Day 3 in Spain!!!!

Well, we are complete with day 3!! Its almost midnight here and we are closing up shop. We had an AWESOME day today!! We got to go to the ICF church service this morning and they have certaintly grown. They had about 60 people in attendance this morning. Samuel (preacher) said that there were 3 women today that were brand new and had never been before! AMEN! How awesome to see God work! After lunch all the church members had brought a different dish and we had lunch (Pot Luck done the Spanish way)!! The food was oh so good! After lunch some of the church members took us down to Barcelona where we got to roam and in true tourist fashion, take a bunch of pictures. Micheal (one of our fearless leaders) has done an awesome job driving the PePe van. He didn't even need the GPS today, which is awesome. We are back to working at the church in the AM. We are painting and taking a trip to IKEA to purchase the furniture for parts of the church. The people here are so open and warm.. THey have truly opened up their homes and hearts to us. We, as a team, only hope and pray that we repay the favor to them and hope that all who encounter us see God in us. As it says in the Gospel of John "He must increase and I must decrease". Please keep the team in your prayers and more updates to come... Love and Blessing from Spain Team 2010! :)

Hola from Espana

Hola from Espana!!!

Well we made it safe and sound. Our flight over was a little bumpy, but GOd provided us with safe travels. And after a quick nap yesterday and a solid 8 hourse of sleep, we are all rested and ready to go! We hit it hard today, priming, sanding and cleaning up at the new church builiding in Villanova. We had "Desyunon (lunch)" today w/some of the church memebers at the church in Sitges. We have quickly adopted the song "Allyjandro" as our team song. Not by choice, but bc it got stuck in my head and it has spread to the rest of the team. I will say this...the people of Spain are super passionate about bringing God's word to the people in their communities. The new church building is going to be a great tool for them to reach out to their neighboors and show the Glory of God. Since we have been here....one thing remains the same... no matter the culuture, age, economic background...we are a people designed to seek and need our God. He is doing mighty things. In a country of 46 million people and only 100K Christians.... it reminds us how lucky we are to grow up in an environment where the name of Jesus is heard often. And we have mucho respect for the people here as they have been tasked w/the purpose of carrying God's word to the masses. But as the Word tells us, "The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few" !! More updates to come.... God is LOVE!

Encouragement for the Team heading to Vilanova!

This devotional was sent to me this morning from Passion City Church (Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin's church), and I thought it was appropriate for Michael and Cara's team as they leave for Spain today (and also good for our friends in Spain to hear as they struggle to be a "light" in this dark world)....

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. "

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

God speed as you head over to my favorite place in the world! I am praying for you all and excited to see pictures and hear all about it! I will be praying for your safe travels, protection from the enemy, that God will be glorified through your words and actions and that He will give you strength and energy in using the skills and gifts that He has already equipped you with!

Love you guys! (AND my 2nd family in Spain)!
Carolyn

Tres días más y estaremos en España!!!

Hola Amigos en Espana!!!

Hi, or Howdy, as we like to say in the South. We just wanted to say HI to all of you and tell you that we are so excited to be coming over to Spain and spending time with you all. We have been praying for the mission trip for months now. We have been praying for our hearts and for the hearts of the people of Spain. Our prayer has been that God would work mighty wonders in all of us and through us while we are in Spain. And that those people in your communities would be affected dramatically by the LOVE of our Lord. We are confident that God is doing a major work in the country of Spain and HE is working through each and everyone of you. We are really excited to be working beside each as our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can't wait and we hope you guys are as excited as we are. We are honored to be chosen to come to Spain and work with you all. Our God is amazing and HE transcends all countries, boundaries and culture! AMEN! Only 3 more days and we will be in Spain. We love you all and will see you very soon!

Love-

Spain Mission Team

Michael, Cara, Heather, Cheryl, Jamey and Brant

III CAMPUS DE INGLÉS

¡El equipo han regresado a casa! Gracias a estudiantes, profesores y amigos que han hecho posible uno de los mejores Campus de Inglés. Viejas relaciones han sido fortalecidas, nuevas relaciones han sido creadas y muchas vidas han sido impactadas. Gracias de todo corazón de parte de responsables, voluntarios y de toda la iglesia Parque Este.

The week is coming to an end...

wow wow wow. we are so thankful for an awesome week with our sweet friends here in sevilla. this time the team has been able to spend more time with pepe and mari, hearing their stories and praying together. for this we are so grateful. to see pictures and hear stories of how the church went from a dream to reality is nothing short of miraculous. pepe and mari abandoned a life of comfort many years ago. together with their beautiful children, they work daily to build relationships with the community they love. theirs is truly a labor of love. watching new faces fill the rooms at parque este this week has been so encouraging for the team. as we have heard repeated often this week... it is one person, one life, one heart changed at a time. only God can change the hearts of men, this we know. trusting in his perfect timing, we wait to hear stories of life change long after we return home. for this week, we are thankful. for your prayers and support, we are thankful. for our great and loving God, who rescued all of us when we were just lost sinners, we are thankful. glory to God. gracias gracias Señor.

we leave for malaga in the morning. we will travel by train and arrive midday. the team will debrief and all but julie and i return home monday morning. please pray for safe travels for the team and for the time we spend in sevilla to be beneficial to the community. we will host a movie night, game night, and more to continue investing in those new friends who attended camp this week. julie and i travel home thursday morning and we would appreciate your prayers for safe travel as well. here are just a few photos to sum up the last few days.

a reminder pepe gave us today has stuck with me and i would love to share it. when you think of spain, you don't necessarily think of missions. but in spain only 1% of the population are evangelical christians... as you pray for us, please pray that God would bring a revival to spain to change the hearts and minds of the people here.

con amor,

arinn, amy, tom, julie, joanna, kim, and steph

mas fotos

Here are some pictures we wanted to share with y'all from the last couple of days. Enjoy!

Con amor,

Julie y Arinn

Dia 2 y 3

Hola!!!! The last two days have been fantastico. We are really enjoying hanging out with Pepe and Mari and their family and all the people of the church as well as the new folks who have come. God is so amazing and has brought many people to the camp each day. Tuesday we had 54 people and Wednesday we had 40 people. Most of the people who are coming are outsiders which we are so thankful for. God is definitely working and doing something here in Sevilla. Last night we went to eat at a church members house, Nono and Maribel. They were very gracious hosts and the food was excellent!! All of us ate enough tortilla espanola to last us until next year. It was muy deliciosa. Pepe, Dani, and Maria were ever so nice to take us downtown yesterday and show us around in 104 degrees heat!!!! It was a great opportunity to see how beautiful downtown is as well as learn a little bit about the history of Sevilla. We are very much looking forward to camp tonight and tomorrow and for what God has in store. We know he is working because we have seen his hand this whole week. What a great God we serve! Thank y'all so much for your prayers and support. We love y'all!

Prayer requests:

-the church members- that God gives them the words and strength as they form relationships with the outsiders.

-the outsiders- that they sense God's peace in the church members and have a longing to come to church

-safe travels for the team

-that we continue to feel energized and are an encouragement to everyone we meet

Viva "La Roja"

Soccer/fútbol is very popular here! We were so fortunate to watch a match with our friends in Sevilla. The sport is so popular that we ended class early the first evening so our attendees could get home in time to watch the match! That's dedication! We stayed in the church and Dani put the game on the big screen for us. It was such a great game!!! Spain defeated Honduras 2-0. It's hard to describe how excited our friends here are about their fútbol, so I will just let the photos explain.

Tomorrow we will update you on camp. This has been such an amazing year with over 50 students attending camp each day. Praise God!

Enjoy the photos and VIVA ESPAÑA.

Con Amor,

Arinn y Stephanie

Pictures from Day 1

God´s Favor and God´s Strength

God´s favor was with us the entire trip. We had no delays or misplaced bags for which we were grateful. On our first night in Sevilla we had dinner with Pastor Pepe and his family. Can you say amazing Taco Pizza!? We need to bring that back to the states!

Sunday we went to church. The worship was beautiful and Pastor Pepe was preaching through a series entitled ¨Staying In Love.¨ We received warm greetings from the people of East Park Church in Sevilla and immediately saw how accepting and loving they were.

We got our first taste of downtown Sevilla when we went out for Tapas at 9PM. Culturally dinner is late in Spain with folks eating after 9 or 10PM. It is also a very social and meaningful part of their day, not something to be rushed through. I would love to see us bring this back to the states. Thank God we have adjusted well to eating later and getting to bed later.

Monday was day one of the English Camp. We got an ¨early¨start getting to the church at 11AM to set up and prepare for the evening session starting at 7PM. It was great to see our team come together with the church as we all worked to set up the different environments making sure we had all the supplies we needed. God´s presence was evident in the harmony of our cooperation.

It was so great to see the people arrive, getting their name tags, notebooks and t-shirts. Many of them wondering what the cost was and why everything was free. We were blessed by their arrival and attendance and even more importantly their participation. We had over 50 people come out on our first night from age 3 to 63.

World cup is huge in Spain so it would not be hard for you to imagine that we watched Spain destroy Honduras 2-0 on the big screen in the church. Can you say fanatical fans!

PRAY FOR:

1. The power and presence of Christ to be with us and go before us and East Park Church
2. Pastor Pepe, his family and church to develop eternal relationships with the people from the community who are coming to the English Camp.
3. For the church and us as a team to be emptied of ourselves and filled with, by and for the power and will of the Holy Spirit to be the light and aroma of Christ to those we meet.
4. The Holy Spirit to remove the (blinders) of cynicism in the spanish culture when it comes to the evangelical church and that He would give the people of the surrounding communities of East Park Church eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to love Jesus!

pictures to come this evening...

English Camp 2010 - Meet the Team!!!

It's hard to believe it is almost time for the third annual English camp! Our team is so excited to travel together to Sevilla this June to serve the people of Parque Este and their community. We ask for your prayers as we begin preparing for camp and bonding as a team. Our team members are Kim, Joanna, Amy, Tom, Arinn, Julie, and Stephanie. I've attached a picture of the team. We'll post more after our retreat and daily once we are in Spain. I can promise none of us will be wearing jackets in Sevilla like we are in this photo :) Thanks in advance for your prayers and support.

Con amor,
Steph