New faces

Julie, Jefff, Jason, Lynne, Kelly, and Stephanie  ya están en camino hacia Madrid y yo no puedo dejar de recordar sus  caras y las caras nuevas que esta semana hemos visto en la iglesia.  ¡El equipo de inglés ha hecho un trabajo fantástico!  !Ha sido emocionante!  Hemos cumplido nuestro propósito por encima de nuestras expectativas.   Todos los esfuerzos de la Iglesia Parque Este se dirigen a alcanzar nuevas personas para que conozcan y sigan fielmente a Jesucristo. Conectar con personas de Sevilla para que establezcan una relación creciente con Jesucristo. El sábado, mientras celebrábamos una fiesta con todos los asistentes al campus de inglés, con emoción, contemplábamos sus caras.  Oremos para que den otro paso hacia el Señor y la iglesia.

Pepe

Marc has arrived in Atlanta!

Marc arrived in Atlanta yesterday (Friday), after 3 days of trying to fly standby from Barcelona! But don't feel sorry for him because they put him in FIRST CLASS! Randy picked him up and brought him to a picnic and concert with a band that plays all Beatles songs. Michael Frank, Steve, Melanie and I were there with Crista and the girls, so we enjoyed catching up with Marc and eating the great food that Crista brought us. Here's a picture from that (of Marc and the Waltons). He's going to be surrounded by a lot of girls for the next 2 weeks!
Today Marc evidently slept late, enjoyed Crista's homeade pancakes, and then they all set out and drove around Atlanta to show Marc some sights and ate a LOT of food and ice cream before I (Carolyn) picked him up to take him to dinner with a group of us (including Dave Karger, Michael Frank and some other friends that have NOT been to Spain before). Our friend Cheryl had picked the restaurant and funny enough she chose a SPANISH TAPAS place called "Noche"! Marc got a good laugh from the menu, which wasn't REAL Spanish food. Oh well.. that's Atlanta for you! We ended the night with gelato, so we could feel like WE were back in Espana! We miss all of you so so much, but we're enjoying having a part of you here with us this week. Marc is so mature and "wise beyond his years". Eugenio and Sara, you have raised him well!

Miss you and love you all muchísimo!
Carolyn

The Final Day of English Camp

This week has been great and has exceeded our expectations in many ways. Our last day was a few new things and a lot of review. Our estudiantes this week were very inteligente. We are looking forward to celebrating their success with them this week at a party tomorrow. It has been great to see God's hand so evident in this week and the ways He has provided and been with us ... what a great God we serve! Two boys from Jeff and Jason's advanced group ate lunch with us today at the church and it was a great time to connect with them. Please continue to pray for Sevilla and the executive team here at the church as they continue to press on in a dark world.

As we mentioned yesterday, we watched the game last night and Spain beat Russia 3-0. Now they are in the finals, which will be played on Sunday while we are in Madrid. Go Espana!

Below is bonus footage of Stephanie teaching the children "Head, sholders, knees and toes". Mari is a little tired towards the end.

Hola!!! Update on Days 3 & 4

Here we are mid-way through day 4. Can you believe it? It has really flown by. We are making wonderful friends here, and leaving this weekend will be bittersweet.

We have chosen different themes for each day. Monday we taught them family members, introductions/leavings, and numbers. Tuesday was sports, time,and days of the week. Wednesday was community, today is food, and tomorrow will be clothes, colors, and a review of the week. It is amazing how quickly they have picked up the language. They are very interested in speaking and learning more about the English language. Even though they are taught English throughout school, they have very little chance to practice. We have enjoyed all the wonderful conversations we have shared with them. We are working today on creating a blog that will provide the students with an opportunity to correspond with us once we return home! Isn't that awesome? They have been asking for our email addresses, so this makes it a great central location for all of us to chat! We're working on setting that up as soon as we finish updating all of you.

On another note, Espana has made it to semi finals of the EuroCup. If they win tonight they will be in the finals against Germany in Madrid! How cool is that? Futbol(soccer) is such a big deal here, that we will be ending our class a half hour early tonight so everyone can go home and cheer for Espana! Gotta love it! :)

Anyway, things are well. We have an awesome team and are having such a great time together. It is wonderful serving Christ and the church here in Sevilla together. God has been gracious in giving us energy, stamina, and unity throughout the week.

Thanks for praying for us, supporting us, and reading this blog! Be sure to post comments! We check(okay, mostly Jeff checks) the blog daily to see who has posted a comment.

Can't wait to see all of you, but we are having a great time here.

Love,Steph

Pictures from Day 2

To the left Alvaro (orange shirt) is practicing the English he has written with Aaron (white shirt). They are beginner level students in the morning classes. Clearly, Alvaro is much older than Aaron, but it's great that he's trying to learn.

Below Jason Ferrell is giving Aaron (a different one) hands on instruction about American Football (Tuesday we covered Sports). Many of those in the class had never seen one before. They passed the ball back & forth a few times. Stephanie Johnston who brought the football over gave it to Aaron as a gift.

To the right is a picture from Tuesday evening when we ate in the home of Josue, Rebeca and their family. We were joined by Pepe, Mari and Maria. (In the photo from left: Josue, Stephanie Johnston, Kelly Angell, Jason Ferrell, Jeff Laman, Julie Allen, Lynne Edmonds and Rebeca). Since Sports was one of the topics, we all wore shirts with our favorite teams logo.

English Camp Day 1 Continued

Here is how Julie Allen relieves some of the stress of leading as Lynne Edmonds looks on...

Things are going well. Monday night was great. Stephanie did a great job teaching the children basic English and said they picked up everything really quickly - she said they're like sponges. Pablo (Pepe's young son) invited his friends from school to the classes. I wish I had video of him showing his friends all around the church. He was so excited as he led them from room to room. They all had a great time learning together last night.

Julie taught some of the older basic students. Lynne and Kelly continue working with the intermediate students and having them interact with each other a great deal. Jason and I have had a great time conversing with the advanced students including Pepe's older son Danny and Marcos, a member of the executive team. (For those who know me apparently I talk too fast - Ha).

The advanced students know how to read and write English. They understand it really well, but they don't have a chance to practice it. Everyone is very eager to learn and practice.

Day 1

Hola hola!! Well, we had our first session this morning and everything went great!!! Lynne and Kelly had the intermediate group, Jeff and Jason had the advanced group (wow!!!) and I had the basic group. In all we had around 20 people today and many of them are not Christians and don't go to the church. This is a great way for them to connect with some members of the church and have a desire to come back. They were very interested in learning and all did very well. We have another session tonight. Stephanie and I are expecting about 18 in the basic, Lynne and Kelly about the same number they had this morning in the intermediate, and Jeff and Jason the same as well in the advanced. God showed up big time this morning and took away our nervousness and anxiety. We so enjoyed meeting these people, and teaching them some English.

Thanks so much for praying for us and those that are coming this week. Please continue to pray and please don't forget about Marcos, Pepe, Mari, Toni, Maribel, and Nono. They have all been a huge help to us and treat us like family here in Spain. We love you all and we'll be blogging and posting pictures very soon!! Les amamos!!! Julie