Spain day 23

This is my last Sunday here, Although they sing and pray in a different language here, I see a passion and I can sense the Holy Spirit in a way that I've only felt once before in a church. Church here is very different, It's not so much a social duty or activity as it is a lifestyle. You can't get them out of Church. They love to fellowship and worship almost nonstop here. Church isn't Sunday and Wednesday, it's all week. Monday you have Mens meetings, Tuesday Womens, or vice versus. Wednesday the teenagers, Thursday my age group, Friday is cell groups with families, and Saturday they evangelize. There is such a difference here and there are so few of them, yet they are dauntless. What I see convicted me.. I have 24 hours in a day, same as anyone, yet what do I do with it? Do I uplift? Do I tear down? Do I focus on God? Or is it all about me? What I am doing with my time isn't enough. The people here are on the front lines, surrounded by demonism, immorality, and perversion, and they stand boldly for Christ.
They need money, support, the economy is in a crises here, and I've not heard one complaint.. only how Jesus is using it and how blessed they are despite the times.
They see the need around them and they are trying despite their lack of numbers. Barcelona is one of the Gateways to Europe. What a opportunity...

Day 22

Today I went with Uncle Mike into a little town that had a natural spring flowing out of a rock. We filled up water bottles. Next we went through the town. It was all buildings still inhabited, but they were 12th century. I walked through there and took pictures. One of the vived memories was rounding a stone house and comon upon a entrance where fresh Laundry was airing. The dark pants and red blouse were against a background of gray stone and faded red roof slates all wafted with the hint of lavender. Wickedly awesome. then we drove to a nearby mountain.. well bluffs on a mountain. We are in the mountains. I got to freeclimb about 20 feet.. oh gosh I thought I was going to die.. at one point I was over 200 feet of air and my foot slipped off as the rocks broke free. I had my arms under me though and so I was just dangling.. what made it hard was the bluff was sandstone which the wind had cut back to rocks so you had to be careful which rocks you grabbed.. :D ...I got some really cool videos though.. Well I had to leave and I decided to beat my time up the bluff by going down.. I beat it by a good 5 minutes. No I didn't jump.. I had just taken the really long path up the bluff and missed the shortcut. Then we talked about the importance of living a life for Christ and being a witness and a missionary to all people. Each of those little towns have about 500 people to 1000... in this one disctrict alone there are thousands of villages just like this. They all have a church.. and they all are empty of souls. Who will go? Who is ready? Truly the fields are white for harvest.. and where are the workers? Sitting on their megasize rears watching movies and playing Halo....
let us reap before the rain comes.

Spain day 18&19

Tuesday I got to have a real blast. We went and painted the church for about 6 hours then I went to a gym nearby. I had been invited by a sweet lady from church. I went and did some fun stuff.. and running is soo much better on a road.
While I was working with the paint. it was so nice to be with other people and we talked about God and it was amazing. God is very nice just in the small areas. The way he did was an amazing edifying conversation with one of the team that day. He has been blessing me over and over again. Then I went to the gym. ooh I'd rather run on the road. It was nice, but it's really expensive here in Barcelona. After we got done for the day I went out to eat with the group of Americans. We ate a ton of Tapas? sp* 13 of us.. put away 110 of them. see Tapas are like these little hor d' orves... sp* so they have these toothpicks. The place charged an euro a toothpick.. being a Texan, toothpicks... Yup.. I grabbed one and started using it. Hey! no comment.. only problem was they asked for it afterwards.. :P American abroad...
It was amazing walking the streets with Americans and taking pictures and just talking with them. The professor kinda in charge is this amazing guy. Although he's over three times my age we talked like he was three years older than me. I had an interesting debate with Him. It was really nice.
Wednesday I stayed back and worked on the commands of Christ. I am almost done putting the entire book online. :D Then I went down with Kirsten down to town and we picked up some cereal and chocolate (for cookies) and red bull. Ok so I like it. And all you girls would love the chocolate here. It's sooo good and pretty cheap too. That's days 18 and 19 here.... and on day 17 late into the night something amazing happened. Ask in a year.

Spain day 17

Today was very interesting.. I don't think I quite understood everything.. but we had the Americans here and we painted the church. It was so much fun being with people who spoke english. They are so much fun. There was also some Spanish men working there too so I got to pick up some more Spanish. After we got done with the sanctuary they all left and I went on a prayer walk. I got lost... and turned around and stuff but I made it back. Then I went with Sabrina and Kirsten to the park.. and played with them. I got worn out fast. Then we all went out with a visiting American from Belfast for coffee. It's amazing to see the look on the americans face when I they come in and we all say "Hola, Coma estoy?" and they (like me) struggle to say hello, then they hear me say "Howdy Y'all". It's so much fun. While we were there talking a homless man showed up and just started talking with us. He told us his whole life story. He was from Palestine.. lost his family due to a war. He showed us the pictures and cried. He was not saved and we tried to share the gospel but he was very very drunk. It's so sad to see this.. People who have given up on life, yet who are so lonely. He didn't even know where he was going to sleep that night but he was so lonely. It's not just here that people are like that.. there are the homeless among us who need just random acts of kindness. Let us show them more.

Spain day 16

Sunday was interesting.. I had slept over at the church all night. well for 4 hours. Those Spanish kids are just like American kids.. they play when the cats away.. then we had to stay at the church all day and I stole two hours and went into the office and slept.. they said they missed me but I know that they were really happy I didn't eat a ton of food. :D We have 7 people here from a college in Fort Wayne and they are going to be here until the 12th. They are helping with the church too and doing touristy things. 5 girls, one guy, and their professor is on the way. I feel really sorry for the guy, (Phil) because he is soo outnumbered and yes... one of the girls is very ditzy.. but they all for the most part have a real desire to serve and to help. We went out for ice cream, don't ask me to spell the word for it here. I got a milkshake. How they make milkshakes here is really cool. You pick out the ice cream you want, they put it in a blender with milk, and they add sugar and nutmeg. WOW, it was really good, although it was expensive. We went to the Plaza de Spain, and sorrow of sorrows... I had forgotten my camera again.. so sorry y'all. Then we headed back to the train station and I hopped on to go to Terressa. Uncle mike went to pick me up and he got lost.. I knew where I was,,, but something neither of us knew was there was 3 stations in Terressa.. not 2. He couldn't find me at either one of those because I was at the very first one. I met some deaf people while waiting though, we couldn't speak very well.
It was a very good Sunday.

Spain day 15

It's been really good here for the last couple days. I've been typing out the commands of Christ so they can be translated. It's been really cool hanging out with the cousins. Sabrina and Kirsten have been alot of fun to hang with and they like to bicker alot sometimes. Kirsten's nickname is Tatiana. I haven't the slightest idea what it means but they have been fun. Last night I went with the Torres to a Bible study. It was at a nice apartment and there was a huge pool. There were about 8 kids. You will see plenty of pictures later on fb. Well t the the kids were playing futball and tag so one of the dads asked me to make sure that they didn't fall into the pool. I missed a huge bible study about the light of the earth. It was really hilarious to play with the kids none of whom spoke any english and my Spanish was almost as bad. Goal is pretty universal though. Chuta was kick for them.. some type of slang from Brazil. Well to say.. my horrid futball skills showed up. You have any idea how humiliating it is to be beat by a bunch of 6 year olds? Well good thing I don't either, that would have been bad. One of the 6 year old guys noticed that I was always talking to Kirsten and asked if I was her boyfriend. See even kids here are the same.. one of them had gone through several gfs already. I've had to do a little work here but I've more than enjoyed it all. What has been very interesting is the social life. People here aren't friendly unless you are introduced my somebody they know. The pastor is in a city about 40 miles from the closest person so I get alot of time to spend with my cousins when they aren't doing school.
About my cousins, I guess technically they aren't my cousins.. their mom is Rachel Worley Torres.. and my Dad's sister married into the Worley family. All inlaws in this family. Uncle Mike/Miguel is the pastor and he's a real fuzzball. He's really jolly and has a great sense of humor. His duties with the church demand alot of his time. Aunt Rachel seems to be really nice and she keeps working and keeps the kids working and does mch work as well. Kirsten is very sober and works very hard and is very mature and wise for 12 years. yet she can be very fun loving. Sabrina is a very cute adorable little kid, she's age 8. often I come in and I see Kirsten and she's reading her Bible. It really warms my heart to see that. Someone so young seeking God.
Let's follow her example and follow God too.