that, we thank Him.

Pray with us also for our contact with the Consulate. We have put in a call to the consulate to see if there is anything they can do to find out what's taking so long with our visas. They asked us to give them 3 months for the resolution of our visas. Like we mentioned earlier, today marks 3 months. Would you pray that we would be firm enough to really see if they can do anything without putting ourselves at odds with the Consulate for future visas? Thank you all so much for your support!