Have you ever spent two months...

trying to convince people you know more about your own country then they do? Or that americans are nto all they are chalked up to be?

We spend so much time showing people we are not ALL lazy, fat, ignorant, proud, rich, hillbillies. We actaully cleaned our house 3 times so the land lady wouldn´t think we were dirty. Don´t get me wrong, I mock America as much as the next person. I couldn´t be more thankful my American passport gets me into every country but cuba. There is a point where what is done by the LOUD minority, becomes the thought of the majority. I am not fat, I am not lazy, I am definately noy ignorant (even less since I left my american bubble)I might be a little proud and I live in the suburbs, but I still don´t have much money to spare. There was a point during the last 5 months, when I realized how much I love my country, despite it´s flaws. and there was a point when I defended it.

Now I am at the point when I am stopping. Because I am not an american. I am a Christian. it doesn´t matter whether if I vote for McCain or Obama, because I will serve God above whichever one wins (though I dont think God is a republican...or a democrat). America may have messed up everyone´s economy, but the truth is my money is God´s. Where he wants it is will go. The point is, this trip may have started as getting out of my American Bubble (and trust me, it exists) or helping the poor ex-communists, but in the end, it has helped me realize, that God really does turn everything upside down. and I couldn´t be more thankful that he wrecked my life.

Everything email I send very well may have

"17 days" written somewhere in it.

I am afraid I am still absolutely horrible at this posting blogs buisness. and at that, this may be the last. hopefully only second to last (If I remember there will be a conclusion when I get home)

We are doign everythign we can to finish strong, and I think we may just accomplish that. I am in the process of planning a party for everyone we have met over these last two months, and being we are missionaries, there is of course not enough money. But who needs food when you´ve got good company?

Sam and I are teaching the youth group again this week, this time on "Faith".

Those are just basic updates though. Which no one really wants to know. I am sure you are all (by all I mean all 5 of you) are reading this to hear what is happening inside this mind of mine/ what progress we have made in Spain.

Well, as I stated early one (you know, my last blog) we may have seen very little progress. Our homeless ministry has been going great (we walk around town, asking people if they are hungry, if they are, we feed them, this usually leads into lovely conversation and being told how pretty we are many times over.) We are getting some great stories. And I am not sure you all know, but I LOVE having great stories to tell. Our "regulars" consist of: Jatsin and his dog shadow, whom we gave a tennis ball to; Juan, the elderly portugese man; The Men, whose names we are unsure of, but there is never a lack of entertainment with that group, being as they think we are lovely, and are generally stunned we wander into alleys and feed people; And susanna, who has never been in the same place twice, but Tracy (my feeding partner) runs into to her at least once a week(I think God may have a finger in that game...)

I had an incredible time prayer walking down at the port (the part of town with all the prostitutes) There isnt much we can do except pray. frustrating, yes. effective, yes.

Our English classes have also grown! We started with no one, then we moved to 1 then 3 then this week was four! Which may not sound big, but its a great opportunity to talk with people. Though, lieing in couch last night (yes, I sleep on a couch), still smelling like smoke and beer, I had to stop and wonder what kind of christians hang out in bars all night, swaping stories stories with homeless men from cambia. "The kind who obey" I could hear the gentle Whisper say. Oh... I guess that works then.

The Lord is good, and he has a plan for every foolish act he sends us to do (this includeds the time we swept the bull ring, yes, because "Gid said so"...oh they must have thought we were a cult) I have got some other things to say, but I am going to make a new blog for them. so until then...

Well, where on earth to begin

there will be about a thousand typos in this because the keyboards are in arabic.


I am not sure what to say or where to ebgin or how on earth anyone expects us to, after 3 months of physical, emotional and spiritual exhuastion to adapt to a new culture. but that isok.Spain is exiciting,and beautiful, and asfor missions work....well to our utter shock God has handed us a country in which therewill be no brining people to Christ on the streets. Truth be,we maynot see a single person come to Christ. We are here trying to support 2 churches who will spend years (some have already) redeeming people´s concept of God. If I ever thought I neededto learn MORE about churches plants, I have come to the right place!

So as youmay remember, Spain is a catholic country...well, it was. Now, if you are under40, chances are you live a life of partying, violently opposed to Catholisicm.... which is the group to which all christians are sent. Evangelism takes friendship.You see,aswe learned durin ourweek on evangelism, you can´t feed people unlesstheyare hungry. The people of spain won´t stop long enough to realizethey arestarving. We need to get them questioning. To get them hungry. Thatwould be this week´s major prayer request. That good would give us strategies to make people hungry for him. Ok, I paying ot write thi sblog so i am gonna go. Hope this gave some insight,if only a little into what we are up to.

Packing fun!

We leave Tuesday, at noon....for Valencia! We are off to Spain. YAY! and we are excited! That leaves 60 very full days before we get home. I am still not sure whether that excites or saddens me. But I have got two months to find out. So, I bet you would like to know what we will be up to in Valencia, other than sun bathing (oh yes, days off are so being spent at the beach. but don't feel to bad, we only get 7 days off. great intro to life in ministry, ah?) There are two churches we are connected with at the moment.

One is a Spanish Vineyard Church, it is quite small with 8 people. All spanish. Thy are doing some cool stuff, like feeding the homeless and beach minstries. They are trying to reach out to valencia's youth, because, well, they are youth! At 17, I am the median age of the church and with 6 people on our team were doubling them! We hope to encourage their young congregation, by teaching them about worship and running some sunday nights services. It sounds like they are a very talented group. we are very excited to be with them and polish up our spanish.

The other is an older church (by older, I mean the oldest person in maybe 40 instead of 26) They are english, as in from egland. It's a Frontier International Church. So the congregation should be quite mixed of different nationalites. Making us feel quite at home! We will be doing some street outreach a week after we get there with them. As well as running some Alpha courses, which are for baby christians or people just interested in learing more about the bible. be praying for big results there. Past that, we are not totally sure. We are going as God leads. Listening to His voice, praying alot, and sharing his love with everyone we meet. Whether we tell them about Him, or simply exemplify Him.

While we are there, I am in charge of translation. katie and sam also know spanish. so you can also be praying for us that the langauge comes easily. you can also pray for some divine appointments to really get to share our faith. We really want to double these churches, not just by us being there. We want the churches to grow. Thank you for all your support! And patience. I will try and make a point of writing blogs on mondays (our day off) but if I miss a day, you'll have to count on waiting another week. Thats just how it works, cause we have to go all the way into town (we are staying in a village about 20 minutes out by public transit). Thanks guys! talk to you NEXT monday!

Face to Face with Romania

I could spend days explaining to you in detail everything that was fermented in my heart and soul over the last few hours. The emotions rushing through me, the feeling of finally getting a heart for the country I must leave in 3 days. This might take a while, so you better prepare yourself, do some stretches or something cause you are about to do a lot of reading.

We walked on the bus exhausted. ready to get some serious shut-eye. But alas, that was not the destiny of this ride. A few minutes after getting on the bus, a group of several drunk gypsy/Hungarian men arrived and began "talking" to us. They yelled at us leave their seats (we knew they were drunk because when we sat down there were beers cans crushed on the seats.

As the Hungarian man spoke, we picked up on a few things. He asked us why we were in Romania. I told him, using my very small amount of Romanian, that we are in bible school. To the best of our knowledge, He began speaking about God. He told us how he is a drunk, but God loves Him. That God loves all of us. It was quite odd to see the denial in each of the men. They were all telling us about how the others were crazy drunks, each with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. Except for the Hungarian. He stopped drinking. He wouldn't take the whiskey from his gypsy "friend" and he no longer wanted to drink and smoke with the rest. He may have been convicted. I like to believe God used what little communication we had to reach the man. I have faith in it. Something interesting I have learned here, I do not need words to reach them. I just need God.
When everything "calmed down" a bit. I had sometime to look around, and the Lord opened my eyes to the world I have been living in for the past 3 months. There was an 18 year old girl and what must have been a 35 year old man kissing behind us. Sad, but very Romanian. Many young girls marry and date older men here, because it is safe. The man has money, and that is what they are convinced will fix things, money. But with Money, they are going off and buying alcohol. at young ages. There was a boy sitting in front of us, must of been my age, a little older, taking slugs of the whiskey. His face was damaged and his arms scarred. I could not tell you what had happened. But he was associating with the Hungarian men, which means he may have grown up among them. Maybe it was his parents. That so often happens here with the poor. Parents maiming their children, because pity brings in more money when they beg. Next to the convicted Hungarian man sat a drunk gypsy. On his arms I saw another type of scar. It was a tattoo. A series of numbers and letters. Just like from the concentration camps in Germany. But these were from his own country, these were from a Romanian concentration camp during the communism. I could have cried right there. My stomach ached with pity and disgust. My mind raced with Questions.

"God, how could this happen?"
"Lord, why are you showing me now?"
"Father, what could I do? What can I do?"
"Jesus, why are you giving me the heart for these people I have been praying for for months, 3 days before I leave?"
"Is there hope?"

The answers were never quite revealed, but in God's incredible way, He showed me. Just because a country is no longer in war, or in poverty, does not make it saved, the work is never done. There is a way of thinking that must be changed to His own. A hopelessness to be overcame.

Before my mind could stop racing I heard a scream a few rows in front of me. "NO!" as Mary slapped the man's hand. He was attempting to kiss her hand. But as a Romanian man would, he simply grabbed instead of requesting. All the drunks had been quite touchy, but being as this is Romanian culture we dismissed it politely. Mary was not so understanding. Unfortunately, this is quite disrespectful and the man took great offense. We pleaded with Mary to simply allow it, but she refused (understandably). As he heard us speaking with her, he came up to us. As a signal of respect and friendship, he kissed our elbows. Yes, our elbows...actually, he came back later and did it again. Exhausted and shocked, we bust into laughter. A small relief, as awkward as it was. Things never seem to calm down around here. EVER.
See, Romania is shocking. i could learn everything about the country and its colorful past, and it's people will always manage to surprise me.

I ask that you pray against the spirit of hopelessness in Romania. That people would know there is hope, and His name is Christ.

The Vision of 24-7 Prayer

It's random I guess, but I think it the best possible way to describe how we feel and who we are becoming. I DID NOT write this. sorry guys. it was written by the founder of the organizations 24-7 prayer

"The Vision

So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this…
The vision?

The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn't even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
What is the vision ?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers

choose to loose
that they might one day win
the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"

And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays

like a dying man
with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and
with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive

inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,

they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don't you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

Oh, the joys of Worship

And I am not even being sarcastic.

I also decided to mix my fonts up....

So what have we been up to ya'll ask (via our parents of course)?

Well, let us see... We have worship 3x a week, intercession 3x a week... we have lecture 5x a week by a variety of speakers who are specialists on whatever their subject may be (this week is World View, last week was worship) And I am shocked at the wealth of knowledge they have, people who have been living off support for 20+ years.... it seems insane. But so goes the life of a missionary I suppose. We have been learning a lot. And I am not saying that lightly. It is so much to try and process. Something cool I noticed today though is how God has been preparing me for the lecture before hand. Speaking to me about things that we wind up talking about in Lecture the next week. Which is some awesome confirmation of hearing his Voice... which is one of the goals both Sam and I have for this trip. 

We still don't know where we are going for Outreach, so you can all be praying for guidance as to where God wants us. You can also be praying for the Nigerian Men who are having their Visas RE-PROCESSED so they can come on staff here. 

We have limited amounts of time, and the time we do is spent having fun or doing homework... So I apologize in advance if there is not another one of these up for a bit. I am sure by the time there is we will have some great stuff to share. Hope you are all having a blessed summer...

One month in... Only 4 1/2 to go...