Our 2nd Anniversary!!!

Two years ago this morning we arrived in Madrid as new missionaries in Spain.  I still hardly knew the language and Rachel had a roller coaster of emotions about coming back to the land of her birth and childhood.  Since that day, a lot has changed for us.  We've lived in Córdoba and then moved to Alcora, here in eastern Spain.  I've learned the language...or, rather, I'm still learning the language.  We've gone from being the newest missionaries on the field to being somewhat new missionaries whom the more seasoned ones consult when they have questions about the newest arrivals.  We've gone from being missionaries purely in language acquisition and cultural adaptation to being church planters, even though I'm still perfecting the language and we're still observing and learning about the local culture here in Alcora.  Oh yeah, and we've gone from being a couple to being a family, with the addition of our precious Miriam Joy.

Thinking about this, I have two reflections.  First, God has been incredibly faithful to us in countless ways.  From finding apartments to rent to the details of moves and Miriam's birth and paperwork and ministry and faithful supporters who make it possible for us to do what we do, it is clear that our Lord has walked ahead of us, with us, and behind us with each step of our journey.   We are profoundly grateful for this.

Second, as we've talked about our journey lately, we feel like we've reached the end of the honeymoon stage of our transition from missionary candidates to missionaries.  The first year and a half here was chocked full of firsts and novelties:  new language and culture to learn, completing language school, the grand accomplishment of getting our drivers licenses, my first sermon in Spanish, new trips and places to see, moving to Alcora to begin a new ministry, becoming part of a new team, and becoming new parents.  Now there aren't quite so many "BIG" things to look forward to, and we are settling into a certain mundane, routine life living here in Alcora and discerning how we can best serve as Jesus' witnesses to the people of this pueblo.  And, quite honestly, there is something new and bewildering about this stage of the "mundane," so please pray that we will walk with the Lord closely as we continue our journey with Him during this third year of our life in Spain.

Miriam's 9 Months Old!!!

So we're celebrating that our little Miriam has now been living outside the womb longer than she lived inside it!  She's doing all sorts of new things like saying "Mama" and "Dada," crawling (still figuring out how to crawl on her knees instead of doing the army crawl), and trying to grab Daddy's cell phone to play with it whenever she can.  So here are a few of our favorite photos from the past few months, and you can see more HERE.

Alcora Prayer Update: the Economy

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor...(Luke 4:18)

As we mentioned in last month’s prayer update, the economy of Alcora is built on the ceramic tile industry, which has been hit hard by the economic crisis the Spain is still in.  Let me give you a clearer picture of what this looks like. 

The ceramic tile factories extend for miles around Alcora.

There are about 150 ceramic tile factories in and around Alcora, and about 5 years ago during the economic boom with all of the construction going on in Spain and around the world, there would be as many as 50,000 people working in Alcora (a town of 11,000) during the day.  Not only this, but the factories were working around the clock producing tiles and shipping them to all parts of the world.  People were moving here from all over Spain and even Europe to find work because there was plenty of it.  One of our acquaintances explained to us that there were so many jobs in the factories that if you didn’t like working in one, you simply went to another one without any trouble, and you would almost never think about working for lower wages in the supermarket.

Now almost anyone would love to work in the supermarket.  A neighbor upstairs who has been a director in one of the factories around here for quite some time told me that many factories that before had 1,000 or more employees are now down to 40 or 50, simply because there is little demand for the tiles right now.  There are literally thousands of palettes of tiles sitting in storage waiting for a buyer.  Our downstairs neighbor who’s been laid off for more than half a year told me that he’s put his resume in at about 60 factories in the area and has yet to hear anything back.  The latest statistics that I’ve found show that over 25% of the workforce in Alcora is unemployed, and 42% of those under 35 are unemployed.  The outlook is pessimistic as the economic forecasters say they don’t expect to see Spain begin to recover until 2012 or 2013.  Most people around here agree that the ceramic tile industry will never return to what it was just a few years ago.

One of the many factories with tiles stockpiled, waiting for a buyer.

In the midst of this gloomy economic situation, here are some points for prayer:

• That God will use this time of financial crisis for His glory, causing people here to look beyond themselves and materialism for provision, significance and true life. 
• That God will provide for the needs of Alcorinos. 
• That God will guide us in discerning how we can be a part of the previous point:  whether it’s delivering groceries for families in need, opening up a food pantry or a secondhand clothing center.

Thanks for praying with us for Alcora!

Christmas Cookies...

"Wise men still seek Him..."

Well, this post is a bit late, now that we're past the Christmas season, but we thought it was worth mentioning.  Given that we had been living in our apartment in Alcora for about 7 months around Christmas time and had yet to meet all of our neighbors, and since Christmas is a great time to mention Christ (though this is getting less and less common all over the Western world), we decided to make Christmas cookies and cards for our neighbors.  The responses were quite positive:

• Many neighbors were very surprised and appreciative:  surprised because it's not common to do thing in Spain (in fact, it never happens) and appreciative because, hey, who doesn't like cookies?
• A couple neighbors went from skeptical (who are you and why are you at my door?) to confused (you want to give me cookies?) to appreciative (I guess this is all right and, by the way, thanks for the cookies).
• One neighbor was clearly high from smoking marijuana...He was quite happy and appreciative (wreaking of pot).  We figured he and his buddies would be appreciative for something to cure the munchies.
• The neighbor directly below us said, "(Expletive!!!) I can't believe that you're doing this.  I mean, I've seen that Americans do this sort of thing in the movies, but I never expected that someone would actually come to my doors to give me cookies and a card!  Thanks so much...Wow, I just can't believe someone would think of others like this!"  Then he and his wife invited us in for coffee, and we spent half an hour or so getting to know them while the wife played with little Miriam.

So apart from giving the Christmas card with a brief but clearly Christ-centered message on it, we didn't "share the Gospel" directly with anyone.  But our neighbors now know who we are, we've formally met, and we can talk with them a little more comfortably when we pass in the hallways or on the elevator.  And this is the foundation for building deeper relationships with them in the future so that we can talk about the deeper things of life and faith.  And, by the way, they probably already know we're the strange evangelical Christian foreigners.