Granada

Hey all! I’m so sorry that it took so long to update this blog! They have kept us very busy with lots of orientation classes and other excursions. Anyway, we arrived safely in Granada after over 30 hours of travelling and sleeping! We got here on Friday night and our orientation didn’t start until Sunday, so we had a while to get adjusted to Granada and Spanish culture before moving in with our host families. We received many strange looks when we tried to have supper at 6pm. Spaniards normally have three meals a day at around 10, 2 and 9. Many of the stores are closed from 2-5 for the siesta time. Everything is going great here. I love speaking Spanish and being surrounded by the language. I am learning a lot, but am humbled by how much I have to learn. I am struggling the most with understanding the natives because they talk so fast and have a different accent than I’m used to, but I am learning. A few of my favorite experiences so far: 1. We went out for tapas (you buy a drink and get a free plate of appetizers). Afterwards we were just walking around looking for something else to do when I saw a poster that advertised free dancing lessons, so we went inside the building and asked the owner about the lessons. This was at 2:00am, and he called the dance professor and he came to the bar and taught us how to salsa and meringue. It was so much fun! 2. On Sunday, we took a bus in the morning to Nerja, a beautiful beach about 2 hours from Granada. We had a great day of adventure – I even jumped off a huge rock into the sea, about 15 feet! After relaxing on the beach and having supper, we made our way to the bus station where the bus was supposed to leave at 9:00pm. Well we soon found out that the last bus to Granada had already left – they use military time here, and we had translated 19:00 to 9:00pm. We will never make that mistake again! So we spent the entire night on the beach! It was quite an adventure to remember. There are so many more things I could write, but the café is closing. Hope to hear from you and hope all is well! I'll be leaving this Saturday for Madrid, London, and Dublin, so I'll be gone for a whole week! Pray for safety, and I promise an update afterwards!

Leaving Cali

The California Adventures are coming to an end! Our last week was amazing! Vacation Bible School at Emmanuel is the biggest and grandest kids’ event I’ve ever been a part of. There were over 300 kids each day, and it takes the entire church to be involved, including over 100 volunteers and many of the pastors and staff. I was the 2nd grade storyteller, which meant that I told a Bible story to 3 groups of 2nd graders, about 20 kids each. It was a struggle, especially because the kids often seemed like they weren’t paying attention, but we reviewed each day about the previous stories, and they could remember, so that was especially encouraging. And it was all worth it because on the last day, I prayed with each of the kids individually and gave them the choice to ask for a blessing or to ask Jesus into their heart, and ten kids accepted Jesus on Friday! Wow, that was so exciting. It is hard working with kids because you don’t always see the fruit of your labor, but I guess I just need to leave the rest to God. We also had some visitors from Central, so it was wonderful to enjoy fellowship with them. I can’t believe that today is our last day here, and I’ve already had to say goodbye to so many people. It is all bittersweet, though. I’ve had such a great experience here in California, but I’m also very excited to come home and see my family and friends. So I guess that this is goodbye via blogger for now. I will start up in about a month, though when I am in Spain for the fall. Thanks for reading these blogs and supporting me. I hope to talk to you in person soon!

Day Camp done, VBS this week!

Day camp finished this week and we have only one more week here. I can’t believe it. I feel like I sound like a broken record, but the time is really going very quickly, especially the last few weeks because I’ve had so much fun. Day camp finished well with a field trip to Riley’s farm. It was a two hour drive each way, but the kids enjoyed the colonial farm. They learned how to weave, do calligraphy, make candles, and learned proper etiquette. Goodbyes were tough, too, but most of the kids will be attending our Vacation Bible School this week! We are so thankful for that because we love these kids so much and want to teach them about Jesus, and now they will be able to learn about Him at VBS! I decorated my room today – they go all out here, and it took us about 4 hours to finish it! I worked on the mural, and I’m especially proud of the trees. VBS runs this week from 8:30-noon, and then they offer an aftercare program from noon-3 that Jill and I, along with our new friends Hannah and Luke, will be working aftercare. So pray for VBS this week at Emmanuel and that the kids would have a good time and that Jesus would transform their lives.

Week 3 of Day Camp

Three weeks of day camp down, one more to go. And then one week of VBS, and then we will be done! The time goes quickly, but it’s been a fun and busy week! Day Camp was fun this week – we went on a field trip to the Orange County Fair with all the kids! It was a little crazy, but still a lot of fun, and I got to ride the carousel and the big slide! On Friday, we had Water Day and then a bunch of us went to a Dodger’s game! It was my first professional sports game, so it was really exciting. Saturday, we had the Compton Work Day where about 1000 volunteers from local churches unite and work at various sites in Compton. About 250 of us went to an elementary school and painted all the outside walls as well as a beautiful solar system mural inside a large room. It is amazing how fast work can get done when there are so many working together. Overall, we had a great week, especially getting to know more people from the church. Plus, our friend Rachel came to visit us from Wednesday and is leaving tomorrow morning. It was fun to have her join us! I hope all is well, and I’d love to hear from all of you!

Week 2 of Day Camp

Week two has gone by quickly and it has been getting even hotter! Everything went well, though. It is fun getting to know the kids more and I think that I am up to knowing about 50% of their names. They can be challenging sometimes, but not unbearable for us. We have gotten to know and hang out with some day camp staff this week. They are a lot of fun and a great community for us here. The picture is at a restaurant called BJ's where we went on Thursday before all going to Connect. Our host family was gone the whole week, so we also got to practice our cooking skills, which was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to this week, but I am also very stressed out about finishing my schoolwork. I have a few hundred pages to read and about 25 pages to write, so I am trying not to freak out and just get it done. Just pray for strength and energy to work on it even after a long day at day camp.

We also had a great study on Monday over Mark 4. We talked and struggled a lot with verse 12 which says that Jesus teaches in parables: “so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!” We wondered why Jesus would not want all people to hear his truth, but we realized that Jesus wants to teach those who desire to be taught. He did not want to give his teachings to those who would not accept it or who would destroy it (giving pearls to swine). Instead, he taught the disciples the meaning of the parable when they came to him and asked. Jesus wants us to pursue him! It is then that He will teach us so that we can understand, and his teaching will change our lives!

Day Camp Week 1

Wow, the first week of Day Camp is over already, and we are also half way done with our two months in Cali! The kids are fairly well behaved, and they have loved our games so far! Some of the highlights from the games this week – freeze dance, the Macarena, Twister, Chubby Bunny, and Water Day! I love spending time with the kids and getting to know them. Even though we cannot teach them about Jesus in the classrooms, we pray that we can point them to Jesus in the way that we love them. Besides day camp, we have had a blessed week, spending a little time at the beach and getting together with other believers at our two gatherings. I learned that prayer isn’t something that Jesus commanded, but expected. We should pray out of necessity and a deep desire in our hearts; as a response to our lives in this world, we need God’s help. Grace and peace.

Week 3 --

Wow, time has flown! I can’t believe that we have been here for three weeks already. We had a pretty busy week – we had four long days of work, full of organizing supplies for day camp and painting a few rooms that will be used for day camp. We also saw some fireworks on the beach! Day camp starts tomorrow! I’m excited to meet the kids that we will be working with. The day camp is a unique opportunity – the people in charge work both for Emmanuel Reformed Church and the Paramount Care Foundation which is a government-run organization, so while we cannot teach any Bible stories, we can encourage them to come back for the church’s ministries, like VBS held the week after day camp. Pray for us this week as we start day camp, and let me know how I can pray for you!