Here are videos and more pictures from Sarah and Miguel (of Carolina).... what a cutie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE7GAJjmuVY
(and this is an update from Sarah with more pix):
Hi everyone,
I've uploaded some pictures of Carolina's first week on my facebook page, and you can see them online (even if you're not on facebook) at http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48820&l=a74b9&id=816222817
She's doing so well- eating a lot, sleeping pretty well at night (last night she just woke up twice between 1am and 10am, not bad!) and is calm and happy during the day. It's a lot of fun just being with her!
love,
Sarah
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
News from Vilanova!
This is from an email that Alvaro sent us yesterday, to update us on the progress at their church in Vilanova/Sitges...PRAISE GOD!
(FYI, Alvaro and his family will be in Atlanta September 5-8, and there will be a cookout at the Walton's house on Sat. the 6th. An evite will go out soon, but join us if you can!)
Hi my friends,
I know you are such committed with the church in Vilanova as we are, so I wanted you to know the most important achievements of the first half of the year :
*Name : we changed the name of the church from "Iglesia Protestante de Vilanova" to "Iglesia Cristiana del Garraf" ( ICG ). This is not a non-relevant change because of (a) we are, right now, in Sitges and we are not sure if this situation we'll be long( hope not ) and because (b) we don't want to limit our influence to the people of Vilanova but to the complete Garraf community ( Garraf is the area where Vilanova and Sitges is and is about 100.000 people )
* Legal : December 2007 we approved our new Constitution and in the last months we've been working in developing some aspects of it. The main : the Elders Council, which for the next year is formed by Eugenio, Loles, Carmelo and Sarah Andrews. Again : an important issue if we want to have a well balanced church and a really vision focus strategy.
* Construction : We've been redefining some aspects of the building and right now we have a high vision of what the building means in terms of money and the next steps we need to work on it. Next 2 steps are covered but not the others. We can give you more information and details during our visit to USA next 3 weeks.
* Sunday Service : is one of our strong points right now. Our sunday service is really outsiders focused and "northpointmusic resources" has made the difference in our worship time. We want to go deeper on it and I wonder if we could get additional tracks during my visit in september to Atlanta.
* Web: you can visit our new one at www.iglesiadelgarraf.com .
* Programing : today we have the complete programing series for the next 12 months closed.
* Marketing Plan : we've been working with Miquel Torres important areas regarding which is our difference respect other churches and which is our key benefit and claim. We've organized "outsiders" focus groups to know what our target thinks about church. This is a non closed step but, just for your information, a friends of Raquel and me( outsiders target ) are been in this process and their comments were : "we would really like to go to this kind of church" or "it seems like church is a really important thing for all of you: you are doing things well".
* 5/14 : We have start our volunteer program call 5/14( based in Galatians 5:14 ) in terms of defining our mission statement and starting conversations with the community just to say : "which way can we help you ?". We want 5/14 to be the honest way we show outsiders Christ's love in insiders. Sarah Andrews is leading and we'll have our public first activity in october.
* Conectados ( small groups) :without any kind of doubt, the best decision we took 1 year ago. It has change our "insider's fellowship" and people that has visited us in the last sundays have said : " you all are really close to each other", or "this is not a "cold church", we can feel like in our home". Next september we'll have an additional small group were we'll integrate the new members of the ICG.
* Pastor : as you all know, this was our main deal and my "main headache". We do know that this was our weak point and it's been the center of the all discussions during the last 6 months Executive Team meetings. I can confirm you that we have progress a lot: we've been working in defining the Pastor profile, putting names and surnames to several candidates and finally giving an offer to someone that feel is very qualified (though his family is praying about it so he will go unnamed until he accepts). Just for your information, a little miracle that we lived during that process and a resource we used for approaching :
(1) a few days before offering to be the Pastor of the ICG, a special donation for this purpose arrived, so, right now, we have covered the next 12 months part time Pastor salary...God really rules....
(2) For the ICG was non negotiable a perfect understanding of our vision, so what we did in our first meeting was to give this person (who we hope will be our pastor) a "From the Foyer to the Kitchen " DVD ( an spanish translation made by us) .
The situation now is : the process is not finished ( we don't have the " agreement's picture") but it has gone really ahead. We ask that you continue to pray about this person that we hope will be our new leader.
Concluding : This person fits with our Pastor profile : he's been graduated in a Seminary, he is a really good communicator ( talks simple things in a simple, outsiders minding and engaging way ), he "is like our target is", he has the ability of leading a team of talented people and he understands and beliefs that our vision is a great way of communicating Gospel to the outsiders. God's been with us during the process and sure He will at the end of it
All the guys at the Executive team have made an excellent job, balancing their works, family and God's service through the ICG. Julian has been leading the Construction issue, Isma has been with the Communication area, Danny with Economics and Legals aspects and David with Programing and Production. All of them are passionate about what ICG means and what ICG will be in the future.
Any doubt or more information you need, just say.
Just remembering,
(1) our vision is "to be a relevant community that approach Jesus to the culture of today"
(2) our mission is "to make possible that people know Jesus and follow Him in fidelity".
This is our passion, and that is the only reason because a little Christian Community in a Catholic country called Spain believes that God is rocking with ICG.
We really appreciate your prayers : we know and we feel that we are in your hearts.
Please, send a copy of this mail to everyone who knows our project and is supporting us in praying, specially to everyone who has been involved in mission trips.
See you in a few days,
Alvaro
Iglesia Cristina del Garraf
"Growing Together"
(FYI, Alvaro and his family will be in Atlanta September 5-8, and there will be a cookout at the Walton's house on Sat. the 6th. An evite will go out soon, but join us if you can!)
Hi my friends,
I know you are such committed with the church in Vilanova as we are, so I wanted you to know the most important achievements of the first half of the year :
*Name : we changed the name of the church from "Iglesia Protestante de Vilanova" to "Iglesia Cristiana del Garraf" ( ICG ). This is not a non-relevant change because of (a) we are, right now, in Sitges and we are not sure if this situation we'll be long( hope not ) and because (b) we don't want to limit our influence to the people of Vilanova but to the complete Garraf community ( Garraf is the area where Vilanova and Sitges is and is about 100.000 people )
* Legal : December 2007 we approved our new Constitution and in the last months we've been working in developing some aspects of it. The main : the Elders Council, which for the next year is formed by Eugenio, Loles, Carmelo and Sarah Andrews. Again : an important issue if we want to have a well balanced church and a really vision focus strategy.
* Construction : We've been redefining some aspects of the building and right now we have a high vision of what the building means in terms of money and the next steps we need to work on it. Next 2 steps are covered but not the others. We can give you more information and details during our visit to USA next 3 weeks.
* Sunday Service : is one of our strong points right now. Our sunday service is really outsiders focused and "northpointmusic resources" has made the difference in our worship time. We want to go deeper on it and I wonder if we could get additional tracks during my visit in september to Atlanta.
* Web: you can visit our new one at www.iglesiadelgarraf.com .
* Programing : today we have the complete programing series for the next 12 months closed.
* Marketing Plan : we've been working with Miquel Torres important areas regarding which is our difference respect other churches and which is our key benefit and claim. We've organized "outsiders" focus groups to know what our target thinks about church. This is a non closed step but, just for your information, a friends of Raquel and me( outsiders target ) are been in this process and their comments were : "we would really like to go to this kind of church" or "it seems like church is a really important thing for all of you: you are doing things well".
* 5/14 : We have start our volunteer program call 5/14( based in Galatians 5:14 ) in terms of defining our mission statement and starting conversations with the community just to say : "which way can we help you ?". We want 5/14 to be the honest way we show outsiders Christ's love in insiders. Sarah Andrews is leading and we'll have our public first activity in october.
* Conectados ( small groups) :without any kind of doubt, the best decision we took 1 year ago. It has change our "insider's fellowship" and people that has visited us in the last sundays have said : " you all are really close to each other", or "this is not a "cold church", we can feel like in our home". Next september we'll have an additional small group were we'll integrate the new members of the ICG.
* Pastor : as you all know, this was our main deal and my "main headache". We do know that this was our weak point and it's been the center of the all discussions during the last 6 months Executive Team meetings. I can confirm you that we have progress a lot: we've been working in defining the Pastor profile, putting names and surnames to several candidates and finally giving an offer to someone that feel is very qualified (though his family is praying about it so he will go unnamed until he accepts). Just for your information, a little miracle that we lived during that process and a resource we used for approaching :
(1) a few days before offering to be the Pastor of the ICG, a special donation for this purpose arrived, so, right now, we have covered the next 12 months part time Pastor salary...God really rules....
(2) For the ICG was non negotiable a perfect understanding of our vision, so what we did in our first meeting was to give this person (who we hope will be our pastor) a "From the Foyer to the Kitchen " DVD ( an spanish translation made by us) .
The situation now is : the process is not finished ( we don't have the " agreement's picture") but it has gone really ahead. We ask that you continue to pray about this person that we hope will be our new leader.
Concluding : This person fits with our Pastor profile : he's been graduated in a Seminary, he is a really good communicator ( talks simple things in a simple, outsiders minding and engaging way ), he "is like our target is", he has the ability of leading a team of talented people and he understands and beliefs that our vision is a great way of communicating Gospel to the outsiders. God's been with us during the process and sure He will at the end of it
All the guys at the Executive team have made an excellent job, balancing their works, family and God's service through the ICG. Julian has been leading the Construction issue, Isma has been with the Communication area, Danny with Economics and Legals aspects and David with Programing and Production. All of them are passionate about what ICG means and what ICG will be in the future.
Any doubt or more information you need, just say.
Just remembering,
(1) our vision is "to be a relevant community that approach Jesus to the culture of today"
(2) our mission is "to make possible that people know Jesus and follow Him in fidelity".
This is our passion, and that is the only reason because a little Christian Community in a Catholic country called Spain believes that God is rocking with ICG.
We really appreciate your prayers : we know and we feel that we are in your hearts.
Please, send a copy of this mail to everyone who knows our project and is supporting us in praying, specially to everyone who has been involved in mission trips.
See you in a few days,
Alvaro
Iglesia Cristina del Garraf
"Growing Together"
Carolina's picture debut!
Proud mother, Sarah, just sent me these pictures of Miss Carolina! She didn't want the wine bottle to be the only "image" we had of her (though I can think of worse)! (:
As you can see, she's a DOLL, and her parents seem very proud and happy! Here is more of what Sarah wrote about her:
Thanks for your well wishes with Carolina! It is so much fun getting to know her... we could just look at her all day long and not get bored :)
I've been so busy feeding Carolina (she eats a ton!) and napping when she sleeps ...She changes so much every day! She weighed 7 lbs 7 ounces when she was born.
Keep them in your prayers! More to come....
(the other) Carolina!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Welcome Carolina!
A NEW BABY GIRL has been born to our growing Spain FAMILY in Vilanova/Sitges! Congratulations to Miguel Torres and Sarah Andrews on the birth of little Carolina last Friday...08-08-08 (the day the Olympics started too)! We are all so grateful for this little miracle, born healthy and whole and "perfect in HIS image"... a new child to further God's Kingdom! Here is the announcement (email) that came from the proud parents last weekend (in Spanish AND English):
Queridos amigos,
Os queremos anunciar que el 8 de Agosto ya podemos decir que Sarah y yo hemos tenido una cosecha excepcional !
Nuestra hija se llama Carolina y ha pesado 3,4 kg.. La verdad es que no tenía muchas ganas de salir, pero finalmente ya está con nosotros y está sana y contenta. Sarah se encuentra bien y muy muy feliz.
Os queremos anunciar que el 8 de Agosto ya podemos decir que Sarah y yo hemos tenido una cosecha excepcional !
Nuestra hija se llama Carolina y ha pesado 3,4 kg.. La verdad es que no tenía muchas ganas de salir, pero finalmente ya está con nosotros y está sana y contenta. Sarah se encuentra bien y muy muy feliz.
Gracias a todos por vuestro interés durante estos días previos.
Miguel & Sarah
------------------------------------------
Dear friends,
We wanted to let you know that on August 8 Sarah and I can finally
announce that we've had an "exceptional harvest"!
Miguel & Sarah
------------------------------------------
Dear friends,
We wanted to let you know that on August 8 Sarah and I can finally
announce that we've had an "exceptional harvest"!
Our daughter is named Carolina (pronounced the Spanish way of course!) and weighs 3,4 kg. She certainly took her time in coming, but she's finally with us and is healthy and happy. Sarah is feeling good and is thrilled to finally have
the baby in her arms!
Thanks to you all for keeping us in your prayers and thoughts!
Miguel & Sarah
the baby in her arms!
Thanks to you all for keeping us in your prayers and thoughts!
Miguel & Sarah
Friday, August 1, 2008
Marc's trip to Atlanta
As most of you know, Marc came to Atlanta for several weeks this summer, and just left us 8 days ago. He stayed with the Waltons, and became part of their family (like everyone does who visits them), but luckily others of us got to spend some quality time with him too. He visited many 
Atlanta sights like the 
Martin Luther King Center, World of Coca-Cola (YAY!), Georgia Aquarium, Six Flags amusement park, a Braves game, went on a trip to Lake Lanier and the Georgia mountains, went to DC and PA and back, and we ended his trip with an incredible plane ride in the air withRandy Walton as our pilot! Here are some pictures. Marc, we miss you already! 
Pictures from top to bottom (left to right):
a. Marc, Crista and the kids at the MLK Center
b. Marc, Michael Frank and Carolyn
c. Marc, Crista and the girls at the World of C0ca-Cola Museum
d. Marc flying the plane!
e. A view of Stone Mountain from the sky!
f. The Coca-Cola building (carolyn works on the 7th floor) with GA Tech University behind it
g. Buckhead Church from the sky!
h. Video (Below) of Marc flying the plane!
i. Marc and Randy, very calm after flying!
j. Carolyn before take-off (calm and excited)!
Alvaro, Raquel, Oreol and Noa, we can't wait to see YOU in a month!
MUCHOS BESSOS y ABRAZOS!
Carolyn
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