A Thanksgiving to Remember!

This year Thanksgiving was a special time for us as God provided for us to go home to the States for the first time since we moved to Spain in May 2009.  So we nervously boarded a plane in Madrid with our 5 month old Miriam, uncertain of how she would handle the flight and the 7 hour time difference, and two flights and 14 hours later, we landed in St. Louis.  A two and a half hour drive later (the following morning) we found ourselves at Grammie & Papa's house (B.J.'s parents, now known by their grandparent aliases), lost in the hills of Missouri.

It was a huge blessing to be together with my family for the first time in two years (about 20 people for Thanksgiving dinner in a house...not made for 20 people), and it marked the first time since our wedding over 8 years ago that my immediate family (parents, two sisters and myself) had all been together.  But, of course, the star of the show was not me, or Rachel, but little Miriam, who everyone had to touch and hold and goo and gaa over...and why not?  She is the newest addition to the family and the cutest little baby I've ever seen.  (We're learning that not being the center of attention isn't all that bad and actually gives us a chance to go take a nap.)

On a personal note, this trip was valuable for us on various levels.  Of course it was so special to really be together with family again (Skype can only do so much), though the good-byes were more emotionally taxing on me than I expected.  And it was good to eat Pop-tarts and Frosted Mini-Wheats and drink Dr. Pepper again (all things we can't find here).  But even so, God revealed to us something of deep value:  our life is not in the U.S. anymore.  It is here in Spain where we belong, and this is God's will for us.  What a refreshing confirmation and reaffirmation to have a year and a half after the big move.

P.S.  Miriam did incredibly well with the flights, sleeping most of the time.  Adjusting to the time difference after returning home was a different story, though...but we're all recovered and back to normal now!

First Spanish Youth Retreat

Honestly, I was a bit reluctant to accept the invitation.  Mostly out of my own insecurity about my ability to speak and communicate well in Spanish...make that entirely out of my own sense of insecurity about it.  I've only lived here in Spain for a year and a half and have been speaking (or stumbling through) Spanish for the same, so how could I possibly communicate Scriptural, spiritual truth relevantly to Spanish teenagers?  Sure, I was a youth pastor for five years in the States, but I still haven't had much opportunity to get into the world of adolescents in here.  Even so, at the urging of a fellow missionary, as well as my wife, in mid-September I accepted the invitation to give a couple of messages at a youth retreat the first weekend in November.

So how did it go?  I learned once again that God shows up in our weaknesses and uses us when we simply say "YES" to simple invitations to be His messengers.  That's not to say it wasn't a lot of work on my part in preparation and having poor Rachel correct my still-shaky Spanish.  But God used me to connect His truth with teenagers, even in spite of my lack of vocabulary and questionable grammar.  More than one leader told me, "You have a real way of connecting with youth," and even several teens told me, "I really connected with your talks."  It turns out that Spanish teenagers (at least this group) aren't all that different from their American counterparts:  they're open to God, and they need to hear the truth presented directly and vulnerably, even if that means sharing our own questions and failures with them.  So God is good, He is faithful, and He uses weak, imperfect, cracked jars of clay.  Lesson learned, once again...

A Visit to Alcora

Here's a little homemade video (about 8 minutes in length) that should give you a taste of our life here in Alcora.  We originally made it for a children's missions event...Hope you enjoy it!

All Saints' Day in Alcora

Last night we were unexpectedly reminded of the season (and the American commercialism) as a group of four boys knocked at our door and greeted us with the traditional "¡Truco o trato!" or "Trick or treat!" as we say in the States.  This imported "holiday" of Halloween is still pretty new to Spain and has yet to oust the traditional holiday of All Saints' Day (El Día de Todos los Santos).  Today is a holiday, so this morning we decided to go on a little field trip to participate in the culture a bit.

So where do you go to celebrate All Saints' Day in Spain?  To the cemetery...which isn't as creepy or weird as it sounds, especially given that we went around 1 p.m. and there were quite a number of people, young and old, paying their respects to their lost loved ones.  It was interesting to overhear people saying things like, "Oh, I remember him.  He was the brother of the butcher where my grandmother would always go to get meat." A vast majority of the graves (they're almost all above ground, so I'm not sure if that's the adequate word) were adorned with flowers from loved ones and a handful had notes of "I love and miss you" or "You won't be forgotten."

The truth is that I kind of like this holiday.  Praying to the dead or for the dead to leave purgatory and get into heaven, of course, is not Biblical, and I'm sure of how many people in Alcora actually do that.  But to a certain degree I find it healthy to revisit the people we've lost, to remember the past.  In remembering those who have gone before us, as followers of Christ, we are reminded of the hope we have for the future and the reality that death in this world does not have the final word.  Just at the entrance of the cemetery is this cross with the inscription in Valenciano that reads, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." May this truth, this hope be evident through our lives, and may Alcorinos come to know and experience Jesus, who is the source of that hope, indeed the Resurrection and the Life.