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| So...there are 3 "major" events happening in my life this week.
(1) I'm moving, which is turning out to be somewhat of an ordeal. From finding a decent size moving truck, to hoping that the gas (to heat the water and for the stove) will be repaired in time, to trying to find a day when everything we're getting from IKEA is actually in stock, so we can pay one small price for it to be deliverd, and that we'll be fully moved by Friday, when I need to give my keys to my former landlord. Please pray that everything will go smoothly.
(2) Katie & Bekah, the other STINT girls arrive - Katie on Friday and Bekah tomorrow. This is GREAT news!
(3) Classes start this week and next on campus, which means our lives go into overdrive. I'm super excited! This is probably my favorite time of the year. (see the pic below of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid - the largest campus in Madrid, with about 200,000 students!)
All this to say, life is a bit crazy right now. I am definitely seeing my need to cling to Jesus and I'm definitely seeing myself get stressed out now and then with details or frustrations, etc., As I've been reading Joshua & Exodus, I've been reminded of how BIG and MIGHTY God is, along with how compassionate and gracious He is. I've also been reminded of my quickness, like Israel when Moses was leading them out of Egypt (in Exodus), to become anxious and to question God's provision. By God's grace, I think I'm learning some patience, to trust HIM and, God-willing, being made more in His likeness. I love the passages that say "Be strong and courageous! Do not be anxious or dismayed for the Lord thy God is with you." and also when Moses talks to Israel after the Passover and when they see the Egyptians coming after them and say something to the effect of "why didn't you just let us stay in Egypt instead of bringing us here to die?" They are IN THE MIDST of being delivered from Pharaoh and not more than a day has passed since they had left and at the closest sign of danger, they fear. Moses then says, "God is going to show up. He is in fact going to do some amazing things! Just sit back and wait. All you need to do is be still (and trust me)." Amazing. This is my prayer - that I would trust Jesus in the midst of the craziness of life, that I would let HIM be God and that I would be still, that I would be bold and courageous, trusting in His power and might not my own. ;) | | |
| This week has been a whirlwind. Jessica arrived Monday afternoon, we've been intensely apartment shopping, we signed for a piso (apartment) and paid a bunch of money, we walked ALL over Madrid, we've figured out how we're decorating, and we've been praying for our new roommates to come.
(1) Here is a map of where we are. We live (or will soon) right be San Bernardo metro stop, just about smack dab in the center, on the brown or 4 line. I used to live at Avenida de America on the northeast edge of Madrid.
![metro[1]map](http://x2c.xanga.com/225d251376d3979689867/l54190947.jpg)
I'll post pictures of my piso after we move in 2 weeks. In the meantime they are painting. But to describe my place... :) It's fabulous! So you walk in, there is a littel foyer, then there are two bedrooms on the right, where Katie, Bekah, and Jessica will live. Then you turn left and walk down the hall for a little ways to find the kitchen on your left right next to a half bath. The next room on the left is a full sized bathroom that is HUGE by Madrid apartment standards and it is a fun 1940s green, kind of foam green. You then turn a corner to the left and find a triangular closet on the right you could walk in, the HUGE (by Madrid standards) living room and dining room, which are surprisingly 2 rooms. I might also add that this room, or rooms, have one full wall of windows, which are beautiful! and which face the outside world :) We're on the 3rd floor so we have a good ammount of light and a nice view. So, now if you go back to the hallway and finish walking straight, you end up in my oddly shaped room, which is between a trapizoid and a rectangle with 2 curved corners and 1 wall that is a bit diagonal.
So that's my new home. I'll add a picture, just because I can, but it will be better once you can get the full effect with our stuff in it :)
(2) Here is a picture of the STINT team this year:
They are Bekah, Jessica, and Katie. I'm so excited to have them both on my team and my roommates for the year.
(3) So, with my staff team composed of people from all the different ministries with Agape in Madrid, we built a tower of balloons as a teamwork exercise. The goal was to build a tall, sturdy, and pretty tower. Well, we did that and the balloons went from the ground to the ceiling. But the problem is that the room we did it in is my living room and I live in an apartment and don't want to make a TON of noise by popping 100 or so balloons. The balloons are FULL, so it's hard to puncture them without popping them. AND there are just so many of them. Here is our tower and, more importantly, our team. ;)
And this weekend we're going to have a little retreat with all of us on this team to bond, seek the Lord, and plan for the year. We're going to one of the couple's houses in a little pueblo in the mountains outside of Madrid. It is definitely out in the country compared to Madrid. | | |
|  Chicago, the windy city, and in August the steamy hot city. So, about a week ago I got a call from the Spanish consulate to say that my visa was ready to pick up.
This is amazing on two counts, one because this is the Spanish consulate, the land where things don’t necessarily happen as quickly or as they “should.” But in this case they did, two months after applying for a visa, I was able to pick it up. Praise the Lord! It’s definitely been something on my mind.
So, up on Monday and back on Wednesday (today). Trains, metros, city living, lots of people, Spanish while not the first language, definitely the second. It feels much like Madrid to me. In fact, after coming out of the subway at one point, I honestly felt like I had time warped back to Madrid. I guess you could say I’m a bit homesick and ready to be back at a home, a city that has become mine. | | |
| So, the past few days, as I’ve spent time with God journaling and reading the Bible and praying, I continue to come back to the question, which has a lot of emotion behind it: Lord, why don’t you make all people see you and understand the Gospel? Why must all these people I walk around and order coffee from and live around, why don’t they see? Why have I tasted the sweetness of the Gospel, of being saved by another, when they haven’t, at least not yet? And, why aren’t people quicker to hear? There may be curiosity and there are some who hear the Gospel and immediately believe, but at times it seems that culture and man’s abuses of using the name of God for evil have put big barriers up, at least that’s the way it seems to me.
Now I can’t say that I’ve figured it all out, but I can share how the Lord has met me in this. First of all, I’ve been reading through the book of Acts in the Bible. It talks of the early church. There I see God reveal himself again and again through common men and women of that time – people who had experienced Jesus in their own lives and are quick and very outspoken in word and action.
Secondly, the Lord continues to bring to mind passages in the book of Romans, remembering that in chapter one, it says that the Gospel is “the power of God for salvation for all who believe” by faith. What I’ve continued to read and mull over has been Romans, chapter 9 and 10, where Paul shares the same sentiment with me. He says:
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit – that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh…”
He then goes on to talk about God being God and, thus, although we may not understand it, we’re the created one not the creator. God can do what he wants (which is only comforting because I know his character and know that he is trustworthy and for sure the source of all goodness). But then, at the end of chapter 9, he begins to talk about God’s compassion and mercy and the fact that the only way one can be saved is not through trying to be good, but instead through faith in Jesus Christ.
Then in chapter ten, this is what I love, is says this:
“ ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
What I love about this is that it is for EVERYONE who believes. It is NEAR. And it isn’t about what we do or don’t do. It is based on God’s goodness and us just trusting in Him to carry us. And even more, it talks about God revealing himself even to those who did not seek him nor ask for him. I may not fully understand God’s ways, but He is making people whole and new. In fact, I read Acts 8 and 9 where Paul’s conversion is recounted. Paul, who persecuted the followers of Christ in his day and age, was not even too far away from God, or too much an enemy of God, that he couldn’t be saved. Nope, the Lord revealed himself to Paul and God empowered Paul to tell many about his love and way of salvation. J | | |
|  “When I was a boy, my first impression of America was a man walking on the moon – Neil Armstrong, 1969. And I thought, ‘These Americans are mad! They are mad.’ For I thought, ‘What can this country do? What can these people do if they put their mind to it? It’s incredible.’
John F. Kennedy is the one in 1963… he said, ‘By the end of the decade, we’re going to put a man on the moon.’ Well… it’s not because it was on everyone’s mind. It just was the right thing to do and it was…
It’s what we’re asking now. President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and all the other world leaders to do. We’re asking them to do something extraordinary… not put a man on the moon, more like put mankind back on Earth.
We have the technology. We have the resources. We have the know-how… to end the extreme poverty… if we have the will… and I believe we have the will.
Others, you know, the other civil rights movement. Others ended apartheid. Others tore back the iron curtain. That’s what this generation… that’s what’s up to us… our moon shot… our putting a man on the moon – we’re going to end extreme poverty. We’re going to make poverty history. That’s what’s fallen to us to do. And I believe that’s not an impossible venture.
I believe in 50 years, when I look back on this moment,… and they’ll say, ‘there were some people at a time who said:
It’s not okay to have a child die for a lack of a 20 cent immunization.
It’s not okay to have a child die for lack of food in his belly in the 21st century.
That’s not okay anymore.’
Now I now that you know that. But I’d like you to tell President Bush that, Prime Minister Blair that and any other politician you see that. And you can do it quite easily. So… we’re looking for a million Americans to e-mail us to join the ONE campaign, not looking for your money; looking for your voice.”
Bono, Vertigo Tour, 9 & 10 May 2005 – Chicago, IL – prior to singing “One”
“One” – by U2
Is it getting better, or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you now
You’ve got someone to blame
You say...
One love, One life
When it's one need in the night
One love, we get to share it
Leaves you, darling, if you don't care for it
Did I disappoint you, leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you never had love, and you want me to go without
Well it's...
It’s too late… tonight… to drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other
Carry each other
One...
Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head?
Did I ask too much?
More than a lot?
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got.
We're one, but we're not the same
Well we, hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say…
Love is a temple
Love, a higher law
Love is a temple
Love, the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love, One blood
One life
You get to do what you should
One life… with each other
Sisters and brothers
One life, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other
Carry each other
One love
One
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