Big Birthday Bash, from My Good, Good God.

OK! So let me tell you a little story about the best birthday ever. I asked God to give me a little gift but wasn't sure what it would be, and I wasn't sure that it would happen. I got home from working at the social work store/thrift shop when I went to lunch and I saw that they made me some pretty awesome cards. Ana gave me a scarf, and they made me a cake. Most of this, except the scarf, wasn't a surprise as it seems to be tradition here, even though they keep it on the "DL". Then I went, took a birthday nap, we rehearsed our puppet show and our dances and went to bible study. After Bible study, the girls all took me out for a Cappuccino  Keep in mind this was at like 10:00 at night. When we got back, I look in the kitchen and saw that the dinner table was all set, and I had no idea why because we never eat dinner together. Then they say, someone from church made dinner for you! When I look in the pot, I saw the yummiest lentels ever! Then they showed me pudding and a card that said "God bless you always, you're the sweetest girl I know. Love, Rocio." That rocked my world because God answered my prayer, and I didn't really expect Him to. I mean, I thought that the lunch and cake and coffee were enough!! But dinner and a card and cake is probably the best thing in the world. GOD IS SO STINKIN' GOOD! SERIOUSLY! This is 100% proof!

Thank you all so much for the greetings, for the presents, the cakes, and the dinners. Thank you, God, for your blessings that I don't deserve! Wow. Just, wow. I'm in shock, I'm humbled, and I give all the glory to GOD!

"Surprise" birthday cards. 

Birthday cake! Thanks Eli. It was delish.

Surprise birthday dinner. No, really. HUGE surprise!

Birthday pudding! 

These girls took me out for coffee before dinner. Love them so much.

Above All...

"ABOVE ALL, SPAIN." That's what this sign on a Spanish navy ship said. I loved it because these people in the service who defend their country, who work to protect it, and do so much more, always have Spain as their priority. It reminded me of what we should do as Christians ~ especially missionaries. A lot of the time we forget who we're working for. As missionaries we often focus on our work, and making sure that we get non-Christians at the church meetings, kids at the kids clubs, and making sure that our messages are super deep and spiritual. Though none of that is bad, we forget why we do what we do. So for me, it's not "Above all, preach" or "Above all, evangelize" or "Above all, Spain, or Colombia, or USA", it's "Above all, GOD." He should be and is my focus. What's yours?

An hour and a half away from our town is another, more touristy town called Ribadeo. It's a beautiful, quaint little town that is so typically Spanish. Because we had to return our borrowed van on Monday, we took advantage of it last week and drove down to this town. The main reason we went down was so that we could get permission to do programs on the streets and in the parks during our campaign there, but, so typical to the missionary's life, the office was closed for a week. So we went to key spots where we hope to do the programs and prayed there, then we went and got a coffee and enjoyed ourselves. Much of what we're doing this month and last month is to prepare us for that week that we will be staying there and doing the campaign. We will go to a camping ground with a lot of the church here and sleep there. We will also be joined by 11 or 12 other people from a Transform team who will be hiking with us on the Camino to Santiago. 

On Wednesday we went back to the puppet stage (finally). Interestingly, we spent about an hour trying to find a way to make it work. Finally we figured out a way and went to work. I think we spent about 3 hours working hard, figuring out numbers and such, but because I don't have the mind of an engineer, I had no idea what to do except what I was told. We finished it, glued it together, marked it so we could know where things go and presto. This is what you get. We realize it's not the best puppet stage in the world, but I am personally proud because we actually made it. At the end, we were so tired. I'm pretty sure we all slept really well that night.

I wanted to thank you all for praying for personal growth, and for growth of the team. God is really working in my personal heart, teaching me, breaking me, and showing Himself to me. On Sunday Oli and I both had to give our testimonies and we were both nervous. I was struggling with the truths that I had written in my testimony. I talked about being God's daughter and belonging to Him, but for some reason I was struggling with believing it; even though I knew it was true. Since I've given it, God has showed me the lies that I've been listening to, and the reasons why I struggled so much with it. Slowly and surely He's teaching me, and molding me more and more. Praise God, the God of forgiveness and mercies that are new each morning. (Ps. 32:1-2). 

As for the team, well, we're doing alright. Each day growing closer, working through differences, seeing God in each other's hearts and words, and learning to love, even when we don't like them. But I truly do love them. 

So some points of Prayer:

1. Praise God for providing the van that we had for a while from OM Belgium. 

2. Pray that the two who went to return it would have a safe journey as they had to drive there and fly back. Also pray that God would somehow provide a van of their own for OM Spain. 

3. Praise God for His word and all that it teaches as we listen to others and do our personal devos.

4. Pray that we might be able to grow more and more in our love and likeness of God. 

5. Praise God for our leaders and their abilities and love.

6. Pray that all of them (field leaders, team leaders, and others) would all be able to guide us and make the right decisions. Pray also that they would grow with us. We love them, and are so thankful for them. 

Beginnings of Growth

I am always so amazed at how God works in our lives! I'm not going to lie, there have been rough spots, but its with those tough times that God cuts off our rough edges. I don't know about the rest of the team, but I know that I have had points in the last few weeks where there's been tension and such festering in my heart, specifically. Knowing that this is one way in which we can really hurt the work we do here, I'd been praying that God would give me, the team, and the leaders wisdom on how to deal with each issue as it rises. But God's given me the grace I need specifically to be graceful and merciful. I also know He's showing me ways that I need to work so that I'm also not bothering people. Today Trevor, our field leader, gave a powerful devotional on working on healing wounds. it was great, because earlier today, one person asked for the two us to talk and pray mending something that could have really damaged our relationship. When we prayed, it was like God had filled us with His love, not just the love of man.

The team has really worked hard to make sure that we don't let things get between us. We know that Satan uses even the smallest annoyances to break us apart. One way in which we have had to work together, work past differences, and put our different gifts together is through making a puppet stage (which is still in the workings because of some mathematical thing that I really don't understand.) But Thomas drew a blue print for us, Erin and Danielle helped out with the math, and Oli and I did the translating as we went to town and priced all the pieces. We then came home and began putting it together and cutting and doing everything that needed to be done when we hit a bump due to the math problem. It's funny how we all give our opinion and try to "help" when sometimes we have no idea. For me that was frustrating because I really like to feel useful, but when I don't understand something I can't help. Anyway, we had to go to one of the mid-week meetings and had to leave it, but we were able to come back together as a team even though nothing has been solved about the stage, we have been able to grow stronger as a team. I praise God for a team that loves Him and wants to grow closer to Him, and know Him more, and as a result we grow closer as a team, growing stronger, getting ready to do amazing things!
On a more personal note, God has been using my personal devotions to teach me, encourage me, help me and grow me more and more each day. This is all what I mean when I say that I'm a sunflower seedling. Right now, I'm weak, young, inexperienced, but through God's work in my heart and life hopefully I'll become a beautiful sunflower; but we all know that won't happen until we get to heaven.
There's just so much to tell you all, but I'll summarize it as best I can. On Saturday we went to the Evangelical Olympics which is an event that the Evangelical Churches of Galicia put on for the kids to compete in races and marathons and other Olympic events. Some of us volunteered and helped out with keeping score and lining kids up. The rest of the team stayed in the stands cheering on the kids with their drums, bongos, banners and voices. It was really cold, but a lot of fun that day. Church here is different for a couple reasons: 1) It starts at 6:30 PM on Sundays 2) Even though we're in Spain 90% of the Church is Latin. Galicians, and Spaniards in general seem to be harder to reach because Catholicism is THE religion here. Mondays are our days off, so it's nice to physically, emotionally, and spiritually renew ourselves. This Tuesday Oli and I started working in "La Puerta" which is a really cheap thrift store that the church has set up to help those in the town. The economic crisis hit Spain hard as there is about 20% unemployment. At the shop we get to help with the retail and we also sit and drink coffee with people who want to come in and talk. It's a great way to show Christ's love to the people. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the days we work, we also hand out food that the people can take home. This part of the ministry is a government given area so that they can take care of their citizens. Tuesday nights we have prayer meeting which I love because we get to meet with other believers and truly listen to what's going on in someone else's life and pray for them. The people here in this church have a strong bond and love for one another and love to pray for each other as well as praise God for all that He's done for us. It truly puts a smile on my face. Tonight, Wednesday, we go to English class, which is another ministry that the church and specifically Eli, my leader, puts on to invite the community in to learn English which also doubles as an opportunity to spread God's light and love. Last week we also were given several different workshops to learn about the culture, the history, how to make a testimony, and so on.
So far that has been the past week and a half. So sorry I get wordy. Here are a few more points of prayer:
1) Praise God for His mercy and grace so that we can then show mercy and grace.
2) Continue to pray for team unity.
3) Pray for our leaders as they plan the whole program and deal with everything as situations come up.
4) Praise God for OM Belgium which has let us borrow their van for a while. But they now need it back so pray that God provides a van of our own for OM Spain.
5) Pray for all of us as we prepare our testimonies and practice sharing them for later ministries.
6) Pray for me as I get ready to teach a Sunday School class. Pray that there would be clarity in what I say.
7) Praise God for this opportunity to be here, to learn, and become more like Him.