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...