I Speak...Spanglese?

The last couple of days have been a surprising flurry of activity. Though our schedule of events wouldn't seem like much, I think it's safe to say we're all pretty wiped out from a full weekend.

Here's the quick rundown:

FRIDAY

• The girls joined me at Mission Urbana for their first day of work there. We sorted and cut bread and pastries, made sandwiches, and cleaned. Good job, girls! You did an awesome job. =)
• After work, we were able to enjoy a couple hours at the pool. Going to the pool is for fun and relaxation, but I must say that it is exhausting bouncing on one's tippy-toes for two hours straight because you're too short to stand in the "shallow" end of the pool. Haha.

SATURDAY

• We spent all day (from 10:30 am to 1 am) with a few youth from the Anderson's church, walking walking walking around different parts of the city. Although it was a long and full day, we had a great time learning about what is muy típico de Valencia. It was also a wonderful chance just to get to know the youth better and hear their perspectives on their country's spiritual climate.

The bull-fight ring

The post office's breathtaking glass ceiling and interior

The team with our valiant "all-day excursion" guides

Marta, a 24-year old oceanography major, who is quickly becoming a dear friend to me

Walking along the America's Cup Regatta pier

Docked boats

We also stopped by the very interesting gypsy market at the beach.

The main attraction at the beach that evening was a reenactment of the battle of El Cid, the legendary Christian warrior, who fought the Muslim Moors for the Spanish kingdom.

"Moors" leading their horses

Challenging the Christian king to battle

Why not add a few Amazonian warrior princesses to the equation?

El Cid v. el moro

Forgive me for all the horse shots--they were just such beautiful subjects...

...As was this young boy who sat next to me during the reenactment. Although the focus of our work on this trip is not children, I can't help but keep an eye open for kids who cross my path. Who will he be 15 years from now? What is his role in God's plan of glory?

We closed out the night with a late dinner of delicious tapas (small dishes typical of Spain, usually of seafood). Unfortunately, I was too hungry to photographically document our meal. =/

• After almost 14 hours straight of hablando hablando hablando Spanish, my voice was hoarse, my tongue limp, and my mind coagulated into a jumble of Spanish, English, and Chinese. Yes, even Chinese, because apparently my tongue forgets that Spaniards don't speak Chinese just because it's not English! Nonetheless, I do believe Saturday's intense burst of language immersion has done wonders for my comprehension and conversation. I'm still leagues away from fluency, but with God's help, I'm getting there poco a poco (little by little).

SUNDAY

• This morning we attended church with Chris and Anita, where we were able to witness a baptismal service and a truly miraculous response to the gospel invitation. Three people were baptized into the Church body this morning at Agustin d'Aragón, and three stood up during the invitation to receive Christ as their Savior. Given the spiritual condition of Spain, these are truly incredible responses, because usually, people just don't have any interest in God or Christianity. As we've been told over and over by missonaries, pastors, even the youth--evangelism to Spaniards is relational. Capture an audience by winning their trust. It's slow and discouraging, but otherwise the people just turn a deaf ear. Those who responded to the invitation today most likely found themselves in an evangelical church this morning because of a relationship of some kind with one of the baptized individuals.
• The other audience in Spain is immigrants. Ngor is one such immigrant from Senegal, who found Christ through Anita and Chris when he came to Spain by boat three years ago. Through visions and dreams, he had been searching for Christ all his life, but he didn't find Him until he came to Spain. Now, though his situation is difficult, he is the joy of Chris and Anita's week through their weekly Bible study/Spanish lesson. (I have had the privilege of sitting on a couple of these already.) He has had absolutely no education, yet he speaks nine languages (and counting) and is so hungry for spiritual truth.
  

Ngor shares with us some of his experiences.

My supervisor, Anita Anderson

• Later in the evening, we once again returned to the park to see if we could talk to some of the youth.

The guitar we brought along with us as well as this girl's very interesting collection of dolls sparked a good bit of conversation with them.

Well, the "quick" rundown has turned out to be not-so-quick. Nevertheless, I hope it was informative and interesting. Again, I'll close this out with a list of praises and prayer requests, but if there's anything you would specifically like to know more about next time, please leave me a comment or write me an e-mail and let me know! And please, let me know how I can pray for you, too.

Much love and many thanks,
~Joanne

Praises:

• Anita and Levi are both feeling much better! (I have not been able to talk to Lydia yet.)
  
• My Spanish language skills are improving steadily.
• God continues to be generous to us in our experiences and relatioships
  
• We are all still safe.

Prayer requests:

• Rest! Especially with these photos and updates, I'm probably not getting as much sleep as I should.
• Continue to pray for the purchase of the new location for Mission Urbana
• Pray for Ngor's family, who is still in Senegal and not yet saved. (He feels very heavily burdened for them.) Pray also that his papers will be approved by the Spanish government very soon so that he can return to Senegal for a visit and share the gospel with his family.
• Pray for the youth in the park--if it's God's will for us to minister to them, He needs to give us divine inspiration for creative means of reaching them.
• Pray in general for the spiritual desert of Spain. Pray that the older people will see the truth and be willing to change, despite tradition; and pray that the young people will realize that the truth they're so busy seeking is found only in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.