Speaking Frankly, by Michael Frank

We just finished a truly awesome day. As I said while we were having our night cap a few minutes ago as a team, it seemed like every hour was my "favorite part of the day".

We started out with our morning meeting and devotional as a team, then we walked up to the church (about a 10-15 min walk) and went to their Sunday morning service. The church looks amazing! They have done so much to it, and put in so much work. They opened with worship songs that we sing in America, Indescribable, Mighty to Save and How Great is Our God (In Spanish of course). And one of the coolest things I have seen happened as we were singing Mighty to Save. At that point, everyone in the congregation was quiet, sitting down, and just watching Alvaro, David and Julian play guitar. But somewhere in the middle of the song, people from the congregation started standing up and singing along... it was very powerful. Very hard to describe just how powerful, just amazing to see the same church that year ago, was very quiet and reserved about their faith, to now, stand, sing out loud, and to be open about it.

Followed by the service was yet another amazing meal, this time served at the church. Several people on our team commented during the meal that it is like one big family here. (everyone is practically family here, but that's besides the point).

Then we had our small group break out session. I gave a brief introduction on Small Groups and our viewpoint on them at Buckhead. Then we watched a quick video by Andy from the "Pause" series, subtitled in Spanish. After the video, we broke out into two groups, guys with the guys, girls with the girls.

Each group had a set of six discussion questions to discuss in regards to the video. Our hope and goal was to get them into groups, and from our team leading by example, show them that its good to share and to be open in a group, even as men...

The guys, we only got one question out of the way, then we started getting questions, comments and feedback from their experiences with small group this past year, how we conduct small group in America. We actually had really deep discussions from the very start, and almost each one was inquisitive and open. It was really awesome to see their heart for God and they are growing.  The guys also commented how they liked just being in a guys group, and that it was easier to share that way. Right now, they are in mixed groups, guys and girls, and they say that they don't ever get too deep, its mostly just "surface conversation", small talk... we introduced the thought of maybe that they continue with their current small groups, but once a month or so, get together with just the guys... we'll stay posted with that.

The women... the report we got back from the women was that they covered all six questions pretty quickly, then the conversation became real light and chatty..... women........( I am so just kidding for whoever is reading this and does not know me...)

The night ended with dinner at Isma and Eva's place. Yes another amazing meal in Spain! Thank you Isma and Eva so much for your hospitality and friendship!

It was an amazing day. There is no other way to describe it.

Stay tuned for more updates from our team, and more "Speaking Frankly"!

Thank you for reading ( I hope someone is...)

Michael Frank