Promising News

On Tuesday of this week, we spoke with an official in the visa department at the Spanish Consulate in New York City, which was a minor miracle in itself (it can take several calls on several days before talking to live person at the Consulate). This official told us that she expects our visa to be approved within the next month! We are hoping that this is not a case of Spanish avoidance and procrastination ("mañana, mañana"--"tomorrow, tomorrow"), but it does give us promise that we will be able to get to Spain soon. So please pray for swift approval, as well as for our patience and spiritual growth as we continue to wait!

Hurry Up & Wait

We had a super-busy December, galavanting around the country (buckle up!), from Pennsylvania to Kentucky to Indiana to Colorado to New Mexico back to Colorado back to Indiana to Illinois to Missouri back to Illinois and Indiana to Ohio and now full-circle back to Pennsylvania, though in Lititz and not Myerstown. It was a very full time and such a great blessing to see family and friends, receive great training at MTI, and to see more family!

And now we wait...to receive a call...that says..."Come to New York and pick up your residency visas from the Spanish Consulate." We could receive that call tomorrow, or it could come in two months. It's out of our control, so we wait. Please pray with us that our visas come swiftly, and even more that we would not view this limbo time as a waste but as a great opportunity to catch our breath and prepare for the big leap we're about to take. We hurried through December, and now, in January 2009, we wait on Spain...more significantly, though, we wait on God as He guides us through this transition.

MTI, part 2

About a week ago we completed our training at MTI, and it proved to be an invaluable experience for us. Since our last update, we covered more significant areas of life and ministry in a cross cultural situation, including sabbath keeping, rest, understanding and dealing with different cultural worldviews, and how to say, "Goodbye," well (a surprisingly important aspect of missionary life). Our time at MTI closed with times of reflection, sharing about our respective future ministries, and prayer for each family present at the trainings. We formed what we believe will be some lifelong friendships (as you can see in the group photo above), and it's hard to believe that the training is over and it's the day after Christmas already! Here are some more photos of our time there:

Us with Hans & Jen Anderson during our time to share about Spain and to be prayed for.

Rachel role-playing in a skit about missionaries in a cross-cultural ethical dilemma.

B.J. with his growth group that met several times a week for Bible study, discussion, prayer, encouragement, and a lot of laughter.

We took a weekend excursion to Albuquerque, where we were able to visit the Myers family, who served as church planting missionaries in Spain with Rachel's family in the 80's and 90's.

MTI, part 1

We've hit the mid-point of our missions training at MTI (Mission Training International) here in Colorado. So what is a part of our training here at MTI? Here are a few things we've covered:

• Who We Are Under Stress (complete with an overseas hostage simulation)
• Conflict Resolution Styles
• Personal and Cultural Values
• Cultural Differences
• The Greatest Discipleship & Evangelism Tool: our love for one another as Christians (in families and other relationships)
• Self-Awareness (know who we are and where we're from as we enter our new culture)

God has been showing us tons about ourselves and who He is during our training. Below are a few photos from our time here at MTI:

Us with fellow ECMI missionary candidates to Spain, Hans & Jennifer Anderson (no relation)--it's been good getting to know each other better through this training.

Pikes Peak from a distance...

Pikes Peak at the summit, where the air is quite frigid and thin!

A beautiful view of the sunset that Rachel caught just outside of MTI.