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...